Book Review | "Carole Lombard: The Hoosier Tornado"

I have a book review for you today, dear readers! I'm an avid reader of Classic Hollywood biographies and I always love the opportunity to do book reviews for them. Today's review will be for Carole Lombard: The Hoosier Tornado by Wes D. Gehring, a book I received 'long ago' for Christmas.

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CAROLE LOMBARD: THE HOOSIER TORNADO 

BY WES D. GEHRING 

264 pages | Published: October 2003 | Indiana Historical Society

★★★

How can it not be exciting to read about Carole Lombard? Because honestly, who can say that they don't love Carole - Carole, our screwball queen. Carole, who was dubbed the "Profane Angel" because she swore like a sailor (Fred MacMurray complimented, "She swore like a man - some women try, but she really did.") but had blonde, blue eyed angelic beauty. Carole, who was the better half of Carole & Clark (Gable), a couple that was true product of Hollywood royalty to a Depression era audience. And Carole, who died tragically and certainly prematurely in a plane that crashed into the Nevada mountains in January 1942, killing her instantly.

So I was really excited to jump into this biography. As of 2012, it's the only easily available, in print work on Carole's life so I was really crossing my fingers that it would be good. I'm sorry to report that for me, at least, it fell terribly short.

I am far from an expert on Carole's life and body of work, but being an avid reader of Old Hollywood bios I could tell this book did her no justice. Firstly, the actual biographical portion of this book (so this is albeit a preface, prologue, epilogue, filmography, notes, & "selective" bibliography) comes down to 200 pages, easily the shortest bio I've read. Now, I know Carole died young (at 33), but I think her life was intense enough to fill up more than 200 (short in ratio, double spaced) pages, don'tcha think?

This book was the first to premiere in what is a series of Indiana biographies, life stories of famous people who were born in the Hoosier state. Carole was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana and left the state at the age of six only to return on a few occasions. This is not to say blue collar Carole was ashamed of her Fort Wayne roots; only that Hollywood kept her busy. I'm sure Carole was a proud Hoosier, considering her patriotism and ability to schmooze with "the man on the street" or any "Walter Mitty", despite being a glamorous movie star. 

Anyhow, considering this, and also that this book was published by the Indiana Historical Society, it became clear to me from the start that the sole point that the author was setting out to prove, throughout the book's slim life, was Carole's Indiana roots. Gehring has an annoying habit of obsessively using the same word multiple times, which gets tedious, especially in a book so short - "Hoosier" is one of them. He brings up every apt opportunity to use this word, even if it doesn't apply to Carole - sometimes taking up three sentences describing the Hoosier roots of another famous Indiana native, like Irene Dunne. (Usually I wouldn't care about three sentences but in a book this short every word is precious). I mean, WE GET IT. SHE WAS BORN IN INDIANA. But she's in Hollywood making pictures now, so get over it! Still *sighs* being an Indiana Historical Society book, and the title alone should entail this, so I can't complain: I had coming. (You know some other words Gehring has an obsessive habit of overusing? You'll be sure to see "catalyst" and "smoke screen" on ever page.)

The research for this biography also seems quite poor. Gehring could more or less have Googled quite a lot of in the information. Also, he quotes on more than one occasion passages from other biographies, and then takes the time to agree or disagree with that previous biographer's statement, when the honest truth is that he ran out of information and is simply trying to fill pages with this hogwash. And if it's not passages from other biographies, it's snippets from what Gehring refers to as "period reviews." It's nice to read these, but one or two snippets will do. Gehring pulls out about ten after each Carole film.

Another issue for me was the photographs, which are a joke. Gehring produces no interesting or new photographs; and nothing rare or candid. The collection of photos are small, sprinkled about the pages rather than inputed in a few glossaries at different intervals throughout the book, as most biographers do. Even worse; whatever little photographs there are, some of them aren't even of Carole. Instead there are photographs of Charlie Chaplin, George Stevens, W.C Fields, etc. if they happen to have  been mentioned on the page. I think that's ridiculous but it doesn't surprise me considering that Gehring spares plenty of paragraphs on information about other actors or directors that is insufficient to a biography of Carole Lombard.

Okay, now that we've gotten most of the cons of this book out, I must admit, there are a few pros which is why I manage to give this biography three stars. One of which is that Gehring obviously does have affection for his subject, restraining from throwing her under the bus at any point, which is something I incredibly admire for any biographer. I can't stand a biographer who writes a book simply to tear their subject apart; even though this isn't exactly good either, I much rather prefer a biographer who sticks with their subject through and through. And Gehring obviously likes Carole, likes her movies, has warmth for her, etc. which is nice.

The coverage of her films is pretty much consistent, though some reviews I read on Amazon written by hard core Carole fans accuse Gehring of skipping over some movies. (This is probably wrong of me, but when I read a bio I'm more excited to learn about the person's personal life than the movies they made... because I can always just watch the movies, so I'm not really a fan of three page summaries with spoilers.) His cover of her personal life also is not awful either, though I have a feeling - knowing how playful Carole was - there were more stories to have been shared. I loved reading about the pranks she pulled (sending Clark a rubber ham with his face on it for example), about her campaign to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939) (even conjuring up a crazy plot with Gary Cooper to help herself get the role), and her attempts to become a parent with Clark (one friend claimed that they would have even made love hanging out the window if it would have gotten Carole pregnant).

I also really enjoyed a detailed coverage over the ranch style house Carole & Clark bought in the San Fernando Valley. It seems like the second and third floors were turned into his and hers bedroom suites, and it was really interesting to read the descriptions and contrasting styles of the two! Clark's bedroom suite was all manly mahogany, whereas Carole's was elegant down to the chandeliers, pale blue color scheme, & white fur throw rugs. (She once described her bathroom in a way only Carole could put it, "the most elegant sh*thouse in the San Fernando Valley".)

As for Gehring's coverage of her plane crash in the Nevada mountains, he covers it in the prologue as if trying to be clever, but sums it up "she died in the plane with her mother, instantly killed" and that's it. No in depth analysis or anything. Just finished and close. The actual end of the biography (excluding the epilogue) ends equally abruptly, very suddenly, & you think since there's an epilogue there will be more closure but there's only a short discussion of the box office receipts of To Be or Not to Be (1942) and a note to the S.S Carole Lombard, the ship christened in her name after her death. Therefore, Gehring doesn't want to talk about the plane crash at all. And it's not something pleasant to write about but, you know, honestly? (As her note, her childhood, which was given about fifteen quick pages, was not done well either.)

This was a brisk, brief biography, leaving a lot to be desired. Though it shares a few nice stories, it just doesn't do someone like Carole Lombard justice. For that matter, since it's only 200 pages (I'm not including the other 56 pages of filler), it's not a waste of time - nothing about Carole could be a waste of time - so I'm not going to advise you to avoid it... just to know that it falls really short. If you would like to purchase it, you can do so here.

