This review of the book Adventures Of A Buxom Blonde by Demetria Daniels was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 6 (2016) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!
Adventures Of A Buxom Blonde
(How I Met Celebrities In New York)
Written by Demetria Daniels
Dedicated to her parents James & Nora Daniels
& to Joe Franklin, her friend and mentor
With original portrait of Demetria Daniels by Peter Max
ISBN #9781517601577
Copyright 2015
Reviewed 3/10/16
Always ready to slip into a cocktail dress whenever she may need one, Demetria Daniels details the specifics of how she met over forty major celebrities attending events in New York and on Long Island. She recalls meeting Liza Minnelli and being surprised by her 5' 2" stature (Demetria is 5' 4"). That night in Coney Island, Liza was "looking bedazzling in a white beaded pants suit...that reflected the luna luminosity, sparkling and effervescent." At the stage door of Radio City Music Hall, she met Frank Sinatra. He was wearing a simple blue windbreaker. She recalls, "He smiled as he got out of the car and walked very slowly to the door, and then, just turned towards us and winked and smiled and shook hands. It was his blue eyes that matched his blue jacket - they were percolating still for a second but dancing in the light as though accompanying his first fast song on stage. They were 'exciting' eyes, happy eyes and ones that would forever be impossible to forget." While attending Hood College in Maryland, she recalls meeting a "special guest" who arrived at the all-girls school in "a very fast red sports car" that "zoomed into the campus at great speed." The "very tall, handsome, good-looking and captivating senator" was John F. Kennedy, who was running for President. Both Demetria and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were members of the Municipal Arts Society. Ms. Onassis served on its Board and at an event, Demetria sat only a seat away from the former First Lady. Demetria recalls, "She wore a white pants suit with a gold belt, looking stunning with her dark hair bouffant. She was gracious signing programs, being chatty, very warm, very talkative and very friendly, smiling at everyone who approached her including me."
Adventures Of A Buxom Blonde is only 81 pages long but it is packed full of stories and photographs regarding the famous people Demetria Daniels has met. Some of the text is too small to be easily read but most of it is fine. Demetria was born in Brooklyn and obtained a degree in Art History from Columbia University. Her father, James Daniels, owned Daniels Florist in Park Slope for over 70 years. She has lived in Westhampton, Long Island City (remind her to never go there again), and, after her divorce, she lived in the Felt Building in downtown Manhattan, where she regularly chatted with Cher. Her first television appearance was reading her poetry, which was arranged by Joe Franklin (she met Tony Curtis at the opening of his restaurant). Her first play was Uptown/Downtown and her first musical was Holiday In Heaven. She wrote a column called "East Village Report" for Downtown and maintains a blog entitled Gotham Gossip. She has been an active member of both the Players Club and the Beaux Arts Society. On page 24 of the book, there is a photograph of Demetria Daniels taken with Gloria Gaynor at the Beaux Arts Ball held at B. Smiths. She mentions that Ms. Gaynor was receiving an honorary tribute that evening and that your humble reviewer is the current President of the Beaux Arts Society.
Demetria Daniels met Mick Jagger both at Elaine's and at a July 4th party hosted by George Plimpton (Editor of the Paris Review) on Long Island. Plimpton and she discussed the fact that they were both "late bloomers." On January 15, 1998, Ms. Daniels wrote the following poem in honor of Mick Jagger: "You're a rolling stone, sing, song, scream, volume higher, you're supreme; You're alive, louder and louder as you jive up and down the aisle, flingin' your arms, in the air, you and Keith make a great pair; You're every stone, quite a gem, diamond shine, u rate a ten; Purple royal in your robe, sapphire blue, ruby to mauve...; You're all the stones, and every tone, rockin' and rollin' in the hall of fame; Mick Jagger gives us satisfaction, a reaction, to your name."
While in Cannes, she and a few other girls were hanging out on the beach where they met some sailors from the USS Independence. The boys invited them back to their ship for a concert where Demetria met Her Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco. On other occasions, she met President Bill Clinton, Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. Other celebrities she writes about include Steven Spielberg, Elizabeth Taylor, John Travolta, Madonna, Harry Belafonte, Bette Midler, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Lauren Bacall, Hugh Jackman, Cyndi Lauper, Marvin Hamlisch, Meryl Streep, Mickey Rooney, Penny Marshall, Richard Dreyfuss, Yanni, Matthew Broderick, Sara Jessica Parker, Michael Jackson, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Harvey Weinstein, and Ziggy Marley. For the inside scoop on each and to read about the rest of her adventures, you will just have to buy her book, which is available for $20.00 through Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/ADVENTURES-BUXOM-BLONDE-meeting-celebrities/dp/1517601576
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