Customer Reviews

Alma Rubens, Silent Snowbird: Her Complete 1930 Memoir, with a New Biography and Filmography

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This book is unique in that the authors write their biography on Ms. Rubens and then present her autobiography in the next half of the book.

Alma pulled no punches in presenting her drug infested life. Even thought it was so long ago and I certainly didn't know her, my heart broke for her and the wasted life.

She wrote this in hopes to get people to realize the life of a drug addict.

Alma Rubens may not be among the best-known of silent film stars, but fame does not necessarily equal an interesting life story.

This very well made book has two parts: the first one gives a short chronology of Alma's life and acting work, which I found very useful and clarifying, as Alma doesn't really mention dates or talk about her films in her own story. This section also corrects some most likely false information given in Alma's account (after all she was an actor - actors' memoirs are rarely completely honest) and contains plenty of pictures ranging from beautiful studio portraits to a bleak snapshot of Alma near her end. That picture alone speaks volumes of her life.

The second part is Alma's memoir, written towards the end of her short life. As the editors of the book note, it may or may not be ghost-written, but considering Alma's literary aspirations there's a good chance the memoir is largely her own words. She doesn't spend much time dealing with her early years, instead focusing on her troubled adult life. These chapters are very detailed, describing the endless drug parties of the rich and famous (while she was actively attending these parties she writes about them in a disapproving tone, often shocked by what she has seen taking place during such parties), her painful stays in mental institutes and, most of all, her all-consuming drug addiction. She makes absolutely no attempts to glamourize her drug habit, and the reader can truly feel her increasing gloom and misery. This is no story of a glamorous, party-hopping 1920s flapper girl. The last chapter is particularly poignant with a completely shattered Alma correctly predicting her own tragic end. An unforgettably heartbreaking end to an already harrowing book.

I can only wish there were more books like this, there are plenty of largely forgotten stars with book-worthy life stories (Barbara La Marr, anyone?), and I want to thank the editors for compiling this gem.