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Post by dreamer on Nov 2, 2006 15:45:53 GMT -5
The book Marlene Dietrich by her Daughter: Maria Riva is awesome, it is quit interesting to read - this book contains history as well - which I seldom have meat in a biography - in fact I enjoyed the reading. Richard, please do tell what you think of it as you finish  Has anybody read the Garbo book: The Devine Garbo by Frederick Sands & Sven Brorman |
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Post by Cate on Nov 4, 2006 12:25:26 GMT -5
I think I started reading the book by Maria Riva -- didn't she have some sort of angst against her? Because she was neglectful and whatnot? I was thinking it was a biography kind of like Mommie Dearest but not to those extremes...
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Post by Richard on Nov 4, 2006 12:31:14 GMT -5
From what I've read it's the complete opposite -- supposedly one of the best biographies ever written.
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Post by lionessinwinter on Nov 14, 2006 22:59:20 GMT -5
I am reading two books right now the Eileen Considine-Meara book about Kate and also the book by William Mann. Both of them are very good in their own respective ways though I have to say I like At Home with Kate much better it seems much warmer and more intimate and not out to be scandal causing.
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Post by Shaun on Nov 14, 2006 23:34:41 GMT -5
I bought the new book about Jimmy Stewart so I'll be starting that one soon.
Last night I dreamt that I bought the Mann book. Lioness--or anyone else--is there anything remotely redeemable about the book?
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Post by lionessinwinter on Nov 15, 2006 9:26:35 GMT -5
So far I can't seem to find anything "redeeming" about it so much as it is a new book about Kate and there are some new tidbits in it not all the rehashed things we have heard and read. The whole theory at least from what I can gather is to dispel the "legend" of Kate as was put out there by she herself and by the media. I may have a different opinion of it when I finish it !
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Post by Sherry on Nov 16, 2006 1:20:32 GMT -5
I bought the new book about Jimmy Stewart so I'll be starting that one soon. Last night I dreamt that I bought the Mann book. Lioness--or anyone else--is there anything remotely redeemable about the book? In regard to the Mann book -- no, there is nothing redeeming about it. The book is filled with assumption and innuendo and quotes taken out of context and spin. The verbiage utllized has the sole purpose of making Kate look like a liar and a fraud. Mann does not trust the reader to come to his own conclusions so he basically bludgeons you to see it his way by slanting the material. The agenda of Mann is to destroy what he deems the "myth" of Katharine Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. He wants the reader to believe that Kate did everything with an eye to her legend. He even has her doing it back in the 30's when she didn't know if she was going to make it as an actor, let alone become a legend. Every story Kate told about her family, he flips or gives a negative spin. She praised her parents her entire life, he tries to tear them down. Every woman friend of Kate's is painted with the gay brush, every man with whom she has a relationship -- except Leland Hayward -- is accused of being gay or having homosexual inclinations. I have gone back and checked some of his source material -- books, interviews, newspapers articles and found ex. of words said by someone in one context and used by Mann in an entirely different manner. This is an ugly book. Don't waste your time or your money. It's repugnant to hear him say that he admires Kate and thinks his book makes her even more admirable. That, too, is spin because if he had an iota of respect or admiration for Kate, he would not have written a book that tears her apart -- for what -- so that he can make a few bucks off of a dead man and woman who did nothing more than give audiences a tremendous amount of pleasure with great performances. |
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Post by Shaun on Nov 20, 2006 12:26:04 GMT -5
Jimmy Stewart by Marc Eliot. This is the first book about Stewart I've read so I have nothing to compare it to, but so far I'm loving it. The funniest part: in the movie he did just before Philadelphia Story, he was too skinny and nonmuscular and couldn't lift and carry Margaret Sullavan in a scene! They had to rig up a pulley system to make it look like he was carrying her. God I would have died from embarrassment! So how did he carry Kate in that one scene in the Philly Story?
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Post by Richard on Nov 20, 2006 13:37:52 GMT -5
Me thinks Kate was much lighter than Margaret Sullavan.
I'm still reading my Dietrich book and I'm loving it so far. I'm at the part where Marlene comes to Hollywood in the early thirties and have learned that Marlene thinks Claudette Colbert is ugly, Carole Lombard too palsy, Jean Harlow low-class, Norma Shearer a dead fish, and a dislike for Chaplin.
