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Summary: At last -- a biography for those of us who love Jean Arthur
Review: A very well written and extremely thorough biography of one of the best and brightest stars of the 1930s and early 1940s. The enigma of Jean Arthur -- why she retired at the height of her career during World War Two -- is answered, and the answer offers a fascinating character study of value not only to those of us who love Miss Arthur but to anyone interested in gifted people and in the struggle of a woman attempting to exercise power in the form of self-determination in a male-dominated world. The book also offers an excellent inside view of the film industry and the Broadway theater of the 1940s and 1950s.
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Summary: A sympathetic biography!!On Paperback!!!
Review: Asolution to the mystery is provided by...John Oller"s objective,well-documented study of Arthur. The enigmatic performer, who was purposely vague about her origins,must have posed quite a challenge for her biographer.A sympathetic biography!!
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Summary: Princess or Goblin?
Review: I applaud Mr. Oller for all that research and the assuidity with which he conducted, tracking down all those friends and neighbors, and laying to rest all the rumors for all time. I still don't feel, however, that I know what was Jean Arthur's problem nor why people put up with her shenanigans as long as they did. I hope the sitcom "The Jean Arthur Show" goes into re-runs soon, Mr. Oller makes it sound like a cult classic. His book is thoughtfully written and immensely readable, but very very sad and depressing. I don't think I'll ever watch Jean Arthur again in any of her movies in quite the same way.
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Summary: Excellent. Well researched and entertaining reading.
Review: I don't normally read biographies but this one was great. John Oller has written a highly entertaining account of an incredible actress's life. It was a fun read.
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Summary: TO JOHN OLLER WE GIVE THANKS
Review: I had waited impatiently for almost 30 years for someone to tackle a biography of Jean Arthur, one of my favorite actresses and one of the brightest comediennes of the '30s and '40s. In my youthful naivete, seeing that nobody seemed interested in the project, I thought about taking on the job myself. Thank goodness I waited for John Oller to write his book instead! There's no way that anyone could have done a better job with this most reclusive and challenging of subjects. Even during her heyday, Ms. Arthur was an extremely private person--"America's Garbo," as she was called--and in the final decades of her life, snubbed all efforts from outsiders seeking autographs or interviews about her glorious past. It may seem faint praise to call Mr. Oller's book a definitive biography when it is the ONLY one to have ever been written, but I just don't see how anyone will ever gain more access to Jean Arthur information than he has presented here. Oller has taken the time to interview dozens of Arthur's friends and family members, as well as associates from her film and stage careers and from her various teaching posts. The book is remarkably evenhanded. Arthur was apparently a very complex person, with lots of insecurities and neuroses that made her somewhat of a problem to work with. (I'm trying to be kind here.) Oller clearly thinks the world of the actress, but at the same time doesn't shrink from telling us when a producer or neighbor had something rotten to say of her. And when Oller runs into an area where the evidence leads to no clear result (such as the case of Arthur's possible bisexuality), he gives us the facts as well as can be known and leaves it at that. The book is anything but sensationalistic.
This biography traces Arthur's roots all the way back to the 13th century (!) but at the same time does not get bogged down in needless verbiage. It moves swiftly along; indeed, I almost found myself wishing that Oller would devote more space to some of my favorite Arthur movies. One would think that the most interesting segment of this actress' story would be the great Hollywood years, but as it turned out, the latter portion of the book, dealing with Arthur's life after Hollywood, was even more interesting. Oller takes us on a trip through Arthur's stage career, her life as a student and teacher, and her reclusive final years in Carmel, CA. It's all fascinating material, especially for fans of the actress who were never privy to any of this stuff before. The author writes well; it's hard to believe that this biography is his first book. By reading closely and looking at the notes at the rear of this work, one deduces that Mr. Oller spent the better part of a decade on this project...and the results have paid off extremely well.
That said, I should also note that there ARE some small problems with the book; some minor mistakes that a close reading reveals. For example, there are some errors as regards dates. Oller writes that Arthur's play "The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake" had a preview on Wednesday, 11/2/67. However, in reality, that date was a Thursday. He writes that Arthur's brother Robert was born in March 1892 and died in November 1955 at age 61. Shouldn't that be 63? He writes that at the time of Arthur's death in 1991, she hadn't appeared in a film "in more than forty years." But if "Shane" came out in 1953, wouldn't that be "a mere" 38 years? Mr. Oller tells us that Dee Hoty--the actress who took over briefly for Ms. Arthur in "First Monday in October"-- was "barely twenty" that year (1975), although the Internet Broadway Database gives her birth date as 8/16/52, making her over 23 at the time. He writes of an Oscar ceremony in February 1935 as being in the "spring"; shouldn't that be "winter"? He tells us that the movie "The Stripper," in which Arthur was reportedly going to make a comeback, was based on the William Inge play "Celebration." I have always thought the play in question to be called "A Loss of Roses." Does it go by another name? To end this nitpicking, Mr. Oller tells us that "Shane" was the "third highest-grossing film of 1953." But as reported in the book "Box Office Hits," "Shane" came in fourth at $9 million, behind "Peter Pan" ($24 million), "The Robe" ($17.5 million) and "From Here To Eternity" ($12.2 million).
