The Golden Girls of MGM by Jane Ellen Wayne (7/81)

When not reading, I enjoy classic movies from the 1930's-1950's on Turner or through Netflix. Watching these movie has made me very curious about some of these great actors and actresses. I have read quite a few actor and actress biographies in the past year as a result.

The Golden Girls of MGM offers a very candid synopsis of the lives of Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow, Elizabeth Taylor, and the the elusive Greta Garbo. As well as Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Hedy Lamarr. All were/are talented lovely women with very interesting lives.

The book offers quite a bit of intimate detail about the lost loves, marriages, divorces and backstage feuds of these actresses and some of their leading men as well. Some of this information I knew from reading other biographies, but there were some things that I did not know. Also described is the politics of movie production led by the great team of Louis B. Mayer and the nicknamed " Boy Wonder" his right hand man until his death in 1936 at the age of 37, Irving Thalberg.

Some may question the exposure of intimate details in a biography, but the author's forward contains the following as told to her by George Cukor " One cannot paint a true picture of a rose without the thorns." How true.

I enjoyed this book very much and it makes a very interesting read if one is at all a fan of classic movies.

The Big Sea (4/81)

The Big Sea, the autobiography of Langston Hughes, was published in 1940 when the author was thirty eight years old. The reader is introduced to various aspects of Mr. Hughes life which had a profound effect on his life: his worldwide travels to Africa, Italy, Haiti, Cuba and France, and especially his struggles as a writer. I particularly liked the tie in with the Harlem Renaissance era, an important period in African American history.

We also meet influential figures such as Alain Locke, Bessie Smith, and Josephine Baker to name a few. The Big Sea does not offer the reader too many personal details about the life of Langston Hughes, however it does provide wonderful insight into the stereotypes of blacks and the ability to overcome the many obstacles that he faced on the path to this ultimate success.

I love the quote from his postscript "Literature is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling".

Great book.