Customer Reviews

Bette Davis

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While this book isn't by any means a definitive biography about the legendary Bette Davis - nor does it pretend to be - it's actually more fun to read than many books about Bette, because it reveals many facets of Davis's complex personality and fun tidbits which one doesn't find in other books written about this celebrated lady. Roy Moseley was introduced to the world of Bette Davis movies via his mother - who was a fan - as a boy and grew to admire her so much that he made it a point to know her personally - a feat he accomplished!

There are various anecdotes in the book which are refreshing, surprising and funny: seems Bette was a most contradictory woman who could be extremely unpredictable: honest, caring and lovable one minute and harsh, cynical and monstrous the next. Apparently, like most great stars, geniuses, etc., she was quite insecure and a walking paradox who was fascinating but exhausting to be around!

The book is a valuable read for fans (and there are many) of this great First Lady of the Silver Screen because it reveals the real woman behind the legend. As I have long suspected, Moseley pointedly states that many things Davis said in print about her life were totally worthless as historical facts biograpy-wise, because she tended (as many stars of her era did) to romanticize/whitewash her personal life to the point of rendering it rather dull. And dull definitely is not an adjective one would use to describe this brilliant woman!

The books is -- sort of -- fun. But, Mr. Moseley is whinnnnnny about being shut out of Bette Davis's life, after he went behind her back to work on a book with an author, without her consent - is this a 'friend'?
Poor Mr. Moseley, with only brushes with Greatness (Davis and others) he is left to write books to bad mouth the dead, to find his fame -- how pathetic.

First of all I must say that the only reason why I bought this book is because Google Books wouldn't allow me to preview the whole thing so I was curious to read the last chapters and understand what lead the author to write such an awful and disrespectful memoir about someone he keeps describing as "one of my best friends".

Roy Moseley was always fashinated by celebrities and stardom and after school decided to work in show business, looking for any kind of job that would allow him to approach movie stars. He began as simple dresser, eventually evolving into star-agent. He had been a Davis fan all his life and his biggest dream was to meet her, but unlike other actresses Bette was not so easy to reach since she always refused the glamorous Hollywood life and retired to her beloved East Cost as soon as a movie was completed. He didn't give up and many years later, through various acquaintances, he finally managed to meet her and became a friend of hers for 15 years.

If the first chapters are kind of sweet and the reader might identify with Moseley and his adoration for this legendary woman, it doesn't take much before he reveals his real nature. The more you go on reading the more stalkerish he gets. "All About Roy" would have been a much appropriate title since it's basically all about HIM. He adores name-dropping, claming everybody was a friend of his and often taking credits for things he didn't do (such as arranging meeting and events). He's a real showbiz parasite. This book was originally released in 1989; Bette wasn't pleased by it and thought about sueing him but eventually didn't. In 2003 a new edition came out. "In this revised edition I have added to the story some details I did not feel comfortable telling while the great actress was still living." Well done Moseley, you're such a great friend. I haven't read the first edition but I can only guess the things he added. Through the whole book he never misses a chance to wain how Bette broke their relationship; you can clearly feel the resentment. This would explain the awful things he wrote here and there, such as: "The great mystery to me was where she actually found the depth of character that she put into her great performances. In the whole fifteen years that I spent with her, I was never able to detect an intellect or depth of human understanding that would have been capable of producing such great interpretations of such a wide range of characters." I find this, as well as many other remarks, totally disrespectful. How can he claim to be a friend if he had such a low consideration about her? He clearly liked to be around famous people, no matter what. Also, he always made sure not to contradict her because he wanted to stay in her life as much as possible, he never showed his "true colors", which I found rather annoying. Their friendship ended when Moseley was asked by Charles Higman to co-write a book about Davis. She hated the idea, Higman wrote some very controversial biographies in the past, so she asked Moseley to give up the project. Of course he didn't, and that's how it all ended. Higman and Moseley co-wrote various books together until they eventually had some kind of quarrel. As it is reported on Wikipedia: "In the first edition of Moseley's memoir of Bette Davis, Higham is called "my great friend", but in the second revised edition he is a "doubtful author" and his name is omitted from the acknowledgements". I think this tells ALL about the reliability of this book.
Taking about reliability... I have read many books about Bette so I couldn't help but notice some major mistakes, which makes me wonder even more about its content. Funny because Moseley criticizes Whitney Stine's "Mother Goddamm" (which is like THE BIBLE about Bette's career) stating "it turned out to be a dreadful book" (jealous much, Moseley?), as well as Bette's autobiographies, saying they're not reliable since she tended to tramatize things. Well, he should be very careful about dissing other people's books since HIS book is full of mistakes.

