I don’t read for pleasure as much as I used to. Once upon a time I read a book every day. Nowadays it’s too fatiguing especially considering how much else I read (for work—when I was working, news reports, editorials, opinion pieces, etc.).
Not long ago at my wife’s urging I read Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir. She’s very much into reading celebrity biographies. Over the last couple of months she’s read biographies and/or autobiographies of Mary Astor, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Kay Francis, Gloria Swanson, Myrna Loy, and Louise Brooks). Talk about degrees of separation! I’ve never met any of those people but I was acquainted with people who did. Three degrees, sometimes two.
The book consists of three sections. The first consists of brief bios of Jane Greer, Audrey Totter, Marie Windsor and actresses who created the great characters of film noir from 1945 to 1955 drawn from interviews with them over a number of years, sixteen in all. The second consists of updates on their later lives. The final section is some observations from Mr. Muller.
In case you’re not familiar with him Eddie Muller is one of the hosts on Turner Classic Movies. He’s a very insightful guy, much more insightful than you might gather from his remarks on TCM. I learned things of which I had been unaware not just about the actresses he interviewed but about Hollywood and current events in 1945-1955.
Highly recommended.
