My heart belongs [Paperback]

Mary Martin (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Quill (1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068803652X
• ISBN-13: 978-0688036522
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,332,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ...To Daddy, March 21, 2009

By 

Samantha Glasser "Maliejandra" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: My heart belongs (Paperback)

Mary Martin is best known today for her portrayal of Peter Pan, a role she felt destined to play. She also appeared in such shows as South Pacific and Hello Dolly!. She made several films too, but her real love was the stage. She discusses her early life, beginning with her childhood as a tomboy and a showoff, two things that served her well in her career. She began her own dance studio in Texas and moved on to bigger and better things. Mary discusses her marriages, her children, her career, and the famous faces that she knew including Richard Rogers, Noel Coward, Janet Gaynor, and others.

She writes with gusto and excitement. This book makes you feel that you are a friend of Mary's who is listening to her stories about the past. Sometimes the stories are sad and sometimes they're downright funny. Mary is always honest and forthright; she'll tell you if something didn't turn out so well and completely take the blame. She doesn't try to make herself out to be a huge important star, but she doesn't constantly demean herself either. The best thing is, just like everything she did, she seems to be having fun telling her story. That makes it easy and enjoyable to read.

The only thing I would have liked to hear more about is her film career, which recieves only a few pages total. Martin was a stage star at heart and never really cared for the movies she made (although they're quite good).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and frustrating - sometimes on the same page, November 14, 2007

By 

Graceann Macleod "Books Fuel My Life" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Mary Martin had an amazing life, full of ups (she spent a great deal of time soaring around as Peter Pan, so those "ups" were quite literal), downs, and everything in between. This book is so breezy, lighthearted and "surface," however, that I came away from it feeling as if I didn't really learn a lot about what made Mary Martin tick. Given that this was her autobiography, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised - but I am no less disappointed (thus the slight downgrade to four stars). Miss Martin's husband, Richard Halliday, had an alcohol problem which is mentioned in just a few sentences; her relationship with her son, Larry Hagman, was difficult early on. She says that she will discuss it later in the book, but she never really does.

What Miss Martin DOES do, however, is share in loving detail how she prepared for and followed through on her performances. We learn with great specificity how she prepared for a role, how she was wired to fly as Peter Pan, and the backstage difficulties during some of her less successful ventures. For that information alone, the book is highly recommended to anyone interested in musical theatre. This, I now know, is what I should have expected - a marvelous amount of information about Mary Martin the performer; and much less about Mary Martin the person. Her wish for privacy is to be expected, but now that she has left us, I'd love to read an in-depth, objective biography that includes more personal information, and which covers the entirety of her life. This book was written in the mid-1970s, long before the horrible car accident that killed one person immediately and severely injured all the others involved (including Mary's best friend, Janet Gaynor, who never fully recovered and who passed away just a year or two later), and just before Larry Hagman became "J.R." on the television series, Dallas. There's clearly more to the Martin story, and I'd be very interested to read it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My heart belongs to Mary, May 17, 2001

By 

Richard J. Roberts (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Heart Belongs (Paperback)

This is a lovely book-warm, endearing, breezy, just like the lady herself. Filled with charming and hilarious anecdotes ("Mary Martin slapped here") and oodles of Broadway lore. She is also frank about how her career sometimes upstaged her family and the price she paid for that. Although I suspect there are truths she chose not to reveal (which one expects in any autobiography), this book is altogether delightful and just what you'd expect from Mary Martin.