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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The tragic life of Hollywood's "Love Goddess", February 1, 1999
Leaming takes a psychological approach to her film star subjects, backed up by key interviews and archival and print documentation. The story of Rita Hayworth, Hollywood's Love Goddess, is poignant and well told. Hayworth was identified with her screen role, Gilda, the fiery, redhaired temptress who drove men wild. In real life, though, as she was supposed to have said, "Men go to bed with Gilda and wake up with me," a sad and ironic commentary on movie-fed fantasy. None of her five marriages lasted long, and she was involved in countless lawsuits with husbands, her studio (Columbia), and ex-husbands. Leaming posits a possible reason for her failures as a lover, wife, and mother, that is, that she may have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Eduardo Cansino. Mature-looking beyond her years and a talented dancer, she was her father's dance partner at 12, working to support her family in gambling casinos and other dives south of the border. Leaming backs up her assertions by relating Hayworth's adult behavior to that of incest survivors. She makes a provocative case, but since Hayworth died prematurely of Alzheimer's disease and never spoke on the subject, it has to remain pure--but nonetheless tantalizing--speculation. A fascinating read, and a sad one.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Private Anguish Of Hollywood's Love Goddess, June 4, 2006
If you ever find yourself wishing that you could live someone else's life, or thinking that celebrities have an ideal existence, read this book biography of Rita Hayworth. Barbara Leaming meticuliously researched the actress's life, from her traumatic childhood as her father's dance partner and incest victim, her mother's alcoholism, her crippling shyness, and her deep insecurities that affected her relationships, her career, and finally, her tragic descent into alcohol abuse and Alzheimer's disease. She was forever after identified with her signature performance in "Gilda", defining an image that would last a lifetime, and from which she was desperate to escape.
Her choice of husbands often reflected the controlling traits of her father,
and her sad estrangment from her late daughter, Rebecca Welles, are just a few parts of this compelling, poignant biography. As this was before abuse was discussed and therapy was made available, Rita hardly could have been expected to live a demon-free life. Her youngest daughter, Princess Yasmin Khan, continues to raise funds and spread awareness for Alzheimer's research. We can only imagine the pain and anguish that Hayworth's loved ones and friends experienced as her mind deteriorated to the point where she did not recognize them. It would have been nice if the book had expanded upon her relationship with her five-time costar, Glenn Ford (who is only twice mentioned), with whom we now know she shared much more than a friendship. This book is a touching tribute to a woman who appeared to live everyone's fantasy life, surrounded by stars, wealth, power, success and public adulation, but in reality lived a nightmare of pain, abuse, low self-esteem and pathos. Peace and love to the lovely Rita.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
'If this was happiness', February 3, 2008
said her second husband, Orson Welles, of their marriage, "imagine what the rest of her life had been!"
According to the material written in this biography, the Misery Index of Rita Hayworth's life made that of Judy Garland, Gene Tierney, and Vivien Leigh look like Sunday afternoon in the park.
The author, Barbara Leaming, has also written a biography of Orson Welles. That book was written in the year before his death, with his full cooperation, including interviews and access. One thing most chroniclers of Hollywood agree on, don't depend on anything that Orson Welles said. He was notorious for telling interesting tales - whether or not there was any truth to them. On the dust cover of this book about Rita Hayworth there are plenty of blurbs touting the author's biography of Welles. I haven't read the Welles' bio but this book, about Welles' second wife, feels like an after thought. Almost as though, with all those interviews (and one shocking revelation) from Welles, why not write a book about Rita, too?
In this book, Miss Leaming becomes the only biographer of Rita Hayworth to bring up allegations that the actress's childhood and adolescence were scarred by incestuous encounters with her father. This revelation is based on hearsay that Rita supposedly confided to Welles during their marriage. The allegation may be true, but who knows? Neither of the parties involved are alive to speak on the matter. There are no other accounts of it. Rita never mentioned it elsewhere apparently. None of this stops Miss Leaming from accepting Welles' version as the truth and shoehorning all remaining known facts of Rita Hayworth's life, from childhood on, to fit the model of "the incest family." It seems like that subject is raised at least once every two or three pages as the reason behind this behavior or that decision. A good bit of this book reads like a very dry clinical psychology text.
Another issue that I have with this book is that there are almost no quotes from Rita Hayworth herself, and very few from people who knew her or even had casual acquaintance with her. It reads like a collection of facts culled from public records, newspapers, magazines and, maybe one or two shopworn Hollywood anecdotes thrown in. The author tells us Hayworth was quiet, liked to keep to herself, wasn't much of a Hollywood party girl. OK - but isn't there anyone still alive who knew Rita Hayworth that the author could have interviewed to make her subject's life seem a bit more vivid?
Whether or not she enjoyed the experience, Rita Hayworth had an interesting life. She was a trained, professional dancer in her childhood; she became a close friend of Hermes Pan; she worked with Fred Astaire on a couple of movies. She was also a 1940's movie star, and The Hollywood Love Goddess, with all that entails - good and bad. She was married and divorced five times in her life. She once was married to a Prince and became the mother of a Princess. For a few months she lost custody of her children to a state court for "neglect." She began to suffer early onset Alzheimer's around 1960, yet went undiagnosed until 1980. Still, somehow, this woman never manages to come to life in this book.
Let's hope the definitive work on the subject is still waiting to be written.
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