Take It from the Big Mouth: The Life of Martha Raye [Hardcover]

Jean Maddern Pitrone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 1999

" ""She was one of the world's four best comediennes,"" said Milton Berle, ""but she lived a life of personal disaster."" Martha Raye sang, danced, and joked her way into the spotlight of the entertainment world with a career that spanned seven decades and encompassed everything from vaudeville to television commercials to entertaining U.S. troops. Take It from the Big Mouth, the first full-fledged biography of the multi-talented performer, explores Raye's life and career with candor and insight. Raye got her big break when she caught the attention of a film director as she kidded with audience members Joe E. Lewis and Jimmy Durante during an engagement at the Trocadero in Hollywood. In the late 1930s, Raye appeared in a number of films, and the press heralded her as a ""stridently funny comedienne with a Mammoth Cave mouth."" From there her career soared. She landed a role in Charlie Chaplain's film Monsieur Verdoux, and the New York Post commented that Raye was the only one who could hold her own with the comic master. By the 1950s she hosted her own highly rated television show, reaching millions with her clowning. Behind the huge smile and raucous laugh, though, there was a darker side to Martha Raye. She found solace from her insecurities and a frenzied schedule in the use of drugs and alcohol. Her seven rocky marriages, the last to a man 33 years her junior whom she had known less than two weeks, fueled headlines and gossip columns. Particularly painful was her turbulent relationship with her only daughter, Melodye. She was passionately committed to entertaining troops abroad during World War II, and she worked tirelessly as both entertainer and nurse in the remote jungles of Vietnam. Bob Hope commented that ""she was Florence Nightingale, Dear Abby, and the only singer who could be heard over the artillery fire."" The Green Berets designated her an honorary lieutenant colonel, and she later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After her death in 1994, ""Colonel Maggie"" became the only civilian laid to rest among the Green Berets at the Fort Bragg military cemetery.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Clownish comedienne/performer Martha Raye (1916-1994) was best known for a string of movie roles before World War II, an eponymous television show in the 1950s and long patriotic service entertaining American troops, from WWII through Vietnam. This biography, based mainly on secondary sources (not footnoted) provides a saucy sketch of Raye's roller-coaster life. Born "Margy Reed" to traveling vaudevillians, she became "Martha Raye" as a teen singer and quickly rose to Hollywood roles. Her large and elastic mouth helped her physicalize gags and, much later in her career, inspired the book's title phrase, via a 1980 commercial for denture cleansers. Though Pitrone (The Dodges: The Auto Family Fortune and Misfortune) does explain that Raye's singing, dancing and comedic talent made her a singular clown, the book never quite makes Raye's stage presence felt. Still, it does recount Raye's troubled personal life, including a faulty education, a strained relationship with her daughter, seven marriages (the final one to a man more than 30 years her junior), substance abuse and attempts at suicide. Raye's greatest pride, according to her daughter, came from her service to the troops; she was buried at Fort Bragg. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Most people recall Raye (d. 1994) as a brash film, TV, and stage comedienne, a consummate ad libber. For servicemen from North Africa to Korea to Vietnam, she was a nurturer and indefatigable entertainer whose efforts deservedly won her the Medal of Freedom. In a workmanlike biography that includes the insights of comedian Steve Allen and Raye's only child, Melodye, biographer Pitrone examines Raye's hectic life. Born in Montana in 1916 to marginally successful vaudevillian parents, Raye parlayed her singing and dancing skills into a Hollywood contract in 1936, when she starred with Bing Crosby in Rhythm on the Range. Twenty-five films followed, including a well-regarded role in Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Raye's career was her first priority; she led a rather dysfunctional personal life. Ill educated and much married, she remained insecure despite her fame. If a successful showbiz biography is one that generates interest in the subject's work, then this book is a success. Readers will be anxious to visit their local video store.AKim R. Holston, American Inst. for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Malvern, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (April 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813121108
• ISBN-13: 978-0813121109
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,307,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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