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52 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very little fact and a shallow uninspired offering, February 6, 2006
Thank Goodness that Cary Grant led an interesting and sometimes spectacular life, otherwise this book would be a complete bore. My biggest complaint is that Marc Elliot only offers theories and opinions and very little fact or even sound logic behind some very outlandish claims. For example, he supposes that Cary Grant must have been a male escort because how else could he have survived in New York on his own at 17 years old. Even though we learn that he lived with two other men who helped him out and worked at any job he could get: stiltwalking, selling ties and starting up his own acrobat troupe. By the way since one of the men he lived with was gay, Marc also surmizes that he and Cary were lovers. As further proof of his being a male escort he offers the fact that Mae West casts the very handsome and young Cary in two of her movies even though he was a complete unknown. Furthermore, since she was known to arrange dates for rich men and women with her showbiz friends in New YOrk and since Cary was in New York at the same time and also in showbiz then she must have been his pimp in those early years. Add to that the fact that Cary couldn't stand Mae West seems to somehow substantiate this theory (at least in his own mind). It was this type of logic(illogic) and supposition that is peppered throughout the book that finally renderes it unreliable and essentially fictional.
He offers no first hand annecdotes, facts or source material that supports his theory/supposition that Cary is gay. Someone repeating gossip is just gossip and thats all thats offered. Even though he goes into great detail showing how Cary was blacklisted by the studios for being the first actor to go independent and even Marc Elliot suggests that much of the gay gossip orignated from the studios trying to punish and hopefully reign in their very very big star. They used Hedda Hopper and the other gossip mongers to beserch him in any way they could, hoping he would submit to their demands. Its sad that Marc Elliot doesnt offer anything of value; no articles, no interviews or even 2nd hand accounts of his homosexuality, bi-sexuality or even frugality. He just repeats old rumors that have been repeated over and over again through the years, and presents them as facts.
The funniest/insulting part was Marc Elliots' ( as one reviewer said) attempt at psychoanalysis of Cary Grant and his sexual relationships. Its amazing since the author never met Cary Grant and doesnt interview anyone who knew or slept with the man for that matter, even though 3 of his wives are still living. He bases this in depth analysis on divorce records and gossip again. He says Cary's first marriage fell apart because of his relationship with Scott, but his first wife according to these same records only accuses him of being domineering and jealous: Randolph Scott doesnt come up at all even as a buddy who is around too much; since she was in the midst of a divorce trying to get a rather large settlement (but failed) you'd think something juicy like that would have come up. He also skips over completely his five year live in relationship with Phyllis Brooks who lived with him off and on at the Scott beach house or that Scott himself married twice and had two children during this supposed affair. The author seems to edit things as he sees fit to substantiate his theories, but just gets so much wrong its hard to take any of it seriously. I think the worst example is his accusing Cary of having a gay affair (again) with his chaueffer, even though the chaueffer says it never happened and admits to having a relationship with Cary's 3rd wife after their divorce. Elliot never interviews or seems to take notice of interviews with Betsy Drake (3rd wife), Cannon (4th wife) or his 5th wife who all state that Cary was never gay and he also never interviews the chaueffer, though he's also alive and well. The book is such a shallow offering that it seems to come from nothing but the most salacious rumors the author could find and put in a book form. He put no time or effort into this and its obvious.
The only value I found in this book were the first few chapters of Cary's early life. What a sad childhood and what a brave and resourceful man Cary Grant must have been to survive without love or care and to be on his own since 10 years old and truly overcome insurmountable obstacles. That alone is enough to make his star shine brighter.
