Biography Books

THIS IS ANOTHER GOOD BOOK BY JAMES ROBERT PARRISH. THIS IS ABOUT THE BIGGEST SPILTS IN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY. AMONG THEM ARE BEN AND JLO, JOE AND MARILYN AND MIA AND WOODY. HE GIVES US A BRIEF BIO OF EACH PERSON AND HOW THEY MET. FROM THERE WE ARE TOLD WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE TOGETHER AND WHY EACH COUPLE SEPARATED OR DIVORCED. THEN WE ARE TOLD WHAT HAPPEND TO EACH PERSON AFTER THE BREAKUP. I LIKED THIS BOOK AND IT IS BOTH INTERESTING AND FUN. I HAVE READ SEVERAL OF HIS BOOKS AND LIKED THEM ALL. I RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL GOSSIP AND NOSEY PEOPLE. (LIKE MYSELF)

If you're weary of the stream of pabulum from the glossy tabloids, you need to get a couple of James Parish's books on the wilder and seamier side of Hollywood life as a counteragent. He's been doing this for close to four decades now, with dozens and dozens of books to his credit (as of this writing, I'm expecting two of his compendia on actresses in the mail and am making arrangements to get four more), and his experience and close attention to research show through here and in the other books in his current series (e.g., The Hollywood Book of Death, The Hollywood Book of Scandals). He avoids the extremes, as other researchers have mentioned, of either glamorizing his subjects to excess or painting them in villainously black hues, but instead presents them, sympathetically but truthfully, in their all-too-human complexity. I've started looking for the name James Robert Parish on a Hollywood book when I want the facts (not to mention a good selection of pictures - every story in this book is illustrated with at least one nice B&W photo, many of them not often seen elsewhere), and you should too.

James Robert Parish, the chronicler of all things Hollywood, turns his writing skill to "breakups Hollywood-style" in The Hollywood Book of Breakups. As with all of Parish's books, it's a fun read. His introduction begins with a quote from Sandra Zober Nimoy, Leonard's ex-wife, and her first sentence is a doozie: "It's a pretty mean town." Sad, but true. You'll recognize all the names in the book, and it's likely you might think you know all the stories of the breakups written about here. I doubt it, though. Parish always manages to spring a surprise or two. For example, did you know that Sonny Bono was once married to Susie Coelho, host of HGTV's Landscaper's Challenge? His format for each breakup is quite nice. It begins with general information, then a SHE section, a HE section, and THEY section, and concludes with an AFTERWARD. Lots of pertinent information - and juicy, truthful gossip - in every section. Parish is a good writer, and his words flow along seamlessly, making the book both fun, and easy to read. No only do I recommend the book for reading, it makes an excellent gift for anyone who like film stars or is addicted to "what went on behind the scenes" gossip.

James Robert Parish has always had the ability to cut right through the froo-froo icing and get right to cake. That's why so many of his books are on my shelf. With this one, I have to start a new shelf. He packs in a lot of information: mini bios of all the players, what brought them together and the circumstances that drove them apart. He brings each era alive, mentioning timely rumors and headlines, but delivers only the facts, dispelling media speculation in exchange for - get this - the real story! And the variety of couples, from Stanwyck and Taylor, Burton and Taylor, Brad and Jen or Liza and David Gest represents 75 years of Tinsletown romance gone awry.

I, too, write books about Hollywood (Dishing Hollywood, Hollywood Haunted). Our books are often paired; I am very complemented by that because James Parish is really great at what he does.

What a guilty pleasure! Concisely written, carefully researched, The Hollywood Book of Breakups is a speed read of celebrity couplings gone wrong. Parish doesn't glamorize or trash his subjects, he makes the stars seem all too human. A fresh take on Hollywood divorce, and a crash course in the many, many ways that relationships can burn up and flame out.

I recently read Household Baggage - The Moving Life of a Solider's Wife by Marna A. Krajeski and I must say that I really loved it!

The book is a collection of short stories about her different experiances in the Army. I really related to this author- she is brutally honest and wrote about feelings that I myself have had, but were afraid to share. She made me realized that I am a normal Army wife with normal feelings, even if I don't have the smile slapped on my face every second of every day.

The book is divided into sections such as "Military" and "Moving" with short stories relating to each. The book is very well orgainized and every little story had a point. Her writing is very clever and I laughed through the whole thing! :) But don't think there isn't a serious side to the book. The story "It takes a long time to grow an old friend" was especially touching and I really related to this one. It was among my favorites in the book as I can really relate to the difficulty finding true friends as an Army wife moving around so much.

I really reccomend this book to all Army wives. It was a nice escape from books on 'more serious' subject matter, I guess I could say. It was lighthearted and a fast read. It even came complete with a Military Word glossary for all you newbies out there! :) I also like that this was "Army specific" and not just "Military generalized" as I have been finding these kinds of books hard to come by.

Marna Krajeski is living my life! Or maybe I'm living hers. No matter -- she got it right.

This is a book that now stays permanently on my nightstand. I've probably read it completely three or four times, but I only read it straight through the first time. Now I just pick it up and read a chapter or two or three or four, selected at random, and skipping about through the book. It's perfect for that and I never tire of it. This one is light and easy and funny and fun; I recommend it.

Krajeski has distilled the essence of life as a military wife into a tasty brew of moving and witty essays. It is just such stories that every woman "married to the military" craves to hear. Not only do the narratives reassure us that we're not alone in our feelings, they also point the way to survival. Those with no experience of the military will enjoy a great read and gain a new understanding of why and how so many serve our nation.

I laughed, I cried and I read the entire book straight through!