One nice touch was a poem inscribed in the beginning of the book that I thought really cutely describes the genre Carole is most famous for, and so I'll  close this book review with just that.

Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942)

 

CAROLE LOMBARD: THE SCREWBALL GIRL

by Wes D. Gehring 

"Screwball comedy is essentially about 

The crazy rich girl next door

And the comic antohero boy

Who doesn't love her... at first

And though there are several

Recipes available to create

This fruitcake of a genre

All require lots of mixed nuts

For best results, add one 

Zany heiress to the world

Of some mild -mannered male,

Unaware of his own unhappiness

Then sprinkle lightly with comic

Character actors, childlike pets,

And oodles of decadent playtime

In the most la-de-da of settings

Stand back as the ingredients start

To bubble, noting how the male's goose

Is cooked as the screwball heorine 

Wears him out with her wackiness

Properly pampered, this comedy dish

Has served audiences endlessly since

The 1930s, Hollywood's version of the loaves

And the fishes, in 35mm topsyturvydom."

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That's all, hope you liked the review, and if you have any questions be sure to ask! Or perhaps you read the book and prefer to defend Wes D. Gehring from my wrath, pitch in! ;D 

"Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing" Book Review

Well... guess what?.... it's... SNOWING OUTSIDE! :) You can imagine my happiness from the insane amount of talking I do about the weather here on this blog ("I wore tights today, it's so cold!" "My fingers are freezing as I type!" "The leaves are turning orange and it smells like fall!") - but seriously. Where I live, we don't even get flurries until December (if we're lucky). And yes, though it isn't much more than a sprinkling of snow, snow is snow. <3 Snow before Halloween, where I live; with the trees not even bare yet - well, I could never dream... so... here's to hoping this will be a snowy winter for me. (If we're getting snow in OCTOBER, I'd like to presume...) So happy! :)

Okay, now today I've got a book review for you - "Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing," by Lee Server.

Let me start off by saying that this is a pretty decently sized book. The actual biography comes in at exactly 500 pages, and though it's not a monster, it's on the huge side for sure.

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That was my one reservation about reading this book - not that I don't like thick reads, but I'm not Ava obsessed or anything and I was wondering if I was really willing to read that many pages about her. Okay, scratch that: it sounds mean, because I do really like Ava Gardner but this is versus, perhaps, five hundred pages about Lucy in which I wouldn't think twice about purchasing (if it's Lucy, the thicker the better).

ANYWAY, my thirst to know more about her and my love of Classic Hollywood won out - so I went ahead and decided to read it. 

My thoughts about this book are kind of all over place, but here's an attempt at trying to review it.

Okay, so for sure I did learn lots of details about Ava's life, personal and professional, through reading this book. Though a lot of it was clarification from what we already know about Ava's "Cinderella story" (if you called her life story that to her face, though, she'd probably throw a drink on you) - she had humble beginnings as a "barefoot farm girl" (and I'll give it to her, she was never ashamed of this, telling Bogie once she was a "little hillbilly girl" at heart or something), but went onto become one of the prettiest starlets in Hollywood who really enjoyed hard drinking and partying.

Ava's life is so tumultuous (especially during her Frank Sinatra period) that this is most certainly a page turner (a better title might have been "Ava Gardner: Never a Dull Moment"). And her story is an exciting one, almost written out like a novel. Reading about her childhood in "Grabtown", North Carolina was particularly interesting. I read that a young Ava hated to wear shoes (a symbol of her playful, footlose and fancy free kind of spirit that would last her through and through) and after school would stick her shoes in her mailbox and run around barefoot years before she even became the Barefoot Contessa.

The author really can write and if you gave him the most dull subject he can make it exciting. You can tell he really adores Ava, but does not put much effort into defending her at her most unlikable moments. He wants you to love Ava but is pretty blunt about the bad things, like Ava throwing tantrums with reporters, having an affair with Robert Taylor (when he was still married to Barbara Stanwyck), drinking too much, etc. His excuse is "she was so beautiful, no one cared."

By the time I reached the middle of the book I didn't hate Ava but I was coming to the conclusion she was some kind of a monster and I was confused. In her start, she seemed so humble and naive and within a couple turn of the pages she turns into this hard drinking party girl who hates Hollywood. I was wondering about the transition and though we know she throws drinks on reporters because she thinks her face is now too old to be taken photos of, how did she come to these stages? Though I don't always encourage biographers to turn into psychologists, sometimes digging deeper to come to conclusions about their subject's behavior (like Suzanne Finstad did for "Natasha", the biography of Natalie Wood) not only defends their subject and makes them more likable, gives closure to the reader.

Lee Server (also author of "Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care") definitely provides us with a lot of brutal facts that are interesting and gossipy, but verging on tabloid fodder at points because he cannot provide much reason for her behavior except that she was "beautiful." Just from reading the book one can make guesses, but Server should have had that in the actual book and since he does not, it lacks completion. Having studied and researched someone for so long, you would think that he would feel comfortable enough to jump in with his own theories at times. I wouldn't have minded; I think it would have connected a string of dots to make this book an excellent biography.

Because over all, it was good. A blunt portrait of Ava but I was expecting a lot it beforehand, just from what circulates about Ava through the grapevine. There are a lot of good things to be said about Ava, too, and things to sympathize with her over. By the end of the book I still managed to like her. The "old" Ava, once she got over her fear of aging, is lovable. The old Ava seems to return to her humbler roots... she enjoys cartoons and ironing and walking her Corgis around London. And there were remaining, redeeming factors about Ava strung throughout the book: she was far from racist, believed in everyone being equal. She was modest when it came to her acting (though not always about her beauty). She loved animals, especially dogs (Corgis in particular). 

Basically, in the end, Ava comes across as human. The book is thorough without exactly arriving to a point, but it comes out alright in the end because we see Ava as human. Not a monster and not an angel, but human which is the perfect medium and how someone should come across in a biography (unless we're talking about like, Adolf Hitler). There are definitely points through the middle of the book where she is not likable but by the time you're finished, you can sympathize with her and still like her. What I'm trying to say is: though you will have your doubtful moments, this won't tarnish your view of Ava completely.

