Customer Reviews

Everything and Nothing: The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy

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Dandridge's take on her life is very different from the other 2 well-known biographies -- if for no other reason that her book is full of her effusive and self-deprecating humor!

But don't be fooled; Dandridge's life is a very complex one. Basically this is a memoir, but it's so much else. It's a story of love and marriage and motherhood and divorce and lust (and yes, in that order!). There's the joyful laughter of nostalgia mixed with the bitter tears of regret. There's the realization of hard-fought ambitions, there's haughty glamour, there's acute despair. In some ways Dorothy was the queen of self-preservation, yet you could almost call this book the world's longest suicide note. Dorothy truly had everything and nothing and that is bluntly yet gracefully explained in this book.

Dorothy was a star at a time when talent, ambition, beauty, class, and ability was in no way valued in a black woman, just was not asked for by the larger society, much less encouraged, cherished, and held dear. The real tragedy of her life is that she is not remembered by more people. Reading about her has convinced me more than ever that we all need to listen, hear, and heed the story of Dorothy Dandridge.

i recently completed reading this book i found dorothy's own story a completely modern and intelligent account to be in accord with many of the same ugly problems that face us today...racism and sexism...how devastating it was for her to be so talented and beautiful yet...she was treated like ... because of her color and men only wanted to treat her like a prostitute because to them yes she was very beautiful and famous...but she could not be treated with dignity and respect because she was a black woman...she found this overwhelmingly frustrating that these powerful, handsome men did not want the human dorothy dandridge with feelings and intelligence...they just wanted to be seen with her or just to try her out sexually then put her back right away in the dump somewhere...dorothy tried and she stated in her book that many times she thought things would be different for her...she deserved to be loved..yet... no fault of her own she lived a life without love from day one...her mom just wanted to make money off of the child dorothy and her sister vivian...her mother let a obviously jealous and abusive stranger have full control over young dorothy and sibling something that dorothy could not ever understand ... her mom would just come along to collect the dough that the children made and go...her father only shows up after absolutely no contact at all to see the successful adult dorothy now in her twenties and a fast rising star...leaving dorothy to wonder would he contact her after all of these years if she was a criminal or doing badly...her first philandering husband was another user...he offered no support to dorothy or their disabled daughter in any kind of way...after several disfunctional relationships her sister does not even bother to contact dorothy...in between a string of user lovers,an abusive gold digger husband no#2, bad investments, aging and a fledging career...topped with crippling racism in that era and in her field of entertainment...dorothy dandridge's lonely heart simply could not take any more...her mind could not find rhyme or reason to anymore letdowns..she was tired of life and did not stick around for the next blow because she was too fragile for anymore heartache...all of this lead up to her untimely death...while lena horne went through similar heartbreaks, racism and letdowns...lena horne was a stronger person than dorothy dandridge and lena refused to let the people and situations created by them destroy her...nevertheless this is a beautiful and bittersweet account of an angel named dorothy dandridge...may we read and learn from this story and pray for dorothy dandridge's soul and thank her for that legendary knockout portrayal as Carmen...showing that the 50's black woman in hollywood could be shown as more than a fat, greasy and homely domestic with bad english

Dorothy Dandridge was a contemporary of Lena Horne who didn't make it - she died a suicide, unhappy for reasons that proceeded her life in Hollywood. The book covers her childhood through her movie career and failed marriage - and tells the "rest of the story" as to why someone who would seem to have had it all was actually so miserable she wanted to die. Thus the title "Everything and Nothing". There are only a small number of books dealing with the pathology of "black rage" in the 20th century. This is a good story of how demons handed down in the family tree - a product of conditions often found in black culture - managed to destroy someone who outwardly looked happy and prosperous. Lena Horne survived her own troubles and went on to become an astounding (and very wise) old lady with a long life of accomplishment. Dandridge didn't make it. After reading this well written biography - completed and published posthumously by a friend of Dandridge's - you'll wonder what she would have become if she'd overcome her depression. Books like these give an insight into problems most people would never realize are going on in "successful" blacks. (See also "Black Rage" by Price Cobbs MD.

I agree w/ the comments made above. I love Dorothy Dandridge & have always been curious about her life & when i read this book i was shocked. Mostly at how frank & completely honest she was about the events of her life. She named names & told it like it was & beleive me it was not a pretty picture.....but i was intrigued from start to finish w/ this book. i also have to say it was probably one of the saddest books i ever read. This is no sunny tale folks but a honest & realistic story of what it was like to be a black female superstar in 1950's Hollywood when there were no Black female Superstars at all.

I recently completed this book. In my opinion, this version of events about Miss Dandridge's life meant more to me than any other biography written by others who claimed to know her & her struggles. I say this because this was the one literary piece she left behind before she died. This was from HER. This was her story. Only she can explain her feelings about the ups and downs of her life. Her disappointment with her first husband, her mixed emotions of love & burdensome feelings about her retarded daughter, all of the trists with strange men who treated her like a dog treats a fire hydrant, and last but not least, her heartbreak of her "friends" lethal words & non-support of her wish to tell the world her story. It was very clear to me that she was heading down a path of destruction & death. She candidly spoke of wanting to commit suicide more than once. I wish she could have lived on into the next few decades & was able to witness the changes in society & Hollywood's portrayal of black people. I think she could have been saved & able to one day say "I am finally free from being the female negro role model" as Lena Horne was able to say. I felt as if I knew Miss Dorothy. For the life of me, I could not fatham why she would engage in affairs with physically disgusting looking men like Otto Preminger ( I've seen him ) and Mr. Tyner, the millionaire with the spit foam in the corners of his mouth. These actions of hers proved contradictary to the fact that thru-out the book she kept saying that physical attractiveness in a male is very important to her. I guess when it all boiled down to it, she just wanted a man around and to be married. What a terrible loss this is. For those trully interested, read this book before any others about Dorothy Dandridge ( i.e. Donald Bogle, Earl Mills ). This one is from Dorothy in her own words before she died.

