Customer Reviews

Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley

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4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

About time someone had the fortitude to dig deep for information about Kim Stanley, one of the greatest actresses of the 20th century.

In The Goddess, though the author does not agree, I found her, at the age of 32, quite believable playing a 16-year-old. Her immense talent made her voice young, the flicking of her hair young, the set of her shoulders young. Like Brando, whose weight disappeared when he smiled, the lines under Kim Stanley's eyes disappeared, or seemed to, when she played 16.

Kim Stanley could act with her back turned to the audience, and there was no mistaking what her character was thinking.

Jon Krampner has gifted theater- and movie-lovers with the fullest, and only, history of this fascinating, tortured actress.

Jon Krampner deserves praise for taking on the tough project of writing a biography of Kim Stanley. It's good that he did it while there are still plenty of people around who knew and worked with Stanley, and he has interviewed many of them. The notes in the back are laudably comprehensive in identifying sources for almost every statement in the book.

I want to be able to rave about this book but I found it only partly successful. There is a lot of good information here and it's almost always absorbing. There are, however, some big gaps in its coverage of Stanley's personal life and aspects of her career. The gaps in recounting her personal life, at least, are somewhat understandable given that all four of her husbands are dead, she seems to have left behind few letters and, as Krampner documents, she not only made up stories about herself, especially about her early life, she told different stories at different times. And as her life went on, she became something of a recluse.

Krampner gives an account of her early years and her family background that seems as thorough as anyone could have managed, which can't have been easy. But when it comes to her later life, there are some really puzzling elisions.

For example, on page 231 we're told, pretty much out of the blue, that Stanley has just married a man named Joseph Siegel. Prior to this, there have been only two brief mentions of Siegel, including one that does tell us they would marry. But there's virtually nothing about their courtship and nothing at all about how they met. If nothing is known, that should have been stated.

Another example: On page 256, when Stanley is in the midst of her first major breakdown, Horton Foote is quoted about having been asked to go to New York to help her. He says that he suggested Vivian Nathan should be called to help her. There have been three previous mentions of Nathan in the book, all fairly brief. The last previous one was on page 81. If she was so important to Stanley that Foote said, "She's the one who can help Kim," why have 175 pages passed since she was last mentioned?

There are several other similarly frustrating lapses.

Trivial but puzzling is when a man named Ken Pressman is quoted about an incident that occurred when, at the age of 14, he saw Stanley in "Bus Stop": another cast member fainted onstage, the performance stopped, and then continued with the actress's understudy. Pressman says, "Of all the performances I saw Kim do, that was not my favorite, or even close. Because my feeling was that her concentration was blown." This is the book's only mention of Pressman. We never find out who he is, what other performances of Stanley's he saw, or why he might be considered an authority on acting or Stanley. It's not even an interesting story. Is it surprising that Stanley's concentration might have been thrown in that situation?

Krampner's theatre knowledge is a bit lacking, resulting in some factual errors as well as statements that are correct but don't include relevant information. For instance, writing of the house in which Stanley was born, he mentions that another actress, Jan Clayton, was born there, telling us that she played the mother in the "Lassie" TV series. True enough, but in a book about an actress who often proclaimed her dedication to the theatre, it would have been appropriate to mention that Clayton created the role of Julie Jordan in "Carousel" and starred as Magnolia in the 1946 revival of "Show Boat."

Similarly, when Krampner writes a couple of pages later that Stanley was the most important dramatic actress to come out of Albuquerque, better known for "TV sitcom stars" such as Vivian Vance and Neil Patrick Harris, it might have been appropriate to acknowledge Vance's and Harris's many theatre credits. I wonder if Krampner knew of them. (It's easy to find out about them on the Internet.) On the next page he writes of a significant event in Stanley's life: when she saw the tour of "The Philadelphia Story," with Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten, and Van Johnson -- except it would have been Van Heflin, not Van Johnson. These things may seem trivial, but with a number of other examples of gaps in Krampner's theatre knowledge occurring elsewhere, it does make you question the thoroughness of his research and wonder whether he's getting other things wrong that you're not picking up on.

Particularly disappointing is that we read relatively little about Stanley's working methods and rehearsal process, or learn with much specificity what went on during rehearsals for the plays in which she appeared. We do get a fair amount about "Three Sisters," especially about the disastrous London engagement, but much of that comes from Foster Hirsch's book "A Method to Their Madness." With many people still around who were in plays with her, I think that we could have learned more about these productions and how she worked in rehearsals.

An especially frustrating moment comes when a man named Randy Bennett, who was Stanley's downstairs neighbor when she lived in Los Angeles from 1983 to 1993, is quoted saying that Stanley used to tell him "stories about her early days on Broadway." Why does it seem that none of those stories is in the book?

I'm grateful to Krampner for having written this book, most of which is absorbing and informative as far as it goes. He's clearly done a lot of research and worked hard, and some of the book's problems surely have to do with Stanley's own vagaries. I do recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about Stanley.

Still, I wish that it had been polished a bit more and that Krampner had covered some major aspects of Stanley's life in more detail.

It is quite telling that the title of this piercing biography compares the subject to her most comparable male counterpart and thereby validates the sexism that must have played a factor in her mostly forgotten status now. Method actress Kim Stanley was among the most acclaimed among her peers on Broadway and live TV in the 1950's. At the same time, there is precious little of her greatness recorded for posterity. If one takes a look at her movie debut, the title role of 1958's "The Goddess", there is a strange conundrum - a brilliant, visceral performance and a serious case of miscasting. Bearing a striking resemblance to Gena Rowlands, she seems physically ill-suited to play a doppelganger for Marilyn Monroe in spite of an innate ability to inhabit her roles seamlessly. Biographer Jon Krampner captures Stanley's conflicting sense of image with urgency and delves deep into the inner turmoil that plagued the actress despite her enormous talent.

