Blonde

Oates, Joyce Carol. Blonde: A Novel. New York: Ecco 2000. Print

First Sentences: 

There came Death hurtling along the Boulevard in waning sepia light. 

There came Death flying as in a children's cartoon on a heavy unadorned messenger's bicycle. 

There came Death unerring. Death not to be dissuaded. Death-in-a-hurry, Death furiously pedaling. Death carrying a package marked *SPECIAL DELIVERY HANDLE WITH CARE* in a sturdy wire basket behind his seat. 

Description:

I love swimming in the ocean. The feel of the immense power around me, the swells that lift and drop me, waves that pull me out or allow me to ride them to the shore make up a totally encompassing experience. The ocean itself is indifferent, uncaring whether I swim or not; it just exists as it is.

Reading Joyce Carol Oates' Blonde: A Novel, is an experience similar to swimming in the ocean. This sprawling 700+ page novel is such an engulfing force that rolls along over and around you, allowing you to sense a total power of words, events, and people so rare in fiction. Despite this being a work of fiction, it is an entirely believable "biography," a gripping take on the events and people surrounding the actress Marilyn Monroe. 

In Blonde, there are interactions with real people (John Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio, Monroe's mother, Cass Chaplin and Eddy G. Robinson - the sons of Charlie Chaplin and Edward G. Robinson), mixed in with fictionalized agents, producers, and studio doctor/drug suppliers whose names, actions, and motivations are completely from the mind of author Oates.

The book rolls on and on, engulfing readers in details, conversations, thoughts, dreams, and disappointments of each character and how they interact with Marilyn. Readers are immersed with the depth and strength of the depictions of even small events, just like swimming in a powerful ocean. Oates' Marilyn (who prefers to be called "Norma Jeane," rather than the studio name, "Marilyn Monroe") finds it increasingly difficult to transition into the movie star persona. She constantly adjusts make-up, clothes, and eventually drug dosages to create the film star character, causing her to be perpetually late for movie scenes and public events that require "Marilyn" rather than Norma Jeane. Only people she allows to be close to her can see her real personality and call her by her preferred name.

How can such a fictionalized biography be a compelling book when Monroe's real life was so compelling? Well, for me the powerful writing, personalities, and action carried me along from one adventure to the next. I suspended disbelief and just turned myself over to the story-teller. From the commitment of Monroe's mother to a mental institution (true) and Marilyn moving into an orphanage (also true, but with new children and events), to her posing for her first nude photo (portrayed as a desperate need for money when in reality it was a conscious choice when cash wasn't a factor), Oates' narration about Monroe are so believably told that it was easy to be absorbed into this world.

You watch as Marilyn tries to break into movies and  earn respect for her acting abilities in order to land starring, intelligent roles. She is constantly studying acting, taking classes from renowned teachers, and expanding her talent to secure a few great roles. But the studio contract forces her to take roles they choose for her, mostly as the funny, beautiful dumb blonde.

And, of course, there are new interpretations of her relationships. Her first marriage at age 15 was to get her out of a house when the foster father started getting eyes for her. Marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, as well as her relationship with John Kennedy are presented as logical pathways in her constant search for a father figure and someone to provide her with children and a family. Her fictionalized relations with Cass and Eddy G were based on freedom, sex and drugs. Oates even offers an interesting scenario where Kennedy's people play a role in her drug overdose death.

Blonde is so thoroughly detailed and logical in its portrayals of characters that it was easy to think this was the real life story of Marilyn Monroe. Being a fictionalized account took nothing away from the fascinating inner and public worlds of this iconic, tragic actress.

But she was a born actress. She was a genius, if you believe in genius. Because Norma didn't have a clue who she was, and she had to fill this emptiness in her. Each time she went out, she had to invent her soul. Other people, we're just empty; maybe in fact everybody's soul is empty, but Norma was the one to know it.

Now I'll have to get a real biography and compare them. Stay tuned  

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Spoto, Donald. Marilyn Monroe: The Biography  

Extensively researched biography into the people and events of the star's live as recounted by the people she knew, actors and directors, letters, films, and writings.

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Puig, Manuel. Kiss of the Spider Woman. New York: Vintage. 1978. Print.

