Customer Reviews

Hollywood Blondes: Golden Girls of the Silver Screen

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Hollywood Blondes is the title of a new but highly superficial and unoriginal book on the flaxen actresses of the silver screen by Michelle Vogel and Liz Nocera. Weaving the reader in from silly hair color commercial catchphrases, to the history of how blonde hair was revered throughout the ages, (throughout the centuries women have use horse dung, horse urine, and saffron to lighten their hair) whatever, to the introduction, these two self-proclaimed "film historians" do themselves in and let the reader know what they are in for....which certainly is NOT knowledge of famous blonde actresses.

From telling the readers about the psychological effects that blondes are supposed to be lovelier, and that only a few percentage of the world's population are naturally blonde, one gets the idea that they are over-wording just to use up more space in the book.

I will limit myself discuss the Jean Harlow chapter and add a few of notes here on other actresses I am familiar with, so others can write their reviews on other stars they know more about.

While Jean Harlow's hair did become damage from over-bleaching, it wasn't true that, "She had no other choice but to wear a platinum blonde wig in her last seven films." In fact, Harlow was not a platinum blonde since 1935. She opted for a platinum colored wig in her 1935's movies Reckless and China Seas, as she was letting her own hair grow in. The only two films that she wore wigs after that were in Riffraff--the movie that introduced Harlow to the world as a "brownette"in 1936, and in Wife vs. Secretary. Harlow wore her own natural hair color of honey blonde hair in her other films from 1935 on, including Saratoga, her last film in 1937.
Here are some mistakes about Jean Harlow that were written on this book.

--Jean Harlow was not born in St. Louis, Missouri. It was Kansas City, Missouri. Betty Grable was the one born in St. Louis.

--Harlow's mother was never referred to as "Mama Jean"; she was known as "Mother Jean."

--Jean's grandfather, Skip Harlow, was not an architect; he was a real estate broker.

--Clara Bow did not make a film called The Love Parade with Harlow. It was The Saturday Night Kid, in which Jean had a minor part.

--Charles McGrew did want Jean to have their child at the time she was pregnant. In fact he was elated and wanted his wife to quit films.

--Howard Hughes was never "infatuated" with Jean; he was never interested and neither was she. There was no romance between the two. In fact the report about the two of them was they disliked each other.

--Canine star Rin Tin Tin did not die "cradled in her (Jean''s) arms." That is just a myth added to the Harlow legend.

--MGM Mogul Louis B. Mayer was not "obsessed" with Harlow; he never offered her a mink coat to have sex with her. That is a tall tale fabricated by novelist, Irving Shulman, who wrote an unaccountable, undocumented, un-researched, and false account on her life.

--Paul Bern, Jean Harlow's second husband, did not buy Jean "a mansion on Easton Dr, in Benedict Canyon." after they got married. That house was already his.

--Jean was never suspected of "being the killer" in Paul Bern's death; that is a plot from one of Jean's movies.

--Jean did not "witnessed" Dorothy Millete killing Paul Bern. Jean was at her mother's house where she had spent the night. There is no substantial proof that Millete murdered Bern. The official rule was a suicide.

--It was not "one of the biggest mistakes" for Jean to turn down King Kong, as we know it Fay Wray did nothing but scream and scream in it since the star of the picture was and will ever be: Kong!

--The character of Lola Burns in Bombshell is not patented after Jean Harlow, as the writers claim, but after Clara Bow. However, this was Jean's favorite role.

--While John Barrymore was in Dinner at Eight where Harlow was featured, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford were not. The authors were thinking of Grand Hotel, in which Jean never appeared, but Garbo and Crawford did.

--Jean did not buy" a big mansion." She purchased the lot and her mother build it. It was called the "White Palace," not "the big white house."

--MGM never tried to "destroy all copies" of Harlow's novel, "Today is Tonight." Actually Mother Jean sold MGM the book after Jean''s death. MGM bought it help out Mother Jean economically. And Harlow's novel was published in 1965.

--Reckless was not "loosely based on Jean and Paul Bern's real story." It was a script patented after Broadway star Libby Holman, whose husband, Zachary Smith Reynolds, had killed himself the same year that Bern did. But there were similarities of the Bern-Harlow story.

--Jean and her mother did not move in "a modest bungalow on North Palm Drive." It was (and still there) a beautiful, Spanish styled, two-storied large home in Beverly Hills.

--Jean did not "collapsed into his (Clark Gable''s) arms" on May 24. The time was May 29 and the actor was Walter Pidgeon.

--Gable did not call "William Powell who took Jean home." She was driven in a limo back to her house by herself.

--William Powell died in 1984 not "1980."