What I mean is: this will not exactly shatter but at least make cracks in the Golden Hollywood Goddess that defines Ava's image. I cannot exactly imagine Ava being upset about it though. You can tell she was someone who didn't like Hollywood (the exact reasons why are never explained, to my annoyance) and probably didn't care what anyone else thought. She would probably encourage the honesty of this book. When I did my review for Lauren Bacall's autobiography, I said that by reading the book you will love Lauren and have immense respect for her. I don't think that exactly applies to this book, but Ava's memory is not shattered and hardcore fans won't be disturbed. I wasn't surprised, though. If you told me these things about, oh, Audrey Hepburn I might have been - but with all fairness, it was Ava, and I saw it coming. ;)

A lot of solid facts in this book and gossipy tidbits that delve into Old Hollywood for us classic Hollywood fans to enjoy. There's also bits about her relationships with other Classic figures, like Lana Turner, Howard Hawks, and John Houston. What this book lacks is a few paragraphs here and there that would have tried to explain and defend Ava's sometimes wild behavior. "Beauty" and "Hollywood" are not always good excuses. 

I would suggest this book in the end, because it had the potential to be a great biography, but there were things it simply lacked. I will give it a 4/5 - only with slight generosity, because the fact remains that I definitely know a lot more about Ava after reading this book. 

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Before I leave: a new poll is up! You now have about twelve days to vote and tell me whether you like "Rebel Without a Cause" (1956) or "West Side Story" (1961) better.

That's it for today! Tomorrow I will hopefully have a movie review of a "scary" film for Halloween. :)

I'll leave you with a photo of Ava in a Halloween pinup:

And I'm off to enjoy the snow with a cup of hot chocolate! :)

"By Myself and Then Some" Book Review

Hi everyone,

I know I've been away for the past few days -- lack of subjects to blog on, I suppose. But today I have for you, finally, the review for "By Myself and Then Some" by Lauren Bacall, who celebrated her 87th birthday last week. It won a poll I held a while back on which Old Hollywood book to read next. I'm sorry it has taken me so long; it is 500 pages which is thick but not exactly a monster read. I was reading some other fiction books also, and with school I'd been neglecting it. But now it's finished, so let's get on with it!

I must admit, before reading this book I did not know that much about Lauren. I had, of course, seen her in what I would guess would be her two most well known films, "The Big Sleep" and "To Have and Have Not"; but with a few more exceptions I hadn't seen all that many of her movies, either.

The perception I had from Lauren was from what I had derived from her on screen image - somewhat sultry, with that deep husky voice and a cool, mysterious attitude to her, almost the personification of a film noir. If you were to say her name, the first picture or thought that would come to mind would be her role as Slim in "To Have and Have Not."

Lauren totally defies all these stereotypes about herself in this book. She draws a definitive line between the on screen image created for her by Howard Hawks and the real "Betty" Bacall.

The first thing that comes to mind upon reading an autobiography, is can this person write as well as they act? I know most often a ghost writer of sorts is used, or at least to assist the writer. But in this situation that is not the case. Though I would not name her a Bronte sister, but really, her writing was expressive and excellent in producing emotions from the reader. It is fluid, very personal and intimate, and easy to follow. It is distinctive, she has a habit of using "--" quite often, but you will get used to it as you progress through the book.

I loved the way she told her story; as if she was reliving it, instead of a fifty-odd woman (the original "By Myself" was released in 1978) looking back on her life. We can feel her experiences as they are happening, versus a reminisce. It was so wonderful to have it told this way; the book seems so much more fluid and evades becoming dull.

Her love of Humphrey Bogart shines through so brightly, above all. She does not idolize him, admits that he has faults - but does not take the time to list them in honor and respect to his memory. You can feel her love for him pour out. 

The most powerful moment in the story is when Bogie begins to die of cancer (she refers to him as pretty much only "Bogie" in the book). You can absolutely feel her pain and the hopelessness she must have felt, only in her late twenties and losing the love of her life with young children. In the pages leading up to Bogie's death, I began to tear up and finally I started to cry. I tell you, I almost never cry when I read a book; but I did in this one. I could feel the pain, the sadness, it was simply awful and her descriptions are vivid (though nothing gory, of course).

She captures your attention from the start. Her adventures in her childhood, growing up in New York, raised by her mother (this may sound strange but I began to really love her mother; who seemed like a lovely person) and extended family. I was amused at how, as a teenager, she'd skip school and go to the theater to watch a Bette Davis or Leslie Howard picture. She would buy a pack of cigarettes and smoke them in the balcony; she had to finish the whole pack because smoking was forbidden at home. Yes, reading about her childhood was entertaining. 

The slowest part in the book, the part that made me slack off of reading it, was in between her childhood and going to make her first movie in Hollywood. Her "pounding the pavement" years. If you can get through that period, though, the rest of the book is pretty much a treat.

I think she reflects on people with class and I do not remember her, for the most part, making negative comments about famous figures. It is fun to read her discussions about people from Old Hollywood, and her interactions with them -- did you know it was Greer Garson who was the first person to send Bogie to the doctor because of his coughing, which later resulted as his cancer? Or what good friends she was with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, affectionately called "Katie" and "Spence" by her? (They would visit Bogie every night he was sick). These are just a few among a great roster of friends and we get to read about her experiences with them; nothing to diminish the glossy opinions we have of these people, only to glorify them.

"By Myself" was released in 1980; in 2005, Lauren made a 77 page addition and reprinted the autobiography under the new title, "By Myself and Then Some"; 'and then some' being her 77 pages added in. Upon reading the reviews for this book on Amazon, I found people often criticizing the "And then some" part; saying it is only a reprint of her previous autobiography with just her comments on her friends dying stuck on the end. And a display of her political opinions.

I don't exactly agree. Yes, the 77 page addition is a little choppier than the rest of the book; it had his highlights and downfalls. Yes, it does seem like an obituary for a lot of it but it was touching, for example, to hear her last visit with Katharine Hepburn before Kate died. Had she gone into it more, I fear I would have started to cry just as I had when Bogie died. Also, in the last pages she expresses her disdain of what this country has turned into; yes, she sheds her dislike of the George Bush administration but only dedicates a paragraph or two to it. The reviews I read made it seem like she pushed her political opinions throughout the whole book; not true! Anyway, she wrote a nice piece on how times have changed us and I agree one hundred percent with it. The world is only a busy fish bowl with no one stopping to be polite anymore.

Anyway, even if "And then some" was terrible, I would not let it completely blur my opinion on this book. I learned so much about Lauren and all the things there are to love about her; that she is completely different from her on screen persona. She is so human and she admits that through and through; and that, I believe, would have to be one of my favorite things about her book. 

In the end, I will give it a 4 out of 5. If you want to know more about Lauren, if you want to love Lauren, etc., you'll find that in this book. And an immense respect for her. I remember while reading Ginger Rogers's autobiography, "Ginger", I was dissapointed about how Ginger talks shrewdly and negatively about other figures in the world of Hollywood (despite claiming she would not in the beginning of the book). Lauren does not do that - like Lucy in her autobiography, she remains classy and we just cannot help but have great respect for her!

