Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends) [Hardcover]

Matthew Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hollywood Legends | Publication Date: September 25, 2007

Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio. Born the child of vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal, distinctive cello voice, megawatt smile, luminous saucer eyes, and flawless timing, she came into widespread fame in Warner Bros. musicals and comedies of the 1930s, including Blonde Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade.

Frequent co-star to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years.

Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and features numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues.

Matthew Kennedy teaches anthropology at the City College of San Francisco and film history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is the author of Marie Dressler: A Biography and Edmund Goulding\'s Dark Victory: Hollywood\'s Genius Bad Boy. Read more about his work at http://www.matthewkennedybooks.com/

Hear Matthew Kennedy on WNYC!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book about an actress with a long and lustrous career
---Provides the first major biography of this enduring Hollywood star
---Offers extensive research and insights gained from the cooperation of Blondell's friends, family, and colleagues
---Includes over 25 photographs
---Expands the Hollywood Legends Series

From the Inside Flap

The first major biography of an actress with a long and lustrous career

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi; First Edition edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578069610
• ISBN-13: 978-1578069613
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew Kennedy fell in love with the oldies on television while growing up in Redding, California in the 1960s and '70s. The inspiration for writing his first book, a biography of the singular actress Marie Dressler, came with her matchless performance in Dinner at Eight. Edmund Goulding, a thoroughly intriguing director-screenwriter-composer, became a biographical subject thanks to the suggestion of a friend. And Joan Blondell, well, who doesn't love Joan Blondell? For more information on Matthew Kennedy, please visit his website at matthewkennedybooks.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Son Remembers", November 10, 2007

By 

Norman S. Powell (Studio City, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends) (Hardcover)

Several years ago my wife and I were producing a documentary on old Hollywood and Matthew Kennedy was one of the historians we interviewed. We found him to be a kind and ethical man who impressed us with his scholarship.

Having been burned in previous encounters with the press, I had to overcome substantial reluctance to tell the unabridged version of my mother's story as I remembered it. Matt Kennedy's work has vindicated my trust.

"Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes" is a first rate biography written with affection and respect. I found it a funny, touching and accurate portrait of a survivor whose struggle against a lifetime of obstacles would have defeated all but the most resolute. The author has captured much of this struggle in vivid and entertaining detail. His research was both wide and deep and included details that even I did not know.

The process of remembrance for my family and me has been sometimes painful, sometimes joyful but always remindful of how inexorably time goes by. Hopefully, our testimony as eyewitnesses to the life of a good woman long gone will provide knowledge and insight for our children's children.

Thanks Matt.

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Trouper Comes to Life in This Highly Satisfying Biography, October 23, 2007

By 

James Robert Parish (Studio City, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends) (Hardcover)

Over the years, the public--let alone the film industry--took movie star Joan Blondell far too much for granted because she made her performances look so easy. One could always count on Blondell to provide a jolt of needed energy to her many films of the 1930s through the late 1970s, and in the 1930s her home studio (Warner Bros.) worked her constantly to bolster their product output.
As this well-balanced biography of Blondell sharply details, the actress only belateldy realized just how much her career momentum suffered because she had been far too pliable to her studio's work demands. (Unlike such fellow Warner Bros. players as Bette Davis, Ruth Chatterton, and even generally compliant Kay Francis, Joan rarely balked at whatever screen project was tossed her way.) Author Matthew Kennedy points out in his well crafted narrative, how much Blondell ached for the type of film role (e.g. Aunt Sissy in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) that she rarely received and how this expert actress had to struggle to maintain her show biz career in her post stardom years.
Paralleling Blondell's professional disappointments over the decades were her three unsatisfactory marriages - in each instance, she was the brunt of her husband's whims, selfishness, and inadequacies. As the author well illustrates in his narrative, the actress had more than her share of domestic tragedies, traumas, and difficulties. It is these revelations within this book that give this biography its dimension and special appeal to readers--whether they are well acquainted with Blondell the movie star, or are just coming to be aware of this talented star.
The author had the cooperation of Blondell's family and others which doubtlessly provided him with additional data for his probing insights into this talented lady's lengthy life/career.
A highly recommended read.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, October 22, 2007

By 

Reviewer from Queens - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends) (Hardcover)

I read Center Door Fancy by Joan Blondell (the fictionalized account of her life) and after this was looking for a biography of her. Matthew Kennedy has compiled an excellent, highly recommended biography of this legendary star who played the starring role in musicals, solid supporting actress roles, and character parts. She is famous for her Aunt Cissy in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and the memorable in classic Warner Brothers Musicals The Golddiggers of 1933 and Dames, among others. Joan Blondell was born the eldest child of two vaudevillians and became a performer on stage early in her life. She eventually appeared in the Theatre and became and up and coming star at Warner Brothers during the 1930s. A durable actress she became an adept comedienne and character actress. Blondell also appeared on the Broadway stage to public acclaim, later in her life and in numerous guest shots on television programs. She had three marriages all ending in divorce: to cinematographer George Barnes, Dick Powell, and Michael Todd. the marriage to Michael Todd was particularly turbulent. Joan Blondell always had a close family ties with her family: her two children Norman Powell and Ellen Powell; her grandchildren; her parents; and her siblings and nieces and nephews. Matthew Kennedy has done extensive research and has had cooperation of Blondell's two children who both provided extensive information about their mother. The author writes how Joan Blondell was "rediscovered" in the sixties via the hit television program Here Come the Brides (where she played "Lottie") and her vintage films being shown on television. Joan Blondell comes across as a very likeable, warm hearted woman who despite physical and emotional hardships, kept on going. She was a true survivor in show business and in her personal life as well. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to read about this remarkable woman and also to learn more about Hollywood's Golden Age.