Customer Reviews

The Girl Next Door and How She Grew

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I read this book by Ms. Powell and I loved it although it was actually quite an unexpectedly truthful story. Did you know her mother tried to kill her? Yes, and so this saga can be viewed as a cautionary tale for parents who are contemplating pushing their child into show business and what can happen. It is stealing your child's childhood and putting her/him into adult situations.

Ms Powell seems to have had an unhappy life until only recently due to her happy marriage to fellow child star, Dick Moore.

You'll appreciate Ms. Powell's candor yet be shocked at the kind of childhood she endured. Clearly Ms. Powell learned eventually to like performing but she paid a big price for her parents ultimate decision to support themselves on her talents.

If the girl next door has this kind of life, maybe things aren't as nice for her as we'd like to think.

Jane Powell is a really good actress, since to watch her in films such as "Holiday in Mexico", "Two Weeks with Love", "Nancy Goes to Rio", "A Date With Judy", "Rich, Young and Pretty", and her best-known title, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", one would never know what a rough personal life she actually has had until fairly recently. Goes to prove, once again, that Hollywood public imagery was and is often a long way from the reality. One interesting point I do want to bring up is the sympathetic portrait of Louis B. Mayer that Powell paints, one that's shared by a great many other former MGM actresses in the biographies I've read. Mayer was a complicated man, sometimes tyrannical and abusive, but at the same time, as Powell and others state, it's plain that he really did see his actor and actress employees as part of a huge extended family with himself as the father-figure.

one of my favorite entertainers has written what is a personal account of her life.interesting,but i wish she would have touched more on her professional insights.perhaps another book?

Jane Powell is not the most recognized name in Hollywood history, but the petite actress has her place as a very pleasant singing star who enjoyed a brief career as a box office attraction. She left Hollywood at the beginning of the demise of the studio system and spent her later years with her family, doing summer stock, and performing on television.

This is a quick read, but not an entirely filling meal. Jane gives a lot of information about her feelings and the important moments in her life, but they are not necessarily the ones you might be interested in. What about the films? She discusses some of them, but in no great detail. Part of this is because of her reluctance to be an actress, something she just did to please her parents and to help support the family. But it would have been nice to hear more. After all, her fans are interested because her films are so much fun.

However, her brightness shines through and this makes for an enjoyable book. She is extremely candid about herself, her failed marriages, and her career, but she never comes off as negative or bitter. She seems to be a very happy woman, in the throes of her new love with husband Dick Moore, also a former child star. (They are still together.) And while she talks about a desire to grow up when she was a girl, it is obvious that she has retained her youth and optimism.