Customer Reviews

Dorothy Dandridge

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book took me back to a movie theatre in Harlem, when I was 10 years old, and the feelings that went through me when I saw Dorothy Dandridge appear on that screen in Carmen Jones...I was speechless. I had never seen such a beautiful women of color on a big screen before...I remember seeing the movie over 6 times that day until my mother came to the theatre and took me home, I talked about Dorothy from that day on..Mr Bogle's book was so well written and so factual, later as I grew up my mother was the maid of Joe Glaser, who was Dorothy's manager, I got to meet her sister Vivian and I worked for Slappy White so I heard stories about Ms. Dandridge directly from them...It was such a pleasure reading this book and having the missing pieces all fit together...

I really wanted to like this book, because I've been a Dorothy Dandridge fan long before the HBO movie and am impressed by Donald Bogle's efforts to keep Black Hollywood history alive. However, like a few other reviewers mentioned, I found the pace of this book incredibly slow. This, in part, is actually due to the constant quotes of Dottie's friends- and the anecdotal examples from Bogle which precede or follow them- which quickly become repetitive. In other words, the book is too detailed (yes, it is possible for a biography to contain too much information, especially when an intended point has already been made). The prose, as well, is flat and dull. Dorothy Dandridge was a vivid, glamorous, electric, hot-blooded performer and deserved that type of stylized language to capture her and the slick era she lived in, but the book's words and structuring is very plain and uninspiring. And since her life was immensely bleak, filled with disappointments, humiliations, injustices, and defeats, all of these elements combine to make reading this biography quite painful.

I also felt cheated because of the lack of photographs. Dandridge was one of the most beautiful women of all time yet there are only two really breathtaking portraits of her here, the cover included. I've seen some fabulous ones of her over the years but why they weren't included in this bio- even reduced in size- is beyond me (two full-page pictures of her mom, though-?!). The rest of the Dottie pics are everyday candid shots, many unremarkable (a few- pics with her different men, her last singing performance- are good, though).

I got as far as when Carmen Jones was in the works (about the middle) and just skipped over the Preminger affair, her Oscar nomination, and her second marriage so I could read about the last days of her life, which is surprisingly written with conciseness and left me wanting to know much more. Maybe I'll read the middle someday when I have the patience and will for it. You'd just think that a book about her life would just jump off the pages- a drop-dead-gorgeous entertainer, possible manic depressive, a tragically [disabled] child, marriage to Nicholas brother, an affair with Peter Lawford, Otto Preminger, raised by a lesbian couple, Black superstar in segregated Hollywood, possible suicide... Whoa! Hopefully a book will one day come along that'll do justice to a goddess who should never, ever be forgotten or overlooked.

Donald Bogle certainly did his homework in researching the forty-one years of one of Black America's first screen goddesses. Interviews with fellow actors, close friends and even people minutely involved in Dorothy's meager Cleveland childhood provide the backbone for this enthusiastic and informative portrait.

Bogle's story takes us through young Dorothy's first steps in show business with sister Vivian in a vaudevillian act called the Wonder Girls, which played to delighted black audiences packed in Baptist churches and other small venues. Pressed on by her starstruck yet cold mother, Ruby (an actress in her own right), the act moved to Hollywood and evolved into the singing Dandridge Sisters, securing chorus and bit parts in the rare all-black musicals produced during the 1930s-1940s.

Following a string of bit roles in motion pictures, her celebrity reached an apex in this country with the release of Carmen Jones, and all-black version of Bizet's Carmen. For her performance, Dorothy made history by becoming the first black actress to win an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Though such clout won her the admiration of her peers (and the love of the film's director), the nomination should have won her a better choice of film roles. As Bogle reveals, even the glitter of Oscar gold could not change Dorothy's skin color; pitting a black love interest with an A-list white actor in the 1950s was a risky venture, too risky for film companies who wanted their products to turn profits, particularly in the South. By no fault of her own, Dorothy could only watch helplessly as her career, probably the only true constant in her life, slowly declined.

I enjoyed this book very much, and I enjoyed watching Bogle on A&E's Biography episode on Dorothy. The movie with Halle Berry is also a good companion to this biography, though I thought the portrayals of Dorothy's mother tended to differ. Since the movie was based on another book, I would be more inclined to read Bogle's account.

