Warren G. HarrisReseñas

Informative

Fantastic reading about a couple I've always loved. I only knew of them through reruns but still believe there is no better comedienne than Lucille Ball. What surprised me the most was learning how much business savvy Desi had. A very complete story.

Not all fun and games which you might believe from watching the I Love Lucy show. It follows their lives from childhood and through to their deaths. Lucy's upbringing in New York state. To Desi's privileged childhood in Cuba. Lucy's trying to break into show business and playing bit parts under a few different labels. Desi being taken under the wing of Xavier Cugat. Lots of good info but it seems that their married life was one problem after another generally at the hand of Desi, drinking and womanizing.

A nicely done bio sketch of the great love match that was Clark Gable and Carol Lombard. Delving into the background on each and proceeding onto how they met and the tragic outcome and aftermath.

It's hard to imagine a more suited pair than these two, primarily in light of their celebrity and how fragile that can be. The pain he suffered on her untimely death is quite sad. It also leaves us wondering how it would have been had they lived on together.

Lots of great stories, but needs editing for typo errors

This book contains many amazing facts and stories about both Lucy and Desi, from birth to death!

Covering Desi's privileged upbringing in Cuba to the political turmoil which brought his now-destitute family to the United States, his is a fascinating tale.

Equally fascinating is Lucy's life, her many attempts at fame from Broadway to Hollywood, and support of her family.

Receiving significant treatment as well are the stories of their tumultuous relationship, the Desilu studio, and their desire for children which almost never came true.

The main issue is a need for editing. Extraneous hyphens, gross misspellings, and formatting errors made for great distraction during reading. Otherwise, a wonderful book.

First read in 1974 and loved it.

Clark Gable is one of my favourite actors, although he died before I was born. Whenever I watch his films, I can always see just why he was so popular – women loved him, and men wanted to be like him. He was the ultimate in masculinity, and was not known as King of Hollywood for nothing.

This book is a fairly decent biography, which seems pretty evenhanded throughout. It does a good job of telling the facts – although there are a couple of errors regarding some of the films – so in a sense, it does do its job, but while I understand that it is impossible to include every single story from someone’s life, I felt that certain things were missed out, which should have been included. For instance, the book acknowledges that Gable wanted to boycott the premiere of Gone With The Wind, out of solidarity with his friend Victor Fleming, who was in dispute with producer David Selznick, over his (Fleming’s) directorial credit. However, it did not even give mention to the well documented fact that Gable was furious that the black members of the cast would not be able to sit with the white members of the cast at the premiere due to Atlanta’s segregation laws, and that he wanted to boycott the premiere for this reason. Such an occurrence reveals a lot about the measure of a man, and I was amazed that it wasn’t included.

However, the book does a fairly good job of describing Gable’s rise to movie star from very humble beginnings, and generally portrays him as an approachable and agreeable man, easy to work with, and courteous and kind by nature. It goes into detail about his five marriages – one can’t help but wonder what would have happened had his very happy marriage to actress Carole Lombard not have been cut tragically short by her death in a plane crash.

I would recommend the book to fellow Gable fans – it might not be the most comprehensive biography available, but it’s certainly readable, and respectful without being fawning.½

GREAT CONDITION