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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will the Real Ginger Grant Please Stand Up?,
This review is from: Finding Dorothy: An Appreciation of the Life and Career of Dorothy Gibson Brulatour
Will the Real Ginger Grant Please Stand Up?
New book tells story of early screen star, Titanic survivor Could sexy, silly Ginger Grant, the shipwrecked movie star portrayed by Tina Louise in TV's Gilligan's Island, have had a real life prototype? Randy Bryan Bigham's illustrated biography of forgotten silent screen heroine Dorothy Gibson makes one wonder. She didn't find herself marooned on a deserted island like her television counterpart, but the wreck she survived sure trumps that of the S.S. Minnow. Finding Dorothy tells the tale of the lovely Gibson, a popular comedienne in the early days of cinema, who made headlines when she and her mother escaped the most famous sea disaster in history, the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. Some contemporaries considered Dorothy not too bright and a tad tawdry (the naughty brunette in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was possibly based on her), but she was apparently no slouch as an actress or a personality. She was also savvy enough to turn tragedy to triumph when she starred in the first film made about the ocean misadventure from which she was spared. This movie, Saved From the Titanic, released only a month after the sinking, wasn't as lucky as its star and is considered among the silent era's greatest losses. Of Dorothy's 14 other films, only one is known to exist. Dorothy Gibson is, as the title of this biography indicates, a great find indeed. The story of her phenomenal but short-lived success as a model for artist Harrison Fisher, and then as a leading lady for one of the top studios of the time, the French-based Éclair Company, is fascinating, but the personal side of Gibson is as intriguing, if not more so. One is especially struck by her nonchalance about her career. In fact, the one ingredient to fame young Gibson did not have was ambition. She didn't care about being a star; she just wanted to get married, have children, and live in the country. Such simplicity might normally imply purity but that wasn't a quality Dorothy Gibson possessed. Her conventionally feminine charm may have packed movie houses but behind closed Edwardian doors, she was no blushing miss, as her long-time affair with married film financier Jules Brulatour shows. Their sad relationship and the numerous legal problems that it spawned, killed Dorothy's career and wrecked her reputation. After a humiliatingly public divorce, Gibson decamped to Paris in the 1920s with her mother (also no naïve thing) where she managed to elude gossip but not trouble. Dorothy's mom was a political anarchist, with strongly anti-American views, and it wasn't long before she cast in her lot with a bevy of Left Bank subversives. Dorothy got involved, too, in what was apparently a high-level Fascist cell and became an operative of some stripe, though it's still a mystery as to what exactly she and her Mussolini-loving mamma were up to. In the early days of WWII, Gibson finally turned coat on her old confreres and went to work helping Allied intelligence in Italy where she was stranded with her mother (who, by the way, didn't share her daughter's change of heart). The ultimate drama of Dorothy's incarceration by the Nazis in Milan and her amazing escape is possibly the highlight of the book. Of course, Titanic buffs will enjoy the chapters devoted to that event, and lovers of Hollywood trivia will be surprised to discover that Gibson was an inspiration for the torrid character of Susan Alexander in Citizen Kane! Although it isn't available in hardback and only the outside and inside covers are full-color, Finding Dorothy is a good-looking, well-designed book. It is also well-written in a disarmingly casual, conversational style that downplays the enormous amount of research that obviously went into this gem of a biography. Author Bigham, a Texas journalist whose first book this is, even managed to track down the Italian priest who engineered Gibson's escape from the Gestapo. Moreover, Bigham has managed to reveal a lost figure in history without the boring academic style of the historian and makes his points without the fanfare or excessive claims of the celebrity biographer. Bigham has a clever style and flow that is unusual in history writing, and while largely unsentimental, he pulls off turns of phrase that are grippingly poignant and frankly beautiful. From whatever perspective one may be drawn to this little biography -- film, maritime, or cultural study -- Finding Dorothy is a treat of a read.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Definitive Account of Dorothy Gibson's Life,
By George Behe (Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Finding Dorothy: An Appreciation of the Life and Career of Dorothy Gibson Brulatour
Randy Bigham has done a superb job of unearthing fascinating new information about Dorothy Gibson's life and presenting that information in a beautifully produced book. Mr. Bigham pursued many obscure leads that resulted in many exciting historical discoveries, and the text and illustrations detailing those discoveries are truly outstanding. Nobody who is seriously interested in the Titanic and her passengers can afford to be without "Finding Dorothy," and I have little doubt that the book will remain the definitive work on the life of this fascinating actress.
George Behe
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