Tyrone Power: The Last Idol, Guiles Fred Lawrence

Fred Lawrence Guiles presents the life story of one of the most deft comedians in silent pictures--up from Brooklyn, show biz, the engaging stammer, private then public Hearst inamorata, Hollywood, the Chaplin liaison, encounters with the famous, San Simeon, W.R.'s demise, the constant drinking (she hid her gin from Hearst in the water tank of the toilet), the quick marriage to Captain Horace Brown, finally her death from cancer in 1961. Now a deserving revival.

For most of her adult life she was a Star who dedicated herself entirely to her career. But since her death her luster has been tarnished. Here, at last, is a biography that sets the record straight. In her heyday Joan Crawford was probably the most imitated woman in the world. Magazine covers featured her face, and high school and college girls copied her makeup and clothing.

Born Lucille LeSuer in Kansas City, she spent her childhood on the edge of poverty. But an iron will developed in adolescence drove her to New York City and eventual work in a chorus line. Spotted by a Hollywood talent scout, she was soon on her way to the film capital. Four times married (to actors Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Franchot Tone, Philip Terry, and Pepsi-Cola executive Alfred Steele) and driven by a powerful sexuality, Joan Crawford lived her life on the razor's edge. Yet she was a woman of great generosity who cared deeply for her four adopted children, although her ideas of discipline were colored by her own harsh upbringing. Her professional career spanned more than forty years and included such classics as Grand Hotel, Mildred Pierce, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Her remarkable progression from silent films to talkies to television exemplified her ability to adapt, chameleonlike, to the ever-changing demands of the industry that in many senses invented her.

Fred Lawrence Guiles presents the life story of one of the most deft comedians in silent pictures--up from Brooklyn, show biz, the engaging stammer, private then public Hearst inamorata, Hollywood, the Chaplin liaison, encounters with the famous, San Simeon, W.R.'s demise, the constant drinking (she hid her gin from Hearst in the water tank of the toilet), the quick marriage to Captain Horace Brown, finally her death from cancer in 1961. Now a deserving revival.

This book finally sets the record straight.

Fred Guiles--whom Norman Mailer acknowledges as the chief source of fact about Marilyn--has written the life behind the legend. He reveals what really happened in the careening career of the pretty waif named Norma Jean Mortensen, who married the boy next door, became a model, an actress, movie star, married an incompatible legend named Joe DiMaggio, sought to improve the mind that came with her near-perfect body, married playwright Arthur Miller, lent herself to the Svengalilike ministrations of Paula and Lee Strasberg, became the mistress of John and then Robert Kennedy when they ran the country, kept camera crews and studios waiting--but not death, which took her under the most unusual circumstances by the age of thirty-six. A legend, by definition, is unaltered by fact, but the enthralled reader will find the revelations in this book no deterrent to the love of Marilyn Monroe by understanding at last what happened to the Queen of Need.

Among the people interviewed for this book are Arthur Miller; James E. Dougherty, her first husband; Frank Taylor, the producer of The Misfits; Lee Strasberg; Otto Preminger; Billy Wilder; Joshua Logan and John Huston.

From precarious beginnings in vaudeville with Charlie Chaplin, skinny Stan changed his name and rose to enjoy success and universal acclaim with his big-bellied partner Oliver Hardy. Yet beneath the exterior of the wistful comic whose sense of humor gave pleasure to so many millions was a man beset by financial worries, alcohol, and unhappy personal relationships that encompassed many dalliances and six marriages. This superb biography provides new insight into the supremely talented man behind the screen image and a fascinating panorama of show business in the first half of this century.