All About ME

In this case, "me" is not me, but several other people who have written about their lives, or had their lives written about.

I guess I got interested in Hollywood stars when I was a kid and my mother liked to read movie magazines.  We know now that there was probably more fiction in those magazines than there is on a fiction book shelf, but at the time I took everything printed as gospel and lived vicariously through those puff pieces.

When I got older, I discovered biographies and autobiographies.   I have lots of them, most of them either the autobiographies or the biographies of celebrities, but some political figures and athletes like Greg Louganis (well, he's the only athlete whose autobiography I have read or am likely to read!).  I have already given away a lot, mostly those I'd read that I thought were terrible (Ed McMahon's autobiography comes to mind!)

Of course there was a time when I bought every single book about Judy Garland that I could ever find.

She never attempted to write her autobiography, so these are all biographies, some with special emphasis (like the abominable book that Mel Torme wrote about The Judy Garland Show).  I have actually read most, but not all, of these books.

These are the books that I have read and not yet given away.

You can't see the title and it's a small book, sandwiched in between Liberace and Shirley MacLeaine, but it is a biography of Paul Muni (The Good Earth, among other films).  A friend loaned it to me way back in the 1980s and it was the best biography I'd ever read to that point.  Now, I haven't read it since then so I can't remember what made it so good, or if it holds up to the books I've read since then, but I was so blown away by it that I went out and got my own copy.  

Likewise, James Lipton, while his book is supposed to be about Inside the Actors Studio, takes half of the book to get there and tells his own story along the way. His autobiography was absolutely fascinating and I was actually sorry to get to the part about the Actors Studio because it paled in comparison.

I read the first couple of Shirley MacLaine's books and got caught up in all of her past lives stories, but I grew tired of them after awhile and haven't read one of her books in decades. 

There are two biographies of James Mason on this shelf.  I bought them both in London (Walt complained about my buying BOOKS to take home, given the weight!) and just loved them.  I also have a couple of biographies of Anthony Hopkins, but I don't see them on the shelf and may have given them away in a small book purge.  I loved his story, but once I'd read it, I didn't see the need to keep it (apparently unlike the James Mason books).

George Burns' "Gracie: A Love Story" was just that.  A love story about his 40 year marriage to Gracie Allen.  It was beautiful and the thing I remember most from it was learning that the reason she aways wore long sleeved blouses was that she had a minor physical defect on one arm (he doesn't describe it further than that) and kept it covered up.

The Hepburn-Tracy story was also a wonderful love story, and not only did I read the book about their long romance, but read the biography of him and the autobiography of her (appropriately titled "Me.")

Alan Alda's book was quite different, very fluffy but great fun and I'm glad I read it.  There was a man who knows how to write an "autobiography" while still keeping (most of) his private life private.  I loved Susan Hayward's book, though I read it so long ago that I don't remember why now, and I enjoyed several Cary Grant biographies, but am finished with them and don't need to read the new ones that have been published recently.

I loved Betty White's latest autobiography.  When you read it you realize that Betty White spans the entire history of television.   Her career in television began in 1939 and she is still going strong. She was the first female co-host on a variety show in 1949.  She was nominated for her first Emmy in 1950 and the first woman to form her own production company in 1952.  An amazing, and apparently very likeable person (how can you not like someone who loves animals so much?)

And of course I would be remiss if I left out "Lucy in the Afternoon," my friend Jim Brochu's account of spending the last year of her life with Lucille Ball, playing backgrammon and listening to her stories of old Hollywood.   It's out of print now, I believe, but if you ever come across it, I recommend buying it--not only because Jim wrote it, but because he's a damn good writer and this book is a delight.

I even have a bunch of NON-Hollywood/Broadway biographies and autobiographies, such as Dorothy Parker, John Steinbeck, Barbara Walters, a couple of women who work with elephants. etc., etc., etc.

There are also biographies on my Kindle, like the couple written by Michael J. Fox, an amazingly upbeat guy for all that he is dealing with

These are the books I have not yet read, and may never get around to.

I don't imagine I'll ever get to Lauren Bacll or Anne Baxter, but I would love to tackle the imposing Chaplin book.  I had Sidney Poitier's book on this shelf for awhile, but I couldn't get into his eloquent prose and ended up giving it away. Likewise I tossed Charlton Heston's autobiography after "...from my cold dead hands"  became a watchword and I decided I really didn't care to know anything about him any more.

I have even listened to audio autobiographies.  Kirk Douglas' book written after his stroke was remarkably entertaining, and inspiring (I have his "Ragpicker's Son," written earlier, but I have not read that yet).  And I decided that Kristin Chenoweth's book should only be an audio book because it is read so charmingly by her, with occasional breaks into song, or conversations with friends.  You definitely would lose a lot by just reading it.