First Sentences:

- Something a little strange, that's what you notice, that she's not a woman like all the others. She looks fairly young, twenty-five, maybe a little more, petite face, a little catlike, small turned-up nose. The shape of her face, it's ... more roundish than oval, broad forehead, pronounced cheeks too but then they come down to a point, like with cats.

- What about her eyes?

Description:

Manuel Puig's  Kiss of the Spider Woman is like nothing I have read before. Riveting, mysterious, horrifying, secretive, fearful, and hopeless, the novel forces you to try to understand who these characters are who are talking, where they are, and what is going to happen to them on the next page.

Written entirely as a dialogue mostly between two men, Kiss of the Spider Woman unfolds its secrets very slowly. A word here and a phrase there in their conversations is all we have to go on. 

The speakers are slowly revealed to be two cellmates languishing in an foul Argentine jail, passing their prison sentences by talking with each other. Molina, a middle age gay man serving time for abusing a child, relates long plots of his favorite movies to his cellmate Valentin, a youthful revolutionary. In their dark cell, these plots grippingly told help pass the time and take their minds away from their situation. But even these stories can only temporarily stave off their depression over their lot in life.

As the men grow closer, they begin to discuss their lives, thoughts about politics, and plans for the future. Valentin initially disdains Molina for his feminine side, but eventually grows to respect him for his generosity in sharing food. This compassion along with Molina's tender care help Valentin survive a devastating illness. 

Much is left unsaid by these men who live in separate worlds of unrest, fear, suspicion, and revolution. Valentin is secretive about his previous actions outside the prison to protect Molina should the jailers decide to torture his friend for information. Molina, likewise, has secrets of his own regarding his life and future that he keeps from Valentin for his own reasons.

Yes, it is dark. Yes, it is told only in dialogue. Yes, it has little action beyond the plot of movies and what little these men can do in their cells to survive. And yes, it revolves around the hardships of two men hopeless imprisoned. 

But there is so much more that is compelling about this book. Little by little, Puig reveals more and more about each character, his dreams and frustrations to flesh them out slowly, casually, constantly adding minute changes in them with each conversation to make readers sympathetic or angry with each man.

I loved its bleakness, its confusion, its subtlety, and its quality of the unknown that drives the plot forward. It is a book difficult to put down, tantalizing with its revelations, and spare in its descriptions. But altogether it is a gripping book that forces readers to pay attention and discover the truth about these men and their dreams, right up to the final pages and the surprises revealed there.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Storyteller

There is just something about this novel of an Amazonian anthropologist and a native "Storyteller" who travels among vanishing tribes to tell their stories that conveys a similar tone through its narration as The Kiss of the Spider Woman. Both are wonderful, dark, confusing tales told by interesting characters in unusual settings, and which brings new light to complex, foreign situations.

Lowrie, Donald. My Life in Prison

The true memoir of a man serving a 15-year sentence in San Quentin prison in the early 1900s. Riveting first-hand accounts of the men and guards in this typically squalid, unfeeling atmosphere. Highly recommended. (previously reviewed here)

As You Wish

Elwes, Cary and Layden, Joe. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride. New York:Touchstone. 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

The note simply read: IMPORTANT.

Description:

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride is what I call a "bridge book." Good, solid content and writing, to be sure, but offers a bit more. You read a bridge book because you are interested in the subject matter, which is enough to propel you forward to the last pages, but discover something else. 

A bridge book also peaks one's interest to pursue the topic further via other resources. The original book is so captivating in depicting a mood or arousing curiosity that it makes you hungry to keep exploring, whether to read another book on this subject, watch a film, or dive into other media. 

Written by Cary Elwes (along with author Joe Layden), As You Wish is a compilation of memories from Elwes and other cast members about background, incidents, and conversations that occurred during the filming of the classic movie, The Princess Bride in 1987 (27 years ago - can that be possible?). This bridge book makes me drool to re-read The Princess Bride, one of my all-time favorites for plot and writing style (much, much better than the movie), and also re-watch the film itself, still a masterpiece of humor, style, and character. For creating those bridges to my fond book and film friends, As You Wish is a rousing success for me.

