Alice Faye: A Life Beyond the Silver Screen (Hollywood Legends) [Hardcover]

Jane Lenz Elder (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hollywood Legends | Publication Date: September 27, 2002

Alice Faye's sweet demeanor, sultry glances, and velvety voice were her signatures. Her haunting rendition of "You'll Never Know" has never been surpassed by any other singer. Fans adored her in such films as Alexander's Ragtime Band, Rose of Washington Square, Tin Pan Alley, Week End in Havana, and Hello, Frisco, Hello.

In the 1930s and 1940s she reigned as queen of 20th Century Fox musicals. She co-starred with such legends as Shirley Temple, Tyrone Power, Carmen Miranda, and Don Ameche and was voted the number-one box-office attraction of 1940, placing ahead of Bette Davis and Myrna Loy. To a select cult, she remains a beloved star.

In 1945 at the pinnacle of her career she chose to walk out on her Fox contract. This remarkable episode is unlike any other in the heyday of the big-studio system. Her daring departure from films left Fox mogul Darryl F. Zanuck and the rest of the movie industry flabbergasted. For years she had skirmished with him over her roles, her health, and her private life. His heavy-handed film editing of her fine work in Otto Preminger's drama Fallen Angel, a role she had fought for, relegated Faye to the shadows so that Zanuck could showcase the younger Linda Darnell.

After leaving Fox, Faye (1915­1998) devoted herself to her marriage to radio star Phil Harris, to motherhood, and to a second career on radio in the Phil Harris­ Alice Faye Show, broadcast for eight years. She happily gave up films in favor of the independence and self-esteem that she discovered in private life. She willingly freed herself of the "star-treatment" that debilitated so many of her contemporaries. In the 1980s she emerged as a spokeswoman for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, touring America to encourage senior citizens to make their lives more meaningful and vital.

Before Betty Grable, before Marilyn Monroe--Alice Faye was first in the lineup of 20th Century Fox blondes. This book captures her special essence, her work in film, radio, and popular music, and indeed her graceful survival beyond the silver screen.

Jane Lenz Elder, a librarian at Southern Methodist University, is the author of Across the Plains to Santa Fe and The Literature of Beguilement: Promoting America from Columbus to Today. She is co-editor of Trading in Santa Fe: John M. Kingsbury's Correspondence with James Josiah Webb, 1853-1861.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The biography of the 20th Century Fox film star who quit acting at the pinnacle of her career and found happiness and success after Hollywood

Product Details

• Hardcover: 313 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi; First Edition edition (September 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578062101
• ISBN-13: 978-1578062102
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally A Book About Alice Faye, November 12, 2002

By 

Gail K. Powers "Abra" (Harbor Country, Mi,N. Naples, FL, Chicago area) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alice Faye: A Life Beyond the Silver Screen (Hollywood Legends) (Hardcover)

I was absolutely delighted to see that someone finally took the time to write a book about this lovely lady. Alice Faye was one of the best performers to come out of 20th Century Fox and this book is a long overdue profile of her career as well as a revealing study of her life.
Written with the full cooperation of her daughters Alice and Phyllis, it is surprisingly objective and isn't one of those saccharine biographies often authorized by family members after a person's death. It presents an interesting portrait of Faye. There is the public Alice who was seemingly very accessible to her fans. The private Alice is a woman with a bitingly sarcastic sense of humor who could be a warm and caring friend, but always sort of held back and had few intimate friends.
What I found most interesting was some of the things discussed in the book such as her relationship with Rudy Vallee (where they ever romatically involved?), her interesting yet enduring marriage to Phil Harris (a strange dynamic here, but it worked), her reticence to discuss family history with her kids.....all these elements made her seem a lot more interesting than what appeared on the surface.
While I can't say that this book answers all the questions surrounding Alice Faye, it certainly has made a solid attempt to try to present the facts that are known and letting the reader draw his/her own conclusions.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An All-Round Interesting Book, March 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice Faye: A Life Beyond the Silver Screen (Hollywood Legends) (Hardcover)

Good things do happen to good people! In Ms. Elder's comprehensive biography of Alice Faye's we experience a young girl who emerges from a broken and impoverished home unscarred and loving. Her dreams of becoming a dancer place her in an atmosphere of traveling bands and their leaders, one night stands, and the New York night club scene, and in this atmosphere where so many others lost their ideals, she enjoys the friendship and respect of all her co-workers, male and female, as well as success.. She enters the Hollywood movie arena of the 40's and 50's, where Mr. Zanuck and moguls of the movie studios try to dictate movie roles to her, yet she holds fast to what she inherently knows is correct and triumphs. And when she knows the time is right for her to quit show business and begin a private life, she does so and has many happy years with her family in a good marriage.

Ms. Elder's excellent writing maintains a balance between the career of Ms. Faye and the social and business environment in which she found herself. Indeed, this book gives splendid insight into the world of show business, from the early night club scene in New York to the developing Hollywood movie business with its contract players, radio broadcasts, and the early days of television. Of particular interest is the role of the newspaper reporters and the film magazines, as well as the role of the movie studios' publicity departments.

This is an all-round interesting book, well researched and documented. I felt I really knew Alice by the end of the book, and admired her strength and values.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than Just A Biography, February 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice Faye: A Life Beyond the Silver Screen (Hollywood Legends) (Hardcover)

Alice Faye was an ordinary woman who led an extraordinary life. In this well researched, lucidly written biography, Jane Lenz Elder explores the many contradictions of Alice Faye: her struggles with stage fright and poor self image despite her enormous stage presence and success, her commitment to marriage and family despite a busy professional life, and her courageous willingness to act in her own best interests in a day when performers were expected to conform to the rigid codes of the Hollywood contract system.

But this book is more than just another biography of a silver screen legend. Ms Elder's background as a historian is evident in the detailed background provided. The reader will learn about the difficulties of life in Hell's Kitchen in the early years of the 20th century, how Prohibition created the night club milieu in which Faye developed her skills, and how business was conducted during the heyday of the great Hollywood studio chiefs.

The result is a rich story about a simple woman during one of the most interesting times in Hollywood history.