Customer Reviews

Art Carney: A Biography (Applause Books)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A pleasure to read! Starr's account of the life of this incredibly talented actor deserves great recognition! One has a true compassion for the trials of Art's life and how he has overcome adversity so completely. The casual observer will be surprised to learn of Carney's range as an actor(it could have been titled "There's More Than Norton"!). The only mild criticism is the jumbling of the storyline sequencing in both "Harry and Tonto" and "Going in Style". This book was a delight and I appreciate Mr. Starr taking the initiative to put this great chronicle together! Steve Schockow Brighton, NY

This might have been a wonderful, well-rounded chronicle of Art Carney's life, but it's rather disappointing because the author makes a dangerous assumption.

If you're looking for a "Honeymooners Companion," this isn't it. Although the front cover features a big mug shot of Carney as happy-go-lucky "Ed Norton," the actual text AVOIDS Norton in favor of Carney's overall career as a working actor. The author assumes that everybody knows Norton, and gives the character little more than casual mention and only one photograph. The author concedes that Norton was Art Carney's most famous character, but tells the reader nothing about what made him so special. No examples of Carney's comic cleverness and improvisations on the set, no descriptions of classic Norton bits, nothing about how the "Honeymooners" shows were staged. The entire life span of the series is introduced and then dismissed within only three paragraphs: it went on, it wasn't a huge hit first-run, it caught on in reruns. And that's all, because it is assumed that we know. Not one of the 39 episodes is described, or mentioned by title. Art Carney's pivotal character comes across as merely a footnote in his own biography.

Surprisingly for a comedian's story, there is little joy in the book. Most of the behind-the-scenes anecdotes dwell on Carney's problems with alcoholism and their effect on his personal and professional life. The author quotes many of Carney's colleagues, who offer their impressions of what went wrong. It is a measure of Carney's integrity that he always managed to pull himself back together and go from strength to strength. The reader admires how the actor battled his personal demons, but because the thrust of the book is distorted, the face of the subject is indistinct. We don't get to know him as well as we'd like. Many of his achievements and appearances are mentioned either in passing or not at all.

Carney's life story is interesting and the author doesn't sugar-coat the backstage drama, so "Art Carney: A Biography" is recommended with reservations. This reader likes Art Carney, as a comedian and as a dramatic actor, and it's good to see him recognized as a versatile performer. But the book might as well be titled "Where's Norton?"

It's hard to believe that someone could write a boring book about somebody as funny as Art Carney,but Michael Starr did it.I had to struggle to finish the book.You get almost no sense of what made Carney a comic genius.Starr instead prefers to write at length about Carney's drinking problem and depression.Frankly,it got tedious after awhile.You'll noyice that there's been only one other review of this book in the 3 years that it's been out.Other reader's must have followed the old maxim"If you can't say something nice,don't say anything at all."

Art Carney is so much more than just a foil for Jackie Gleason's Ralph Cramden. Without reading the biography of Art Carney, you would pass over the ability he had to make Gleason look good. The fact that he seems to be without an ego is the whole reason that those skits were so successful. He was the "wind beneath Gleason's wings". And who would ever have thought that a "second banana" would ever win an Academy Award?

Any fan of the Honeymooners (I was tempted to write "even casual" but with that show, you've got to be a huge fan from day one)) will love this book; or anyone who got see Art on Broadway, in the movies....or even on Laugh-In).
This is the very valuable, of course long-awaited book on one of the most versatile (and likeable) actors in history. Consider that he was a band singer, live TV character actor, dramatic actor in that medium and others - oh, and by the way, basically *created* one of the greatest sketch/sit-com characters: E. L. Norton.
This book is loaded with facts and touching anecdotes about this still-mysterious figure. In fact, for those who kind of "grew up" with AC, the career resume at the end (and the many rare photos, beautfully reproduced!) would be worth the cost of the book! You could read this work cover-to-cover on a NY to FLA flight - then want to look for the theatre in which Art re-joined Jackie in 1966 for new and reworked Honeymooners' sketches.
It seems to me that Art Carney is the most successful *established* TV actor to amke a seamless transition to Broadway and the movies. How many can you name have done that?
You will not find the kind of depth another writer provided in a book on Jerry Lewis, "The King Of Comedy", but this remains a highly recommended literary opus.
[correction: Art returned to the Gleason show in September of '62 for a sketch reminscent of "Be Big", a Laurel and Hardy short, which did involve Ralph-Ed-Alice-Trixie. The sketch Starr mentions came about a month later].
[footnote: my copy has a different cover photo probably from the same photo session].