Do you know what I sorta hate about reading a biography about a Hollywood actress? They tend to, no, they always talk about their costumes. And Marlene talks a lot about hers. When it comes to women's fashion (and probably men's as well) I'm totally clueless. It makes for a very aching read trying to understand what these people are talking about.
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Post by dreamer on Nov 20, 2006 15:01:03 GMT -5
Hi Richard,
then you have some reading ahead of you - find the book very good though - me gets tiered from that dress changing ;D - Wait until you come to the part, when Maria is describing how MD did screw herself into the corset - oh man - slap on my fingers for saying so. She did seem very jalous with other female stars if they were popular; Loretta Young. Seriously, it is one of the best written biographies I have ever read - and a loving one (nothing like Mummie Dearest) - please do tell when you are through with it. Would like your opinion on it !
I'm reading Katharine Hepburn by Michael Freedland right now - it's not filed with big news (written in 84) but there are still some nice stories even some unknown for me - like behind the stories. And what makes me like the author is, he is respectful and entertaining.
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Post by Shaun on Nov 20, 2006 16:55:44 GMT -5
I've read the chapter on the Philadelphia Story now. I knew the studios didn't want to touch Kate with ten foot pole at the time but I didn't know some studios wanted it for Bette Davis, Crawford, or Ann Sheridan. Sorry love you all--well only Davis really--but none of them could have played Tracy Lord as well as Kate did. Didn't know that Cary really wanted to play Connor either. He wanted very much to win an Oscar and knew that role would get it for him. Only Kate and Cukor talked him out of it. Stewart, as we know it, won that year. Poor Cary Grant.
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Post by gypsygem81 on Nov 21, 2006 12:56:41 GMT -5
No one could have played Tracy Lord like Kath did, but I think maybe Bette Davies could have given it a fair stab.
I'm reading E.M. Forster's Maurice at the moment. It's ok. I got about half way through and then got too busy for reading with preparing for a friend's wedding and lost momentum. I must get back into it though.
Love Gem
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Post by Shaun on Nov 21, 2006 14:08:41 GMT -5
If Kate didn't make it, Bette probably would have been good. That woman could have played ANYTHING. But I'll never be able to picture anyone in it but Hepburn.
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Post by Richard on Nov 29, 2006 17:31:29 GMT -5
Dreamer,
I'm at the year 1933-34, Dietrich had just returned from Paris and is already in production for The Scarlett Empress. She seems to be con-America, which can get a bit irritating sometimes. But, I guess, once a foreigner always a foreigner, right? She loves Europe immensely and her relationship with The Child is amazing; they're inseparable! I really hated the part where Dietrich completely blows her top and yells at the studio teacher for trying to teach The Child the American alphabet. That was an ugly moment.
I'm really glad I'm through with the Paris bit; too much clothes talk! But something tells me to get prepared yet again.
Still have much more reading ahead...
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Post by dreamer on Nov 29, 2006 18:00:03 GMT -5
Dreamer, I'm at the year 1933-34, Dietrich had just returned from Paris and is already in production for The Scarlett Empress. She seems to be con-America, which can get a bit irritating sometimes. But, I guess, once a foreigner always a foreigner, right? She loves Europe immensely and her relationship with The Child is amazing; they're inseparable! I really hated the part where Dietrich completely blows her top and yells at the studio teacher for trying to teach The Child the American alphabet. That was an ugly moment. I'm really glad I'm through with the Paris bit; too much clothes talk! But something tells me to get prepared yet again. Still have much more reading ahead... Hi Richard - to your question once a foreigner always a foreigner - for my self I can't agree - have lived in several countries in Europe - it is not a question what one self is feeling but how you are being met. MD is there very different - many were at that time. They believed US were too modern. To the alphabet thing: She was maybe afraid the child would loose her own language, which is rubbish. Can remember that at exactly the same part - I did get upset with her as well. Have you thought of jealousy (just a bit)? Don't be too glad there will come more clothes- she lived for clothed - they gave her the image. You might be able to help friends by dressing up when you close the book - hi hi ;D But don't dispare - it is truly a wunderful book |
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Just stumbled upon this interesting board.. Does anyone have any video interviews with KH?? Or maybe transcripts of them? I´ve been especially looking for the full version of the famous Cavett one forever and ever... 