Right now I'm a little over halfway through Diane Keaton's autobiography and it is proving to be an extraordinary read.

  

Charlotte has been encouraging me to read it for months now and has raved about it.

Now I know what she is talking about.  This is not your regular linear life story, but it skips around and borrows extensively from the journal her mother kept throughout her life, which in places document's Diane's life better than she could do herself.

But she does a pretty good job on her own and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  (Did you know Annie Hall was based on Keaton's own family, whom Woody Allen--her lover at the time--thought was hilarious?) 

Char says she was sobbing at the end.  We know Diane doesn't die in it (though her mother does), so I am just keeping tissues at the ready for when the time comes that I am approaching the end of her story.

If you are an autobiography geek like me, go buy this one.  You won't be sorry.

Maybe I'm just a hopelessly shallow nerd, but I do love borrowing small pieces of people's lives through reading their books, or learning more about people I have admired on the big or little screen.

Listen to this Book

I know that celebrity bios are not everybody's cuppa tea, but I've been reading them since I was a kid. There's just so much blood and gore that you can take before you have to step back and get some backstage gossip under your belt.

I have a large collection of celebrity biographies and autobiographies that I have collected over the years. I probably won't read a lot of the ones already on the shelf, but I have enjoyed, for example, the stories of Paul Muni (one of the best celebrity bios I've read), James Mason, Judy Garland (of course--I've read several biographies of her), Carol Burnett, Beverly Sills, Stan Freberg, and many, many more. One shelf in our "Pepto room" (the room that is painted the color of Pepto Bismol), which spans the width of the room, is filled with celebrity bios.

I wouldn't say I was a huge fan of Kristin Chenoweth and I really don't remember now how I came to buy the audio version of her delightful autobiography, "A Little Bit Wicked," rather than the print version, but once the last murder had been committed and the last bad guy got his comeuppance in my last blood and gore book, I was ready for something lighter.

And what could be lighter than Kristin Chenoweth? Galinda herself.

I am almost finished with this thoroughly enjoyable book and I am here to encourage anybody who is remotely interested in reading it, to get the audio book. You will miss SO much if you just read it. Chenoweth is the reader of her story, and so it comes with giggles and singing and a dialog with her best friend (whose name I can't tell you because I don't have a print copy of the book to look it up -- but Denny somebody). Also, you will miss a lot of homespun humor without her Oklahoma accent telling all these stories.

It's not so much as a linear biography, but more a memoir where she flits from thing to thing and it's sometimes difficult to keep it all in a chronological perspective, but who cares? The stories are just great (the chapter on hair extensions is hilarious). She doesn't take herself seriously and you get the feeling that whatever you see on TV is just the way she is. I especially loved the parts of the book where she bursts into song, briefly -- you don't get that in a print version! I also have to try her killer trailer trash cookies.

I still have 1/3 of the book to go and she's just gotten to the reason I bought it in the first place -- the story of how she got her role in Wicked and what it was like preparing for the show.

But I don't know that I have ever enjoyed a celebrity biography this much in a long time.

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We went to San Francisco today to see H.M.S. Pinafore. It occurs to me that this was the VERY FIRST Gilbert & Sullivan operetta I ever saw, back in the 1960s, in the Greek Theater at UC Berkeley. My father, who used to usher when shows came to town and so had seen a lot of D'Oyly Carte, raised me to think that G&S was the worst music ever written. Walt took me to Pinafore and I went expecting to hate it and was surprised to discover that I didn't.

The rest, as they say, is history.

I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I've seen this show (and this is probably my least favorite G&S operetta!), but it was a good production (I expected nothing less) and at intermission I got to see pictures of Cordelia, my friend Alison's new granddaughter, which was fun.

Traffic was terrible--Giants game in San Francisco today and regular Sunday traffic. It takes an hour and a half to get from our house to the Lamplighters theater. It took us 2 hours to get 3/4 of that way going home today.

But it was worth it--and I got to have dinner out, which was a plus. Besides, there was lots and lots of time to listen to Chenoweth's book!

Mary, Mary

"Tell ya what," she said. "In honor of your new granddaughter, I'll play you the song I played to welcome my granddaughter into the world." The song was "Play with Me" and is lovely.

"She" was Mary Youngblood, the first Native American woman to win a Grammy. She has now won two, 2006 and 2007. We ran into her in a Native American shop in Old Sacramento. Mary was looking at stuff and happened to see a CD with Youngblood's photo on it. She looked up at the artist sitting behind the counter. "That's you!" she said. Mary Youngblood admitted that yes, it was her in the flesh.