As I began to read the Song of a Military Wife, the tears and bursts of laughter began and didn't stop. With 13 years of the Army style under my belt, I could easily identify with nearly every page. As I continued to read, I struggled to put the book down to take much needed bathroom breaks and tend to my 2 and 4 year old children. I think I emptied a new box of tissue and I have vowed to send all of my "Forever Friends" copies of this book.

Kudos to my husband for sending me this book at just the right time. He's been away for almost 6 months, and I'm sure he sensed that the rope I've been hanging onto was beginning to fray. The author's sense of humor is incredible. She shared so much of her personal life throughout the book, which reminded me that we, Army Wives, are all in this together. We all make countless sacrifices in support of our soldier and the best coping mechanism for the trials we encounter is usually laughter!

Reading this book is like reading your own journal entries about your military life (well, at least those entries you would have made if you'd ever had the time). You'll laugh out loud at some, tear up at others, and simply find yourself nodding and saying, "I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who feels that way" as you read these honest vignettes of military life. From an essay on that hardest aspect of moving (finding a good hairdresser!) to one on the joys (and necessity) of consignment/yard sale shopping (especially for military ball gowns) to another on all-day military medical appointment experiences, Marna's captured our world. Her essay on both her husband and herself getting ready for a military ball is priceless...would love to see that exact thing in a future "Army Wives" tv show episode...complete with the military members scrambling to find all the uniform accouterments to the "raisin on her butt" image.
At the same time that Marna highlights many of the joys of military life, she doesn't sugarcoat the challenges. She's upfront and open about the things we all complain about. If you are a military spouse...you'll love this book. If you aren't connected to the military, this will give you some insights into how we live. Kathie Hightower, coauthor of Help! I'm a Military Spouse -- I Get a Life Too!

This series of books is an outstanding history of the reorganization of Soka Gakkai International after World War II in Japan. It provides a great insight into the rebuilding of Japan, and the struggle many endured to rebuild the SGI and their lives. Recommend to all SGI members.

This book (series) chronicles the history of the Nichiren Buddhist laity, Soka Gakkai,from 1960 to the present. It's a collection of the personal struggles and victories of the pioneers of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism in America. No matter how many times I read it, it never fails to inspire me with hope and courage. The SGI motto "No matter what, never give up!" echos from every page.

As a foreigner living in a foreign land, I can understand from my own life how the Japanese war brides who introduced Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism to the USA felt. President Ikeda gave them four tasks to perform and they were:

1.) learn to speak English 2.) learn to drive a car 3.) buy a car 4.) become US citizens.

Impossible dreams for these women. By taking US citizenship they'd lose their Japanese citizenship and could never go home. English was very difficult to learn. Buying a car for a newly wed military couple, often with young children, was also seemingly out of reach.

Though their deep faith they made they impossible possible. Please do read the entire series. It will become one of your favorites as it has become mine.

As a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and a relatively new member of the Soka Gakkai International, this book was a great surprise to me. I knew that the book was a history of how the Soka Gakkai was reinvigorated by Josei Toda after WWII. But I had no idea that the struggle was so great. I am learning every day more about Buddhism by reading how the characters in the books use their faith to overcome their own struggles (karma) and become enlightened people. Maybe the expert on snake oil does not practice Buddhism so the story does not make much sense. I look forward to reading "The New Human Revolution."

As a novel in which the protagonist, Josei Toda, discovers a deeper meaning to Buddhism while imprisoned by a militarist government during WWII may not connect with every reader. I read this novel approx. 30 years ago as I was learning about Buddhist practice and philosophy. It provided an excellent medium through which I learned the application of Buddhism in a practical setting, rather than simply as abstract concepts. I have continued my Buddhist practice and this novel was a key to keeping focused on the primary goal of enlightenment, a.k.a Human Revolution. Why another reviewer dismisses this as "snake oil" is odd. This Buddhism is a simple practice which requires no belief to undertake. An interested party, as I was, may begin without spending a penny, as I did. It is certainly not focused on trying people to spend large sums on ever continuing seminars and such. This school of Buddhism does alarm some people, as the novel illustrates, because other "mass movements" of the time were facist and not humanist. Furthermore, any new movement is seen as a threat to established institiutions. The Soka Gakkai, which this novel explores, is now recognized by a plethora of peace organizations as a beneficent organization.

The concept of human revolution is based on the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin, that enables people to elevate their life conditions to the highest through their buddhist practice, thus revolutionize them from within.

But, the true greatness of the Daishonin's Buddhism lies in making the practice possible and available to anybody, and through giving each member of the world the opportunity to continuously change him/herself for the better, the world peace can be achieved. The idea itself is revolutionary, I believe, that it goes totally the opposite of what has been done historically to achieve peace, which is to make the change at the top to force the changes downward to people (in many cases with lots of sacrificing and suffering).

The SGI, whose president is the author of The Human Revolution and The New Human Revolution series, practices the Daishonin's Buddhism; therefore, its ideal is to make each individual happy and to promote peace throughout the world. The New Human Revolution can be read in many ways, but I would recommend to pay a little more attention, when you read it, to the fact that the Buddhist ideal is put into practice and actually happening.

As a SGI member, I am proud to be a part of this endeavor and recommend anybody to check it out.

Enjoyed reading about the life of Clayton Moore, The Lone Ranger. Since receiving it I am now in my 3rd reading of it. It seems everytime I find someting new and interesting.

I wish he was alive so I could personally talk with him about his adventure doing The Lone Ranger. May his spirit always remain in the hearts of all Americans...