Elwes starts us off with a very brief intro to his previous acting experience, including his role in Lady Jane, a small historical drama with Helena Bonham Carter that was filmed at the same sprawling location later used as the castle in The Princess Bride. Elwes talks about meeting with PB director Rob Reiner while Elwes was working on another film in Berlin just after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a meeting that was almost postponed due to shifting of winds that threatened to blow radioactive fallout over the meeting site.

Reiner was at the top of his game then, having just completed the box-office successes of This Is Spinal Tap and Stand by Me. Columbia Pictures, out of gratitude, said he could next film anything he wanted. But when he asked to shoot his "favorite book," The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, they said "Anything but that!" It had been planned and eventually dropped by many before Rekiner, including Norman Jewison (to star then unknown Arnold Schwarzenegger in the giant's role), John Boorman, Robert Redford, and even French director Francois Truffaut.

Reiner persevered and eventually landed Columbia's permission and a marvelous cast consisting of Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Carol Kane, and all 7', 500 pounds of Andre the Giant.

The plot, a story of derring-do, kidnapping, sword-fighting, pirates, royalty, torture, and true love, all held together by Goldman's strong screenplay and the humorous dialogue. However, the film proved difficult to market. As Fred Savage, the boy who listens to grandfather Peter Falk read the story to him, remembers:

Is it an adventure? Is it romance? Is it funny? Is it moving? Is it thrilling? Is it a children's story? Is it an adult's story? And the answer is...yes! I think any audience can find something in the film that speaks to them, because it does have its toes in so many styles, genres, and tones.

The cast has a ball with the material and each other. Stories abound from all cast members, with in-depth quotes from everyone sprinkled into the narrative as sidebars. By all accounts, it was a great experience, starting with the overall tone of encouragement and the firm vision of director Rob Reiner. Elwes states,

All kids like to play dress-up, whether it's cowboys and Indians or knights and princesses. When it gets to be both fun and work at the same time, it can be a truly wonderful, rewarding experience, as it was on this movie.

 So what insider info do we learn? Well, here's some of my favorites:

• When Count Rugen hit The Masked Man (Elwes) on the head with his sword, he actually knocked Elwes out cold who awakened in the Emergency Room. Of course, that was the take they used in the film;

• In the Fire Swamp, it was Elwes who proposed diving head-first into the Snow Sand (quicksand) and even did the stunt himself as did Robin Wright, the princess. This was after the first day of shooting where her dress and part of her hear actually did catch on fire, and writer Goldman's panicked shouts for someone to help her, ruined the shot which was completely under control;

• The 4' stunt man (who worked inside the Rodent Of Unusual Size), almost delayed shooting because he got thrown into jail for drunk driving the night before his scene where he wrestles with Elwes;

• Andre, the Giant was driven to the set by playwright Samuel Beckett because Beckett had the only convertible car in the area, a feature needed to fit Andre's huge body;

• Elwes and Mandy Patinkin spent four months learning and practicing intense sword-fighting skills before the first scene was shot. Once filming started, they were forced to practice between every take. Unfortunately, when they finally performed their perfected routine in front of Reiner, it was almost two minutes short of the time needed on screen, so they had to completely re-learn new moves and staging;

• Elwes drove Andre's super-charged ATV for the first time and promptly lost control, fell off, and broke his toe, causing him to limp through various scenes throughout the movie;

• Andre loosened one of his typically epic farts, larger than anything in Blazing Saddles, ruining several scenes as no one could stop laughing;

• Billy Crystal ad-libbed all his "thirteenth-century jokes," many too blue to use in the film, but created his character and the film's highlight in only three days of shooting. He based his make-up of Miracle Max on photos of his grandmother and Casey Stengel, the baseball manager. His performance was so funny that Patinkin actually bruised a rib trying to suppress his laughter and both Elwes and Reiner had to be removed from the set because they couldn't stop giggling and ruining takes;

• Wallace Shawn, already living in constant fear (unjustified) every day that he would be fired from the film, also was terrified of heights. Special rigging, cranes, pulleys and camera angles were needed, along with Andre's gentle assurance that he would take good care of him, to bring Shawn up the steep Cliffs of Insanity;

• When Elwes met with Pope John Paul II and later Bill Clinton in the White House, he learned that both the Pope and the President were fans of the movie and knew who Elwes was.

