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Summary: What an eye-opener!
Review: I'd heard rumors of lesbian activity during the glamour days of Hollywood, but had never found anything to verify them. THE GIRLS is an exhaustive look into the world few of us will ever know. The author's evidently done her homework, if the notes at the back of the book are any indication. This is a compelling read for anyone who's ever been a 'fan' of the theatre, the movies or who is interested in the evolution of the Communist party in America. Enjoy!
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Summary: The best ever book on lesbians in classic American cinema.
Review: BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN...at times humorous and ironic, at other times quite sad (reflecting on the sacrifices these high-profile women were forced to make for their times). This compelling book will have you up all night as you hungrily devour each page.
But most of all this book delivers the most HONEST and INFORMATIVE source of the private lives of these women...look no further!
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Summary: Author's Response to Rudi Polt
Review: Dear Mr. Polt, Thanks for your good note. I'm of course aware that some believe that Herta von Walther played the Dietrich role in the Garbo film Die freudlose Gasse, "The Joyless Street". The two women looked vaguely similar - although von Walther's features were coarser, her eyes a little closer together. They were probably friends as well as colleagues. (As you know, von Walther was considered by Josef von Sternberg for the juicy role of Lola-Lola in 1930's "Blue Angel", before it went so gloriously to Dietrich, and changed her life.) My theory is that Marlene asked Herta to lie for her when she promised to pipe down about being in "The Joyless Street" with Garbo, and that Herta agreed. (I go into the reasons at length in "The Girls".) No wonder she "laughed" when she was identified as Dietrich! Despite her vow, Dietrich, when cornered, occasionally conceded that she was "an extra standing in line" in "The Joyless Street". Only one figure in that line could conceivably be Dietrich - the one who catches the fainting Garbo in her arms. If one compares the close-up I show of the black-haired Marlene (with her widely spaced eyes!) in "Street" with certain shots made later (without von Sternberg's face-modelling lighting) it's very clear that it was she, not von Walther, in that role. She actually told her late-life friend and biographer David Bret, who knew from her Berlin friends that she had been in "The Joyless Street", "Yes, and in the end I killed the butcher..." To know about that ax-murder - so horrible that it was completely slashed by the censors - she had to be there. I too have seen that film program, by the way. I believe it was printed to accompany a later re-release of the film. Again, thank you for your communication. Sorry to bore the reader who doesn't want to know all this! All good wishes, Diana McLellan
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Summary: The Girls - Mistake on the role play of Else
Review: Dear Mrs. Diana: You have two picture-pages in your book 'THE GIRLS' concerning Marlene Dietrich played in that movie 'Die freudlose Gasse'. Miss Dietrich was never in that film; the one who they called Marlene Dietrich, actually was Herta von Walther who play the role 'Else'. Miss von Walther looks a little bit like Marlene Dietrich in the fifties, special with the scarf on, many people mis-reconzied Herta von Walther as Marlene Dietrich. I was a good friend of Herta von Walther for many years, she always laughted when she was identified as Marlene Dietrich and she took it as a compliment. If you would like to have any further informations on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact with me, I have the original film program and pictures fo Herta von Walther. My Telephone number: 1-808-7373153, you can reach me before 8:00am in the morning Hawaii time. My e-mail address: rudipolt@aol.com My mailing address: 3340 Monsarrat Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815, U.S.A. Best regards, Rudi Polt
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Summary: Entertaining and Informative
Review: Entertaining writing combined with years of extensive research makes THE GIRLS both fun and informative to read. Ms. McLellan has plumbed the depths of multiple sources including interviews, mauscript and letter collections, FBI and other government files, and film clips as well as published accounts to create a fascinating group biography which reveals much about the private lives of some of Hollywood's most famous screen goddesses, most notably Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Tallulah Bankhead. McLellan's enlightening descriptions of the complex relationships between her main figures also explains much about the inner workings and power relationships of Hollywood during this period (the 1920s, 30s, 40s and early 50s). Her well-documented account of the many lesbian and bisexual affairs of her "girls" may be what strikes the reader first, but even more fascinating is her picture of political intrigue behind the scenes in Hollywood. Most interesting is Dietrich's first and secret husband -- international writer, Soviet spy and Commuist organizer Otto Katz -- who operated in Europe and the United States under various aliases. (As Rudolph Breda, he founded the secretly Soviet-supported Anti-Nazi League in Hollywood in 1935.) All in all, this is a book to be snapped up not only by film buffs, but also by anyone interested in the period who enjoys a good read.
