The Salad Days [Hardcover]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1988

This is an autobiography of the crown prince of American cinema, son of the disputed king of the silver screen, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The relationship of father and son looms large in the book for the book ends in 1940 shortly after Fairbank Senior's death.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The actor's stylish, gently humorous autobiography recreates Hollywood in its early glories, but it is even more appealing as the story of an extraordinary life and career. Fairbanks, son of the screen's definitive swashbuckler and stepson of Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart," relates incidents that deeply affected him after his parents' divorce in 1917 when he was seven. There are stories about the author's famous friends (Olivier, Edward G. Robinson, Noel Coward, etc.) and lovers (Gertrude Lawrence, Marlene Dietrich and others), as well as a portrait of his first wife, Joan Crawford. It is particularly interesting to follow the steps related here in Fairbanks' career, starting in the silents of the 1920s (Stella Dallas) and continuing in the talkies that brought him starring roles in Little Caesar, The Prisoner of Zenda, Gunga Din and other epics of the 1930s. The book ends with the author's enlistment in the U.S. Navy in 1940 at age 30with the promise of a second volume that readers will welcome. Photos.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This first volume of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s autobiography (it recounts his life story through 1941) shows him to be virtually identical with his public persona. Fairbanks is a dandya witty, intelligent ladies' man (and sometimes a bit of a cad), with an avid craving to be one of the rich and famous. All but the most ardent Anglophile will be bored ultimately with the account of yet another country weekend with some lord and lady and hangers-on, but Fairbanks's story of his life in Hollywood more than compensates. He strikes a successful balance between candor and discretion in telling of his affairs (with Marlene Dietrich, among many others) and his early marriage to Joan Crawford. John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 431 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (March 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385174047
• ISBN-13: 978-0385174046
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,480,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A clear-sighted autobiography, February 19, 2003

By 

"verona_beach" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Salad Days (Hardcover)

Fairbanks' witty and entertaining memoir is in much the same vein as his friend and contemporary David Niven's. Like Niven (and unlike most autobiographers), he is refreshingly clear-sighted about his youthful naivete, looking upon his early years with admirable objectivity. It's occasionally clear that he came from a time before political correctness, but his is charm still evident, and his tactful style skims lightly over anything potentially scandalous or distasteful. This is no tacky `tell-all' tome. His complicated relationship with his father, the world famous Douglas Fairbanks Snr, is handled with great subtlety and beauty.

This is a book which would have benefited greatly from tighter editing. At over 500 pages of Fairbanks' rather wordy style, it's a long read, with occasional repetition and factual errors. My edition was littered with a noticeable number of spelling and typographical errors - hardly the fault of the author, but an indication that the manuscript was perhaps not given the editorial attention it deserved.

A shame, because this is a good autobiography that might have been a great one. Nevertheless, it's still a worthy read for anyone interested in the era.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Salad Days, July 20, 2010

By 

Ann Humphrey (Little Rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Salad Days (Hardcover)

Fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of Hollywood & it's first male star & life.
A necessary tome for those interested in the early Movie business & the next couple of generations.
A vanished time, and a glimpse of better days in America.......

4.0 out of 5 stars Hollywood history by someone who was there when it counted., February 1, 2000

By 

Patrick Perreault (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Salad Days (Hardcover)

Did I read a lot of Hollywood autobiographies? You bet! This one is a real pleasure to read: full of good taste, no ugly gossip, well written. Fairbanks Jr. knew a lot of them: Pickford, Fairbanks Sr., Crawford, Leslie Howard, etc... A good read! And an important one: this book is part of many other books where there is an extensive bibliography. Don't miss it!