The film was not a success when it opened mainly due to the lackluster marketing campaign. But it became a mega-hit with the introduction of videotape (yes, it's that long ago). Word of mouth gave it new legs and it became one of the most purchased, rented, and watched videotapes in this new media. 

Currently, there are PB screenings that, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, encourage audiences to dress up, climb up on the stage, and act out the lines and actions. Of course, everyone knows certain catch phrases like, "Inconceivable," "As you wish," and "Have fun storming the castle." The last was a line used by Billy Crystal, but Elwes learned it was adapted by the commanding officer of a US squadron in Iraq who yelled it to all his troops as they headed out on yet another a dangerous mission.

The film is indeed magical. It makes you feel many different things upon every viewing. As Billy Crystal has said, it makes you feel good. It makes you miss you childhood. It makes you want to have someone read stories to you again. It makes you want to kiss your sweetheart, fight a duel, or ride a white horse into the sunset...all in the name of love. In short, it's the perfect fairy tale.

If this bridge book doesn't make you want to immediately go out and grab the original novel or at least sit down and watch the film, you must be "mostly dead" yourself and really need the services of both Miracle Max and True Love.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Goldman, William. The Princess Bride

One of my favorite books, Bride retells a story of true love, pirates, sword-fighting, and a giant, will all the boring parts left out to keep the interest of a young boy (and us). Delightfully written and outright funny in its sharp wit and satire. 

Lulu in Hollywood

Brooks, Louise. Lulu in Hollywood: Expanded Edition. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. 1974. Print

First Sentences:

The Brooks family were poor English farmers who came to America on a merchant ship at the end of the eighteenth century.

Description:

I had never heard of the silent film actress Louise Brooks, nor seen any of her films until I read a review of the movie Something Wild. The writer noted that the distinctive shiny black bob hairstyle worn by good/bad girl Melanie Griffith was a Louise Brooks-style wig. Jet black, helmet-short with a slight curl forward to her cheeks, Brooks'/Griffith's hair signaled self-confidence, modern chic, and a bit of reckless danger. Griffith's alluring hair and innocent/naughty personality makes Jeff Daniels drop his normal life and take off with her on a roller coaster ride into the unknown of spontaneity, passion, and danger. I figured that Louise Brooks who first sported this cut must have been an equally exotic actress on the screen, so I looked her up and stumbled on Lulu in Hollywood, her autobiography.

Louise Brooks wrote many insightful articles about Hollywood, her early life, movie production and the people of the early 1920s. Her style is confident and brave, willing to call everything as she sees it. These articles were combined to create this book, the ultimate insider's guide to life in Hollywood and silent films. 

Picked out from the chorus line in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1925, Brooks was offered, at eighteen, a five-year contract by both MGM and Paramount studios simply on the basis of her on-screen smoky looks and manner. She began making films for the glamor and for something to do, although her heart had been set on becoming  a great dancer, having trained and toured with the prestigious Denishawn dance company that included Martha Graham.

The famous haircut came to be when the Kansas-born Brooks tried to shake off her flat accent, dull clothes, and mousy appearance to imitate the style, sophistication, and stature of her friend and famous actress, Constance Bennett. The change was astonishingly effective. Brooks' interview in Photoplay magazine sums up Brooks' striking aura during an interview conducted while Brooks reclined in bed:

She is so very Manhattan. Very young. Exquisitely hard-boiled. Her black eyes and sleek black hair are as brilliant as Chinese lacquer. Her skin is white as a camellia. Her legs are lyric." 

In her first twelve months in Hollywood, she made six full length films. While never a great actress, Brooks had a presence that could not be denied. Her combination of innocence and implied promise of sex made her a star, earning her $1,000 per week while other stars made half that amount. Her greatest triumphs, Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, were filmed the next year in Berlin by Georg Pabst, the only director who saw her potential as an actual actress rather than a sultry, sexy piece of the scenery. 

But Hollywood soon lost its appeal to her. She constantly refused to be under the domination of any director, producer, or even studio, an attitude that soon made her an actress few wanted to work with. By the 1930s, her parts had dried up. She made her final eight movies between 1930-1938, then voluntarily left Hollywood for good, never looking back.