--Mary Dees was not Jean's "long-time stand-in." Dees was hired to complete Saratoga. She never met Jean Harlow.

--Mother Jean did not die in "the same room at Good Samaritan Hospital," and she did not die on June 7th either; Mother Jean died of a massive heart attack on June 11, 1958.

As for Marilyn Monroe, the authors inform us that, "Without a doubt, Marilyn Monroe's persona was a creation of men, for men." That's part of the Monroe legend as being used by men isn't true. She was her own creation by taking on Harlow's favorite color of white dresses to Lana Turner's hair styles, and Betty Grable's make up, Monroe presented her own version of the dumb blonde in the 1950's.

The misquote attributed to director Billy Wilder, where Marilyn said she was the "only blonde" in the films, didn't happen in Some Like It Hot (1959). The incident to what the writers are recalling was from Something's Got To Give (1962), Monroe's last and uncompleted film, and the director was George Cukor. If people watch Some Like It Hot, they can see that Monroe was in an all-blonde-girls-band; some blonder than Marilyn.

Another misquote attributed to Colombia Pictures' mogul Harry Cohn; he never said "Get me another blonde!," when he heard that Monroe had died in 1962. Monroe made only one film at Columbia when she was a starlet in 1948. She was never a long-term contract player at Columbia; they had their own bombshell in Kim Novak, who was Rita Hayworth's successor. Any Monroe fan knows that she attained stardom at 20th Century Fox Films with the release Niagara in 1953, and had been that studio's contract player from 1951 till 1962.

According to the authors, Jayne Mansfield was "the poor man's Marilyn Monroe." In all my years of researching the library's microchips newspapers on Mansfield I never read that she was referred to that way. Mansfield was a Broadway star, given a highly-paid contract by Fox. Mansfield was that studio's premier blonde star of the late 1950's. Like Monroe before Mansfield, and Betty Grable before Monroe, and Alice Faye before Grable, Mansfield slipped into the prototype of the bombshell image updated every decade. Monroe's last hit movie at 20th Century Fox was Bus Stop in 1956.

In a grave error the authors state that Lana Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane "...shot and killed her (Turner's) gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato..." and then telling us that "Cheryl stabbed him with the knife" in the Lana Turner chapter. At this rate one wonders, who did this book's copy writing, revising and general editing?

I found most of the chapters that I read to be careless, rehashed stuff from similar and equally badly written books. The authors use unverified websites as reference, quote sensationalist books, and worse, misquote a lot and resort to tabloid-trash writing.

I would advise any reader to skip this book at all costs, not even for the photographs, which are studio-standard photos that any fan is probably familiar with. Instead of reading this wasteful book, opt to watch any film by any of these blonde stars. They shine better in their films.

There is so much misinformation in this book about Jayne Mansfield that it's barely readable. One would think with all the promotion the authors did on various websites and message boards that they would atleast check their facts before printing. The section on Jayne is written like a third rate term paper. First, the press never referred to Jayne as 'the poor man's Marilyn Monroe' while she was alive. She was the darling of the press during her lifetime. Jayne never made a movie called 'The Adventures Of Hercules'. It was called 'The Loves Of Hercules'. Promises! Promises! was NOT a box office bomb. In fact, it re-energized her career (albeit for a short time) and Jayne was voted onto the Top 10 List of Box Office Attractions that year. Jayne did not perform in sleazy bars, that is a myth. These bars paid her top dollar, all the way until the end--something 'sleazy bars' are not able to do. Nelson Sardelli has NEVER claimed to be the father of Mariska Hargitay. Regardless of who she looks like or who Jayne was dating before she was born, it is Mickey's name on the birth certificate. Jayne never ran for President of the United States. She did a novelty magazine with pictures depicting that, but it was just a magazine and done tongue in cheek. Jayne did NOT get into a fist fight with Mamie Van Doren when she was at a bar with The Beatles. George Harrison threw a drink in Mamie's face, Jayne had nothing to do with it. Matt Cimber was not older than Jayne, he was younger. Mickey never sued Jayne for custody of the children. Jayne never lost custody of her youngest son and she NEVER went to court with alcohol on her breath. She was always calm and collected during these preceedings. Sam Brody did not encourage Jayne to become friends with Anton La Vey (the minister in The Church Of Satan), the whole thing was a publicity stunt. Ronnie Harrison, the driver of the car she was killed in, was NOT a high school student. In fact, he had served in the armed forces and was 19. He was dating the club owner where Jayne was performing at's daughter. Sam Brody and Ronnie Harrison were not thrown from the car when it crashed. Mickey Hargitay NEVER owned a topless bar and Zoltan Hargitay did not open a flower shop with his father (Mickey Jr DID open a plant business). Jayne was not a perfect woman and her career definitely had it's share of ups and downs, but why not delve more into her psyche? Jayne Mansfield had a wild life and a wild career, she was a funny, humorous woman with an over the top personality. You do not get the feel for any of that in this book. What hurts the most is that the other parts on the other women in this book seem to be much more accurate. HOWEVER, how much CAN you trust a book that uses Wikipedia as a reference? Avoid at all costs....ESPECIALLY if you're looking for information on Jayne Mansfield.

