I just finished 2009's "Personal Biography" and it was really good; but weird.
The dust jacket quotes Jack Nicholson as saying "Charlotte Chandler has a tape recorder in her head."
Well, I hope Jack wasn't looking too closely and that she actually had a tape recorder with her because there are pages and pages of what appear to be direct quotes.
I feel like I've met Mae West.
Myra Breckinridge continues to fascinate me; having been introduced before it would be accepted- like now for instance in which LBTQXYZ is a badge of honor.
The name sounds like a Thomas Hardy novel to me and I was familiar with it- the name- long before I had any idea what it is about. To me, it's part of that Rosemary's Baby, Exorcist crap- trying to get the bad stuff and make it mainstream.
And I notice how The Forces were present throughout Mae's life.
I also note that no one had a bad thing to say about her. I wonder if that's the case with all of Charlotte Chandler's work. I can't imagine the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford books being like this.
Mae seems to have had a thought process clear of anxiety and depression and it seems like she did this for herself intentionally, as if she understood cognitive therapy (David Burns- Feeling Good, N V Peale- Power of Positive Thinking, The Secret, etc.) long before anybody wrote about these things.
She was just practical- downright determined and made it happen- unless of course the Forces wanted to use her and took advantage of the poor soul.
Starting a biography of Sammy Davis Jr. I am struck by the stated fact that he dabbled in devil worship. The transition from Christian culture to secular culture influenced by entertainment in the second half of the twentieth century is amazingly interesting; like all evil.
ReplyDeleteHe even had one eye, didn't he?
I guess I'll know in a few days.
I finished the biography of Sammy Davis Jr. awhile ago. The author really liked Sammy's white wife- not so much other people in his life.
ReplyDeleteI wondered how amazingly long Sammy stayed with the group- and didn't go out on his own.
The devil worship stuff was touched upon and basically dismissed as S & M. I don't dismiss S & M. The man had a problem. And he was part of a cultural shift that he couldn't have seen coming.
He and Mae West were part of that. Now I'm starting learning about Frank to get more of that information.
Sammy seemed to have tried to get along with everybody by getting along with everybody. It's a shame people judged him for not disliking the wrong people. Isn't it possible that someone could work with Nixon and even like Nixon- but not support his policies- or not support all of his policies. The world is too polarized. Why not be friendly with Nixon to help the man have better politics? It seems like a no-brainer to me.
The author seems to have done a good job comparing the autobiographies with contrasting memories in interviews.
Gonna Do Great Things: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.
by Gary Fishgall