Stanley was revered by her peers and especially Actors' Studio artistic director Lee Strasberg and originated key roles in two William Inge classics, envious tomboy Millie in "Picnic" and abused saloon singer Cherie in "Bus Stop". But similar to Brando, she became a case study in self-induced excess - alcoholism, a persistent weight problem, four failed marriages, a sometimes insolent sense of perfectionism and emotional instability - all combined to make her later work quite sporadic if never less than watchable. Krampner shows how Stanley made decisions that would deliberately curtail her career - an initial studio rejection to play Alma in "From Here to Eternity" made her wary of movies, a thrashing by London critics for an Actors' Studio production of Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" swore her off the stage permanently. Despite a late career, 1980's renaissance (thanks primarily to Jessica Lange's efforts) in "Frances", "The Right Stuff" and a PBS production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", she disappeared living in exile in New Mexico until her 2001 death. Krampner has written a most intriguing book about a most enigmatic figure.

The author has given us a full acount of Kim Stanley. Considered
one of the greatest actresses of her generation she self-destructed
and the author interviewed many of her contemporaries. I remember
how wonderful she was in an old Ben Casey episode CARDINAL ACT
OF MERCY that won her her first Emmy. Too bad she couldn't handle
her talent. I did find one error though. The author says she
did not attend the Oscar ceremonies when she was nominated for
FRANCES. But she was there. I remember she had some sort of head
band on. I was surprised she attended. Ironically she lost to
her FRANCES co-star, Jessica Lange.

Joe Krampner must be given a standing ovation for having sucessfullly tackled the Mt. Everest of American actresses of the 20th century--the immortal Kim Stanley. So little known about her, yet Krampner reveals so much of this talent that actually surpasses the male the title of the book enshrines.

I still give it 5 stars in spite of Krampner's error that Stanley did not attend the Oscar ceremony for her nomination for FRANCES. She was there dressed in black with a black choker necklace. Although overweight and much older looking than her age-- everyone who viewed that ceremony had the opportunity to see the legend offstage, off live televison acting and off the big screen and what a delightful person she was.

Many of these reviews of Jon Krampner's fine biography of Kim Stanley can speak authoritatively about details in this great actress' star-crossed life. Me? I didn't know much about Kim Stanley -- frankly, I confused her in my mind's eye with both Kim Hunter and Kim Novak, for what must now be apparent reasons. So my ignorance got me into this book ... and ironically, enhanced my appreciation of the provocative life story Krampner tells.

The genuine tragedy of Kim Stanley's life -- remember, everything I know about her I read in this book -- is that her extraordinary talent and promise was ultimately drowned by her self-destructive behavior ... and maybe that's why I and others don't readily recognize her name. Without the mortal anchor of her bad habits and off-stage manner, she might truly have become as god-like in the public's eyes as Brando, to whom she was often compared. For me personally, a book should contain a certain amount of discovery for the reader, and in "Female Brando" it was as simple as learning that Kim Stanley was the narrating adult voice of Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird." But there was much, much more.

Krampner writes without the breathlessness of many Hollywood biographers, and his story is chocked full of interviews, dates and facts, not innuendo and sensationalized surmise. He recounts a fabulous life that surpassed most common lives but fell far short of what it could have been.

Jon Krampner made me want to see Kim's work, and that's as fine a review as anyone can offer a biographer.

An excellent book, well-written and about an extraordinrty woman. The author has delved deep into the psyche of one of the best actresses of the mid 20th Century. Kim Stanley was the favorite of playwrights, tv writers and screenwriters because they knew she could and would deliver. She was "The Goddess" in Paddy Chayefski's brilliant movie of that name. What went wrong? What kept her from becoming a great star? It is all in this book. I recommend it to any one interested in the theatre, movies and the halcyon days of early TV. A must read for those who remember Kim Stanley and for those who love a good story about a woman with a fatal flaw.

My years spent living in New York City enabled me to see great theatre, especially in the 1950's and 1960's.

I first saw Kim Stanley in Bus Stop and was amazed and deeply touched by her performance.

This book is very well written. The author lets us know about her acting techinique and what it cost her in her private life. This reader was caught up with her life experiences and became even more grateful to Kim for her unreserved sharing of her deepest feelings.

Those who read this book will learn so much about themselves and the people around them.

I highly recommend this book.

Thelma Norton

Jon Krampner's meticilously-researched biography captures the passion and the pain of this brilliant actress and her up-and-down career and her often sad personal life. Her amazing successes, her many romantic entanglements, and her slow degeneration during the early days of television and beyond are painted on the background of a star-studded New York. I recommend this book.

Kim Stanley, like Jeanne Eagels or Laurette Taylor, is one our great but near-forgotten actresses. Even if you've seen her, it probably wasn't onstage but in a film, acting in a cinematic style. Many of her best performances can only be seen on kinescopes at places like the Museum of Broadcasting, because whe was the queen of live television drama. She did only four movies (not counting her uncredited narration in "To Kill a Mockingbird") and received Oscar nominations for two of them (would have received one for "The Goddess" too, if she'd done more publicity for it). Her career ended early due to spiraling alcoholism, but before her theatre career ended in 1965 she inspired countless of the most famous actors of our time. This is a very scholarly and well-written book with useful appendices. The Kindle edition has formatting problems, and although Kindle has a search feature, the index at the end really should be a working one. Not only is it non-functioning, it's incorporated as if it were an illustration (you can't read the captions on the illustrations, by the way) and the letters are so tiny it's completely illegible. I recommend getting the book in hard cover if you think you might want to hold onto it.