Word: svengali
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Svengali. Discoverer, manager and boy friend, Justin denies one further description. "A lot of people have the impression I'm Mr. Svengali," he remarks. "Actually I'm the softest person in the world." Soft or not, he is very much in charge. "Without him, where would she be?" her father once asked. "He is the prop on which she leans." Says the Twig herself: "None of it would have happened if I hadn't met Justin. He listens to everybody's opinion and then makes up his own mind. Fortunately, I listen only to Justin...
...played Olivia de HaviIland's baby in Gone With the Wind), discerned Raquel's talents when she was a nothing and hard-sold her into a Something. Said Raquel to an interviewer: " 'Ho-ho,' I say to him. 'You look like a real nasty Svengali. Aren't I glad you pulled me out of the gutter when I was just lying there with no teeth and flat as a board...
...intermittent depressions, was unable to cope with booking arrangements, and that "sometimes I would need to be treated as a child." Claude knew just how and when to do it. But in the process, says Pet, "he didn't do a Vadim on me" (a reference to the Svengali role French Director Roger Vadim played with his women until he ran up against Jane Fonda...
Interval Training. Doubell's coach, Austrian-born Franz Stampfl, understands completely. A Svengali-like figure who preaches mind over matter, he has helped such runners as Roger Bannister and Chris Chataway to world records. "Most Olympic athletes have equal physical capacity," says Stampfl, "but it is Doubell's mental attitude that enables him to produce an inspired performance...
Harris' behavior was erratic. He threw public tantrums and offended potential patrons in their own houses. One friend called him "a Svengali," but Miss Buck was firm: Harris acted as he did because he was "very brilliant, very high-strung and artistic...