You can find out more information about Clayton Moore and The Lone Ranger fan club at www.lonerangerfanclub.com/jr

Taylor Trade Publishing presents "I WAS THAT MASKED MAN" (Paperback) - by Clayton Moore and Frank Thompson --- Clayton Moore was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character The Lone Ranger --- Moore was a circus acrobat as a boy, then later enjoyed a successful career as a John Robert Powers model. Moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he began working as a stunt man and bit player between modeling jobs --- He was an occasional player in B-Westerns and Republic Studio cliffhangers, ultimately starring in more such films than serial hero Buster Crabbe --- His big break came in 1949, when George Trendle spotted him in "Ghost of Zorro" --- As producer of the radio show and creator of "The Lone Ranger" character along with writer Fran Striker, Trendle was about to launch the masked man in the new medium of television --- Moore was cast on sight.

In keeping with the nature of the Ranger character, Moore chose to protect the Ranger's identity at all times and is perhaps the only actor whose full face is largely unknown to the public. It was never shown in the TV series, although occasionally he would don a disguise and affect an accent, revealing the upper half of his face in the process. However, there is no shortage of photos of Moore unmasked, including many in his autobiography. His many fans, however, could easily recognize him by his distinctive voice --- (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

TABLE OF CONTENTS: (Title and Page Numbers)
Foreword by Leonard Maltin - ix
Preface by Frank Thompson - xi
Introduction by Frank Thompson - 1
1. Birth of a Ranger - 13
2. A Cowboy Actor in the Big Apple- 35
3. Hollywood - 43
4. Republic Pictures - 61
5. In the Army Now - 71
6. King of the B's - 79
7. Hi Yo Silver, Awayy! - 111
8. Back to the Big Screen - 131
9. Jay Silverheels - 143
10.The Lone Ranger Rides Again! - 151
11.England and a New Daughter - 185
12.Adventures on Television - 195
13.You Don't Pull the Mask Off the Ol' Lone Ranger - 203
14.The Adventures of Clayton Moore - 221
15.Who is That Masked Man? - 231
appendix - 243
Index - 257

BIOS:
1. Clayton Moore
Date of Birth: 14 September 1914 - Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death: 28 December 1999 - Los Angeles, California

Moore often was quoted as saying he had "fallen in love with the Lone Ranger character" and strove in his personal life to take The Lone Ranger Creed to heart. This, coupled with his public fight to retain the right to wear the mask, ultimately elevated him in the public's eyes to an American folk icon --- In this regard, he was much like another cowboy star, William Boyd, who nurtured the Hopalong Cassidy character --- Moore was so identified with the masked man that he is the only person on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as of 2006, to have his character's name along with his on the star, which reads, "Clayton Moore -- The Lone Ranger" --- He was inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame in 1982 and in 1990 was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

THE LONE RANGER CREED - I Believe that to have a friend, a man must be one --- That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world -- That God put the firewood there but that every man must gather and light it himself in being prepared physically, mentally and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right --- That a man should make the most of what equipment he has --- That `This government of the people, by the people and for the people' shall live always --- That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number --- That sooner or later .. somewhere .. somehow .. we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken --- That all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever --- In my Creator, my country, my fellow man.

Check out a new book from Empire Publishing - "GENE AUTRY WESTERNS" (Hardcover) - by author Boyd Magers, like no other book on Gene Autry --- all of Gene's Mascot, Republic and Columbia westerns included, as well as his half-hour TV Episodes --- each segment contains the release date on each film ... major production credits ... complete cast (including character played) ... all songs included, songwriter and who performed them in the film ... running time of each film ... dates of the filming ... bios on the cast and major players (Smiley, Pat Buttram, Cass County Boys, Herbert J. Yates, directors, leading ladies, songwriters and various heavies, etc.) ... locations that were used ... budgets and negative cost ... stunt people involved ... analysis and synopsis on each film ... notes and comments (including film and cast background info, salaries paid, working titles, etc) ... comments from Gene and many other cast members on each film ... theater exhibitors comments at the time of the films release ...this tribute was written from the heart and it shows.

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc) and Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- More than just a tribute to the role Clayton Moore made famous, this book is Moore's personal memoir, told with condor and sincerity -- the engaging story of the life he strove to live according to the ideals he represented to millions of Americans, please stand up and take a bow --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Pages: 280 ~ Taylor Trade Publishing ~ (4/25/1998)

This man, Clayton Moore WAS the Lone Ranger. I can say no more.

I was a bigger fan of the Lone Ranger on radio than TV, but only because I was away in school most of the years it was on the tube and missed a great deal. That is something I am trying to make up as I collect DVDs and is why I bought this book. I have also known personally two who worked with Clayton Moore in the past, serial queen Kay Aldridge and former rodeo star Beverly McDermott. Everything they said about this man is echoed in the book. A very honest upright straight shooter. I am also impressed by his arguments as to why a star should set an example. So different in Hollyweird today. We need actors and actresses today who have the high moral standards this man has shown. May God bless him always, here and in Heaven.

An in depth history of Clayton Moore. A very informative perpective of a bye-gone age in Hollywood. I really enjoyed this book. A must read for Lone Ranger and TV western fans.

I have never heard a piece of music by composer Jan Swafford, but if he composes as well as he writes, his music should be stimulating indeed. Some reviewers have called this book hard to put down, a page-turner. I found it so. Part of its interest lies in Brahms himself; any book that purports to shed even a bit of light on so enigmatic a figure would cause one to turn pages in hopes of illumination. But I can imagine, too, a very dull book about Brahms. Well, there are few dull pages among the 600+ in Swafford's biography. As is now de rigueur in good modern historical writing, Swafford creates a judicious blend of primary-source material and commentary thereon, along with a rich store of anecdotes told in his own fine, writerly voice.

