The Life of Dick Haymes: No More Little White Lies (Kindle Edition)

by Ruth Prigozy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

There was a time when no one would have left Dick Haymes (1918–1980) out of the top class of his contemporaries such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. But now the Argentine-born baritone is known only to those ardent fans and music historians who still claim him as one of the most talented popular singers of the twentieth century.

He worked with several great bandleaders, including Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, before beginning a solo career that vaulted him to Hollywood stardom. In 1944, he worked with Twentieth Century Fox, headlining such hit musicals as Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe and State Fair. Popular recordings such as "Little White Lies," "The More I See You," "How Blue the Night," "For You, For Me, For Evermore," "Speak Low," and "Another Night Like This," made him a top draw at the box office.

In the 1950s, when television took over the media landscape and the appeal of musicals declined, Haymes’s career suffered. Despite efforts in the 1970s, he never re-established success. In The Life of Dick Haymes: No More Little White Lies, Ruth Prigozy uses over forty personal interviews with singers, musicians, composers, arrangers, and Haymes’s family members. She searches archival recordings of "The Dick Haymes Show," films, recordings, music studies, and histories to present a full portrait of this complicated man. Prigozy chronicles Haymes’s childhood, his rise in the 1940s, his decline into alcoholism, his multiple marriages—to such leading stars as Rita Hayworth and Joanne Dru—and divorces, and the minor resurgence of his career in Europe during the last years of his life.

From the Publisher

This biography of the superstar crooner, his rise, fall, and struggle for a second act

---Provides fans the first biography of Dick Haymes, a popular singer/actor who was the contemporary of Frank Sinatra, the Rat Pack, and Tony Martin

---Argues that in his lifetime Haymes was considered a better singer than Sinatra, but Sinatra endured and became part of the establishment

---Includes information gleaned from over 40 new interviews with Haymes’s family members and acquaintances

---Features over 30 rare photographs

---Expands our Hollywood Legends Series

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Print Length: 283 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (April 25, 2006)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001M0OB1G
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,968 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A cautionary tale well worth reading, July 17, 2006

By	David Foe (E. Lansing, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Life of Dick Haymes: No More Little White Lies (Hollywood Legends Series) (Hardcover)

Ruth Prigozy has done an admirable job in bringing Dick Haymes life story to light. He is certainly someone who had been forgotten and whose story deserves to be told. I found this to be a well-researched biography that held my interest and which I enjoyed reading.

This book shows how a person can totally mess up his life by not addressing some basic problems -- for instance, the way he was raised clearly was responsible for his inability to foster healthy relationships. He kept repeating the same mistakes, drinking too much, etc. Certainly this was a man with a lot of troubles -- many self-inflicted. Interestingly enough, this book shows he never really did find stability and peace in his personal life. I agree with a previous reviewer who said high school students should read this book -- how NOT to live your life.

However, at times I think author Prigozy is too quick to excuse some of these faults and too willing to make allowances for Haymes' behavior. Here is an intelligent man who was handsome and talented, who nonetheless "blew it" in both his professional and personal life. He does not seem to be a very nice person -- cheating on his wives, mean or neglectful to his kids, a drunk, selfish, a deadbeat, at times arrogant, etc. He may not have been "Mr. Evil," as he has been dubbed, but he apparently wasn't "Mr. Nice Guy" either.

I think it would have been interesting for the author to explore more of his professional decline and the reasons for it. Why exactly did he fail to become an established movie star? Why did his popularity fade in the late 1940s and early 1950s? What happened to his radio career? His record contract was cancelled several years before the rock revolution -- was it his style of music that was passe, was the public tired of him, or did he exhibit a lack of range or an inability to adjust with changing tastes and times?

This book doesn't delve into that as much as I would have liked, but it's still an excellent read, and very worthwhile in bringing the story of this forgotten star to today's public.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I Couldn't Put it Down", May 25, 2006

By	C. FULLER (Birmingham, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Life of Dick Haymes: No More Little White Lies (Hollywood Legends Series) (Hardcover)

Ruth Prigozy has written a balanced account of the life of a man who was tipped for mega stardom in his formative professional years but who through bad judgement and sometimes fate was destined to struggle for the rest of his life.

Several marriages including to film beauties Joanne Dru and Rita Hayworth not to mention the sultry Fran Jeffries kept his name in the press but after a short term contract with Capitol Records in the middle 1950s failed to interest the public or music industry his career faltered. In the early 1960s after the failure of his marriage to Fran Jeffries he left the USA and headed for Europe, which was to be his home for almost a decade.

South African born BBC DJ and Record Producer Alan Dell rediscovered Haymes in 1969 and managed to get him into a recording studio for an album entitled "Then & Now" which was instrumental in getting him back to the USA and giving him another chance.

Ruth Prigozy unravels the story of a man who was a complicated gentleman almost from another age. Loved and respected by his peers Ruth delves into the insecurities that dominated his life.

A mix of facts, memories via interviews with family, friends and those associated with Haymes and even extracts from his own unfinished autobiography. Plenty of excellent pictures too. This is an "I couldn't put it down" book.

A compelling read full of highs and lows, surprises and sometimes despair. This long awaited biography addresses many of the stories that had been circulating around Hollywood about Haymes and presents the facts for the first time.

A must for any fan of the 1940s, musicals, crooners and film stars.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST OF HAYMES EVER, May 10, 2006

By	Richard Grudens - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Life of Dick Haymes: No More Little White Lies (Hollywood Legends Series) (Hardcover)

Ruth Prigozy writes a poignant biography of an otherwise neglected big band and beyond singer whose rich baritone rivaled Bing Crosby's. Ruth Prigozy is an accomplished author and English professor at Long Island's Hofstra University. She spent a number of years researching this story and presents it faithfully and validly engaging many in interviews to promote accuracy. She has covered all the bases in this very meritorious book that is a long time coming. It tells the truth. And makes it a very valid book.It places Dick Haymes in his rightful place in music and singing.