The Golden Girls of MGM: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Others | 
|  | | | Title: | The Golden Girls of MGM: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Others | | Author: | Jane Ellen Wayne | | Publisher: | Carroll & Graf Publishers | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 22 November, 2002 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0786711175 / 9780786711178 | | List Price: | $26.00 | | You Save: | $11.20 | | Amazon Price: | $14.80 (via Amazon marketplace seller) | | | |
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Product Description
Garbo and Crawford. Ava, Hedy, Judy, Liz. They epitomized Hollywood’s golden era. With a trembling lip or sultry eye, with a tear or song or husky whisper, they held moviegoers across America in their sway from the hard times of the 1930s through the booming postwar years. They were royalty, they were box office. They led pampered public lives—furs, jewels, limos, designer gowns, handsome escorts—that captured the national imagination. They also signed seven-year contracts with a morals clause, and the more they slipped, the more the secret abortions, efficient cover-ups, legal legerdemain, and dropped charges bound them to the wizard in their Oz, Louis B. Mayer. The slips are here, and the successes, the personal triumphs as well as the private tragedies. Here are the Blonde Bombshell Jean Harlow, who made movie history (at nineteen) with the line "Do you mind if I slip into something more comfortable?"; Sweater Girl Lana Turner, whose career spanned four decades even if "she couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag"; and bad girl Ava Gardner, whose screen test prompted Mayer to say, "She can’t act. She can’t talk. She’s terrific." From Jeanette MacDonald and Norma Shearer to Princess Grace, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, and Million Dollar Mermaid Esther Williams, the sixteen portraits in this lively volume, each accompanied by the star’s filmography, tell the tales that lay hidden behind the gossip and the glories of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s glamorous golden girls. 16 pages of photographs enhance these intimate insider biographies of the most radiant stars in movie mogul Louis B. Mayer’s galaxy.
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Customer Reviews:
• Not Worthy For The Collector 13 January, 2007
Miss Wayne clearly did not investigate the rumors that fills this book. Many of her facts are not validated and that many more are known to be just rumor. The typographical errors abound, i.e. Wiltshire Boulevard in Los Angeles - it is Wilshire Boulevard. Her dates are deplorable - i.e. Esther Williams and Fernando Lamas were married for 22 years from 1969 until his death in 1982 - that's 13 years, Miss Wayne!
As an avid collector of classic movies and the literature of the Golden Age of Hollywood, this book has no value to this or any other collector!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A22WMWD87UFH91
• Pure Speculation 09 June, 2007
i have read the book and i keep wondering if any of this really true. it is just pure specualtion. idle gossip. but it was fun reading it. why was so much attention given to grace kelly when she only made a couple pictures with MGM. katharine hepburn was a much bigger star and the author gave her a couple of pages. just not enough.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1JB1VX399SZM8
• Sensationalist Gossip Masquerading As An Informative Biography. 24 July, 2008
It's not often that I venture forth to offer a review on Amazon, but I was so upset with this book that I had to speak up. I checked this book out of my University library to help with research for a film exhibit I am working on. I was hoping to find an at most academic and at least intelligent, or reliably informative retelling of the lives of these famous actresses within, how they were perceived by the viewing public, and the effect they had on the film industry during their tenures as stars. What I got was a sensationalist account concerned only with detailing every sexual encounter these women ever had, and taking delight in citing most of them as gay or bisexual, something that is not offensive to me but seems particularly overemphasized in this book.
Why is it important to know that several of these women didn't wear underwear on the set? This book is full of lascivious quotes from male film stars about the sexual appetites of all of these women, and time and time again I found myself questioning the legitimacy of these sources, not to mention the bias of what these men were saying considering attitudes about women at the time. Perhaps even more offensive, in Wayne's account none of these women are allowed to succeed on their own without men. Instead Wayne depicts their careers as driven primarily by sex, and there is no real examination of how these women succeeded based on their own talents or business savvy. They need men to land roles in films, they need men to fulfill whatever emotional void is in their life, and don't forget they prey on men like the vamps many portrayed on screen to fulfill their rampant sexual appetites. But I kept asking, over and over, so what? The dreaded question that every historian or biographer should strive to answer to justify the time and money spent into publishing any paper or book. The drivel presented here doesn't even attempt to answer this question.
There's no denying that none of these film stars were saints, but what does this book honestly add to any serious or intelligent discussion of film? Whether or not these actresses were as oversexualized as Wayne takes delight in portraying them, they are fascinating subjects who captured the imaginations of millions through their revolutionary presence on screen, whether through sheer talent, manipulation of their images, or both. They were acting during one of the most fruitful times for women in Hollywood in many cases, when women were allowed to be sexual and independent creatures who strove for what they wanted in their roles on screen. But instead of even attempting to point this out, Wayne is almost offensively interested in cataloging everything that supposedly went on in their bedrooms.
This book read like the worst of gossip columns with no analysis that even the more disappointing biographies I have read for this project made sure to offer. Further, the endless catalog of love affairs reads like a laundry list, making the writing bland and boring no matter how tantalizing the questionable subject matter attempts to be.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A7OV3A35NZ8T6
• Don't Waste Your $$ 28 May, 2009
I can't make head nor tail of this book as it does not include footnotes...are we meant to think that she could read the minds of all of these long-dead stars and knew exactly how much or how little one enjoyed sex with one man vs. another, etc...also it is written poorly, with many rather damning claims simply stated in a sentence and then no more about it. I am not sure who this woman is or was, but this is not among the sort of books one should use for any sort of research...i wonder if she has been sued by any of the estates of these stars...i did not know you could simply write things that he or she allegedly said (or thought) and not be required to list a source...
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1VWR46R1TZN1C
• This Is Not What It Purports To Be 25 October, 2005
Jane Ellen Wayne's book "The Golden Girls of M-G-M" will not be everyone's cup of tea. The author seems to take serious advantage of the fact that most of these women are no longer around to protect their reputations, and thus this book is full of vulgar details more at home in the National Enquirer than a deceptively-stylish biography tribute book (which this purports to be). Though to be fair, Ms Wayne is somewhat sympathetic to each of the ladies she features here, but the book is riddled with typographical errors, misspelled names and wrong information. This book will probably never help Miss Wayne ascend the upper-echelon of biographers.
Covering as much dirt as possible, each actress gets a chapter (Jeanette MacDonald, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor). There is also a `Naughty-But-Nice' section in the back, comprising of mini-chapters devoted to Hedy Lamarr, Katharine Hepburn, Esther Williams, Debbie Reynolds and June Allyson.
There are so many wonderful biographies available on these ladies, but I'm afraid this isn't one of them.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ABH4G7TVI6G2T
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