ian andrew macdonald reviews
Price: $59.95
(as of Jan 09, 2025 14:58:32 UTC - Details)
"Perhaps the most unbelievable note I ever received backstage was between the second and third act of [the opera] Romeo and Juliet. It read: 'Please sing "The Indian Love Call" during the next intermission.'" So writes Jeanette MacDonald in her unpublished autobiography. This book tells the fascinating story of that ill-fated project and includes an incomplete, unpolished edition dating from summer 1960. Written in collaboration with movie magazine writer Fredda Dudley Balling, the typewritten manuscript has Jeanette's hand-written comments and corrections all over it. She crossed out certain sensitive passages and entire pages but the full manuscript is reproduced so that today's reader can experience it uncensored. How much did the beloved MGM singing star reveal? Did she tell the truth about her life? Her career? Her purported first marriage to Bob Ritchie? Her Hollywood marriage to Gene Raymond? Her romance with co-star Nelson Eddy? What did Balling think of their collaboration...and the final book? Why did Jeanette need a ghost writer and why was this mysterious book never published? MacDonald biographer Sharon Rich answers these questions. She has fully annotated the manuscript, providing reality checks, extensive background data and tragic new information about Jeanette's final years. Also included is Fredda Balling's correspondence about the project and working with MacDonald. The book includes a filmography, photos and a rare color picture gallery.
Publisher : Bell Harbour Press (July 23, 2004)
Language : English
Paperback : 455 pages
ISBN-10 : 0971199884
ISBN-13 : 978-0971199880
Item Weight : 2.48 pounds
Dimensions : 7.75 x 1.07 x 10.5 inches
Reviewer: marguerite carter
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: did not disappoint
Review: An important history of Hollywood. The print quality was good and clear with several pages of glossy color photos. many of the black and white photos were unusual and not normally included in other publications.
Reviewer: Linda Dodson
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: My orders being delivered in a timely manner
Review: I found the book interesting in that it was written in her own words and how she suffered in that her health suffered and that she was fooled about her husband and that she truly loved Nelson Eddy
Reviewer: Peg Ralph
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Enjoyed this autobiography
Review: Enjoyed this autobiography, being elderly I watched a lot of Jeanette,s films when young, so easy interested in reading her life story.
Reviewer: Jan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: THOROUGHLY LOVED IT.
Review: THOROUGHLY LOVED IT...I LUV JAEANETTE MCDONALD.. ITS A SHAME THEY COULD NEVER MARRY, AND ITS A SHAME SHE MARRIED GENE RAYMOND AND HE NEVER TOLD HER HE WAS HOMOSEXUAL
Reviewer: Darrell G. Rooney
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Terrific piece of unknown Hollywood History
Review: Its always fascinating to see what a celebrity has to say about their time in the limelight even if its seen through a gauze towards rewriting history. This is another fascinating insight into the world of Jeanette during her heyday.
Reviewer: A. Braswell
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: For those who want to read everything about MacDonald
Review: I have read a couple of books about Jeanette MacDonald and thought that I should read one that she actually wrote herself. I ended up skimming much of it. Only someone truly interested in everything about this star would want to spend time on this one.
Reviewer: Judy Burns (Jacobson)
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I've known her since first reading "Farewell to Dreams" and asking her to actually document the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDona
Review: You have checked this review because you want to know if one of the books or magazines put out by Sharon Rich are fact or fiction. Sharon has compiled biographical books on Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy separately and as the extraordinary MGM film star team they were from the 1930âs until the 1960âs, when first Jeanette and then Nelson died. The âMacEddy Todayâ magazines are a treasure trove of photos, stories and nostalgia told from interviewees who know the stars. Jeanette MacDonald wrote an autobiography that she never published. I found it at a book fair and gave it to Sharon, saying she should annotate it with all that she had learned about Jeanette. Itâs a fascinating read of a star who is trying to protect a âniceâ view of her life versus what was really going on. The manuscript only survived the trash bin because the transcriptionist kept it. Even Nelsonâs opera years have been preserved because Sharon Rich cared enough to put out the book.Sharon Rich is an extraordinary woman. I know. I've known her since first reading "Farewell to Dreams" and asking her to actually document the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald story better before attempting to sell it to Hollywood. It was at this time that I began to insist that all of the interviews with some of Sharon's sources be videotaped or audiotaped so that the research could be preserved even after the interviewees died. Many of them have, sadly, passed on. But the tapes survive! In those days, a co-writer and I insisted that Sharon meticulously database the whereabouts of all the principals from the moment they met until their deaths, and she did just that. She poured through documents -- every kind of printed source (including the LA Times, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department logs, English newspapers, fanzines, Variety, etc) until she could darn near tell you on an hourly basis where Nelson, Jeanette, Gene, Ann Eddy, L.B. Mayer, and others were. While compiling the database, Sharon also came into possession of letters, unpublished autobiographies, and people who are still alive who can swear to the veracity of the information in Sweethearts. I can personally swear to meeting many of the people who knew Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. I can tell you, I have met Gene Raymond, interviewed him over lunch and also watched him meet one of his former lovers and Jeanette's gay friends. I have talked to people who sat at Blossom Rock's feet and heard the story first hand. I am convinced, from these interviews, that Blossom was not only in her right mind but capable of telling the story (one way or another). Just because you cannot always speak doesn't mean you cannot write or communicate in other ways. This book is true, and the sources are available for researchers to access. It's a shame people like Turk do NOT make use of the invitation to do so. This is not only a terrific read, but it is the life work of a woman who made a promise to Blossom Rock to tell the truth about Jeanette. She has kept her promise.
Reviewer: Barbrasgirl8
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Definitive Jeanette Autobiography.
Review: A biography annotated by Sharon Rich, the author of "Sweethearts" and the foremost world authority on Jeanette Macdonald and her most well known co-star Nelson Eddy when Jeanette became too ill to finish her autobigraphy. Well researched and beautifully presented yet not sensational,it is focused on the life of Jeanette Macdonald the singing actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood who epitomises the aura of the old time stars, of an age when stars really were stars. Ms Rich spent many years researching the contents of this book and she brings out the atmosphere of the way stars like Jeanette had to live their lives in the public eye and also afford themselves a life beyond the silver screen. Well written and very informative especially for anyone interested in the lives of bygone but not forgotten idols. Nothing sensational just the plain honest facts. Buy it!