- After graduation from Louisiana State University in the mid 1950's, John Dunaway relocated to NYC, living with a group of LSU expatriates in the NYC East Village. On the fringe of the entertainment industry, John worked in a New York theatrical agent's office as a secretary, handling contracts and negotiations. With success, John learned the Otto Preminger Production office needed a secretary, where he landed the job, assigned to Otto Preminger's current and varied film productions, filming in NYC and on locations. His job performance was recognized by Otto, with Preminger making John his private secretary, in the Preminger New York production office. Dunaway moved to an apartment on Park Avenue and Fifty-Seventh Street, which was near the Preminger Production offices. Acquiring a small French poodle, named "Talousse", John spoiled the pet rotten! Friends with fellow LSU graduates, John's friendships included CBS TV set decorators Gene Callahan, Bill Harp, composer Claibe Richardson, singer-actors Vern Lanegrasse, John Castello, and Joanne Woodward. The NYC-LSU group's gossip focused upon former class-mate Joanne marrying a "hunk!" and ultimately moving to Hollywood. With Preminger's production deal with Paramount Studios in the early 1960's, Preminger set up offices at the Hollywood Paramount Studios, moving John Dunaway and his pet "Talousse" to Hollywood, where John rented a first floor front corner apartment in the Harper Apartment building, on Harper Boulevard, in West Hollywood. Buying a 1965Ford Mustang convertible to drive down Sunset Boulevard to the Paramount Studios DeMille Gate, located on Melrose Avenue, John had his own private parking spot adjacent the studio's Producers production office building.
- The Preminger Paramount Studio office, formerly occupied by Jerry Lewis, was located in the center, first floor, of the Paramount Producer's Building, in the center of the production office quad. The entrance to the office was on the West side of the rectangular office building. In NYC, Dunaway, close with Preminger, scheduled all of Otto Preminger's appointments, scheduling meetings and travel plans. When Preminger made his move to the West Coast, he set up his office at Paramount Studios in the 1960's. John Dunaway agreed to move West, to manage and operate the Paramount Studio office. John determined who could communicate with Preminger, when Preminger was in either his NYC production suite, or in his West Coast Paramount Studios domain, fending off telephone calls from agents, writers, actors, and solicitors. Dunaway, a hard door to get through, was the arbitrator deciding who and when contacts requested meetings with Preminger. Preminger adored Dunaway for managing and controlling his office politics at the Paramount Studios, as well, his personal family schedules during filming assignments.
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