This book captivates you the moment you open it. Dottie's openess and honesty about her life totally humanizes this legend. So many important issues of today are discussed like how racism played a role in her career. The other part is she connects with other women with tales of her desire to be a wife and mother. Riveting.

"I am an actress. I can play a nun or a b*tch."
-Dorothy Dandridge from "Everything and Nothing"

For such a long time, I have wondered why some of my favorite celebrities such as Janet Jackson, Halle Berry, and Whitney Houston have taken such a strong interest in the life of Dorothy Dandridge. I have wondered, "What was so intriguing about this woman?" "Why did so many entertainers want to depict her life story in a motion picture?" I finally decided to search her on youtube.com and read her autobiography, because after Halle created the movie and spoke so highly of her, I, like Halle, pursued research on her.

After seeing photos of her, seeing movie clips on youtube, and reading her autobiography, I am enlightened as to why so many people find her interesting. During her life, she truly had both "everything and nothing."

Dorothy, through her writing, appeared to be an emotional, sad, often confused, depressed, disappointed and seemingly doomed from early on. Based on my perspective, she wasn't especially close to anyone in her immediate family. She and her mother, Ruby, were on good terms, but not close. Her father took very slight interest in her only after he heard that she had some success. She had two failed marriages and a slew of love affairs from men who seemed to be interested in her solely because of her beauty and success. While on the subject of beauty, Dorothy was gorgeous! She was a bombshell by all means, and she knew it. There were a few things about her that I didn't especially like, and one of them was the fact that she kept saying she was pretty, and that others said the same. It's a fact, but it became redundant after the first hundred times. Perhaps that was the one thing that kept her self-esteem moderately afloat. Another issue that I was annoyed by was the fact that she preferred white men. I understand that Harold Nicholas was an atrocious husband, but Dorothy seemed to let her first failed marriage set the tone for the rest of her romantic life. Ironically, they meant her no good, either.

"You must be at your best each instant, for, in a manner of speaking, you are "carrying" the race."
-Dorothy Dandridge from "Everything and Nothing"

Dorothy was very specific with her career, and how difficult it was for her (and all other Black actors) to receive movie roles. Many of the males she was romantically involved with conned her into staying with them, for they told her they would further her career. This was all emoting, but what touched me more than anything was her daughter, Harolyn. Dorothy made it clear that she was disappointed by the fact that her daughter was born mentally retarded, and she held a bitterness because of that. Friends and doctors both told her to get rid of Harolyn since she would never mentally advance, and Dorothy did just that. Harolyn was with Dorothy for a few years, but most of her time was spent in mental institutions or with family members while Dorothy was doing films or with her paramours.

I admire Dorothy. She was the first African-American actress to receive an Academy Award nomination for her role in the infamous movie, Carmen Jones. I admire her because she stood up to those who did her wrong. For example, her mother's female friend (who was rumored to be her lover), spanked her everyday with a brush for a long time. One day Dorothy became fed up and retaliated by beating the woman up!

To this day, no one knows whether she committed suicide or not, however, all one has to do is read her autobiography and look at her photos (and see the sadness within her eyes), and it wouldn't be hard to draw the conclusion that she purposely ended her life. Dorothy Jean Dandrige deserves to be included in Black History because she paved the way for the Halle Berrys, Angela Bassetts and the like. Read "Everything and Nothing", and, perhaps, you will take a second look at your life and realize that things aren't as terrible as some make them out to be.

Mrs Slaughter says, "Dorothy Dandridge's book is filled with hilarious laughter and oceans of tears. It is evident to me that she wrote this book when she had reached the utter end of her tether. I think there is much to learn from her life. Importantly that success has nothing to do with how much fame or money one is able to amass but rather peace of mind and a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment which can only be achieved intrisically through one's own ability to love themselves enough to give themselves the very best of this love without relying on external factors. Dorothy was an obviously beautiful, talented and intelligent woman who lost all she had in a quest to derive happiness and acceptance through circumstances and people which she was unable to control. This unfortunately led to much self-loathing and the eventual demise of one of our age's most important African American icons. A brilliant read and excavation into the complex mind of Dorothy Dandridge."

After reading other works on Dorothy Dandrige I thought this purported autobiograph left a few things to be desired. The book reveals personal details of her life but downplays certain players in her life. For example, the lesbian relationship between her mother and "friend" Auntee was passed off as being no more than a casual friendship. I understand DD reasons for not revealing things about her mother considering she was still alive at the time the book was published. She only mention a few details about her fame with the movie CARMEN.

The book is written well but only takes a cursory view of her life and success. It seems to accentuates the most tragic details of her life and downplays her contribution to others. It's a good book, but please read Donald Bogle's book if you want a more thorough revelation of her life.

Some of Dorothy's closest friends and associates claim this book is full of lies and that Dandridge wrote it because she was desperate for money. They cringe at how Earl Conrad sensationalized this book by making Dorothy a slut just to make a dollar. You never know who's talking...Earl or Dorothy? I read this book when it came out many years ago because it was the only book available about Dorothy Dandridge. Since that time several books and videos that offer a more accurate account of her life have been released.