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Only the Illusion of Authenticity, February 17, 2005
This really isn't that bad of a biography - it's fairly well-written and organized and interesting - however I like the biographies I read to strictly adhere to FACT and not mix it with FICTION. This biography appears to be 60% fact and 40% imaginative fiction, fiction which spins basic facts into in-depth descriptive stories. I think that any critical reader will realize that from the sources that the author has identified and stated, there is no possible way that he could have had an accurate knowledge of much of what he is presenting here in rich detail. It is well-known that Grant and Randolph Scott were devoted lovers, but neither left either memoirs of the affair or talked in detail to others about it. Yet Eliot states with great certitude what they were thinking and feeling in many scenes and presents intimately choreographed moments that he would logically have no access to unless he had been a fly on the wall in one of his previous lives. Eliot does this a great deal! And though it makes for good drama and interesting reading, the thoughtful reader will stop and ask himself how the author could possibly know these details. The answer is that he doesn't - it's just artistic license which fills in the blanks and creates intriguing exchanges that might have taken place, according to the author's educated guess work. It's so convincing that I bet very few readers notice it to question. But, for me, the thought of so much clever fictionalizing here destroys the reliability of the biography. After all, Grant's life has been thoroughly documented in numerous books by now, and if you're interested in the topic, there is absolutely very little that is new and revealing here. In essence, it was an unnecessary book, unless the previous biographies weren't available for checkout at the local libraries. In trying to present the overwhelming illusion of strict fact, fact, fact, and scrupulous scholarship, Eliot uses the time-honored ploy of constantly padding his fictitous passages with tons of extranneous film facts - facts gallore on almost every other page that divert focus from the suject and overwhelm the reader with unneccessary and unwanted information at that point in the story. Example, Grant is to star in Night and Day and suddenly Eliot breaks away from the narrative and present a page-long paragraph going into listing the dozens of other actors and actresses who have made biographical films - really for what purpose other than the magician's trict of diverting our eyes and attention from noticing his less factual and creative passages concerning Grant, his detailed inner thoughts and feelings and the specifics of private undocumented coversations and meeting. Also, some of this almanac of film facts Eliot slides in are totally erroneous, such as when he introduces Irene Mayer Selznick on page 242 as Grant's great friend and stating that the friendship was firmly established back in the 1920's when Grant was an actor in NYC on Broadway and Irene was a Broadway producer. Eliot often gets confused like this. In fact, Irene was a schoolgirl in Hollywood during the 1920's when Grant was on Broadway. She didn't go to NYC and become a producer until after she divorced David Selznick after WWII. This author gets his facts easily confused, and I think he's more committed to what sounds good than to what factually was. He also, in boosting Grant's superstar, asks us to believe that Frank Capra originally planned "It's a Wonderful Life" specifically for Grant, and when Grant refused the role, Capra was forced to settle for Jimmy Stewart. If you belive that, you're not movie-savy enough to be bothered by everything else in this work of fact-based popular fiction.
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23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, Informative, Entertaining, November 28, 2004
As far as self-defining populations, most readers of CARY GRANT: A BIOGRAPHY are going to be fans of the late film star. Insofar as decades have passed since his death, much that had been written about him during his lifetime now has been forgotten and, therefore, some of the information in this biography will strike many readers as new.
Accordingly, author Marc Eliot has done a workman-like job of assembling existing facts, and of discovering other facts heretofore unknown. The mass of original material he has sorted through, as stated in the bibliography and notes, is huge and impressive.
He goes into detail not before seen about Grant's earliest history, particularly Grant's first years after arriving in the United States from England. The author comes to some conclusions that are not firmly supported in fact, but which do seem reasonable as he presents them.
Eliot comes out firmly in support of the long-standing theory that Grant was a homosexual--or, more likely, bisexual. The author also presents evidence that, in his early and hungry days in New York, Grant had worked as a male escort. Eliot also claims that the actress Mae West, in her day, had run an escort service there, and he conjectures that Grant may have worked for her.
Some of Eliot's conclusions seems flimsy and unsupported, while others are plausible.
On page 72 of the hardcover version, Eliot offers a description of Grant's famous cleft chin that is one of the funniest things ever printed; almost certainly, unintentionally as funny as the passage ends up reading. Yet, on reflection, there is a certain truth and sense to Eliot's thesis.
Other issues are a bit sloppy, including some of the prose, which would have benefited by good editing. Particularly puzzling was the anecdote about how much Frank Sinatra and Grant had hated each other on the first movie they did together, in light of the strong friendship Eliot later credits these men with establishing. As an author, Eliot owes it to his readers to connect these two stages of their relationship, from hatred to friendship, and this discrepancy never is acknowledged.
What makes CARY GRANT: A BIOGRAPHY especially good reading is the story of the creation of the motion picture industry, which Grant entered at an early stage of that industry's development. In consequence, the story of Cary Grant and his emergence as a movie star inescapably becomes the history of the modern entertainment business. As a result, this biography is peppered with names long forgotten, and these inclusions clearly enrich the book as a whole.
CARY GRANT: A BIOGRAPHY is a must-read for all fans of this actor, as well as for anyone with a keen curiosity about Hollywood in its heyday.
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