The Golden Girls of Mgm: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Others

Rating:
Summary: The Juiciest of Books
Review: I am a big fan of Jane Ellen Wayne and this book is not a disappointment. I was especially enthralled reading about Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy. Fascinating. If you like to read about Hollywood women stars from the forties and fifties you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Biased and uninteresting
Review: I bought this book at a local bookstore and I'm grateful because it'll be much easier to return there than on Amazon. Some reviews said that this author didn't say much about anyone but I disagree. I found her bias towards and against some actresses obvious. This leads me to believe that we are only getting half of the story. I mean calling Joan Crawford a "victim" is laughable to me. If you know anything about Joan, you know that she was no one's victim.
Also, many of the conversations that Wayne quotes have no source. How do we know that they were real or just garbage that she made up? Either she stole some of these quotes from other books or they existed in her head. We don't know because she rarely explains where she got her information.
This is like a one-sided Cliff's notes version of the lives of these fabulous women. And if anyone would like to use this as source material, may I suggest using it to solve the mystery of how so many beautiful, fascinating, sexy women fell for Mickey Rooney? I would really like an explaination on that!!

Rating:
Summary: Revealing
Review: I loved this book. I felt that I got ten and more biographies of the most famous actresses in the world.It's well researched, and it's fun to read. The author emphasizes the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. I've read all of Jane Ellen's books and enjoy her style. The Golden Girls of MGM is one of her best.

Rating:
Summary: cut-and-paste rehash
Review: If you want to know more about Norma Shearer, Jeanette Mcdonald
Jean Harlow, Ava Gardner, Joan Crawford and other glamour girls of the days when Mr, Louis B, Meyer ran the studio with the able assistance of boy genius Irving Thalberg this book is the place to start. The chapters are lengthy and filled with all sorts of National Enquirer trashy reports on glamorous love affairs and sordid details of life in the tinseltown of dreams.
Wayne's book is far from great biographical literature, rehashes old rumours and deals in sensational details about the lives of the silver screen luminaries she chronicles.
You may hate this book and detest the behavior of these goddesses who were all too human. Or you may add it to the bibliography you keep of your 'guilty pleasure books.'

Rating:
Summary: How did this author ever get published?
Review: In their own time, these "golden-age Hollywood" stars were protected by ruthless P.R. men and a media veil of silence. Now most of their failings are common knowledge. And in "Golden Girls of MGM : Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, and Others," Jane Ellen Wayne only soils their names more by making them dull.

Wayne opens each chapter with a coyly feeble teaser. She then gives a brief description of the women's lives and how they got into the movie biz, and what they did when they got there. Among these actresses: much-married Elizabeth Taylor, deceptively icy Grace Kelly, busty Lana Turner, fiery ex-Sinatra wife Ava Gardner, mysterious Greta Garbo, tragic Judy Garland, and some weren't quite so juicy (Katherine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr, Esther Williams).

Why bother with one trashy biography when you can have a bunch all in one book? Be assured that Wayne will give you a detailed description of every lover, abortion, suicide, police-cover up and failed marriage that went on under Louis B. Mayer. Despite all this dirt, Wayne seems to be scared to have any strong opinions about anything (Joan Crawford is painted very blandly). You'll find every rumor -- true or not -- reported in various other trashy bios. Insights? New information? Decent writing? Not a trace.

"Golden Girls" fails even as a guilty pleasure. In a word, it's boring. Very boring. Gossip about stuff like affairs, abortions, failed marriages and massive scandals are related in the driest prose that Wayne can manage. She glosses over major events in these actresses' lives, but gives detailed transcripts of uninteresting personal conversations. It only makes her inept attempts at being coy painful. And it takes a special kind of ineptitude to make Katherine Hepburn so boring.

The worst kind of trashy biography is a dull one. And "Golden Girls of MGM : Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, and Others" is very boring indeed. Wayne can't even manage to make this a naughty pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: How did this author ever get published?
Review: Ms. Wayne is one of the worst writers I have ever read. Not only is her writing amateurish and ungrammatical, it is downright annoying. Your average seventh grader is probably a better writer.

I could put up with her writing if the book did not have numerous other faults.

One example of this book's many faults is that in the chapter on Hepburn, the decade between 1928 and 1938 -- when Hepburn started in the movies and achieved stardom -- is not even mentioned. I don't know if this is Wayne's fault or simply an editing glitch.

I bought this book because I am a fan of several of these actresses, but I was disappointed that most of the information on them appeared to have been stolen from other sources. Including conversations at which the author could not possibly have been present is the height of bad journalism and a hallmark of sleazy biographical writing. In addition, I didn't learn anything new about any of the actresses whom I had already read a lot about, and I tired of the sensationalistic recounting of their affairs, abortions, tantrums, divorces, drunkenness, and so forth. How about mentioning something positive about them? Surely there was something. But wait. I guess that doesn't sell books.

If you want to learn about these stars, there are bound to be well-researched, balanced, in-depth books about each one, particularly Crawford and Hepburn. So don't waste your money on this crapfest.

Rating:
Summary: Trashy and Sloppy
Review: The content was trashy, and the writing was sloppy. If you like trashy and you can tolerate sloppy for a few hours, this book will give you the worst highlights of the lives of the stars discussed. On the other hand, if you want to know the truth about these women in depth, you should search for individual, well-researched, well-written books on these subjects' lives.

If you like to read bad writing, this book is a treat. Misplaced modifiers can be especially mirth provoking, and this writer is an adept in the genre. Other grammatical errors and plenty of typos add to the fun.