Brooks is a wonderful teller of tales, recalling with a photographic memory conversations and activities of Tallulah Bankhead, Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, and W.C. Fields among many others. There are sad recollections of suicides, of alcohol and drugs, and of doomed sexual encounters of those involved in the film industry. She also provides fascinating insider opinions about why the studios  deliberately killed the careers of great actresses like Lillian Gish and Greta Garbo. 

But there are also glowing tales of her friends like Chaplin, Fields, Bogart, and others. She candidly recounts her own relationships with directors, actors, and even stunt men, powerful men who financially and emotionally supported her to a life of style and luxury. Hers is a story of strength and confidence, of living in the Hollywood world of falseness and degradation. 

In writing the history of a life I believe absolutely that the reader cannot understand the character and deeds of the subject unless he is given a basic understanding of that person's sexual loves and hates and conflicts. It is the only way the reader can make sense out of innumerable apparently senseless actions.

The book also includes a fascinating introduction to her life by movie critic Kenneth Tynan. He details his research into Brooks' life, his experience watching her on the big screen in the few remaining copies of her films, and then actually meeting her for an extended interview when she was in her sixties. One of the highlights of the book is when these two film lovers look through her photo collection while Brooks recounts the good and sordid about the people of her life.

It is an insider's story that is not about the making of movies but about the people who make them, their strengths and weaknesses, and the sordid environment of young people striving to succeed in their careers and relationships. It is not a pretty picture she describes, but to me it is a completely honest, fascinating, and lurid description of that world of film-making that seems so exciting, yet so harsh.

Her favorite quote from Goethe sums up her life:

For a person remains of consequence, not so far as he leaves something behind him, but so far as he acts and enjoys, and rouses others to action and enjoyment.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Wilson, Victoria. A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940

My favorite book of Hollywood, movies, actors, private lives the workings behind making a successful and not-so-successful film, and of course, the fantastic actress and person, Barbara Stanwyck. Very highly recommended. (previously reviewed here)

A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940

Wilson, Victoria. A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2013. Print

First Sentences:

It has been written about Barbara Stanwyck, born Ruby Stevens, that she was an orphan.

Her mother, Catherine Ann McPhee Stevens, Kitty, died in 1911, when Ruby was four years old. Following Kitty's death, Ruby's father, Byron E. Stevens, a mason, left his five children and set sail for the Panama Canal, determined to get away and hoping to find work at higher wages than at home.

Description:

I just flat out love A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson  - all 860 pages of it. I also love the additional 140 pages of appendices, notes, index, and the 270 photos. There, I've said it.

Admittedly, I am a fan of Barbara Stanwyck, the noted film actress of Stella Dallas, So Big, and my favorite, Ball of Fire. (For you youngsters, she also won Emmys for roles on TV's Big Valley and The Thorn Birds miniseries and played a variety of roles in her career from hard core prisoner, gun moll, gold-digger, rancher, single mother, grifter, and bombshell). 

Steel-True fills in the details of the first 34 years of Stanwyck's acting and private life; the complex, fascinating world of vaudeville, theater, and film; and the important actors, directors, writers, and family who created the era and contributed to her career. And all of it, and I really mean ALL of it, is fascinating for anyone even only slightly interested in stage, film, and life in Hollywood and New York during those formative years of entertainment.

Believe me, I never thought, even as a Stanwyck fan, I would be interested enough to conquer an 800-page biography. But this book is about more than just Barbara Stanwyck. It brings to life the world of stage and screen and the numerous factors that influence how a film or play is created. Author Wilson covers them all in a detailed, but concise description of these factors. 

Just check out the book's first sentences quoted above. In under 70 words, author Wilson, a senior editor at Alfred Knopf publishing, introduces readers to the title character, her family, her given name, the loss of her mother at age 4, her father's profession, and his departure to Central America along with his reasons. Even gives her mother's nickname. It is impossible to cram more information into the first paragraphs but equally impossible to delete any of these details. Each is critical to the big picture of Stanwyck's life and therefore deserves a place in this book. 