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The book also had some wonderful pictures; and hopefully in the near future I'll scan them and share. I would today if for not how lazy I feel; but in my defense, it's Friday, and I need to recuperate from the stress of the school week! ;)

Tomorrow I'll be back with my contribution for the Fashion in Film Blogathon at The Hollywood Revue, and also: here it is the first day of fall and I am so thrilled, of course! So: Happy first day of fall!

You guessed it - I'm cat smiling, just like Vivien!

The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era (and then some)

Hi everyone,

I've got some interesting trivia from one of my movie books for you today, but before I start there are two things I wanted to mention. One has got to do with Lucy (because she's always in my day, no matter what). Anyhoo, about two years ago one of my friends gave me this really wonderful framed picture of Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred in that famous shot of them in the car, driving to California and singing (at the end of "California, Here We Come!"). I have been remodeling my bedroom since, and this morning (while I was at school), Lucy and the gang joined Audrey Hepburn on my bedroom wall.

Also, I happened to catch this in IMdb yesterday - it's a new film that's coming out in November called "The Artist." It is a French film and it won an award at the Cannes Film Festival, but get this --

IT'S A SILENT FILM.. AND IT'S IN BLACK AND WHITE. AND IT'S A 2011 MOVIE.

Isn't that just the most awesome thing ever??? I wanted to blog about it right then and there, but I had already blogged for the day so I held out. Right now I just realized that Sally of the always entertaining Flying Down to Hollywood had written about it already, and I wanted to share, too. It takes place in the 1920s, and I think it's about an actor who is having his heyday in silent films when he comes across a young fan who is actually desperate to get into pictures herself; as they make the transition into talkies, the actor's career begins to deteriorate while the fan's career begins. It sounds a little like "All About Eve", doesn't it? Perhaps the actor gets "Eved." I don't know. Here's the trailer --

It may turn out to be a hot mess or it may turn out to be really good, but either way, I can hardly wait to see it!

Also, isn't the poster gorgeous and so film noir-ish? When I saw it on the IMdb homepage, it instantly attracted me to click on the trailer.

 Count me in!

What do you all think? Think you'll see it?

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So, as we all know, I am currently reading right now Lauren Bacall's autobiography, "By Myself and Then Some". You voted for it and so that's the book I've got my nose into. I'm not that far in but so far I'm enjoying myself and I hope to finish it within a week or so - then I'll get a review up for it.

However, before voting closed on the poll.... well, I know I promised I wouldn't go and get more books because my stack of books to-read is really quite large. But there's this big mall in the next state over, and it's pretty huge (it's actually two malls - one mall has all the usual chains and the more casual stuff, and the next mall over has the boutiques and the designer labels... awesome, yes!). It also happens to have this large Barnes & Noble which always carries a lot of great books with a wide selection. This mall is about an hour or so away, and though we have a lot of great malls where I live, every so once in a while I like to make a trip here with a friend. I went about two weeks ago and I could not resist going into the humongous Barnes & Noble, and I was ecstatic to find that they had a copy of TCM's "The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era".

I had wanted to get this for a while but my local bookstores didn't have a copy, so I had to buy it. I finished it last night and I must say, I enjoyed it! Though I think it would be extremely hard to pick the top 50 actresses of the Studio Era,  I think they came up with the perfect list (it is complied by TCM, my go-to-television channel) - WITH the exception that they didn't include Lucy. I understand that she had the most success in television, but she made over 100 movies and considering  all she achieved in the field of acting (forget about TV and movies and whatnot), I think she ought to have been included. That said, however, I think it was the perfect list (though I would have fought to the death for Lucy to be in it... hmm...)

The book is really polished and for the most part I didn't find that many errors in it. It has beautiful pictures and the format is really easy to read. There is about four pages devoted to each actress, front and back, with a little biography as well as the usual stats like their birth name, birthday, date of death, and all their husbands and children. On the next page there are the "five essential films" of the actress, with a little summary for each, some style notes, and some trivia in  "behind the scenes". Also, at the end of the book is an index of each actress's complete filmography.

I'm going to make a big plug for it. I know I totally bawled TCM out for their scrawny "Now Playing" earlier this month, but this book was really fantastic and I enjoyed it. So: EVERYONE GO OUT AND BUY IT.

There is a lot of great trivia in this book, which inspired me to write a post with a one nugget of trivia from each of the fifty actresses. Depending on the actress, some of it I knew before and others I didn't. Either way, I thought I'd share. The name of the actress is in bold so you can see the fifty chosen ones - and unfortunately, I can't possibly tag them all  in this post (and this is also a little reminder that I always try and tag my posts carefully, but you can also use the little search box on my sidebar, which gives great results).

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(Listed in alphabetical order)

