Customer Reviews

Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke

5 star:		(22)
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I really appreciate this book. Patty Duke tells her story well and I applaud her for having the courage to let the whole world know about her private adversities, especially her struggle with illness. Since learning more about Patty Duke, I also highly recommend a little book by Taro Gold called "Open Your Mind, Open Your Life" which contains many inspirational thoughts based on the Buddhism that Patty Duke practices. Excellent.

I read this book about 10 years ago, and it began a healingprocess in my own life. I have ADD but had been diagnosed ManicDepressed and Bi-Polar for 20 years due to the sub-characteristic symptoms that ADD/ADHD has...they are the same as a manic depressed person but not to the severity. It is an exceptional book of insight into this disorder, and an incredible biography of an incredible peer of the baby boomer generation! And a MUST after reading Patty Duke's (Anna) autobiography is to read her sequel which gives even more encouragement that those of us with any mental disorder are "not freaks" but can live healthy, functional lives and be of great help to our whole society. The sequel is "A Brilliant Madness" also by Patty Duke and Gloria Hochman, originally published by Bantam books.

"Call Me Anna" is Patty's own story. Patty Duke wrote this book in 1988 long before it was fashionable to "tell all" like today's throwaway "stars" do.

Like millions of Americans, Patty Duke has always been one of my most cherished TV actresses because her talent is so deep and thought-provoking. But I never knew much about her, until I read "Call Me Anna."

"Call Me Anna" describes Patty's rise to TV stardom (playing the title character on the classic "Patty Duke Show") and subsequent fall, partly due to her illness. Patty talks candidly for the first time about the bridges she burned, and the people she hurt while she struggled with her disease, bipolar disorder.

Patty was one of the very first (if not the first?) bona fide celebrity to discuss her own mental illness. And she was a pioneer in the rights of the mentally ill, and for that she should be highly regarded.

I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading about TV stars, or anyone who cares about someone who is struggling with mental illness (especially bipolar disorder). I also recommend Patty's second book, "Brilliant Madness" which describes the disease in a more clinical manner.

--that this book is also of value even if you care nothing about bipolar conditions, for Kenneth Turan really convinced Patty Duke to put all her cards out on the table, and the result is more than just a medical textbook as some of the other reviewers would like you to believe. It is, among other things, the inside story of the most remarkable child actress of her day, and of a strange career that included Broadway stardom and the Academy Award for THE MIRACLE WORKER, as well as the punishing, grueling TV treadmill called THE PATTY DUKE SHOW, in which she played two lookalike cousins with such consummate verve that many children who watched the show thought there were actually two different actresses playing the parts, and of course the divine dreck of BILLIE, "Funny Little Butterflies," and VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.

Indeed it's a book that has everything, everything, including the details of her feud with Lucille Ball and her days counting her fingers to figure out if John Astin or Desi Jr was the father of her baby.

Her star has sunk in later years but she is still one of the incandescent acting personalities of our time.

Born poor and surrounded by addicts and illness, young Anna Marie Duke drifted into the arms of a society-busy married couple wanting to represent her in show business; they were odd social climbers who nonchalantly took away Duke's identity and gave her a made-up existence that crumbled once the photographers went home. A few of Duke's stories, while never less than candid and darkly amusing, are nearly too wild to believe(or maybe that's because they seem half-finished, as with the story of a motel molestation attempt or a day at a doctor's office where Patty's grandmother was deeply shaken after being forced into a strange contraption apparently meant to subdue her). Patty the Singer gets a colorful chapter(she hated her records for the UA label)and the chaos surrounding "Valley of the Dolls" is wonderfully captured. The final chapters skitter over her mental illness and a new marriage, and Patty doesn't delve much into her feelings as a woman(having her second child seemed to help her blossom, but we don't feel her passion, mostly her drive, her unfocused ambition and her neuroses). Still, she's a charming writer and has a sly way with a story(her roots are very important to her, and she's fine as a leader or a follower, but she never loses her vitality or funny malice).

