From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond [Paperback]

Yvonne Craig (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0967807565 | ISBN-13: 978-0967807560 | Publication Date: September 2000

A humorous but extremely candid autobiography encompassing Ms. Craig's show business career. Starting as the youngest member of the famed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and segueing to a Hollywood movie and TV career, she shares her experiences both on and offscreen with Elvis, Bill Bixby, Howard Hughes, Mort Sahl, James Coburn and numerous others. Ms. Craig appeared as the green Orion slave girl in Star Trek as well as playing "Batgirl" in the Batman TV series.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born and reared in Ohio, Ms. Craig graduated at sixteen and sped to New York to pursue a ballet career. In typical Hollywood fashion she was snapped up for the lead in her first film whilst dining in a Los Angeles restaurant. This is her first book - an anecdotal autobiography. She currently lives with her husband in Los Angeles and is working on her next (a children's) book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: Kudu Pr (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967807565
• ISBN-13: 978-0967807560
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,887,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty memoir from the original Dominoed Dare-Doll, September 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond (Paperback)

This is a cut above the standard Hollywood autobiography, probably due in large part to Yvonne Craig's being a cut above your standard issue Hollywood starlet. Unaffected and welcoming in person, this book is the next best thing to a good long chat with TV's Batgirl. If you're as interested in Yvonne the person as in Batgirl the comic book icon, then you'll be more than rewarded for your time. NOTE: this book is also available new through Yvonne Craig's website, www.yvonnecraig.com, which I feel obligated to mention due to some used book dealers here trying to con people out of $200. Her fans don't deserve to be preyed upon in this fashion.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Joy To Read, December 10, 2002

By 

Arthur A. Fiore (East Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond (Paperback)

Before opening Yvonne Craig's book "From Ballet To The Batcave And Beyond," I had read all the comments by readers, who had complained that too much of the book dealt with the ballet and with people whom Ms. Craig met while making movies and doing guest appearances on old television shows. Some seemed disappointed that there was nothing risque or "juicy," and that too many chapters were dedicated to subjects in which people who would read an Yvonne Craig autobiography would not be interested. I also read that there wasn't enough in the book about the "Batman" series. So, quite frankly, being a HUGE "Batman" fan, I half-expected to be bored by much, if not most, of this book.
WRONG!
Ms. Craig has such a delightful writing style, intelligence, a great vocabulary and a wonderful sense of humor, that I found the ENTIRE book just a JOY to read. So much so, that I, who know nothing about, and have virtually no interest in, the ballet, found even *those* sections of the book interesting and entertaining. And, although I am not what one might call an "animal lover," I immensely enjoyed her chapter dedicated to the animals in her life through the years.
Even her literary treatments of those individuals in Hollywood of whom she does not or did not seem to think very highly -- Lee Majors, Rudy Vallee, William Shatner, Charles Bronson -- were tasteful, and done with class and just the right amount of humor.

At the risk of sounding corny or something, it is apparent to me that there was once a May day when our Heavenly Father must have been quite pleased with this world, for on that day He gave us a most remarkable and special gift which we call "Yvonne."

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, well written, sometimes boring, but worthwhile, December 2, 2001

By 

"songlife" (Dayton, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond (Paperback)

It's a fun read. I like the fact that Yvonne didn't use a co-writer like most celebs. Her words are all her own and she has an excellent vocabulary (though at times, using some pretentious adjectives, I thought; although perhaps this is her usual style of speaking, I dunno.) The most interesting parts of the book to me were her recollections of working on Batman and Star Trek, as well as the guest shots she did on such classic shows as Mod Squad and Dobie Gillis. It's great to have an insider's view of the stars and the shooting conditions, including her Elvis movies and her perspectives on his personality, which were fascinating. Personally, I would have preferred even more of that, especially the Batman days, because Batgirl is what Yvonne is mostly known for - she basically retired from show biz after that. Some of her memories are the same ones depicted by Adam West and Burt Ward in their books (with humorously different perspectives), and her memories of Batman's large list of guest star villains are opinionated but too few and too short. Also there's no annotated episode guide (probably because West did it first, and she was only in the last season) and only a few memories of specific episodes. I expected more of that stuff from her since I believed prior to purchase that the majority of the book would cover Batman. Instead, there are some chapters I didn't find very interesting (about ballet and such) and will skip in the future. To be fair, the word 'ballet' is in the title, after all - but I felt that too many chapters were devoted to things that the majority people who buy this book would not have a large degree of interest in.

Overall, Yvonne conveys the characteristics of being an astute, intelligent, earthy, and ego-free person who is not afraid to tell it like it is (or was) concerning the various celebrities she's worked with (especially Charles Bronson, Rudy Vallee, and William Shatner, all of whom she thought were jerks). Although I must add this: in West's book (and particularly Ward's), they humorously and candidly described a lot of their sexual escapades in those days, being members of "the beautiful elite" as they were at the time (as Yvonne was too), and those risque stories made their books more interesting. That kind of stuff is totally absent from Yvonne's memoirs. She seems to be rather like her Barbara Gordon character - prim and proper, at least as far as kissing and telling, and certainly in her use of 'colorful' language. The raciest she gets is to mention that Adam West once touched her breast, and that she wished Aaron Spelling (of all people) had asked her out! I suppose this is just me 'being a guy' (i.e. shallow), and if so, then Yvonne's book will primarily appeal to women, who probably don't want to hear the risque stuff. Perhaps I had the wrong preconception of what would be in the book, after reading West's and Ward's ego-filled (though entertaining) books and also seeing Yvonne's sexy open-legged cover shot. As it turns out, she's not interested in disclosing the types of things that they did, and she would prefer to talk about her ballet dancing and knitting. But that's fine; it's her book and her life after all, and she perhaps feels that those types of tales would be mere sales gimmicks. Or maybe there's no tales to tell! Anyway, she's candid in all other respects, has an endearing and down-to-earth style of writing, and devotes an adequate amount of time to Batman for the fans. She even divulges personal things like the fact that she can't swim and refers to herself as a "sinker", which I found touching since I'm the same way.

Yvonne's book is a worthwhile purchase and a good late-night read. An additional note: the book (at least my copy) is cheaply bound by Kudu Press. On the second reading, the pages, particularly the picture pages, started to fall out. The book really can't be bent very wide at all without this happening. It's not that uncommon, but a little annoying considering the rather high price for this paperback.