Customer Reviews

Comfort and Joi

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

 

 

A playwright and Emmy winner for his work on the series thirtysomething, Joseph Dougherty has written extensively for television and the theater. But his new book, Comfort and Joi, chronicles a long weekend when he entertains a personal fantasy, an investigation into the life and career of Joi Lansing. His friends think he's nuts to write a book about a platinum-blonde bombshell nobody's ever heard of, who received third or fourth (or no) billing in movies which, for the most part, no one cares about.

Armed with a laptop and a bag full of videotapes and DVDs, Dougherty is less concerned with piecing together a formal biography than evaluating his own reaction to celebrity, entertainment, middle age, and an actress he describes as "a beautiful beacon in a Sargasso of bad filmmaking." He doesn't track down surviving relatives and old co-stars to reconstruct her life. (Just forty-three-years-old, Lansing died in 1972 from breast cancer.) What he ends up with is a conjectural, bittersweet, and often funny obituary - for Joi, for Hollywood, for his own vaporized past, its ideals and principles recently bulldozed into submission by a callous generation eager to dismiss "everything that came before as worthless, slow and reeking of the grave."
[...]

I give this book three stars because the author has done some excellent research and has presented it well in this book. However, the set-up to me doesn't make much sense and the phrase "I spent the weekend with a Hollywood starlet" makes it sound as if the author actually met Joi. While the cover artwork is excellent I wish we could have seen some stills from her films or some of the photos the author describes at length in the book.

For the fans of Joi Lansing, you'll enJOY this book. There isn't much written about her, but the author admits his own fascination and weaves his personal life in while reconstructing hers. She was more visible in film than I thought. I have only seen her on Scopitones. A very good read about a forgotten star.

I've had a full-on crush on actress Joi Lansing for many years, so I was surprised and delighted to see Joseph Dougherty's honest, very sweet COMFORT AND JOI. It's an enjoyably readable--and deceptively complex--rumination on Miss Lansing, personal perseverance, the tribulations of ambitious, small-part actresses, and the bittersweet elusivess of stardom. The book is revealing about the author, too, offering an intriguing subtext about Dougherty's mild obsession with this deliciously appealing blonde bombshell. Dougherty limns Joi as a good woman who worked hard, won roles for many years, died young, and then was forgotten except by a relative handful of devotees (many of whom, by the way, maintain Joi's bio and images on sites all over the Web). The book is a lovely tribute to that sort of fannish admiration, and to Joi herself. Journalist Nick Tosches once wrote that when he gazed at the legs of starlet Hillary Brooke, he knew there was a God. I look at Joi Lansing and feel the same way.

I didn't really even know her name until I saw her on the Beverly Hillbillies. Good looking gal then who seemed to be pretty well stacked.

That's what most guys probably thought. And this book dances around the idea of Lansing as a unique kind of sultry sex star who didn't get her due. I kinda agree, and still find myself wondering why I'm curious about her life and career.

For example, I was watching a dvd of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, and in comes Lansing as a wised-up actress interviewing for a job on tv. She is probably at her sexual heights here, rumored to have slept with show star Desi Arnaz (as had many other female<maybe male as well> guests on I Love Lucy). But its a brief role, a few minutes sharing the screen with some other good looking unheard of gals.

Lansing died young in 1972. Dougherty points out that she was on the downhill side of her career then, but still doing a few gigs. However, her star clearly on that other side, and a long way from that 1959 spot on the Lucy-Desi show. Maybe that augmentation procedure she had done in the early 60's led to her cancer, who knows. Maybe she gave her life for show business like so many others. But, with nearly perfect timing, like Jim Morrison or Elvis, she vanished.

What would have been a real good story was her actual life as a beautiful young actress trying to make it in Hollywood of that era. Maybe we'd get the real story of Arnaz chasing her around, or others. That would be a great read.

Must read for fans of the past of American tv.

Joi Lansing was a very appealing actress, model, and singer, and much more charming to me than her counterpart Marilyn Monroe. This book is a excellent history of Joi and how her life brought joy to those she entertained. It is so ironic that her "best" feature was her breasts, and she died of complications of breast cancer as a young woman. Rest In Peace!

How do you label this book? Biography, memoir, novel, film-noir? Probably all of the above and starring that indescribably beautiful creature, Joi Lansing. I first discovered Joy on the 'Love That Bob' TV series when it was on network prime time so you have an idea of how old I am! 10 years old and captivated by this beauty. There is something different about Joi that sets her apart from all the other lovelies who were photographed in swimsuits, gowns with plunging necklines and seductive poses. Her voice was clear as a bell, taunting, seductive. In the 'I Love Lucy' episode where Lucy is trying to get a job with Paul Douglas, Joy has a walk on playing herself. With the miracle of DVD you can rewind and play that scene over and over, increase the size of the picture and just be astounded by the beauty and grace of Joi. Her smile, her conversation with Lucy. Her eyes. I think Mr. Dougherty is right on target when he says "I believe you can see it in her eyes."
Looking at Joi's photo's movies TV appearances has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. They've always been more than just cheesecake. There's a sadness there, a sadness that she never achieved the roles and the stardom she deserved. A tremendous talent, I was sad to hear what Hal Roach said about her. So demeaning. I don't think I'm alone in my admiration of Joi, judging by the frequency I get outbid for her photos on ebay.
Joi is a woman you'd like to get to know. Take long walks on the beach with, go to dinner and the movies with, go dancing with, (Try to) play tennis with, share your thoughts and opinions with and listen to her thoughts and opinions because there is real intelligence behind those eyes. Mr. Dougherty paints a portrait of Joi as being content with who she was with no apologies for her voluptuousness. The sorrow is that she was taken from us way too soon. And so we have the memories, the photos, the movies, the music to remember her by. Even a schlock B movie like 'Hillbilly's in a Haunted House' doesn't seem all that bad because of Joi, with a starring role. And of course Joseph Dougherty's wonderful portrait.
Enjoy this book and remember Joi lovingly. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:2b "Some have entertained angels unawares." If ever there was an angel among us, it was Joi. Love her, cherish her. Her like will not come along again.

This is the only book I am aware of that is dedicated to Joi Lansing. With that in mind I guess it is pretty good compared to all the others.

There is some information about Joi to enjoy reading about but the author seems more interested in telling us about his time spent walking the beach or what he is having for dinner. Strange ramblings go on for pages about the architecture of the beach house he is staying at while trying to write this book and quite the fixation with the lady who lives next door. I not sure I undetstand what the heck all this has to do with telling the story of Joi Lansing.

If you are interested in Joi, this is better than nothing because there is nothing else out there that I could find in the way of a book.