Musical analysis is treated in such a way that the amateur musician, and even the musically challenged, will not be put off. In all cases, Swafford demonstrates well one of his chief theses--that Brahms was the most Janus-like of the great nineteenth century composers. He looked back all the way to Renaissance masters, assimilating their contrapuntal styles in ways beyond anything that Beethoven, Mendelssohn, or Schumann had done before him. Yet he so thoroughly anticipated the ambiguity of tonality and rhythm in twentieth-century music that Schoenberg could, long after Brahms's death, speak of "Brahms the Progressive."

But there is much more than musical analysis in this book. There is a thorough investigation of the many dualities in Brahms's nature: Brahms the generous, Brahms the curmudgeonly; Brahms the respecter of (intellectual and artistic) women, Brahms the misogynist; Brahms the romantic, Brahms the classicist; Brahms the sentimentalist, Brahms the cynic; Brahms the self-effacing, Brahms the monumentally egotistical. Swafford presents them all in their staggering incompatibility. And while Swafford himself admits that no one can ever quite hope to reconcile all these manifestations or indeed fill in the gaps in a life that the composer himself hoped to keep mostly a closed book, he comes close to making this great study in contrasts that was Brahms into a flesh-and-blood individual whose most mystifying acts seem almost comprehensible because we have seen him in action in similar contexts. By an exhaustive examination of the primary literature and shrewd speculation based thereon, Swafford builds a picture that convinces. He can't make us always like Brahms or even sympathize with him, but we come to understand him better through Swafford's portrait than we ever thought we could. That is some accomplishment.

Beyond this are the passages in which Swafford speaks of musical and indeed cultural history after Brahms. The epilogue to this book, in which the author traces Brahms's paradoxical legacy through the great century of change since his death, should be mandatory reading for all students of culture in the West.

Are there flaws? Yes. Some parts of the book show haste while others show careful crafting. In a work this large, that is to be expected. And Swafford overuses the word "magisterial." This may describe Brahms to a tee, but so, I hope, do a few other adjectives. Small gripes? Small indeed, given the wealth of insight and reading pleasure that Swafford provides here. I'm ready for his biography of Ives!

Mr.Swafford did excellent jobs in dissecting and analyzing major symphonic works without sounding pedantic and dry. However, I wish he had invested more ink on the other major orchestral works such as Piano Concerto no.2 and the Violin Concerto, two of my favorites, like he did Piano Concerto no.1 and the symphonies and variations, etc. On the late concertos he merely described the circumstances surrounding their creation and barely touched on structural analysis.

Other than that, the book is very detailed and enjoyable to read. It sheds a lot of light on the human side of the composer and his friends, and thus makes these historical figures come back to life. At several instances I was so touched by Swafford's writing that I almost shed tears. Reading this book has been an emotional journey for me, and I rank it as my favorite book on music and musicians. Very touching! I love it!

What a wonderful biography. Brahms' dealings with Clara Schumann, Joachim, and other friends is studied in fascinating detail through meetings and letters -- an intimate portrait of personal relations, desires and fears, quiet joys and resentments, etc., all as absorbing as a Henry James novel.

Meanwhile, Brahms' incomparable music is a life of its own, and we are treated to the master's views of it, as well as those of contemporaries and the author. The author's assessments seem to me almost unerringly valid. (Take, for example, his lofty praise of Gesang der Parzen, an underheard choral masterwork, or his concession that the Double Concerto, a concert standard, is on a less than inspired level.)

Add to this the author's occasional shift of focus to the Austro-German culture in which Brahms lived, in retrospect an even more remarkable time and place, where music was valued to a rare degree, and where ideas and events -- artistic, philosophical, political -- were poised to take momentous turns. Fascinating, even haunting, stuff, and all the more appropriate for discussion as these were issues about which Brahms had much concern in his later years.

This is a great story about a great composer. The book tells his life story, and highlights many of his great works. Within this biography, the book also mentions the interactions, disagreements and perspectives of the different composers of the late 19th century - Liszt, Wagner, Schumann, Bruckner, Mahler and of course Brahms. From that perspective, it is not only a biographry of Brahms but in some ways a history of classical music in that period. In my opinion, Brahms was the best composer of the group, and this book highlights why he was. It focuses on many of his great compositions, even providing the major musical notes for key parts of a composition. For example, in what is arguably his best work, the 4th symphony, this book spends four pages on the last movement of this symphony, a very powerful cantata and chaconne that Brahms brought to the symphony. This form, according to the book, derives from the Baroque period and Bach has a great similar work with the violin. Brahms took it a step further and using the whole capabilities of the symphony orchestra, weaves this concept into a very powerful piece of music. Since reading these four pages, I've developed a greater interest in this movement and in the 4th symphony in total. It is a beautiful powerful work and this book provides a beautiful perspective of this work. The same is true for all of the book. It has given me a better perspective of Brahms and classical music. For this reason, I highly recommend this book.

I wonder how Brahms would have compensated for the defeat to his friend's wife - Clara Schumann. Although lively attention to details was a notable characteristic of the German woman, pianist and composer, her love to the sentiments of her husband - the German composer Robert Schumann - was, at times, so shallow as to miscalculate Robert's perturbation with Brahms's apathy.
How could Brahms, having degenerated to low stage, get over the perfidy of his feelings for the woman who was fourteen years his senior (and who also raised seven children)?
Brahms could find no strength in a faith in the after-life; he remained peculiar, having sneering disbelief about human relationships, though devoted to his true friends and to Robert Schumann in particular.
While there are grounds for believing that he had anxious feelings about the strength of his own passions, he was denied the excitability for happiness in love ... On the face of it, Brahms was soulfully devoted to Clara Schumann and regarded Robert with the utmost respects. Clara cordially returned and her emotions remained held in careful control. ""Yet the profound seriousness of his temperament demanded a philosophy; above all, if Death was no longer accepted as the gateway to eternal life for the righteous, what was its meaning?"" Those were his words
Yet Brahms remained 'the confirmed bachelor''
With women, Brahms's approach was destined with indecision of purpose.