1. Jean Arthur, as sweet and as awesome as she was, once tore a wig and a suit on the set of a movie that she wasn't pleased with.
2. While dating him, Lauren Bacall was gifted a bracelet with a gold whistle from her beau (and soon-to-be-husband), Humphrey Bogart. It was in memory of Lauren's famous, "You know how to whistle, don't you?" line in "To Have and Have Not," - they had fallen in love on set.
3. Ingrid Bergman was discovered (in Hollywood, anyway) when an elevator boy remarked to a woman in the building he worked at that his parents (Swedes), had seen a fabulous Swedish girl in a picture they'd recently watched. The woman was a talent scout for David O. Selznick.
4. After her mother tried to kill her in her sleep, Clara Bow became a life long insomniac.
5. When Louise Brooks's film career began to decline, she took to the stage under an assumed name, Linda Carter. A talent scout from 20th Century Fox found her and offered her a screen test.
6. Claudette Colbert famously bathed in milk in "The Sign of the Cross" (1932). Claudette hated it because the milk smelled, but it inspired thousands of women across America to do the same.
7. Joan Crawford was born Lucille Le Sueur. Her name was changed by the studio when they felt her surname sounded too much like "sewer." So they held a contest in a movie magazine to rename the starlet, and "Joan Crawford" was chosen. Joan never much liked the name; she felt it like "crawfish."
8. The playful Marion Davies once got President Coolidge drunk by feeding him wine all while assuring him it was just fruit juice!
9. In 1941, the indestructible Bette Davis became the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
10. Doris Day earned the nickname "Clara Bixby" when Billy De Wofle remarked to her on the set of "Tea for Two" that she didn't look much like a Doris Day but rather a Clara Bixby; it stuck and her good friends still call her that.
11. A practical joke was played on Clark Gable on the set of "Gone With the Wind" with the help of Olivia de Havilland, who agreed for them to put weights in her already heavy 19th century style dresses for a scene in which Clark was to carry (a frail Melanie) up a flight of stairs.
12. Marlene Dietrich, who always held a firm clenched jaw, can credit her taut stance to the lemons she used to suck on before going on screen.
13. Cary Grant remembered Irene Dunne as the "sweetest smelling" actress he'd ever worked with.
14. Greta Garbo, who never married, had an affair with fellow actor John Gilbert. He wanted to elope with her and she agreed, but in the last moment she backed out and locked herself in the laboratory to hide.
15. Those sultry glances the beautiful Ava Gardner often struck was natural; Ava needed glasses but never wore them on screen, causing her to squint.
16. Judy Garland was immortalized into film history with her role as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz". It is said the day she died, a tornado hit Kansas.
17. The famously redheaded Greer Garson had her living room decorated in a beautiful emerald green so it would go well with her famous locks.
18. Lillian Gish never once had a haircut. Her hair was below her waist all her life!
19. Clara Bow spotted a pretty young extra named Jean Harlow on the set of one of her films and wanted her kicked out because she was "too beautiful." They eventually became great friends.
20. Also a redhead, Susan Hayward wore a gorgeous emerald green dress in one of her last public appearances at the 1974 Oscars... she was buried in the dress a year later.
21. Despite Ginger Rogers being his most famous dance partner, Fred Astaire chose Rita Hayworth as his favorite.
22. Gregory Peck was dubious to play against an unknown in a 1953 Paramount film called "Roman Holiday" - but when he met the young, strikingly beautiful Audrey Hepburn he changed his mind and insisted she receive top billing.
23. When campaigning for the role of Scarlett O'Hara, producer David O. Selznick told Katharine Hepburn: "I can't imagine Clark Gable chasing you for ten years." In which Kate icily replied, in her typical style, "I may not appeal to you, David, but there are men with different tastes!"
24. When studio executives began giving dark skinned beauty Lena Horne stereotypical roles for African American actresses, her father called up the studio and angrily reminded them, "I can hire a maid for her; I don't need to her act as one!"
25. Forever the blue blood, Grace Kelly's voice had a beautifully memorable elegant tone with a hint of British incision, despite being an American girl. She spent years working on her dialect to achieve this (in place of her original, nasal tone) - needless to say, she mastered it.
26. The beautiful, British Deborah Kerr was visiting fellow English actor Rex Harrison during World War Two. They did not think much of an aircraft warning until a bomb was dropped in the actor's garden and the cottage went black. Rex announced he may need a drink; but a true Brit, Deborah insisted, "Alcohol is not good for one when they have had a shock. Can we have tea?"
27. During the 1940s, it was Hedy Lamarr, with her gorgeously sculpted features, that women most asked plastic surgeons to replicate for them.
28. Vivien Leigh, who suffered quite badly from manic depression (known better today as bipolar disorder), would receive shock treatment for this. Hours later she would go on stage and give a brilliant performance without missing a beat.
29. Infamous for her swearing, Carole Lombard picked up her salty way of speaking when she realized her cussing would leave male authority figures (who otherwise tried to walk all over her) in shock, and set them straight, too. She asked her brothers to teach her all the words they knew.
30. Sophia Loren happened to wear a tiara to an 1954 English opening night which caused a ruckus... the problem? Queen Elizabeth was also in attendance. The British press called her  "Queen Sophia." 
31. Sticking up for her fellow actors, Myrna Loy demanded of narrow minded studio heads to know why African Americans were always given stereotypical roles as maids or butlers. "What about a black person walking up to the steps of a courthouse with a briefcase?" Myrna wanted to know.
32. Feisty Shirley MacLaine was the inspiration for Frank Sinatra's song, "The Second Time Around." One of his accompanists wanted Shirley to leave her husband for him.
33. Though she made famous the "dumb blond", Marilyn Monroe was actually quite intelligent. She had a IQ of 168 (significantly higher her lover, President Kennedy's 129) and enjoyed reading books.
34. Helping her to stand out from the crowd, Columbia marketed Kim Novak as a "lavender blond" - even tinting her hair the shade.
35. Marilyn Monroe was able to talk Irish beauty Maureen O'Hara into hiding (and then popping out of) a box for husband Joe DiMaggio's birthday, so he would "finally stop talking about Maureen O'Hara", whom he had a big crush on. The prank was canceled when Marilyn and DiMaggio broke up before his birthday.
36. The movie screen's first close up centered on America's sweetheart, Mary Pickford, in the 1912 movie "Friends."
37. When Debbie Reynolds won the title of Miss Burbank in 1948, talent scouts from both MGM and Warner Brothers in the audience wanted her. So they flipped a coin and Warner Brothers won. When Warner gave her up in following years, MGM snatched her and made her a star.
38. Ginger Rogers loved the gorgeous gowns with feathers, beads, and much more that she and designer Edith Head would scheme up for her dance routines. But her other half, Fred Astaire, did not. The ornaments on the dress would slap him black and blue. 
39. LIFE magazine had a bad habit of photographing Rosalind Russell, but then not using the photos. When, for the third time they requested to photograph the movie star, she appeared on her driveway in her slacks and told them to just take the picture because they weren't going to use it anyway. They did, and they put her on the cover. But in the end it turned out to be an embarrassment for LIFE - that was the same week Hitler invaded Poland.
40. Norma Shearer, a true product of the Roaring 20's, used to invite author F. Scott Fitzgerald (among others) to her house over the weekends for rambunctious parties. Fitzgerald wrote one of his most celebrated works, "Crazy Sunday", based on events at Norma's house.
41. The girl with the oomph, Ann Sheridan, had to cap her teeth to cover a big gap she had between her two front teeth!
42. Whilst filming "Forty Guns", a stuntman refused to do a scene in which she was to be dragged by a horse, calling it "too dangerous." The real actress, the bold Barbara Stanwyck, rolled her eyes and did it herself in a few takes - albeit, with several bruises. 
43. In 1950 (and fresh off her "Sunset Boulevard" revival) the forever fashionable Gloria Swanson debuted her own clothing line, "Gowns by Gloria." It was a hit.
44. Violet eyed Elizabeth Taylor was the highest paid actress of the 1960's (number two happened to be Natalie Wood), and the first to request a million dollars for her salary. The job was "Cleopatra", playing the title role, of course.
45. Gene Tierney suffered tragedy in her life. She contracted German measles from a fan who should have been quarantined while pregnant with her daughter, and her daughter was, because of this, born blind and with several development defects.
46. Always the glamour girl, when Lana Turner's apartment building caught on fire and she only had a few moments to grab her most precious possessions, Lana grabbed lipstick, eyeliner, and her hair dryer.
47. During World War Two, inflatable life jackets were referred to as "Mae Wests", pleasing the busty actress very much.
48. The studio would keep America's mermaid, Esther Williams's, hair looking beautiful underwater by lathering her hair with baby oil and petroleum jelly. Esther claimed she was as "waterproof as a mallard" when she was let free from hair and makeup.
49. Passionate and humorous Natalie Wood proved these qualities when the Harvard Lampoon named her the "Worst Actress of the Year" -- she showed up in person to accept the award.
50. Loretta Young had strong feelings about etiquette and despised swearing (wonder how she would have gotten along with Carole Lombard! They both had a thing for Clark Gable, didn't they?). She established a swearing box on the studio lot, charging any of her peers for profanity. Robert Mitchum used to stuff several bills into the box to cover him for the day, and it is said that Joseph Mankiewicz and Barbara Stanwyck payed their dues to Loretta, as well.

