Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alum A. Ashley Hoff ’96, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting, will return to Chicago to herald his acclaimed new book With Love, Mommie Dearest: The Making of an Unintentional Camp Classic, which was published May 7, 2024, by Chicago Review Press. On Tuesday, June 4, at 7 PM, Hoff, who now lives in Los Angeles, will appear at a screening of the movie Mommie Dearest at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport, Chicago. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Hoff moderated by Chicago film critic and screenwriter Richard Knight, Jr. For more information on the Pride Month event, click here. For tickets, click here.
As previously reported in this blog, Hoff’s book, which includes a foreword by Emmy Award-winning comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, chronicles the behind-the-screen story of Mommie Dearest, the 1981 movie version of Christina Crawford’s bestselling 1978 memoir about growing up as the adopted daughter of screen icon Joan Crawford, in which Faye Dunaway starred as Crawford. (An excerpt from the book was recently published in People magazine. To read the People article, click here.)
A. Ashley Hoff (Photo: Atila Sikora)
Hoff, a noted chronicler of Hollywood film and TV lore, launched his entertainment-industry career as a student at the Columbia College Theatre Department when he was a student intern at the Harrise Davidson and Associates talent agency headed by Harrise Davidson, then a Theatre Department faculty member. “[This] led eventually to my becoming an on-camera agent (commercial, industrial, TV and film, though I also booked a few actors in mainstage legit theatre at the Goodman and Steppenwolf) at the Baker and Rowley Talent Agency,” Hoff says, “before moving to Los Angeles and working in the commercial department at Abrams Artists Agency for six and a half years. After taking career advice from [the singer] Charo, I turned to my real passion of writing.” In 2019, Hoff published his first book, Match Game 101: A Backstage History of Match Game.
“There was an advantage to being in downtown Chicago: you were not simply confined to a pretty, ‘safe’ campus removed from the city, or locked into a conservatory atmosphere removed from the realities (and downsides) of the business. Having come from a somewhat more suburban background, the grittiness of day-to-day city life, coupled with the genuine competetiveness of Columbia’s curriculum, proved both eye-opening and enlightening. I really am grateful for the experiences I had there, the learning experiences, invaluable contacts, and truly lifelong friendships formed there.”