Patty Duke helps anyone suffering from Manic Depression in "Call Me Anna." The first time I thought something was wrong with Patty is when she won a award for a TV movie.She looked drunk,or high on something.Patty explains this turing point in her life.She starts with her childhood,and becoming the youngest Oscar winning actress for "The Miracle Worker." Patty also writes about "The Patty Duke Show,"and "The Valley of the Dolls." This movie turned out to be a cult classic.Everyone was ashamed of the movie when it came out,and the cast and crew first saw the film while on this special Cruise.The voices were not running with the film correct,and it made the movie that much worse.Patty writes about working with Judy Garland,and how she tried to help this legend make it through the film,but was fired for having drugs .Patty writes about Lucy Ball,and how she hated her for dating Desi.There's a great part about Frank Sinatra,and how he tried to save Patty.This book has a happy ending.Patty Duke comes out a winner. I read this book flying out to Vegas.I couldn't put it down.You will not be dissapointed reading "Call Me Anna."

I read this book years ago....and it changed my life. I had struggled with depression since I was a teenager, but fought the idea of taking medication. In my day, emotional problems were a sign of "weakmindedness"...and something I kept well hidden. Anna's story took away the shame. I appreciate the work Patty Duke has done to take away the sigma of this illness. Reading this book almost 15 years ago gave me a sense of relief....I finally decided to try medication and my life has never been the same. The most profound statement....when people ask me how it feels to be on mind altering drugs...I say....I feel just like you.....I have good and bad days, but I am living a normal life now....not floating in a chemical high (as I thought the drugs would do....) be living a normal life....and thrilled to be alive. THANK YOU PATTY DUKE. P.S. Read her other book...I think it is called "A Brilliant Madness"...GREAT READ!

"What's in a name?" Shakespeare's question gets a different answer in this autobiography, when a little girl named Anna Marie Duke is told by her managers, "Anna Marie is dead. You're Patty now." It starts there, the stripping away of a child's identity so that the managers can rebuild her to their own specifications. The one thing that makes this child worth the effort, though, is there already: phenomenal acting talent. The kind of talent that makes Patty Duke a Broadway star at twelve, and an Oscar-winner at sixteen.

Alcoholism and mental illness surround her in childhood, and breaking away from her managers (who become her surrogate parents early on) just before her eighteenth birthday sets her adrift in a world for which she is totally unprepared. Pat, as she calls herself then, marries early and almost doesn't make the tricky transition from child star to adult actress. Disastrous career decisions, broken relationships, financial debacles - they're all here, and Ms. Duke recounts them without flinching. But running throughout her life story are other threads, the ones that keep her going until the manic depression that causes her roller coaster behavior is finally diagnosed and treated. This woman loves her craft, and she adores her children. Thanks to those two loves, she survives and eventually rediscovers herself. Not Patty; not Pat. Anna Marie.

So many celebrity biographies end with an overdose of pills or booze, or a car crash, or a razor blade in a bathtub. I found it refreshing to read this outwardly similar tale, which ends instead with a life rebuilt. With - corny as this is going to sound - a new beginning.

This is quite possibly the most fascinating autobiography ever written. Say what you will (and I see that many reviewers here have!) about Patty Duke's behavior before her diagnosis of bipolar disorder; it made for a damn fine story! From her bizarre childhood as an actress through three failed marriages, Patty Duke's account of her life story is riveting. There is so much to this book that I have read and re-read it countless times, and I am never less than enthralled. If you can't handle some salty language, leave this book alone, but it'll be your loss!

When I was first diagnosed with this illness, I was lost and confused. This book answered many of my questions and made me realize that there was hope and positive days in my future. It especially helped when reading her next book "A Brilliant Madness". It gave me more insightful information that helped me not feel so hopeless and lost. I recommend these books above all the others that I have read at this time.