Customer Reviews

Tallulah: My Autobiography (Southern Icons)

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Reading Tallulah's autobiography was probably the most absorbing experience I've ever had with a book. You are literally whisked into the pages, forgetting everything else that surrounds you, unaware of time, epoch, chores and whatever else may concern you at other times in your life. 'Reading' simply does not cut it. Sitting there with the book in your hands, you can hear the deep, husky and vibrant voice so well-known, leading you through the pages at a breakneck speed. Here you get to experience life as she did, a true roller coaster ride if ever there was one. If Tallulah has a "tiger by the tail" (as she describes in the last paragraph), so do you. If Tallulah seethes with indignation or revels in triumph, so do you. It is only after reaching the end, after a period of a heavy bombardment of names, anecdotes and confessions to match the bombings and firings of both World Wars combined, that you wake up from a reverie of an evening back in time, hosted stormily by the very one who hosted so many nights of "glamorous, unpredictable" merit on The Big Show.

Never once do you stop to question the truthfulness of the memoir, so luminous is it of candidness as can only belong to Tallulah Bankhead. The only pauses and breaks come soon after the beginning, when you find yourself scratching your head at the number of unfamiliar proper nouns--including what seems to be a myriad of British nobilities--spread out on the pages. The vocabulary to beat a Dickens work adds to the bewilderment, until you resign yourself to your pitiful lack of knowledge, gladly awaiting with baited breath the scores of information your author is willing to share with you--which probably isn't nearly half of what could have been told, but still beats the hell out of most other memoirs, especially those published in the 50's.

If you are a person who likes to highlight, bookmark, underline or scribble on profound, likable or otherwise noteworthy passages, you will merely end up raising your hands to heaven as you realize the futility of the task. This is a book that has everything ranging from insight to babble. If you seek to find the infamous actress you will not be disappointed, but if you wish to gaze more deeply beyond the stories and rumors surrounding the notorious Tallu, you will surely discover the delicate girl from Alabama with the personality to charm a Prussian general. My only regret is that she didn't live longer to perhaps write a memoir in the later decades of the 20th century, which would have allowed her to unearth an entirely new mine of explosive honesty.

This is a biography that will keep you entertained. It is full of interesting snippets into Tallulah's life and a good number of anecdotes. There are times when Miss Bankhead goes off on a tangent and rambles on, jumping from one point to another like a demented pedestrian trying to dodge cars on the motorway, but this adds to the charm of the book rather than takes away from it. It has often been said that that was how she spoke generally and the book is almost as good as hearing her talk on various subjects. One impression that shines through in this book was Tallulah's almost total obsession with physical looks (especially her own - I do not know if it was because she was an ugly duckling who became a beautiful swan). There were times that she came off as plainly egocentric and others, she seemed like the friend one would love to have, giving what seemed frank and honest accounts of her life and career. And by Jove, for someone of her status and calibre, she sure did a thing dropping the names of the high and mighty she frequently hobnobbed with. On the whole, she comes off very well and though this biography is completely lacking the details of those outrageous scandals that we associate with Miss Bankhead, it is a very entertaining book which I highly recommend.

After reading this book which was laden with a good number of barbs, I think that in her own right, Tallulah Bankhead was certainly a "Mistress of the Verbal Grenade" (I have borrowed a phrase that Tallulah herself used in connection with Dorothy Parker, but which I feel might also apply to herself somewhat).


[I am quite miffed that Amazon for some unfathomable reason removed this review months after I first posted it in February 2009 >:( ].

What an awesome woman!

I love how the book rambles just like she tended to do! Shes got some sentences in there that are just like whoa..stellar vocabulary and she stopped going to school before she became a teen I believe!

The book is very much Tallulah and very bold for its time period. Especially the chapter she did entirely on her drug/alcohol use. Having read other books about her, I know she deliberately skimmed or left out alot of other stuff (bisexuality and the like). But I think if she were living today she'd probably spill everything. Really wish she was :(

Very good book :D

Terrific biography in Tallulah's own words and not like the usual "star's" autobiography. As well as demonstrating a fair amount of self-awareness, her delightful wit and brilliant and amusing command of the English language make this book a gem of its kind. If only her performances and interviews on "The Big Show" where easily available. Highly recommended.