Review of "Gonna Live Forever: A Tribute to Fame" by Frank C. Clifford

“Gonna Live Forever: A Tribute to Fame” by Frank C. Clifford is a book about the history of the extremely successful franchise, Fame. As a movie, TV show, and stage production, Fame is iconic and can be inspirational to everyone. The goal of the book is to commemorate the incredible legacy of Fame and the people who participated in it.

The book includes a timeline from the start of Fame in 1976 until the impact it has today, including its most recent UK adaptation in Birmingham. The book lists all the awards and nominations that Fame received, particularly in the 1980s, when Fame was at its height. These awards include the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and the Grammys. The book also gives a timeline of all the birthdays of the 98 people involved in the cast and crew of Fame.

The book provides many pictures and shows how the franchise served as a launch pad for all the young actors who worked on Fame, many of whom went to performing arts schools themselves and actually lived in a very similar setting to where Fame is set.

The book then pays tribute to specific people in the Fame franchise, including easygoing and well-liked director Alan Parker, musician Michael Gore, who created incredible music numbers for the franchise, Irene Cara, a true triple-threat, whose career Fame launched, and Debbie Allen, whose incredible talent, work ethic, and creativity was recognized from her work in Fame. The book also gives a brief biography of every star in the series, including all the dancers who worked on the franchise.

Finally, a large part of the book is dedicated to Q and A’s with many of the stars of Fame. There have been many reunions over the years which the book also highlights. For anyone who has watched Fame or knows celebrities from the series, I highly recommend this book as a way to and help this immaculate and uber-talented franchise live forever.