Although I read this book over a year ago, I cannot help but sing its praises at this time. With the current HBO bio starring Halle Berry bringing much-deserved attention on Miss Dandridge, it is fitting that Bogle's definitive book receives recognition. This is a perfect look into the life of an actress who because of her race and the times was not allowed to succeed in an industry limited in its appreciation for people of color. As each page is read, the reader becomes totally engrossed in the life of Miss Dandridge, the people who supported and hindered her, and the important role that she played in opening doors for black actors who followed. Like Jackie Robinson and other "firsts," Dorothy Dandridge deserves a place in the history books. This fine book makes a fitting tribute to a legend.

An enlightened bio of a regretably glossed-over star. This book is, however, about more than just Dorothy---it reveals much about the history of Hollywood in general, and black entertainers in particular. Read it definitely for the story of this beautiful, talented woman, but read it also for TinselTown info you won't find thus condensed anywhere else.

Even though I liked the Telefilm, and thought Halle Berry was the obvious choice to play Miss Dandridge (both were born in Cleveland), I was somewhat disappointed with it, after having read this book first. Dorothy's many trials and heartaches were only lightly touched upon in the film version. This book reads like a well written novel, starting from her early years as a child performer. The physical, verbal, and sexual abuse at the hands of her mother's lesbian lover. The failed marriages, and financial ruin. And most heartbreaking of all, the birth of her extremely mentally challenged daughter. But there are the triumphs also. Like making the cover of Life magazine, and receiving a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for the 1954 film "Carmen Jones." A first for an African-American actress. Unfortunately, the making of this film marked the beginning of an affair with the director Otto Preminger, that would end on a very sour note. Something she apparently never fully recovered from. Even being verbally abused by the same director during the making of "Porgy and Bess."

Another great aspect of this book, is the social background of Black Los Angeles and Hollywood during the '30s, '40s and '50s. And who could ever imagine, Dorothy riding the streets of L.A. with her good friend Louis Armstrong, and him puffing on a marijuana joint? A must read for those interested in the history of Black Hollywood and Tinseltown in general.

Donald Bogle did his research. This large biography contains facts about Dorothy Dandrige that have never been in print before. The book reads like a novel and as a fan of Miss Dandrige's work I appreciated it. However, it's clear that Bogle loves his subject and I thought it affected the book somewhat. This lovely and underappreciated actress was a human being and made mistakes. Bogle puts the blame for her tragedies on everyone else and portrays her as totally blameless. If you can find it read Dorothy's autobiography Everything and Nothing right after you read Mr.Bogle's book. It gives an extraordinarily contrasting portrait of her life.

Only a few moments ago,I finished reading this book.Spellbound,enchanted,and heart-broken I sat for 1 week completly glued to this true,shocking and well-done biography.The author(Donald Bogle)deserves more credit for doing this book than I could ever convey but to Mr. Bogle -THANKS!I gave this book a 5 star rating,based on the content and the touching manner in which the author told the true story of the life,heartaches,dissapointments and triumphs of the late but,not forgotten Hollywood Goddess of the 1950's -Miss Dorothy Dandridge.I would personally recomend this book to anyone.I myself,knew little of the woman who's life this book was based upon,outside of seeing a movie she once starred in-Carmen Jones.After reading the biography I have more of an appreciation for her both as the star AND the PERSON she was(in my eyes-the star she IS). -Arevoir,Miss Dandridge -you are not forgotten:' )

This book captured me the way no other novel could because it showed a realistic life in all of its glamour, suspense and despair. She could move you with her looks and tear you apart with her desire to love and be loved. She should never be forgotten nor ignored, and Bogle brings this to our attention. An excellent biography on a star lost among the galaxy

Possibly the best biography I have ever read. Donald Bogle does an exceptional job in bringing to light the story of the most overlooked screen goddess in Hollywood history. With as much beauty and glamour as her contemporary and friend Marilyn Monroe, Dandridge was sadly overlooked. She had a halting screen presence and exceptional talent as well. Indeed she was even nominated for an academy award in a time when it was almost impossible for a black woman to achive such an accolade. Even in the Hollywood of today attractive women of color get few strong roles. For Dandridge to do it at all in her time, with all of the pain and personal problems she encountered is quite amazing. Her true greatness and potential were never fully recognized.