***

I hope you enjoyed the post - it was a long one, but thanks for sticking with me. ;)

"Desilu" Book Review

Bonjour!

So today, I'm finally going to share with you my first book review. (I love books, but since this is a classic movie blog I'm restricting myself to only writing reviews about classic movies and their stars!). It's for "Desilu" by Coyne Sanders and Tom Gilbert (or something like that). I finished it a couple days ago, but held out until now because I thought you all would want some variety (from the multitude of Lucy related posts I wrote last week for her 100th). But now, I'm like "what the heck?" You all know how much I love Lucy so let's consider it okay.

Before I start, I guess you all must have noticed a change on my blog.  I've changed the header. The original header

was a little too busy for me. And you can't really see the title properly. So I spent all of last night and today working with this software (it's free, and offers a lot of the same features that Photoshop does. It's quite awesome!). Finally, after many revisions and frustrations, I came up with what you see above us.

I am not one hundred percent pleased with it. I tried both sephia and black and white, and B&W I think looks better, but I'm not still completely sold. It's pretty big, for one thing. I know lots of blogs have big headers, but... I don't know. So. I would really appreciate it if you could leave me some comments telling me what you think of it, and if it's better than the last, and if you know of any way I could improve it. (By the way, I had to abort Cary from the header because I thought it would be kind of cruel to outline him in pink!! So Cary and Grace are in my favicon... or at least they will be as soon as it updates).

Also, the very kind Natalie (or "StanwyckFan") of "In the Mood" (it's in my blog roll, you should see it!) has informed me about Film Classics (film-classics.com)'s contest for this season. This season you basically have to write some kind of a post about film noir. Even though film noir isn't my very best subject, I'm hoping to give it a try. For more information, go here:

Film Noir Contest

Thanks, Natalie, for telling me all about it!

Okay, now, as promised, without any further ado, is my review for "Desilu."

***

As you can probably tell from the title, Desilu promises to tell "the story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz."

If only they had.

I'm not going to say this book was awful, because it wasn't... Though, to be truly honest, I did have several problems with it.

The first was the authors pretty much skip over how Lucy and Desi first met, or their lives before they met each other. They briefly recount it in a crammed first chapter - all events preceding 1946. I thought this was awful. I was looking for a lot of build up on how they met, how they purchased the ranch in California, etc. But the authors breeze over this by using a couple of excerpts from Desi's autobiography. In a page or two, they basically say, "Desi said, 'Do you want to get married?' And Lucy said, 'Sure, why not.' And then they went to Connecticut, eloped, and that's all."

Uhm...

The authors are much more excited to talk about the bad days of Lucy and Desi's marriage: the fighting, the screaming, Desi's drinking, etc. Like they want to write a depressing book of sorts. Look, I know that Lucy and Desi's marriage was most certainly not picture perfect, but they did have some happy days with each other.

More than anything, the only thing the authors really care to talk about are Desilu Studios. The purchasing and buying of shows, stockholders meetings, hiring people - every time I saw a "$" in the book, I went, "Oh no!" WAY, WAY, WAY too much focus on the Studios. It should have been a balance between Lucy and Desi, the people, and the Studios - or, if you had to go either way, more focus on Lucy and Desi. But the book is about 80% Desilu Studios and 20% Lucy and Desi.

I thought it was interesting to learn about the Studios, but it should have been written in a clearer, more understandable way so those of us who are not experts on the subject, or do not own a Studio ourselves, can understand what they mean. Too many figures. On every page you'd find numbers and you'd be lucky to find "Lucy" and "Desi" in the same sentence together.

I have a few more bones to pick. The writers downplay any of their successes. "I Love Lucy" was - and is - one of the biggest phenomenal of television and likely the most successful show to come out of television. Yet it's not really such a big deal to the writers. And though "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" cannot compare to "I Love Lucy", they were both respectively successful shows themselves. But the writers make them sound like screwball messes strung together.

They on several occasions contradict themselves. On one page, they say that Lucille Ball was very "conservative," and disapproved of movies with explicit language, violence, etc. On another - "she had a very raunchy sense of humor." Uhm, I don't think it's possible for someone to be both. 

Towards the end of the book, they do their best to make Lucille Ball sound like a monster. I hate whenever an author begins to trash it's subject. This was one of these cases. "Lucille Ball was not a funny woman." "Lucille Ball threatened to fire Joan Crawford and she burst into tears" (yeah, I would've threatened to fire her too if she didn't bother to show up on set because she "overslept"). "Lucille Ball started screaming at people on the set." I got SO fed up. Not just because I love Lucy so much, but I know that this is all exaggerated. They say she brought Sammy Davis, Jr. to tears. Yeah, she tortured him so much that years later when they threw the "All Star Party for Lucille Ball," he gave a lovely, touching speech calling her a "gift from God." Wow, he must've been totally bullied by her.

I say exaggerated because I am sure Lucy was just trying to do her job. She was very professional and by the time she did her later shows, she had a very high standard for those she worked with. She did not except tardiness, lack of effort, etc. She was a total perfectionist. And who can blame her? By then, she deserved total respect on set for all she had achieved. It's easy to understand why Lucy believed in hard work: she had to work so hard to get to where she'd gotten. 

What would have made this book better? More focus on their lives before "I Love Lucy." The writers chose to skip this part of their lives, but detail their lives all the way up to their death after 1950 (with much more focus on Lucy than Desi - in fact, he disappears into thin air). What would have been interesting is a look at what they were doing in their separate lives in a certain year. For example, when Lucy was pounding the pavement in New York, Desi was cleaning canary cages in Miami. It would explain to casual fans what different personalities they had, and what different backgrounds.

More focus on their glory years at the Desilu Ranch would have been nice, too. For example, later on in the book someone says something about remembering how they had been at the Ranch when Lucy was pregnant, and Lucy had been all girlish and excited, and had pulled the person's hand to her bulging stomach when she felt the baby kick, her eyes lighting up. "It's wonderful!" she'd exclaimed. If only the authors had shared more sweet stories like that. 

