Audio Documentary on Madeline Kahn Now Available

Actress Madeline Kahn would have turned 75 on September 29, and to commemorate her jubilee year, award-winning interviewer Valerie Smaldone has producedMadeline Kahn: Her Life Explored. The 30-minute program features an extended interview with Kahn's biographer, William V. Madison (Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life), as well as excerpts from his interviews with directors Mel Brooks and Lee Roy Reams, and with Kahn's most frequent co-star, Robert Klein.

Kahn herself is heard in performance, in an archival recording made at the start of her career.

The program, distributed by Happy Land Audio, is now available on platforms including Amazon and Audible (see below for links).

Especially in such films as Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Paper Moon, and Clue, Madeline Kahn (1942-99) became one of the best-loved actresses of her time, winning two Oscar nominations, as well as Tony nominations for Boom Boom Room (1973), On the Twentieth Century (1978), Born Yesterday (1989), and The Sisters Rosensweig (winning the award for Best Actress in 1993). In person, Kahn was reserved, retiring, the opposite of the bawdy characters she often played.

As Valerie Smaldone discovers in Her Life Explored, Kahn experienced a difficult childhood and persisted despite the disruptions created by her unstable mother - but even after her successes, she never fully overcame her insecurities. Kahn died of ovarian cancer in December 1999.

"Madeline Kahn led an exciting career and a fascinating life," Smaldone says. "For
people who want to know more about her, this audio documentary is a perfect holiday gift."

Valerie Smaldone is a 5-time Billboard Magazine Award winner and is well known for
her unprecedented success holding the #1 on-air position in the New York radio market.

An accomplished interviewer, she is also an actress and in-demand voice-over artist who hosts and reports

on live events on television. William V. Madison is a former producer for Dan Rather at CBS News and a former associate editor of Opera News.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Madeline-Kahn-Her-Life-Explored/dp/B07577X5JD
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Arts-Entertainment/Madeline-KahnAudiobook/
B075774B5J?ref_=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl&qid=1509733285&sr=1-1

Available online at:
....Audible
....Amazon
....Audiobooks.com
....Scribd
....Nook

Audio documentary description: Valerie Smaldone gives listeners a fascinating look at the life and career of Tony and Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated actress and comedian Madeline Kahn. In speaking with William V. Madison, author of Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life, Smaldone paints a portrait of a complex woman who was intensely private and brought larger-than life characters to the screen. In addition to discussion from Madison, listeners will hear from some of Kahn's closest colleagues as well as an archival recording at the start of her career.

www.happylandaudio.com

Photo credit: Madeline Kahn with Mel Brooks, 1974. Courtesy of Jeffrey Kahn