Brahms gave us medley of music; conscious of the shadow of the dead, Ein Deutsches Requiem {1867/8} is one that represented heavenly masterpiece as if to seek pardon in humble supplications like the sinner who renounces lifelong bad habits when in extremity of pain.

The author has written a riviting and vivid biography on the beautiful Barbara Payton. The only major flaw I can find is that on the very last page he states that she met her "destiny on Sunset Boulevard," but the photo is of Hollywood Boulevard. Having worked in Hollywood during the Payton years (not in the movie industry, but in the music industry), I recall first hand many stories of the starlet. Here was a beautiful young woman who was handed more money than most of the young starlets and she turned every high ranking official in the movie business totally off by her attitude. It is no wonder that Hollywood did not embrace her and that her earnings soon evaporated.

She was starting out at about the same time as other beautiful blondes including Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Kim Novak and Sheree North; but those ladies worked extremely hard to achieve career goals and she turned in the other direction. She did not make her mark in any film role. She only appeared in three big budget films. And I recall that whenever you read about her at the time, and there were lots of newspaper stories, it was always about some outrageous behavior.

Barbara Payton did absolutley nothing to try to gain more recognition as an actress. Her story is a tragedy, most of it orchestrated by her own hand. It is wrong to blame Hollywood for what became of her. From what is written in this tremendous book she treated marriage lightly, never trying to please a spouse, but rather to please only herself. Her mothering skills are also lacking. Exposing a small child to wild parties, including sexual acts, and leaving a small child alone for days while she went out looking for sex in all the wrong places does not a mother make! Allowing a man who attempted to attack her small son with a knife to share her home--and the horror stories get worse. The son is very lucky that his father was able to rescue him from the terrible life style of his mother.

I remember Hollywood parties at the time and Hollywood get-togethers and there was a lot of drinking and smoking and some drugs. But the people who turned up at these gatherings did not bring their children. Very few in the movie industry lived the way Miss Payton did.

The book is a remarkable and well written story of an extremely selfish and beautiful woman who gave her body freely, drank excessively, lost all abilities to act in a rational way and was allowed by all who surrounded her to get away with it. It's frightening to think that friends and relatives did not intercede and attempt to find help for her.

The last years of her life are described in a frank way. There is no way to glamorize the gutter. What a shame that any person has to suffer so much.

It's rare that a person who is not a political figure or cultural icon receives the level of detailed attention and analysis that actress Barbara Payton has earned from her biographer, John O' Dowd, in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story. Even the word "story" here is an understatement, for Mr. O'Dowd has written a riveting, page-turning epic.

His subject is a stunningly beautiful actress of largely unfulfilled potential, a "starlet," in Hollywood's dismissive nomenclature. Barbara Payton died in 1967 at age 39, after a self-destructive plunge that remains unrivaled for its momentum and intensity. Her misfortune places her in that pantheon of haunting tinseltown tragedies that includes the Black Dahlia, and that Hollywood continues to pick at, like a sore that will not heal.

Payton's career began in a characteristic way: A high-spirited beauty from Cloquet, Minnesota, she set her sights early on stardom. Already a rebel in her teens, she had one, perhaps two runaway nuptials, quickly annulled, before marrying Air Force veteran, John Payton. The couple relocated to California, where John attended college, and where the proximity of Hollywood soon began to singe the marriage. Barbara's beauty and natural modeling talent quickly brought her studio notice. Despite her joy at the arrival of her son--a deep love that never wavered throughout her life--the modest rewards of domesticity could not compete with the siren song of Sunset Boulevard.

From the start, Barbara Payton's acting career conflated the professional and the sexual with puzzling recklessness, given Hollywood's determination to paste a conventionally wholesome facade onto its actors and actresses. That effort naturally spawned hypocrisy, rebellion, and wreckage. The cheery morality on display in Father Knows Best could turn with toxic fury on those who flouted it, as Ingrid Berman and countless others discovered.

For whatever reasons, Barbara chose the path of least caution. Affairs with co-stars were frequent and blatant; liaisons with the likes of Bob Hope, Gregory Peck, George Raft, Guy Madison, Marlon Brando and others stoked the tabloids. Like Lana Turner, Barbara's poor judgment in boyfriends entangled her in the sleazy machinations of petty gangsters and dope dealers. A defiant streak and possible bipolar personality kept well-intentioned good samaritans at bay.

We see a timeline with an almost vertical rising trajectory, as Barbara is groomed to be a major star. Her salary shoots up to $10,000 a week. She enjoys a heady honeymoon of parties and associations with A-list stars. She is flattered, lauded and lionized as only Hollywood can. Then, almost as quickly as it began, her career is over. Her life becomes a long, agonizing skid downwards, through unspeakable degradation to early death. After reading this book you will never again look at a bag lady without wondering if she might have once been a beauty that men could fight over.

And fight they did. Her probably unintentional heedlessness one night provoked near-lethal drunken combat between her incendiary lovers, the suave, popular Franchot Tone and noir bully Tom Neal, an icon of hyper-sexualized brutality. In the aftermath, Barbara was branded and banished to the hinterlands of her profession. Her career never recovered, nor did that of Neal, who subsequently spent years in prison for murdering his next wife. Tone fared better professionally than he did physically, but his obsession with, and misbegotten marriage to Barbara continued to gorge the gossip columnists--on one of whom Tone famously, and deservedly, spat in a nightclub.