The authors don't share much new or insightful information. However, in reading I kept in mind that this book is considerably old. Well, it's less than 20 years old which isn't very old, but in book years it is. When it was written in the early 90's, the Internet was not as developed as it was now, and not everybody had common use with it. So even though the facts they pull out in the book look old to us today, they were probably new and shocking for readers in the early 90's (wow, I'm making the 90's sound ancient!).

Lucie Arnaz was interviewed for the book and she provides the best stories. Though she cannot attest much about her parents' divorce or anything preceding that, she does share nice information about the later years. In the last pages of the book, she shares a touching story about how Lucy was one of the last people Desi spoke to - and what she said was that she loved him (repetitively). 

In the Epilogue, the authors share some depressing information about how Lucy dies.  However, it's pretty amazing to see how the world reacted at the time. Her death was treated with the importance of when a state of head dies, and the New York Times headline for the day was, in big, huge, black letters: "LUCY DIES." Depressing, but just goes to show you how much everyone loved Lucy.

Over all, this is a good book for anyone interested in Desilu Studios. In fact, it's the perfect book for you. Also, if you want to read about the lows of their marriage - but you'll only find repeated information, anyway.

It's not a terrible book. The final chapter and the Epilogue was touching, if anything. But the bottom line remains that it sends the principal subjects (and their relationship) in an unflattering light many times, depresses the reader on several occasions, and doesn't provide anything new. I'll give it a 3 out of a 5. 

***

That's all for today. Hope you enjoy my first book review, and like my new site header.

Ciao!

Movie Books from the Basement

The other day, I went downstairs into our basement library (a room filled with bookshelves of old looking books that my father hasn't read in years - "I'll read it in my old age," he claims). I was actually in search of my calculator (I've affectionately named it Dexter) because I had some disgusting summer math to do. But let's talk about something more pleasant...

My father has his own little collection of film books - though I may be beginning to challenge him in my own extensive collection! Anyhow, besides the hardbound copies of "Hollywood's Best Musicals," and biographies of Montgomery Clift, Humphrey Bogart, etc., that sat on the shelf, crammed away in another corner amongst some of my mom's old Mills & Boones 25 cent romance novels were a few old, yellowing - though not exactly tattered - paperbacks on movies.

Here's what I found:

From left to right:

Singin in the Rain - From the MGM Library of Film Scripts, Trivia Mania: Movies Volume II by Xavier Einstien, Hitchcock's Films by Robin Wood

The first, "Singin in the Rain", is pretty cool - it is the complete script of the movie. 

I really love that movie, so it's going to be fun just to skim through it and look over the lines I love and remember.

Yep - the whole script!

They're also a introduction to the script that discusses the movie and its successes, so that should make an interesting read, as well.

Next, I found the "Movie Trivia" by Xavier Einstien. As you can tell, it's got no cover -

But, the rest of it is in pretty good shape.

"In what movie did Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher appear together?"

Easy - Butterfield 8!

It's written in the 80's so we avoid any trivia questions about modern films, mostly. (I love the 80's, so I can take it). They vary in difficulty... I knew what Sydney Poitier movie introduced Lulu to the United States ("To Sir, With Love"), but despite the Cary Grant fan I am, I'm puzzled about who discovered him. (Perhaps because I've yet to read his biography...)

It seems like a good little book to test your movie trivia. I'm glad the questions vary throughout decades and difficulty - I may be quite sharp on a 1940's movie question while I'll stumble over the 70's. (I love the 70's, too, but I've yet to see many films from that decade). I guess this book will help sharpen me up on my movie trivia for the next time I play Trivial Pursuit against my dad (Did I mention I LOVE that game??).

And lastly, a critical analysis of Hitch's films in a book entitled "Hitchcock's Films" by Robin Wood.

This looks pretty interesting. It's supposed to be in depth look at, appropriately, Hitchock's films. I have yet to read a book about Hitch's films, but I love him as a director and I love his movies so this out to be a very interesting read.

Books like this aren't around much anymore - movie trivia books are filled with little tidbits about current films, which I really couldn't care less about... it's not often when you'd find a full movie script, and a classic movie at that, and I guess reading "Hitchcock's Films" will give me a good dose of those 80's bio writers that I've heard so much about. 

Also on the topic of books, I'm going to have a huge book haul of new movie books coming my way. In the mail I have biographies of Vivien Leigh and Jean Arthur coming... also, "Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour", which is written (I think) from the prospective of the skipper who was on the Splendour the night Natalie died. (I've got a shortage of Natalie books so I'm excited for this)... and, "The Lucille Ball FAQ." NOT to mention I just bought Lauren Bacall's autobiography (I've been holding out for this for a while), so I'm going to have tons and tons of reading to do (not to mention some boringly awful summer reading books for school... ew). I've also ordered in two box sets - The Natalie Wood Collection (originally like $50, but I got it for about $30 so I'm happy about that) and the Lucille Ball Collection.

And lastly, through the blog Via Margutta 51 I had found this really funny "Audrey Airlines" clip on Youtube, made by this group called PunchyPlayers. Through that, I found more parodies and impersonations of Old Hollywood stars made by the same people. Here's one of my personal favorites --

My favorites: "Audrey Hepburn" "Hayley Mills" "Vivien Leigh" "Bette Davis" "Julie Andrews"

Though their Lucille Ball is a little off!

Ciao!

Day Two of Lucy's Birthday Bash: My Lucille Ball Book Collection

Hello everyone, and welcome to day two of blogging for the birthday girl: Lucille Ball!

Of course, our favorite redhead won't turn 100 until Saturday, but that's not going to stop me. We're already celebrating here at Frankly, My Dear. Yesterday, we discussed Lucy's 100th in the news and special televised tributes (click Here to view the post.)

Today, I thought I'd go over my extensive Lucille Ball book collection by showing you what I've got and reviewing them for you... Below is a short clip of my entire collection, with the exception of the "Lucille Ball Trivia Book" by Michael Karol, which i own but could not find for some reason. (If the music sounds familiar, it's me with that "Love Story" theme again - the same one I used for the intro of my "No Sad Songs For Me" video. :P)

Yeah, I know that's not exactly the work of Hitchcock there. But anyway, I hope you got the gist of it.

