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Summary: This book is thoroughly researched.
Review: I had the wonderful opportunity to edit The Other Side of Ethel Mertz. The two authors, Frank Castelluccio and Alvin Walker, were not only the most pleasant of folks to work with, I was impressed over and over again with their meticulous attention to every detail of Vivian Vance's life. She was, in every sense of the words, a rich and complex woman, at once an easy subject for a biography (because of her depth as a human being) and difficult (Vivian often changed the "facts" of her life to fit her image of herself). Over the course of my work with the authors, I probably read The Other Side of Ethel Mertz a half dozen times. And each time, I was touched anew by her courage and humanity. I enjoyed this project like no other in recent memory and heartily recommend this to the attention of everyone who enjoys a good read.
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Summary: It's about time! This book is fantastic!!!!!!!
Review: This book should be read by all, since we all know a lot about Lucille Ball, but very little about Vivian Vance. It's a quick, interesting read and worth every penny. It would be an asset to any home library! Buy it today!
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Summary: After all these years, Vivian finally gets her due!
Review: Finally, we fans of "I Love Lucy" have a biography of Vivian Vance. The authors have certainly done their homework, digging up facts and photos that even we die-hards were unaware of. It provides lots of details of her life both before and after "I Love Lucy."One especially good thing about this book is that it relates some of the less flattering aspects of Vivian Vance's life without resorting to sensationalism. The book speaks unflinchingly of her mental illness, her fiery relationship with Lucille Ball, and her marriages, but it does so with the dignity that Ms. Vance deserves. This one belongs on any "Lucy" fan's bookshelf, to be sure.
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Summary: Great book, facinating woman, so much more than I imagined.
Review: I read an advance copy of the book and loved it. The stories from the I Love Lucy set were facinating, really her whole life was interesting. She was many women rolled into one. The story really held my attention. This would be a great movie.
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Summary: Everything you wanted to know about Vivian Vance.
Review: Being an "I Love Lucy" fan from childhood, I've always wondered about Vivian. It is so easy to get information about Lucille Ball, but has been very hard to get info about Vivian Vance. I thought I was the only one who appreciated her comedic talents. The show would not be the same without her; to me her character was essential. Now with this book, jam-packed with information, you get a true sense of her personality and long history before the show. After reading this book, I felt I knew Vivian, a completely different person than her character "Ethel". I want to thank the authors for giving us an opportunity to know Vivian Vance.
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Summary: A Professional Actress, Second to None
Review: Evidently Vivian Vance, a proficient theater and television actress, was not according to this biography happy with her Ethel Mertz character on the Lucy show. Ball, believing nobody should be prettier than the "star" of the show used to put Vivian down, yet we all know that vibrating behind that sheepish Ethel Mertz character was Vivian Vance, a talented actress. Vivian, in spite of the dullness of Ethel, was a splendid woman but resentment, jealousy and competition between her and Lucille Ball did not help but on the contrary constrained her possibilities. Evidently that feud with Bill Frawley, (Fred Mertz on the show), and her resentment of playing a dull housewife opposite Ball was consuming most of her vigor, self-esteem and health. Nonetheless she is such a first-rate performer none of these negative emotions were noticed or evident while on camera. The competition, and jealousy although not evident were there. Resentment for being treated a "Cinderella" was detrimental to her and it is clear her resentment and aversion of Bill Frawley (she was 42 while Bill was 64, evidently a mismatch for a TV couple) were having the best of her. This book's title, on the other hand, is demeaning to Vivian. Ethel Mertz is more evident than the name Vance which I find rude to her and to those of us who value her talents. Her mother, a narrow-minded religious woman, used to plague Viv with disappointing remarks, forcing her, later on, to have psychological therapy. Did she ever forget Lucy, Frawley, and her mother? No, not totally. Holding a grouch, in my opinion, was a factor in keeping her from developing into the super star she always wanted to be.
Rating:
Summary: A Professional Actress, Second to None
Review: Evidently Vivian Vance, a proficient theater and television actress, was not according to this biography happy with her Ethel Mertz character on the Lucy show.
Ball, believing nobody should be prettier than the "star" of the show used to put Vivian down, yet we all know that vibrating behind that sheepish Ethel Mertz character was Vivian Vance, a talented actress.
Vivian, in spite of the dullness of Ethel, was a splendid woman but resentment, jealousy and competition between her and Lucille Ball did not help but on the contrary constrained her possibilities.
Evidently that feud with Bill Frawley, (Fred Mertz on the show), and her resentment of playing a dull housewife opposite Ball was consuming most of her vigor, self-esteem and health. Nonetheless she is such a first-rate performer none of these negative emotions were noticed or evident while on camera.
The competition, and jealousy although not evident were there. Resentment for being treated a "Cinderella" was detrimental to her and it is clear her resentment and aversion of Bill Frawley (she was 42 while Bill was 64, evidently a mismatch for a TV couple) were having the best of her.
This book's title, on the other hand, is demeaning to Vivian. Ethel Mertz is more evident than the name Vance which I find rude to her and to those of us who value her talents.
Her mother, a narrow-minded religious woman, used to plague Viv with disappointing remarks, forcing her, later on, to have psychological therapy.
Did she ever forgive Lucy, Frawley, and her mother? No, not totally. Holding a grouch, in my opinion, was a factor in keeping her from developing into the super star she always wanted to be.
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Summary: The best second banana in the business
Review: She chaffed when people called her Ethel in public places, sometimes even exploding in anger, especially if they asked where Fred was. ("He's dead, thank God," was her reply in later years after he died.) Her blessing was her curse. Vivian Vance was such a fine actress, she convinced TV's millions that she was Ethel Mertz. Only a small percentage of her audience ever saw her on stage or in remembered her few forays onto the big screen, so we might be forgiven for not realizing how talented she really was. With the recently released "Ball of Fire" Lucy fans might want to read about Ball's talented side-kick. Vance had a successful acting career before that fateful evening when Desi Arnaz first saw her on stage in La Jolla, and would continue her stage career after her years as Lucy's sidekick (Vivian Bagley in The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy being but a prettier, more sophisticated version of Ethel). Most Lucy fans already know quite a bit about those years from the many books about Lucy, but this concise book fills in what happened before and after. The authors do an excellent sleuthing job. They highlight Vance's religious upbringing and trace some of her later emotional problems to her conflict arising from desire to be on the stage and her mother's admonitions that it was the road to perdition. They cover her early experiences on the stage in New York and then in New Mexico as well as her few films. From this, they illustrate her versatility and trace the roots of some of her funniest moments on "I Love Lucy." Only in the bibliography do we learn that they most of the extended quotes are from Vance's unpublished memoirs. Unwilling to reveal names or hurt anyone, she offered little cooperation to her assigned ghost writer and the project fell through. That's a pity, given the viewpoint she had in one of TV's greatest comedy series and what she reveals about herself in the excerpts. This was one courageous woman who had more than a little business savvy. No matter though, her excellent work as one of the most famous second-bananas in show business speaks for itself.
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