By the mid 1950s, Barbara's career was in freefall. Pictures that came her way were of the ilk of Bride of the Gorilla, thanks to the manipulations of Jack Warner, the vindictive, foul-mouthed head of Warner Brothers, who set out to ruin his own star. But by this time, Barbara's personal life was in freefall as well.

As her looks coarsened from relentless self-abuse, so did her language and behavior. She lost custody of her beloved son, a blow that hastened and exacerbated her decline. The partying became frenzied. She treated her luscious body, formerly a source of pride and pleasure--as something of no value, marinating herself in alcohol, letting herself go shapeless and unwashed. She had sex with a succession of men, seeming almost to celebrate her nihilism--flaunting her poverty; turning passers-by into voyeurs as if to accuse the world. Friends tried in vain to interrupt the momentum. Her long-suffering lawyer, Milton Golden, not only represented her pro bono on prostitution and bad check charges, but threw her a lavish, hopeful party to kick off a comeback effort in 1958, which failed miserably, sealing her doom.

Barbara Payton's decline vividly exposed the deficits of her parents--hopeless alcoholics themselves, complicit in her drinking. The inexplicable impotence of a social system that turned its back on a woman plainly a threat to herself and in desperate need of hospitalization continues to appall. Of course the tabloids, flies on a wound, never deserted her in her torment.

The book is liberally seasoned with pictures, which harmonize poignantly with O'Dowd's evocative writing. We visit Barbara's world in a wealth of scenes; we are riveted by the flawless young beauty wooing the camera, playfully confident of no bad angles. And yet, in retrospect, the eyes seem haunted; the joy manic. Sadness lingers at the corners of the famously lush mouth. The last snapshots are simply agonizing to look at--and yet we cannot look away.

John O'Dowd, who dedicated ten years to this labor, has both shed light on and deepened the mystery of Barbara Payton--which is, after all, a mystery of the human condition. Often, a book or a film is not immediately recognized as the masterpiece it is. Tom Neal's performance in Detour; Barbara Payton's in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye; and O'Dowd's in this book all bear witness to the demons that can infest the human spirit, lurking just outside our dreams, testing the boundaries, awaiting their day.

"Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" delivers an entertaining account and perspective on the life of one of Hollywood's most troubled starlets. Authored by John O'Dowd, the book does a masterful job of piecing together the many sides of this complex individual. It works not only because John has spent years researching the former actress, but he's tracked down the people that knew her best. Interviews with her son, sister-in-law, and a former husband proved paramount to a full understanding of who she was. For the most part, this is the first time they've publicly spoke at length about her life.

While John presents an uncensored view of Barbara's demise, he does so with respect for her as a human being. Predictably the book details her struggles, but it also underscores her many strengths. Prior to "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", we remembered her through tabloid headlines and a dozen or so films. Thanks to John O'Dowd, we now have a complete and accurate view of the real Barbara Payton.

Lee Martin
www.atomicpinup.com

What an incredible book! You can tell that talented writer John O'Dowd has poured his "heart and soul" into this book! What a amazing story...... a very beautiful and talented actress who is starring in films with such superstars as James Cagney, "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" Gary Cooper, "Dallas" Gregory Peck, "Only The Valiant"! And earning 10.000 a week to five dollars a day! This is the incredible story about this beautiful women's meteoric rise to fame..... then suddenly just as quick, a swift tragic descent! This book covers every aspect of Barbara's incisive "descend" into Hell! Her many amorous scandalous affairs with Bob Hope, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, Steve Cochran, Tom Neal, Franchot Tone, and the famous headline fight between Neal and Tone its all here. But O'Dowd is not here to denigrate Payton, he wants to get at all the facts and the (real) story. You can tell that he wants to bring some humanity and respect for this actress! I firmly believe he succeeds in that! It had to take MANY painstaking years of flawless thorough research and devotion to write this prolific biography! O'Dowd doesn't seem to miss anything! This is hands down one of the BEST biographies I ever read! Also in this very thick(479 page)book are many rare photos through-out. I did not know that much about Barbara Payton but after reading this well-written book I certainly do now! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Barbara Payton! Could it had been certain "influences" that led her down the path of this nightmare world of alcohol,drugs,and prostitution..... you be the judge. But I know that O'Dowd's book in reading it brought to me compassion for this actress and why not! Yes we get to see the "dark side"........ the seedy apartments,the prostitution! But when I read that she was a loving mother, loving and protective of her son! And when I read where she had hit rock bottom living on "skid row"! And yet she had enough compassion in her disillusioned heart to bring in a homeless straving dog into the run-down hotel that she was living in, that pulls at my heart! This is definitely a "heart-breaking" tragic story,that pulls no punches! The insurmontable suffering this dear woman went through is horrible! I believe John O'Dowd proves that with this book that he is one of the BEST biographers out there in the literary field! This is the type of imformative riveting book that once you pick it up and start reading the book it is hard to put it down until you are finished! Thank you John O'Dowd for writing this book! There is no doubt that this fantastic "compelling" book should be turned into a screen-play and made into a movie! What a movie this would make! This book and story of anguish and torment definitely "cries out" to be made into a movie! This book is worth every penny it cost and much more! Again highly recommended!

Lawrence Fultz Jr.

