My Casting Couch Was Too Short

A personal memoir based on of the life of a Hollywood casting icon. Marion Dougherty lent a helping hand with discovering the careers of legendary actors such as James Dean, Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Diane Lane, Brooke Shields, and countless others. Dougherty began her casting profession in New York during the Golden Age of Television, casting well over six hundred episodes of Kraft Television Theatre, Naked City, and Route 66, which led to her very successful career in the motion picture industry. She became the first female casting executive at Paramount Pictures in 1975 before securing the position of vice president of talent at Warner Brothers in 1979, a position she held up until her retirement in the year 2000. Dougherty’s casting career spanned over fifty years, and the many personal anecdotes that she shares in My Casting Couch Was Too Short are a must-read.

Robert Roussel is an author and filmmaker who spends most of his time between New York, Los Angeles, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He was a close and personal friend of Marion Dougherty for over thirty-five years prior to her passing on December 4, 2011, at which time her estate granted him the rights to complete and publish My Casting Couch Was Too Short.