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Summary: Calling all fans of 'Auntie Mame': Here's the real thing!
Review: For all the millions who have read & adored the timeless classic "Auntie Mame": Here's the real thing, now come to life. "The Girls" is written with a similarly highly intelligent, divinely witty & truly loving voice, embracing the most outlandish behaviour amongst the 20th century's glamour-puss set - only this time they're the REAL women: Dietrich, Garbo, Bankhead, Nazimova, de Acosta & crew. Never a slash-&-trash book, "The Girls" rises above the usual "tell-all" gossip slinging, giving us instead a brilliantly insightful eye for the time, the places, & (a real revelation) who some of the true key players were in 20th century politics as well as theatre & film. McClellan teaches us much about how many of the most important portions of the 20th century were actually decided upon & achieved by the women & men (gentle reader: note the order) who are the main focus of this book, & the politicians, generals, statesmen & FBI/CIA heads they unfailingly enthralled. Fabulous!
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Summary: More gossip than fact
Review: I enjoyed getting to know some of the Hollywood insiders and the writing was fast paced enough to prevent boredom but I felt I had to take it all with a grain of salt. Seemed based as much on speculation by the author as any research done.
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Summary: Absolutely essential reading for fans of Garbo/Dietrich lore
Review: I have been through many of the sources used for this book, and I really appreciated the way the author ties so many loose ends together, and fills in so very many gaps in the various sagas. Plus the considerable socio/political backround info through the decades. Its interesting to see just how much politics played a heavy role in these lives, one way or another; an aspect I had not considered. For example, Garbo's career being torpedoed in the end mainly by her total reliance on Schlee and Salka Viertel, who was essentially blacklisted beginning in the mid-1940s -- something you definitely won't pick up from Salka's bio! The character who comes through as paradoxically the most warm and human is Tallulah Bankhead, and who would have thought it? This could possibly happen only in comparison with the rest of these particular subjects. Its an absorbing, in-depth review of eras, attitudes, and lifestyles now totally "gone with the wind".
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Summary: Absolutely essential reading for fans of Garbo/Dietrich lore
Review: I have been through many of the sources used for this book, and I really appreciated the way the author ties so many loose ends together, and fills in so very many gaps in the various sagas. Plus the considerable socio/political backround info through the decades. Its interesting to see just how much politics played a heavy role in these lives, one way or another; an aspect I had not considered. For example, Garbo's career being torpedoed in the end mainly by her total reliance on Schlee and Salka Viertel, who was essentially blacklisted beginning in the mid-1940s -- something you definitely won't pick up from Salka's bio! The character who comes through as paradoxically the most warm and human is Tallulah Bankhead, and who would have thought it? This could possibly happen only in comparison with the rest of these particular subjects. Its an absorbing, in-depth review of eras, attitudes, and lifestyles now totally "gone with the wind".
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Summary: An interesting work of....fiction?
Review: I must admit that I could hardly put this book down. It was dishy, with everyone hopping into bed with everyone else in the space of a few pages. However I didn't take one iota of it seriously. Basing a large portion of the book on a supposition (that Dietrich is in Joyless Street, that she had Garbo had an affair) is it's one major weak point. Also, the fact that the author uses Hollywood Babylon as a source for several "facts" in her book seriously compromises its credibility. As one reviewer already stated, the facts of the Arbuckle scandal (taken from that rag Hollywood Babylon) was covered in less than one paragraph with no questioning from the author. I guess that after questioning the lives of Dietrich and Garbo for so many pages, she didn't have any time to investigate the Arbuckle case and try to find some new "facts." A piece of advice to ALL authors on old Hollywood: do NOT use Kenneth Anger's book - based totally on gossip, you need to sift through a mountain of garbage to find one tiny grain of truth. It is not that much more difficult to bypass it and find more reliable sources.
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