I highly recommend Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The Barbara Payton Story.
While I was reading this book I was totally consumed by Barbara and her story of highs and lows.
I feel she is the most beautiful actess in my eyes.
I was able to lose myself in Mr O'Dowds writing and took the journey of imagining Barbara's true life experiences with the author.
It was a read I will never forget. The research,time and heart felt writing shined through the whole book.
I purchased this book online and was not dissappointed. This book is worth every cent!!!!
The book is over 400 pages and I never lost interest or the desire to read. Plenty of glamorous and startling pictures included in this book as well.
I was sorry when I finished the book, I was compelled to keep reading online about Barbara and visited John O'Dowd's website on Barbara Payton.
Found that to be very interesting along with updates.
If you are an avid reader of biography's this is the book to read. absolutley one of the best.
Sincerely Beth

In perhaps the most comprehensive autobiography of a gymnast on the market thus far, Kerri Strug details her life as an elite gymnast from her early memories all the way through the 1996 Olympics. Younger gymnasts (upper elementary school/middle school aged) will be able to understand the book, but the ideas contained will appeal to older readers as well.

Strug addresses her success, her aspirations, and most importantly, the difficulties of competing at the elite level. She talks openly about her eating disorder and problems with coaches. Strug also makes it clear that the person who pushed her hardest was her- not her parents, or her coaches. While Bela is known for pushing his gymnastics, Strug lets it be known that he never pushed her too far, and that it was her idea to perform the second vault.

Strug also addresses something that all gymnasts will understand: the frustrations. Not getting a certain score, not qualifying for something, or simply not progressing skill-wise are all common frustrations that any gymnast experiences. Most gymnasts will appreciate knowing that other people have gone through what they are currently going through. This is a great book for someone who is already familiar with gymnastics.

I do gymnastics and love to read about is so this book is great for me! This book is full of pictures and useful information. It has from when she was a baby to when she stuck that wonderful vault. If you are looking for a good gymnastics book or just a good book I would buy this one. If you do buy it I hope you enjoy reading it like I did!

I really enjoyed reading Kerri Strug's autobiography. Her legendery vault, the Yurchenko with a one-and-a-half twist, helped the USA 1996 Olympic Team win a gold medal! I really thought this was a terrific book. Kerri talks about her triumphs, struggles, victories, experiences and so much more. She tells her complete story, starting from baby years, all the way up untill after the 1996 Olympic Games. Her story is a great inspiration to all gymnasts. If you enjoy gymnastics or are a fan of Kerri Strug, then this book is a must-read!

Before I read this book, I didn't really know much about Kerri, except that she had hurt her foot doing a vault at the Olympics, and had somehow become America's darling.

But after reading this book, I now know Kerri for who she is: a marvelous gymnast who was always in the shadows and never seemed to pull everything together during competitions. How she came so close to making the All-Around competition in Barcelona, only to be edged out by .14 of a point.

This book will make you laugh, cry, and wonder how she could come back after injury upon injury and still continue gymnastics. This book will tell you about her joys and triumphs, and her defeats and despairs.

Since I have read this book, Kerri Strug has become my favorite gymnast, not just because of what she did at Atlanta, but what she did to get there. I promise you, if you read this book, you will be left with a profound respect of the girl who could continue on, despite the pain and setbacks.

My only recommendation is read it!

This is definitely the best gymnasics biography I've read! In this book, published right after the 1996 Olympics, Kerri really opens her heart to the reader...we learn about her passion for gymnasics which started at a VERY young age, her progression through the sport, what it was really like training under Bela Karolyi, and about her family. One thing that impressed me about Kerri was how she is truly self-motivated...I think many gymnasts are pushed by parents living their own dreams through their children, but this was NOT the case with Kerri. It was refreshing to read of the loving, supportive family she has, and how completely sane her parents are (as opposed to other gym parents we've heard about, like in "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" which I also think is an important book). I think people who are THIS driven, as Kerri is, are incredibly rare...which is why she flourished under Bela's harsh training instead of cracking like so many other girls did. She is honest about the often-times brutal training under Bela, but obviously loves and deeply respects both him and Marta and she gives them credit for contributing to her successes. There are great photos included of Kerri through the years. Awesome!!

I was surprised by the contents of this book. What I expected was a heartfelt biography...which it was. But it was much more. Ms. Maddy created a well-researched history of Africa and in particular Liberia. Ms. Maddy is not afraid to name the problems, issues and Names [capital "N] of Africa. This book has added to my patchy socio-historical understanding of Africa and at the same time created great respect for Africa. It has also - sadly - made me ashamed of how the USA participated in the racism, destruction and violence of a proud continent.

This is a fantastic book, though it's more of a global history lesson than a lesson in entrepreneurship. Monique Maddy covers the history of Liberia in depth and in less depth the history of several other African countries. She talks about economic development and the failures of the UN, IFC and World Bank. She is clearly an advocate for economic development via private investment. Her perspective is shaped by growing up in an exemplary company town. It was part of a mining project in Liberia sponsored by a joint venture named LAMCO. The project had a social development component that both supported the mining company by developing employees, and supported the citizens by developing them. The book is significantly a biography of Maddy herself and how she came to start her venture. That core of the book is surrounded by chapters that describe her efforts to start a pan-African telecommunications company- Adesemi - and its ultimate demise.

Maddy writes a warm, but penitrating review of the life of her family, as well as the nation of Liberia.

She gives great insight into the exploitation of Africa by the west. She makes recommendations that companies and individuals should heed as they work in this great continent.

Her writing style is easy to read, and very to the point.

REVIEW BY IAN MOUNT
www.ghanaweb.com: Business News of Monday, 1 October 2001

The Last Place to Start a Company
Monique Maddy tried and failed to launch a telephone service in Africa. She's moving on. Africa isn't.