And it's equally impossible to stop reading since each paragraph also raise questions that need answering. "Wait, what? Stanwyck was an orphan?" "Who took care of her and her siblings?" "Did the father ever come back?" "Did they become a family again?" The next paragraphs answer those questions, but then raise new intrigues. 

It's a self-perpetuating style: set the scene, explore the people and history behind the event, follow the actions that occur, describe the repercussions and then introduce the next setting and people that flow from the previous one. You cannot help but hunger for more details, resolution to situations, actions of principal people. You are teased to continue to read on and on and on until the book is completed. Each page makes readers feel like savvy insiders to each film, knowledgeable about the nuances that make a production rise or fall. We know the who, what, where, when, why, and how of each movie, every relationship, the stage and film industries, and the world at that time ... and we want to learn even more about the next production or item in her personal life. 

The catalyst to all this historical detail is Barbara Stanwyck. By age 4 Stanwyck (born in Brooklyn as Ruby Stevens) had lost both her father (who left family to work on the Panama Canal) and her mother (in a freak trolley car accident), so spent her early childhood years shuttling between foster homes and her three older sisters. 

One sister was a vaudeville performer who sometimes took Ruby to watch performances from the theatre wings. Soon Ruby is working on her own energetic dancing act, performing in the chorus for small clubs alongside 14-year-old Ruby Keeler and Mae Clarke. She eventually landed small jobs with musical revues on Broadway. By age 16, she was a "dancing cutie" in Keep Kool and the 1923 Ziegfeld Follies, earning $100 per week while learning about dancing, shows, men, and life. She also had a botched abortion in her early teens that left her unable to have children. 

Her breakthrough performance came when Ruby, acting in a serious play as a background chorus girl with only a few lines, has her part expanded based on her voice and the magnetism she projected towards the audience. Her name is then changed by the producers to convey a more serious actress and "Barbara Stanwyck," a conglomeration of several current actors' names, was born. Her 1926 expanded role in The Noose attracted the attention of Hollywood and soon she was enticed to Hollywood during the age when silent films were first experimenting with talkies. 

Stanwyck's lush, emotional stage voice, her strong work ethic, and the varied personalities she could convey to audiences, from triumphant to ferocious to sexy, made her a popular actress for a wide variety of roles, including gun molls, prison inmates, mothers, and gold diggers. Gradually, the parts became stronger, the scripts better, and her performances more nuanced, gaining starring parts with the most famous directors of the age: Frank Capra, William Wellman, King Vidor, Cecil B. DeMille, and Preston Sturgess. 

From 1925 through the Depression years, she made $4,700 per week while other new actors made less than $40. After the successes of Night Nurse and The Miracle Woman, Stanwyck demanded $50,000 per picture, an astonishing salary for that era, making her the highest paid actress at that time. She had star power enough that she refused to be under contract with one studio as was the norm, allowing her the freedom to select her own movie roles, but also increasing her insecurity since no studio was obligated to provide roles for her. She also alienated film industry personnel by refusing to honor the screenwriters strike, continuing to make films when most other actors stopped working until writers received better pay. At one point she made 14 films in four years, including four with Capra.

But off the stage, her life was solitary. She was too shy and disinterested in the glitz of parties, choosing to spend nights at home quietly reading books rather than going out. Her marriage to Frank Faye, wildly-famous vaudeville emcee and comedian, was trying. He was the person who moved them to Hollywood when films beckoned him, but also introduced her to people who could start her with movie roles, and even financed one of her early films. His drinking, violent nature, controlling behavior, and disinterest in their adopted son strained Stanwyck's life. But she remained fiercely loyal. Even as her fame increased, she insisted on being referred to as "Mrs. Frank Faye" rather than her actress name. His abusive nature was the inspiration for the major character in the film, A Star Is Born.

Life became better for Stanwyck after her divorce from Faye and with her relationship with Robert Taylor, a $35-a-week pretty-boy newcomer to Hollywood and the leading man in one of her films. She helped him understand the nuances of roles, rehearsed his lines, created a stronger image of him, and turned him into the most popular actor of the 1930's. They had a long friendship which gave her new freedom, but she shied away from marriage. She felt:

Friendship was more powerful than love, that when one reached the heights of romantic love, there was no place to go but back, but with friendship there was a goal that could never be completely attained. It could be built upon by years of devotion, but it was always possible to intensity it; friendship grew with the years, while love can only lose....'If you could fall in love with your best friend I suppose such a marriage would come as close to perfection as marriage can come.

