Hollywood Diva: A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald |
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Jeanette MacDonald, the movie musical's first superstar, was an American original whose onscreen radiance mirrored a beguiling real-life personality. Based in large part on the author's exclusive access to MacDonald's private papers, including her unpublished memoir, this vivid, often touching biography transports us to a time when lavish musical films were major cultural events and a worldwide public eagerly awaited each new chance to fall under the singer's spell. Edward Baron Turk shows how MacDonald brilliantly earned her Hollywood nickname of "Iron Butterfly," and why she deserves a privileged position in the history of music and motion pictures. What made MacDonald a woman for our times, readers will discover, was her uncommon courage: Onscreen, the actress portrayed strong charcters in pursuit of deep emotional fulfillment, often in defiance of social orthodoxy, while offscreen she personified energy, discipline, and practical intellect. Drawing on interviews with individuals who knew her and on MacDonald's own words, Turk brings to life the intricate relations between the star and her legendary costars Maurice Chevalier, Clark Gable, and, above all, baritone Nelson Eddy. He reveals the deep crushes she inspired in movie giants Ernst Lubitsch and Louis B. Mayer and the extraordinary love story she shared with her husband of twenty- seven years, actor Gene Raymond. More than simply another star biography, however, this is a chronicle of American music from 1920s Broadway to 1960s television, in which Turk details MacDonald's fearless efforts to break down distinctions between High Art and mass-consumed entertainment. Hollywood Diva will attract fans of opera and concert music as much as enthusiasts of the great Hollywood musicals. It is first-rate cultural and film history.
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Customer Reviews:
• Hollywood's Golden Diva
30 November, 2006
I so much enjoyed reading about Jeannette McDonald. The author did an outstanding job with the research. She presented this talented actress and singer in such a perfect light-she talked about her hard working fund raising for the troops and her concert tours. What a great performer. I would have loved to have been able to see her live in concert!
- Amazon Customer Review
• Well Researched Truth
09 November, 2009
This is a wonderful book, well researched and documented, about the greatest star ever to grace the Silver Screen. It portrays her as human, determined, disciplined and loving. If you want the real story of Jeanette MacDonald, read this and not the trashy fiction put out by another author who has created a real 'cash cow' with her lies about Jeanette. And to all of that author's fans, who want so desperately to believe in a doomed love affair, 'Wake up and smell the coffee!' This woman does not admire Jeanette or Nelson nor does she respect them. They are simply her meal ticket and she is eating quite well!
- Amazon Customer Review
• Valuable, Really, If You Read It With Two Other Books!
30 May, 2008
I gave this book three stars, but that's only if you read it along with Sharon Rich's "Sweethearts" and Elizabeth Clare Prophet's "Soul Mates and Twin Flames". Edward Baron Turk has written a detailed, readable bio of Jeanette, but you must read Sharon Rich's book to get the scoop on Jeanette's relationship with Nelson Eddy, as well as, it certainly seems to me, a much more accurate depiction of her relationship with the man she married, Gene Raymond. Elizabeth Clare Prophet's book tells what Jeanette and Nelson realized -- that they, Jeanette and Nelson, are twin flames (although they didn't quite use that phrase, so it seems), destined to be in love forever. Reading those two books (along with "Hollywood Diva") will give you a wonderful, sweet yet poignant, description of the dramas that twin flames in embodiment on earth might go through. The real, fulfilled love is in the ascended realms; Elizabeth Clare Prophet is, I do believe, the planetary expert thereon. The main thrust of her extensive teachings is how to get there!
- Amazon Customer Review
• A First Rate Biography
22 March, 2006
This was a biography that was hard to put down. Jeanette MacDonald lived an incredibly rich life. She came into her own during a period of time that I have always found fasinating. Beginning her career on the New York stage, she eventually found her way to Hollywood. You definetely got the impression that while Miss. MacDonald treasured her talant and her career, that her personal life was just as important to her. She had a supportive family and eventually a solid marriage to actor Gene Raymond that endured. I found that she had a wonderful sense of humor and a great talent. It made me go out and rent some of her earlier films, the ones she did with the great director, Ernest Lubitsch. Before all of those sugary musicals of the mid 1930's, our Jeanette was quite the coquette! Before the horrible Hay's code was inforced, Jeanette was able to portray some deliously decadent women on film. I loved this book.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Written As A Love Story To Jm
12 July, 2009
the book is surely accurate and historically correct and extremely detailed as to star's career and early life, etc. sometimes too detailed...but it is truly a book as a love letter to Jeanette MacDonald. It downplays or excuses any controversy she may have created by her tempers, etc...everything is fine as long as she does it. So as long as you are a diehard fan you will enjoy this well-written book.
- Amazon Customer Review
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