Three short years ago, Monique Maddy was boasting that her company was going to "change people's lives" and "revolutionize things." Adesemi, the wireless pay-phone company she founded in 1993, had raised $37 million dollars, built a network in Tanzania, and moved into Ghana, and was planning to expand its service to the Ivory Coast. Maddy was the new face of African business. A Wall Street Journal article in September 1998 even proclaimed, "If the disenfranchised of Africa ever join the global economy, it won't be diplomats, politicians, or church people leading the way. It will be entrepreneurs like Monique Maddy."

It hasn't turned out that way. Maddy walked away from her company in disgust in the fall of '99. Her story is a familiar one, full of the government corruption that has become an African clichi, but the 39-year-old Maddy doesn't blame her company's demise on the bribery requests or Kafkaesque red tape. For the Liberian native, who's writing a book about third-world entrepreneurship to be published by HarperCollins next year, the real reason for Adesemi's failure and Africa's continental mire can be traced to the international development agencies that are designed to help the region. "Africa is worse off today -- in many countries -- than it was at independence, even though billions and billions have been spent," says Maddy, who herself served for five years as a United Nations Development Program officer. "As long as you have these kinds of institutions, you won't have any change."

Take Maddy's experience getting a pay-phone license. In mid-1995, a year after the Tanzanian national phone company granted Adesemi the license (and Adesemi had spent $1.5 million on its network), the phone company president said that it was no good because Adesemi's pay phones were wireless. Only after an acquaintance at the Harvard Business School, her alma mater, put her in touch with World Bank president James Wolfensohn did the matter get settled. The World Bank pushed the government just so far, however. The phone company insisted on charging Adesemi inflated rates to use its infrastructure. "When we asked the World Bank to do something about the rates, they said they couldn't tell the government what to do -- but they could lend them millions of dollars," says Maddy, referring to a $75 million interest-free loan the World Bank made to the national phone company. "They had a conflict of interest," she says.

Still, Adesemi kept at it, eventually building its network up to 600 pay phones and a pager service with 5,000 customers. The sell was easy, Maddy says, because Adesemi's phones actually functioned (the street nickname for the system was "the phones that work," she says).

When an Adesemi backer, CDC Capital Partners, refused to invest more money for the company's expansion into what Maddy argued were more profitable markets -- it wanted to see profitability in Tanzania first, despite the stacked odds -- she finally gave up. Maddy, who now lives in Boston, hasn't been to Tanzania since; her investors are selling off the network.

Not surprisingly, Maddy says her book will call for a radical departure from a system based on an international aid bureaucracy. "You basically have bureaucrats trying to develop countries," she says. "How many bureaucrats started Microsoft?"
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Source: Ian Mount

As someone who grew up overseas much like Monique, i deeply admire how she chose to use her acquired skills and network to give back to a continent in dire need of what rare individuals like her have to offer.

The book is enjoyable to read and deeply inspiring to anyone interested in contributing to third world development.

but she is someone I would like to meet. If you want to know what it is like to work in a brothel, this is the book for you. You get an honest and even handed look at the girls (to include their persnalities and motivations), the Johns, the job, and the business of legal prostitution. It was a good and entertaining read to boot. The only thing wrong with it, was it was too short!

A wonderful, insightful collection of stories that create a vivid portrait of who legal prostitutes really are and why they do what they do. The beautifully-written stories dispel the misunderstanding of these women promulgated by the media. Want the truth? Read "MADAM: Chronicles of a Nevada Cathouse." Compelling!

If you have ever been curious about legal prostitution read this book. I felt as I was on the inside looking in as I read the stories of the girls, the good times , the bad times, but always the "family" times. A definate read.

One minute you're crying. The next you're angry. The next you're rolling on the floor with laughter. This is a wonderful book... hard to put down... and one that makes you long for more when you finish the final chapter. And to the ladies at Sheri's Ranch and the other brothels in Nevada I say: Hold your heads high and walk with pride. I, personally, would consider it an honor to know any of you.

My 84 year-old mother has been anti-prostitution from the time she found out "the disgusting things" prostitues do. She wouldn't allow the term spoken in her presence even in terms of a social problem.

After I read this book, I literally forced my mother to read it by thrusting the book into her hands and nagging at her constantly until she read it to make me stop annoying her. She devoured it cover to cover, then said "I've been wrong all these years. I didn't have the right to judge these women without knowing anything about them."

This book is a revelation. Congratulations to the author and to the thousands of people enlightened and moved by this marvelously executed work.

You felt as if you were a part of the crew in this lovely book of a summer on the Mediterranean.

You don't have to be a sailor or chef to enjoy this book. David Shalleck firmly placed me in the galley and on the deck of this sailing yacht. I could taste the salt air and the wonderful meals he prepared. A wonderful summer read!

I loved this book! Perfect summer read. Plan to cook a lot after reading! The recipes are easy, but amazing. Will not disappoint! Ten years ago my husband and I sailed the west coast of Corsica. This was such a nice reminder of the trip of a lifetime. We did all our own cooking on that trip, but it was nice to see exactly what was going on on all those huge yachts that passed us by!

I have been to most of the places David mentions in the book. Last year in Portofino I watched a yacht like the Serenity dock and noticed the activity that took place in order for the owners and guests to come ashore for their lunch. They were seated next to me at the restaurant and, eavesdropping, I wondered what life on that yacht would be like.

I ran across this book on another Amazon book search and it looked so interesting that I bought it without knowing anything about the author. David brings the international food scene and the yachting scene to life in a down to earth and warm way. I traveled in my mind right along with him.

It is one of those books that I read slowly towards the end in order to savor the last pages before I finish reading. I highly recommond this book.

I felt like I was right there on the yacht, in the Med and tasting all of the wonderful meals. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down. I have made a couple of the recipes in the back of the book and they were wonderful. A must read, especially if you like traveling, the beach, boating and cooking. Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful. I just can't say it enough.