The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women [Paperback]

Axel Madsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

Documents the double life of "The Sewing Circle," a group of lesbians and bisexuals that included such famous figures as Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy and Agnes Moorehead. By the author of Stanwyck.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Birch Lane Press (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559722754
• ISBN-13: 978-1559722759
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,178,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs > Lesbian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating subject, sloppy book, June 20, 2000

By 

Edward Moore "adoresixtyfour" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women (Paperback)

The subject of famous Hollywood starlets who were, in fact, deep in the closet is certainly a fascinating one--imagine the harsh, paranoid life one would have to lead, hiding one's true feelings and lying to protect one's careers while still seeking love. And I'd really love to read a well-executed, thoughtful study of this subject.

This isn't it, kids.

Axel Madsen's "The Sewing Circle" is, at best, a sloppy book, with plenty of rumor & opinion presented as fact & more typos than I've ever seen in any other "professionally published" book. For crying out loud, they misspelled Greta Garbo's name--at the head of the chapter dealing with her childhood!

There are some interesting tidbits here--the speculation as to why Garbo ended her career when she did, the behind-the-scenes gays & lesbians who drove the creative engines of Hollywood, the sad, ultimately lonely endings that many of these women met--but the presentation is so haphazard that it's difficult to get anything useful out of it. And if every mention of Mercedes de Costa were deleted, this wouldn't be a book--it would be a pamphlet.

This book sorely needed an editor, a fact-checker, a proofreader...it needed help. Had such help arrived, this might have been an interesting, trashy read. As it stands, it's just trash--recycle it & move on.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So much promise . . . ah, well., September 20, 2000

By 

Peter J. Storms "the man with the plan" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women (Paperback)

When I first came across this book, I was very excited, because I am interested in all aspects of how the various entertainment media manipulate the world and present only a selected vision of what it's really like. I looked forward to reading a detailed account of life in Hollywood and how hard it was to deal with oppression and prejudice and have to live a secret life. Instead of an inspiring, enlightening read, I got a scatter-brained, typo-laden gossip column. I can't believe, as was stated in another review, that the typos were the fault of the printer. The amount of effort put into researching and writing this book is reflected in the quality of the copy editing.

It could have been worth my money. Oh well. I'm glad I bought it from the Quality Paperback Book Club and not at retail price.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, rife with typos., March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women (Paperback)

I was actually amazed that this book got published! Aside from the massive number of typographical errors, it was meandering, constantly bringing up new names of stars with absolutely no context, dropping them, then mentioning them again 100 pages later. A poor book that manages to make an interesting subject boring.