So, now, I'll review each of the books. I'm not going to make these reviews very detailed because my collection is somewhat large (though it can always get huger, and I have a feeling it will), and I know you don't have all day to read posts by little old me. :)

***

"Love, Lucy" by Lucille Ball

So, if you're a classic movie fan (which you probably are if you're reading this), you ought to have known by now, either through the grapevine or other bloggers or book reviews, how wonderful Lucy's autobiography truly is! This book was published posthumously by Lucy's children when they found the manuscript among her papers in the late 90's. It was originally written at some point in the 1960's (circa "Yours, Mine and Ours" if I am to set a timeline for you), with the help of a ghost writer. Lucy never published it though, likely because she didn't want to hurt people that were still alive that she spoke of - mostly, Desi, who'd she just divorced. However, Lucy needn't have worried. She speaks with such class and talks of everyone fondly. Even when it comes time to write about the divorce with Desi, she doesn't dish the dirt... And I think that was very classy of her. It's the best celebrity autobiography I have ever read, and I don't care if it sounds biased. 5/5.

"Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz" by Coyne S. Sanders and Tim Gilbert

I'm not finished with this yet. So far it looks okay, but I'm seeing a lot of focus on "Desilu Studios" instead of Lucy and Desi. But I'm not even halfway through, so we'll see how it goes. And because of that, I can't give it a rating yet.

"Laughing with Lucy" by Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr.

Any good Lucy fan knows that Madelyn and Bob were the two consecutive writers of "I Love Lucy," as well as several episodes of Lucy's other shows and her 1968 box office hit "Yours, Mine and Ours." And though Bob gets credit for writing this, this is all Madelyn's book - written in first person - with little input from Bob. I have always had great interest in the brilliant writers, and this is a nice, short read featuring bits and pieces o Madelyn's and Bob's lives, and their relationship with Lucy - and Desi too. Madelyn clarifies all the stereotypes about the backstage atmosphere of the show... Lucy was the perfectionist, Desi was the charmer, etc. etc. Though most of the information isn't new, we do get to learn a few, rare and charming backstage stories - like the time Tallulah Bankhead visited the set as a guest star. According to Madelyn, Tallulah was always late, messing up her lines, and tipsy. It drove Lucy, who had a high standard, nuts. The cast decided to hold a private meeting about what to do about her. Just before they began, Tallulah wandered in and bellowed something about them forgetting to invite her. To try and break the awkwardness, Lucy complimented Tallulah on a sweater she was wearing - to which Tallulah replied, "You like, it dahhlling? You can have it," and pulled it off on the spot. Vivian cracked, "Good thing you didn't compliment her on her slacks," but then Tallulah said, "You want those too?" And the pants came down. 3.5/5

"Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia" by Michael Karol

Any Lucy fan will really enjoy this. Michael Karol is the writer of several Lucy books and founder of www.sitcomboy.com. Though he misses a few entries that he could have added, for the most part, Karol gets it all. The newest edition also comes with photographs. Over all, very nicely comprised. The presentation could have been better - Karol self publishes, which ought to explain it - so with that in mind I give it 4/5.

"The Lucy Book of Lists: Celebrating Lucy's Centennial and the 60th Anniversary of I Love Lucy" by Michael Karol 

Once again, not too crazy about the presentation. ALSO, since this is supposed to be a celebration of Lucytenniel and ILL's 60th anniversary, we could have gone for something thicker... however, the written work is of great quality. Kaye Ballard also makes a "guest appearance," and my favorite segment is "Ethel Mertz A-Twitter."... (Yes, Ethel Mertz Twittering). So, still great fun. 4/5

"Lucy at the Movies" by Cindy de la Hoz

This was the first Lucy book I ever got. I found it in the bookstore on a routine shopping trip a few years ago... I was extremely excited but was disappointed to learn it was thirty-five dollars. I didn't get it, but read it everytime I visited and hid it behind other books to make sure no one would buy it. I was very excited when my friend bought it for me as a Christmas present that year, and thus my collection of Lucy books was started. This is a wonderful book, big with lots of glossy pictures and movie posters... Lucy made over 100 films and this documents each and everyone of them. It includes a mini-bio of Lucy, as well as summaries of her movies, cast and production information, and critic reviews. It also has a gorgeous photo of Lucy on the cover. An excellent job. 4.5/5

"The Lucille Ball Book of Treasures" by Cindy de la Hoz

I got this as a Bargain Book from Barnes & Noble about a year. I was sooo excited to find it and very pleased with the information. It is a biography of Lucy with a lot of pictures and pull out "treasures" - just so awesome. Just great, great memorabilia. Every Lucy fan needs to own it. 4.5/5

"Lucy & Desi: The Real Life Scrapbook of America's Favorite Television Couple" by Elisabeth Edwards

This is another excellent, excellent Lucy book. Taken straight out from the estates of Lucy and Desi, this features bits from both of their real life scrapbooks (they were avid keepers of them), as well as more "pull-outs," like the "telegram" sent to Lucy and Desi by Desi's father in Florida the day they eloped, the marriage certificate of the two (with both of them lying about their ages!), and a Valentine's Day card to Lucy written by Desi ("To my favorite wife...")... just to name a few. It is just the greatest, best thing any Lucy fan could every stumble across! 5/5

"The I Love Lucy Scrapbook" by Elisabeth Edwards

A follow up to the latter book, this is just as wonderful! This features more excerpts of their scrapbooks, except all of the written bits are about "I Love Lucy." Also, you get a chance to take a peek into "The Mockingbird Murder Mystery" (the notorious novel Lucy was reading when she thinks Ricky is going to murder her - second episode, season one), pull out Little Ricky's "birth certificate", and much, much more! It is also a little bit of an episode guide to the series. Just lovely! 5/5

"I Love Lucy: Celebrating 50 Years of Love and Laughter" by Elisabeth Edwards

If there ever was a collective episode guide to every since "Lucy" episode, this is it! Includes plot summary and lots of photos. 4/5

"Lucille Ball" by Nick Yapp

Found by me the same day I found "Lucille Ball Treasures." With a couple lengthy captions, this is a great picture book of Lucy - in black and white, sepia, color... a lot of wonderful photos. I believe I noticed some typos and misprints, but otherwise it was very well put together. Buy it for the photos alone, if not anything else... 4/5

"Lucy: A Life in Pictures" by Tim Frew

I got this for a very good price - a new copy for $6. Another picture book of Lucy... I would say the latter book has more pictures, of rarer quality, but this is a good book, too. 3.5/5

***

So, there it is. That's my collection, and that's day two of partying for Lucy! The big day gets closer... and closer...!

Before signing off, I'd like to wish a quick happy birthday to Myrna Loy, who would have turned 106 if she were still alive today. I really enjoy Myrna's movies, and I think she doesn't get enough credit. In fact, one of the first classic movies I ever saw starred Myrna (and William Powell) - a slapstick comedy called "Love Crazy." It made me laugh my head off and contributed to my following obsession with old movies.

Happy birthday, Myrna!

Well, that's all for today. We'll back tomorrow with more Lucy related fun... have a great day!

Ciao!

PS: I believe you can buy all of the mentioned books at Amazon.com