With Taylor beside her she finally blossomed socially, attended parties, purchased a horse-breeding ranch with her agent, Zeppo Marx, and cultivated strong friendships with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Joan Crawford, Jack Benny and Mary Livingston, Wallace Berry, and William Holden. Eventually, to alleviate the public's concern over her living with a man, she married Taylor and settled into life on the ranch and in Hollywood.

Wilson extensively researched and interviewed many people from this era who knew Stanwyck as her contemporaries from the Vaudeville and early film era. Armed with this insider information, Wilson eagerly shares fascinating details about the people of that world, such as:

• John Garfield - the premier star of silent films was unsuccessful in talkies not because his voice was poor (as is usually reported), but because he slugged Louis B. Mayer for a lewd remark Mayer made at Garfield's wedding to Greta Garbo (she did not show for the ceremony). After that Mayer, as head of the studio, only gave Garfield poor roles with inexperience directors who allowed Garfield to look bad and say ridiculous dialogue that made him appear a fool and lose the love of the public;

• William Holden - could walk "on his hands along the outer rail of Pasadena's suicide bridge with its 190-foot drop" but as a new actor was terrified during the first days of shooting "Golden Boy" with Stanwyck;

• Producer/Director Darryl Zanuck - felt Stanwyck "had no sex appeal." But Stanwyck felt his criticism "had more to do with how 'he couldn't catch me,' ... than it did her allure or her acting ability. 'He ran around the desk too slow'";

• Screenwriter (at that time) William Faulkner - wrote "beautiful speeches but impossible for an actor to perform";

• John Ford, director - When told by a producer he was three days behind schedule, he "ripped out ten pages from the script. 'Now we are three days ahead of schedule' he said and never shot the sequences'";

• Stanwyck - was an insomniac who read a book a day, subscribing to book clubs, looking for stories that would make good movies for her. She gave most books away after finishing them but did collected a large number of first editions

It is not often I can recommend with utter confidence a biography that is almost 1,000 pages long. But Steel-True is totally different from other tomes of this size (cough, cough, The Goldfinch) that one feels must be read to its bitter end just because of its reputation. To me, despite Steel True's length, there is no over-writing, no dull spots, no filler chapters. At no time did I ever think to give up on this long book. To quit would mean I might miss out on some fascinating detail, the final product of the film, its success or failure, and its impact on the performers, directors, and audiences. A cliff-hanger for every paragraph ... you just have to read just one more paragraph, one more page, then one more, then one more until you are done with that film and introduced to another.

Can one person deserve1,000-pages? Of course not. But the era and people of Vaudeville, early Talkies, and later classic films around her do deserve such attention. This book is chock full of absolutely fascinating details, yet each is a brick necessary to contribute to the architecture of the world of stage, film, and the actress, Barbara Stanwyck. From her abandoned childhood, poverty, burlesque, stage, film, talkies, marriage, self-sufficiency and finally stardom, her story is marvelous to envision from the historical, theatrical, cinematic, and personal perspectives. 

And remember, since Steel True only covers Stanwyck's life to 1940 (she died in 1990), there surely will be a Volume Two to cover her last fifty years. Probably (hopefully) it will be just as crammed with juicy, fascinating details as was Steel True. 

I cannot wait.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

McCracken, Elizabeth. Niagara Falls All Over Again

Fictional memoir of one member of a two-man old time vaudeville comedy team similar to Laurel and Hardy, as they work individually and later together on their comedy act, achieving tremendous success in performances, but varying results in their personal relationships. Captivating, revealing, and tragic/funny on all levels.

Hammerstein, Oscar Andres. The Hammersteins: A Musical Theatre Family

Everything you could possibly want to know about the earliest days of theatre in America, starting with the first Oscar Hammerstein who established theatres all over New York, to his grandson who wrote the classic musicals such as Showboat, Oklahoma, The King and I, The Sound of Music and many more. Loaded with great photos of the era as well. Highly recommended. (Previously reviewed here.)