Jane Ellen Wayne

I love movies and learning about the goings on backstage. I got to read about Irving Thalberg and Louie B Mayer, two of the men behind the scenes. One, being the boy genius and the other, the puppetmaster. Did you know that MGM forced people to get married and divorced depending on whether it would positively affect their image? I can't believe the actors would let them have that kind of control over them. Some of the stories were quite heartbreaking actually.

I also discovered how MGM came to be and learned a lot about the studio business, contracts, how everyone got started.

The stars the book describes in detail are laid bare. It describes, sex, death, drugs, affairs, murder even. You'd be surprised how many people got away with murder in Hollywood, thanks to the studio. MGM even got a man to go to jail for Clark Gable after running down a woman in a drunk driving incident in 1933.

These stories really lowered my opinion of the actors discussed. Yes, I understand that they were living in a fairytale world, exposed to sex and drugs and most lost themselves in some kind of way. But at the same time, these people were the gods of the silver screen, people looked up to them and nowadays you would expect them to be role models. But what am I saying, the Hollywood of today is just as bad. The only difference being that a lot more is out in the open thanks to the papparazzi.

There were some things I learned that I would rather not have known. My image of Peter Lawford has been shattered, destroyed, stomped on and blown up forever. While I appreciated learning more about the actors but truth be told, I like the characters they play more than the actors themselves.

There were so many stories that started out well enough but ended in such a sad way. I feel bad for what these people had to go through because deep down they didn't seem like bad people.

If you want to read this book I would suggest throwing out your preconceived ideas about your favourite classic actors and steel yourself against what's to come.… (más)

When not reading, I enjoy classic movies from the 1930's-1950's on Turner or through Netflix. Watching these movie has made me very curious about some of these great actors and actresses. I have read quite a few actor and actress biographies in the past year as a result.

The Golden Girls of MGM offers a very candid synopsis of the lives of Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow, Elizabeth Taylor, and the the elusive Greta Garbo. As well as Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Hedy Lamarr. All were/are talented lovely women with very interesting lives.

The book offers quite a bit of intimate detail about the lost loves, marriages, divorces and backstage feuds of these actresses and some of their leading men as well. Some of this information I knew from reading other biographies, but there were some things that I did not know. Also described is the politics of movie production led by the great team of Louis B. Mayer and the nicknamed " Boy Wonder" his right hand man until his death in 1936 at the age of 37, Irving Thalberg.

Some may question the exposure of intimate details in a biography, but the author's forward contains the following as told to her by George Cukor " One cannot paint a true picture of a rose without the thorns." How true.

I enjoyed this book very much and it makes a very interesting read if one is at all a fan of classic movies.… (más)