Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends)
by Matthew Kennedy
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Book Summary Information
Author: Matthew KennedyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-25
ISBN: 1578069610
Number of pages: 300
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Book Reviews of Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends)
Book Review: Joan Blondell was a tough cookie with a heart of gold who was a great lady of stage, screen and tv screen
Summary: 4 Stars
Miss Dallas 1926. Raped at least once. Endured seven abortions many at the request of her weird first husband. She was in show business for over seventy years and was seen in over 100 films and television productions.She was great in comedy, drama and could tug at your heart strings. She was blonde, seductively buxom and sported a great pair of legs. Her voice was sexy and her heart for people and animals was as wide as the Texas sky. Her baby blues and smile are part of movie history.
And yet Joan Blondell (1906-1979) never won an Oscar or major award. She never made the huge bucks of such gal pals as Bette Davis or Judy Garland. She was just there to do her work as a well-skilled professional actress.
Joan was born to a vaudeville family in New York. She traveled the world with her family's act. When she became a Broadway and later Hollywood actress she often supported her impecunious parents and sister Gloria and brother June.
Blondell was a staple of Warner Brother's 1930s pre-code films. She was featured in such classics as"Blonde Crazy,"; "Goldiggers of 1933", "Footlight Parade" (with her frequent co-star James Cagney) and other musicals and dramas of the era. Later she would appear in such classics as "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,"; "Grease" and the tv series "Here Come the Brides."
Blondell had three husbands. First on the docket was George Barnes a cameraman who was unfaithful and drank. She was wed to star Dick Powell from 1936-1944. He left her for June Allyson; she left him for showman Mike Todd. Todd was a vocal and physical abuser. Joan never married after this disastrous marriage. Her children Norman and Ellen had many problems including drugs, mental illness and multiple marriage. Joan was an animal lover who was protective and tender to her many pets. She had a sparkling personality but depression often assailed her as she aged. She had many ailments but refused to stop practicing her craft. She wrote a novel " Center Stage Fancy" loosely based on her life. She died of leukemia.
Joan Blondell was a good person who loved her fans, family, work and animals. She was an excellent actress and comedienne.
Matthew Kennedy's book is at times a dry recitation of Joan's roles but he leavens this with enough family information to keep you turning the pages. The book is well illustrated and researched. All fans of Joan Blondell will enjoy this classy celebrity biography of a classy dame-JOAN BLONDELL!
Summary of Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends)
Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio.Born the child of itinerant vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal, distinctive cello voice, megawatt smile, luminous saucer eyes, and flawless timing, she came into widespread fame in Warner Bros. musicals and comedies of the 1930s, including Blonde Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade.
Frequent co-star to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years.
Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and featuring numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes traces the changing face of Twentieth Century American entertainment through the career of this extraordinary actress.
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