My Dinner of Herbs

A star of two well-remembered television series, “The FBI” and “77 Sunset Strip ” Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. looks back on the many different roads he has traveled in his lifetime and recreates his most memorable experiences in the prose of a true stylist. The son of two legendary musical talents, the violinist Efrem Zimbalist and the operatic soprano Alma Gluck, Efrem Jr. grew up on an estate in the Connecticut countryside. Long before he was a recognized actor, Zimbalist broke a show business barrier as coproducer of Gian Carlo Menotti's operatic double bill, The Medium and The Telephone, on Broadway. Its critical and (surprising) commercial success led to Zimbalist's coproduction of Menotti's next opera, The Consul, also on Broadway and also with gratifying results, including the Pulitzer Prize.