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Hurray for Hollywood
REVIEWS BY PAT H. BROESKE
Glamorous Garbo
By Scott Reisfield Rizzoli, $50 256 pages ISBN 0847827240
By Mark A. Vieira Abrams, $50 288 pages ISBN 081095897X
Consider: though her father fought for the Union (with the Tennessee 12th U.S. Colored Infantry), as a minstrel show performer (influenced by the great Bert Williams), McDaniel parodied a Mammy character. She was 38 and had been twice married when she made her way to Southern California. Settling in South Central L.A., she worked as a film extra for $7.50 a day. It was 1931 and Hollywood's most popular black performer was the shuffling Stepin Fetchit. A career turning point came with an 11-day job on a Will Rogers film. By 1937, McDaniel was making more than a dozen films annually. Still, she was relegated to the roles of maids/companions. But the avid follower of positive thinker Norman Vincent Peale hunkered on. With its romanticized depiction of the Old South, Gone With the Wind created firestorms long before it came to the screen. While the NAACP was fuming, McDaniel bought and read the book—and campaigned for the part of Mammy. She wound up infusing the character with gutsy bossiness as well as devotion. She wasn't invited to the Atlanta premiere, but scored a coup by winning an Oscar as best supporting actress. Alas, what followed were offers to again portray maids, as well as a prolonged political battle with members of the Screen Actors Guild and the NAACP. As McDaniel would later surmise, "there's only 18 inches between a pat on the back and a kick in the seat of the pants."
By Jill Watts Amistad, $27.95 368 pages ISBN 0060514906
As for coming out of the closet: by his own admission, Hunter long dodged and even lied about his sexual orientation. (In my own 1985 interview with Hunter, he not only said he was straight, but also claimed he'd like a date with then-hot TV leading lady Linda Evans.) So why now? Figure, at age 74, it's a good career move.
By Hunter and Eddie Muller Algonquin, $24.95 408 pages ISBN 1565124669
Along with some soul-searching about their split ("As sentimental as it sounds, we both had the hand of God on us until even He said, 'Enough!'"), Lewis frankly admits to his post-Dino demons, especially his addiction to Percodan. Sadly, he and Martin never did reteam professionally.
By Jerry Lewis Doubleday, $26.95 352 pages ISBN 0767920864 When not writing about movies, Los Angeles-based journalist Pat H. Broeske likes to watch them.
Songs in our hearts REVIEWS BY RON WYNN and PAT H. BROESKE
By Ken Bloom Black Dog & Leventhal 320 pages, $34.95 ISBN 1579124488
By Darcie Denkert Watson-Guptill 352 pages, $45 ISBN 0823077748
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Give them the stars this holiday season
From 1926 to 1941, Sweden's famed export made 24 Hollywood films, all of which are detailed in Mark A. Vieira's Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy. Featuring 250 photos, many never before seen (including an unretouched portrait of Garbo at 36), the book utilizes newly available MGM documents and articles of the day to examine the career that enshrined Hollywood's ultimate woman of mystery.
Leading lady
Keeping Tab
Battling demons and Dino
Ken Bloom's new volume The American Songbook: The Singers, The Songwriters & The Songs provides thoughtful analysis and vital perspective on the sounds and compositions from the era before Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis. Bloom, who is a respected authority on the pre-rock period, carefully distinguishes between the many idioms that emerged, from the marches and minstrel tunes of the late 1800s to the ragtime, boogie-woogie, barrelhouse piano, Broadway musicals and big bands of the '20s, '30s and early '40s.
While profiling key creative figures (George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) and vocalists (Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett), Bloom also shows how elements of blues and jazz influenced songwriters and performers not always identified with these styles, including Irving Berlin and Dinah Shore. He weaves in valuable side essays on related topics, such as war songs and holiday tunes, and spotlights the development of the music publishing industry and the role of song pluggers. The 600 photographs in the book add a stunning visual complement to the text. The American Songbook qualifies as the finest book currently available on the great standards and show tunes.
Another new book reminds us that Broadway and Hollywood have been carrying on an affair, set to music, since the 1920s. A Fine Romance: Hollywood/Broadway is a lovingly produced celebration of the relationship that became a marriage. Darcie Denkert makes her case by devoting chapters to productions such as "West Side Story," "My Fair Lady," "Cabaret" and "Chicago," tracing the various transformations from stage to screen. Case in point: "Chicago," based on the sensational Jazz Murders of 1924, was first a 1926 play and then a silent film, and was remade in 1942. Jump to the '60s, and Bob Fosse's search for a production to feature Gwen Verdon. Thus, the Broadway musical. And finally, the Oscar-winning film of 2002.