I feel that these oversights need to be pointed out, as they tend to undermine an otherwise meticulously researched volume, but at the same time feel a bit churlish for seeming ungrateful for Mr. Oller's hard work. The fact of the matter is that he has done the world, and fans of Ms. Arthur in particular and old-timey movies in general, a terrific service, and I am very grateful to him. I have read his book twice already, and will continue to refer to it for many years.
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Summary: A great biography for a great Jean Arthur
Review: I was absolutely satisfied with the infos I've found in this book. A truly amanzing biography. In John Oller's amazing job you can find ALL the things you didn't know about this mysterious Hollywood legend. From her parent's relatives to her movie plots, from the men (and women) of her life to the children she didn't have. Every Jeany's fan should read it! ;)
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Summary: A 'rahlly lovely, beautifully lovely' biography
Review: I was delighted to discover this book last year as I had been a fan of Miss Arthur for quite a while and didn't know much about her - until I read this book of course. This is the first ever biography written about this reluctant yet wonderful actress, often referred to as the 'American Garbo'. Mr Oller appears to have spent years researching Arthur's life (facts that Miss Arthur managed to keep hidden up to her death). Oller took on the massive challenge and all his painstsaking research paid off. He uncovers Arthur's family history, reveals her true date and place of birth, her warm but distanced relationship with her mother, her early apprentiship in silents and talkies, her eventual rise to stardom and her life away from acting. The book takes a sensitive look at Arthur's strange and often sad life (I found Oller's diagnosis of Arthur's problems especially welcome as I have problems similar to Arthur's). I found it fascinating to read of Arthur's backstagre tantrums and how she ended up pulling out of almost every stage production she was involved in due to apparent illness mixed with feelings of inferiority. I found the chapter describing Arthur's final years especially poignant - Arthur was bedridden for the last two years of her life after suffering a major stroke and had to be cared for by her dear friend Ellen Mastroianni (whom Oller interviewed for this book). I continue to admire Arthur after having read this and reccomend it to anyone interested in old Hollywood or simply in reading a fascinating life story.
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Summary: Quiet, Beautiful, Mysterious- Everything that Makes A Comic!
Review: I'm a new fan of Jean Arthur, so I'm not really sure of her life, and I'm sure not many people do. So you have to give the author credit, because she was probably more harder to find info about, then Greta Garbo. But, I'm glad people are writing about other great actresses and actors of the Golden Era of Hollywood, instead of writing about Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, and others, not that I don't like them, but how much more can you say about a person, you know what I mean? We need to have more books written on other forgotten stars and have them remembered again. Jean Arthur did a good job of hiding her private life, her life in general. But, unlike Greta Garbo she wasn't going to go out of backdoors or have secret elevators just so she could have her privacy. You gotta respect her for that. But, no matter how good of an actress you are, will you still be forgotten if you don't share your life with the world and live a public life, everything that goes on or when something bad happens, or if your gay or a lesbian, does that have to be know like Marilyn Monroe, etc.? Well Jean Arthur is very much forgotten. She was very beautiful, naturally beautiful, a talent all its own. A true comic. She could stands along against Carole Lombard, Thelma Todd, and others.
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Summary: Amazing
Review: I'm an admitted Jean Arthur fan. Unfortunately, I was born after the major part of her film career was over, but I managed to get to know her through the late show on tv and her ill-fated tv series.
Thankfully, John Oller managed to give Ms. Arthur's fans a view of the private woman that her movies absolutely never hinted at. He thoroughly researched his subject and gave us a glimpse of the lady that I had never been able to comprehend before.
Without going into details (and ruining this book for you), I can only tell you that I picked it up and read the entire book cover to cover in a few hours.
While Jean Arthur may have been the most famous "recluse" that Hollywood ever spawned since Greta Garbo, she was not reclusive at all in some ways. She needed her space and appeared to be comfortable with a certain level of anonymity in her later years. I think that element makes this an exceptional read because Jean Arthur had a lot of substance as a person as well as a strong sense of self-integrity.
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Summary: NEGLECTED STAR GETS STAR TREATMENT AT LAST
Review: It would appear that writing a compelling, readable, and entertaining biography is a daunting task. So many are dry, filled with facts and dates of little interest, or just plain dull. The difference here is that John Oller can actually WRITE. Ms. Arthur is, without doubt, one of the sorely neglected stars of any era. Her comic genius in "The More The Merrier" alone would merit a critical gushing today if anyone in the 21st century had even a modicum of the lady's superb timing and class. That she has appeared in several other classics (perhaps most notably "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington") certainly warrants a full scale biography and Mr. Oller succeeds brilliantly. The notoriously private Ms. Arthur is not painted as arch nor perverse; simply a woman with a different take on life and Hollywood. She saw there was more to life than glamour and makeup (even attending college during career lulls)and her 'eccentric' personality becomes all the more endearing under Mr. Oller's critical, yet always fair, judgments. The book isn't overstuffed with facts and dates; just what is needed. I wish all biographers would realize that sometimes less is, indeed, more. Highly recommended.
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