Published Apr 16, 2025
236 Pages
6 x 9 Black & White Paperback and 6 x 9 Black & White Dust-Jacketed Hardback
Genre: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
“Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams...
The Television Story of a Lifetime” tells the story of Jim Cross, one of the most versatile, prolific, and successful production talents in television history. As the long-time producer and director of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, one of the highest-rated television series in broadcast history, Cross brought viewers inside the personal lives of hundreds of A-list movie stars, athletes, and entertainment icons, including Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Newman, Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Sean Connery, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Willie Nelson, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Harrison Ford, and hundreds of others.
In sports, he directed major events spanning 24 countries and 44 sports, including Super Bowls, Olympic Games, and major championships in basketball, football, horse racing, tennis, golf, and numerous others. Cross won two Eclipse Awards for horse-racing television excellence and earned three Emmy nominations.
Cross’s telecasts courted presidents and kings, from Lyndon Johnson to Gerald Ford to Donald Trump.
And always a pervasive presence throughout Cross’s career were the sportscasters and athletes, highlighted by a mix of all-time greats that included Muhammad Ali, Johnny Unitas, Arnold Palmer, Bob Costas, Jack Whitaker, Julius Irving, John McEnroe, Howard Cosell, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Bryant and Greg Gumbel, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Robinson, and hundreds of others.
His story is a tale from humble beginnings in Fairport NY, to the greatest venues in sports and the palatial homes and hideaways of the Rich & Famous.