This was an interesting, fun book to read. I don't think there has ever been a book that was all about Hollywood's blonde bombshells. There are the legendary blondes (Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Betty Grable), the tragic blondes (Carole Landis, Jean Harlow, Jayne Mansfield), and the forgotten blondes (Marie McDonald, Barbara Payton). I also enjoyed the chapter titled "Hollywood Prefers Blondes" which focused on stars like Ginger Rogers, Marion Davies, Sonja Henie, and Diana Dors. Fans of these stars will find this book is a nice tribute and if you don't know much about them you'll learn a lot. The authors don't make any of these women look like saints but they don't trash them either. A lot of books like this only give you a couple of photos of each actress but this book is filled with pictures (more than 100). The trivia section in each chapter was a nice touch too. I enjoyed reading it a lot.

I am currently in the middle of reading this book, and so far it is very interesting, very entertaining, and very informative.
But, I must say some of the information in the book is "mixed up" Examples:
* Describing Jean Harlow's movie "Dinner at Eight" the book names off the rest of the cast members as being John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Greta Garbo. Although Mr. Barrymore is in "Dinner at Eight" the other two starlets are not. This reader believes the author was confusing "Dinner at Eight" with another great cinematic, star filled feature "Grand Hotel"

* Another Jean Harlow confused fact. The movie in which she plays a bit part to Clara Bow is in the movie "Saturday Night Kid" and not "The Love Parade" The trivia tagged along with that movie is of course referring to a dress that did not fit Miss Bow was given to Jean Harlow to wear by the actress herself.

Good book though, just wish the facts could be right!

Here is another book that I am in love with. Page after page of gossipy stories from the 20's thru the 60's. These ladies were no saints (maybe it was all the peroxide) but if you can handle the truth you won't be able to put this one down. The bios are brief only because there are so many actresses in here. You learn a lot of stuff and most of the pics were new to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for including a chapter about the amazing and too often overlooked Carole Landis (she is a one of my relatives). Good Job Liz!

If you love classic movies you need to add this book to your library! It is very well-researched and well-written. All the greatest Hollywood blondes are profiled from the original platinum blonde Jean Harlow to 1950's bombshell Jayne Mansfield. What I liked best is that the authors wrote about some lesser known stars like Carole Landis, Barbara Payton, and Marie McDonald. This book kept my interest from the first chapter right until the last. It is filled with juicy stories and interesting trivia from classic Hollywood. I learned so much about actresses like Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Marion Davies, Grace Kelly, and Betty Grable. The book has tons of candid photos which I have not seen in other books. There are also terrific quotes throughout the book. The filmographies are all very detailed and are a great resource for film fans. Liz Nocera and Michelle Vogel are both very talented writers and this book is a real treat for classic film buffs. The book is more than 400 pages so it's a steal at less than $25!

As a newcomer to the classic actress genre, this book really helped me to discover the different actresses and their amazing lives. I was very unfamiliar with some of the lesser known actresses and I am very impressed at the collection in this book. It was great writing and the pictures were extraordinary. I recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in classic hollywood actresses. I hope others can get the same out of this book as I have. GREAT JOB!

I just turned twelve and for the last two years I've been watching a lot of the old movies on TCM. My favorite actresses are Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard. I haven't really read a lot about these ladies, just enjoyed their films, but my aunt saw this book and bought it for my birthday. I'm so glad she did. It's really informative but not boring and long winded like some non fiction books can be. I also like the filmographies because I can look up the films I haven't yet seen and try and find them on DVD. If you like any of these actresses, you'll enjoy this book. It's very well written and I've learned a lot.

Thanks for reading my review.

I was beyond thrilled when someone told me there was a chapter about Marie McDonald in this book. I have been a huge Marie fan ever since I saw her in Promises Promises but there is not a lot of information about her out there. Thank goodness for Hollywood Blondes! This has to be the most detailed and accurate look at Marie's turbulent life. I thought they picked some stunning photos of Marie too. I wasn't surprised when I learned the authors started MarieMcDonald.org

I also like the other chapters in Hollywood Blondes. It was a good mix of bombshells from the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

Wonderful book! Once you start you can't put it down! Grace Kelly (Chapter 12) was my favorite chapter!