When the Smoke Hit the Fan: A Reminiscence of the Theater, Movies, and T.V. Hardcover – January 1, 1979 by Ralph Bellamy
 
"One of the most durable of actors, Bellamy has spent 57 years in virtually every aspect of showbusiness, from Chautauqua to Hollywood to Broadway to TV. From these decades he has haphazardly put together an unpretentious collection of anecdotes about his friends and colleagues, some of them amusing but most of them relying on the star power of the actors (James Cagney, Lillian Gish, George Burns) for their interest. He has importuned his old friends to write him their versions of the stories; unfortunately, their gift for anecdote is no defter than his. In the case of other friends, he reprints lengthy passages from their own books of nostalgia. When Bellamy is telling about his career proper, especially his early years on the road and his starring role in Sunrise at Campobello, he is on safe ground. But he squanders his time on second- and third-hand tales of vaudeville and minstrel days before he was born. Occasionally, Bellamy interrupts his reverie with political outbursts and with brief mention of his presidency of Actors' Equity during twelve stormy years. These suggest the kind of book he might have written had he not settled instead for this amateurishly conceived scrapbook." - Kirkus Reviews
 
5.17