She worked in this shop many years ago, and was now back visiting, and also selling her 2 Grammy-award winning CDs. We chatted with her for a long time, she played "Play With Me," the song she wrote for her granddaughter, from the CD and played flute along with it, a very special moment. Mary bought the CD and had her autograph it. I was disappointed that there was only one copy of that particular CD because I would like to have had a copy...just for sentimental reasons, of the impending grandchild birth!

We were nearing what had been a delightful day in Old Sacramento. We started the day picking up photos at Longs for Mary to put in her scrapbook. (I will spare Mary the embarrassment of telling what happened when she returned from the store and got into the car to go to Sacramento...but since this goes in her scrapbook, she will have to tell the story to friends who look through it!)

We drove in to Sacramento, parked the car, and started our tour through this Old West section of Sacramento. We started at my favorite statue, the Pony Express rider. As I was years ago, Mary was surprised to discover that the Pony Express only operated in this country for 18 months. We were both surprised to talk with a docent in the Visitor Center and learn that the riders were generally teenagers and that they preferred to hire orphans so that when the riders were killed en route (as many were), they had no families to contend with. Your government at work caring for its citizens even back in 1860.

When Mary asked the docent for recommendations for lunch, he listed some and we decided that Earl Grey Manor, which offered high tea, sounded the most interesting, so we set off for the restaurant and a leisurely and delightful lunch.

We both ordered the Traditional Afternoon Tea, which started with corn bisque, and then those little tiered trays that contained finger sandwiches, a mushroom tart, a scone with almond cream and jam, and then a dessert tier with cookies and cake and a perfect pink rose on each. We ate it all (almost). Mary also had some Moroccan Mint tea (iced) and I went for Earl Grey. I'm not a big tea drinker, but I have to admit that this was some of the best tea I've had.

We leisurely wandered in and out of stores, looking, sometimes buying, and, in the case of the Native American shop, spending time chatting with the proprietor and with Mary Youngblood.

We wandered around a little more, while Mary greeted everyone.

Then, going against the recommendation of the docent at the Visitors Center, we decided to skip the Railroad Museum because we were both just too tired. We piled in the car and came home.

We spent the evening working on our respective records, Mary on her scrapbook and me writing this journal entry. Tomorrow we will be out of here pretty early because Mary has to get to San Francisco by 11 a.m. to meet her friend, who is hosting the second part of her California trip.

It's been another grand adventure!

Friends of Friends

It's nice to have semi-famous friends with more famous friends.

You can read about Steve & Jimmy's evening out with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Charlotte Rae here.

A not-so-famous, but up-and-coming famous person is 6 year old Malia, the hostess of Minor News Today.

Malia (known as "Bunny" in her show) and her mother were interviewed on CNN this morning. I was prepared for the interview because Malia's grandmother had written to me yesterday and sent me a link to one of the show's episodes, which is on YouTube. I fell in love with Malia then and there. The term "militantly adorable," which I first encountered in The Last Session, definitely applies to this precocious little girl.

(I hope Keith Olbermann sees her book report on Bill O'Reilly's book!)

Now, the reason I heard from Malia's grandmother is that Malia's mother performed with David (and possibly with Tom too) in high school, and we have known them for a very long time.

After the CNN report aired, I sent a note to Malia's Mom congratulating them on the appearance and it was nice to hear back from her. She's an extremely talented woman, whose talents were much in evidence even in high school, and it's fun to see what has happened to her in the interim.

But whatever you do, do yourself a favor and check out Minor News Today. The first show aired on November 13 of this year and they have been broadcasting 5 days a week. Apparently it has already attracted quite a following. Malia is missing several teeth at the moment and I wonder if it will still be as cute when the teeth come in!

And speaking of "teeth coming in," Daisy is definitely getting her teeth and teething on everything. I had to put a gate in front of my knees here at my desk to prevent her from getting to the electrical cords. She is now teething on the wooden legs to this desk, which I don't care about.

She is putting on so much weight and becoming so solid that I've started calling her "Chunk" because it is much more descriptive than "Daisy" was. She and Half Pint play-fight all the time (see video of the day!), but they really like each other (see Photo of the Day).

The nice thing about them having become good friends is that when I put them in the playpen at night there is not one peep from either of them. They just curl up together and go to sleep. I don't hear from them, usually, until after I'm already awake.

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MYSTERIOUS CHRISTMAS CARD

We received a mysterious Christmas card today. It is like a large postcard, with edges that look like they've been cut with special scrapbooking scissors. It's addressed to "Bev & Walt Sykes" and has a Kwanzaa stamp. This is the back side:

The card is unsigned, so if you sent it, could you please write and identify yourself! (I know Char & Mike couldn't possibly have sent it because Mike wouldn't ask directions if his life depended on it!)