First of all, the infamous story about Bette coming back to the studio after being bandaged by her real doctor to have a more realistic effect... He says the movie was "20.000 years in Sing-Sing". WRONG! Everybody knows it was "Marked Women". Then Bette's fantasy about making love on a bed full of gardenias... It came true with composer Johnny Mercer, but Moseley says it happened with Howard Hughes. He takes credit for photographer George Hurrell's reborn career, stating he "talked the great celebrity photographer out of obscurity to photograph Bette. After that, his career was revived." The year was 1977, Bette was asked by the AFI to provide some new pictures for publicity. But the truth is Hurrell had been contacted by Stine two years before for the backcover picture of "Mother Goddamm". Moseley tries to picture Davis as a monster, saying nobody in Hollywood could stand her. Talking about Frank Capra's AFI he reports "she received only a muted welcome from the audience". Clips reveal quite the contrary, as she was welcomed with a full standing ovation. He badmouths Bette and Olivia DeHavilland's long friendship writing down a totally different speech by Olivia at the AFI. "As a little girl in San Francisco I remember looking at the screen and seeing this wonderful actress, Bette Davis." No such words ever came out of her mouth. He went on "this offended Bette, as DeHavilland was all of seven years younger than she." He remembers about Bette calling him the next day shouting: "Olivia saying she remembered watching me as a kid. I told you she hated me!". These are just a few examples. In general Moseley seems to put bad words into Bette's mouth all the time, as if she hated everyone she ever worked with. I have the impression he often took her too seriously, not understanding her at all. The fact she had fights with someone didn't necessarily mean she hated or didn't respect said person. As a matter of fact she had the biggest fights with William Wyler, who she considered the love of her life and for whom she always had the greatest admiration. Most of the times he writes about things he heard by someone else (not a very accurate way to write a book) and he disses anyone who came in between him and Bette, such as her assistant Kathryn Sermack or her manager Harold Shiff. He sounds quite jealous and full of himself, having the nerve to write things as: "I believe that if Bette had not ended our friendship so abruptly and cruelly, I could have helped her to retain her links with B.D." -- Who the hell does he think he his?!

If you'd like a more personal glimpse into Bette's life I suggest Whitney Stine's "I'd Love To Kiss You: Conversations with Bette Davis" (aka "No Guts, No Glory: conversations with Bette Davis") where Stine writes about working with Bette for the book "Mother Goddamm" and how they became longtime friends. Davis was very temperamental and not easy to handle, and he never denied it; but nevertheless he always talked about her with great respect. The respect that Moseley clearly doesn't have.

I enjoyed reading Moseley's book, as it offered some intimate views of Miss Davis's life during the time he spent with her. It was sometimes difficult, however, to follow things in a chronological fashion as the author tended to skip around a lot. I think that was due to telling a certain story and then needing to backtrack or skip ahead to fill in some facts and info.
It did bother me a little to realize the lengths many people will go to in order to be around movie stars. People had to morph into marionettes on strings in order to placate Miss Davis, and yet at the same time, she disliked the very qualities she demanded in people.
Moseley's book showed the strange, contradictory workings of Davis's mind and personality. She was both sensitive/vulnerable and cruel/overbearing at the same time. She wanted to be liked but her actions guaranteed conflict and resentment.
Moseley himself gave this reader the impression that he was somewhat full of himself and that he enjoyed name-dropping, but I liked his book anyway.

a very perceptive memoir of actress bette davis by her friend of many years,roy moseley. moseley was a fan who became a friend. having read a few other books about bette davis,i found mr moseley's description of her to be accurate and what i expected. bette seems to have been a difficult (at times impossible) person to deal with. i think it shows great strength of character that mr moseley was able to tolerate bette's negative side and to continue to stay with her and be her friend instead of backing away.
by the by,i see nothing wrong with mr moseley's book. he is straightforward in his recollections and seems to have genuinely cared about bette davis as a person,not just as a movie star.