There Really Was A Hollywood [Paperback]

Janet Leigh (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Jove (October 15, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515090808
• ISBN-13: 978-0515090802
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,830,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There really was a Hollywood and Ms. Leigh takes you there!, April 25, 2000

By 

pmg1975 (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: There Really Was a Hollywood (Hardcover)

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Leigh, albeit briefly, at a reception and screening of her film, "Touch of Evil". It truly was like meeting Hollywood royalty. All through the course of the evening, people were commenting, "She's so down to earth. She's so charming. She's so real. What a class act". And after reading this book, I can certainly understand why.

Ms. Leigh's discovery by actress Norma Shearer is the stuff of Hollywood legend. She writes with great enthusiasm, disbelief, self-depreciation, and wonder about her years of guidance and nurturing at MGM, where they taught actors important skills not only to better themselves, but also their performance. She is your personal tour guide to all of her film sets and locations, she introduces you to her celebrity friends, gets you involved in political causes and charitable organizations, and shares the high's and low's of both her professional and personal life. She shows you that in spite of being Janet Leigh, she's still a real person. Yet, she handles all situations--good and bad--with grace and dignity.

Even though this book is out of print, I thank Amazon for finding it for me to add to my personal library. It brought a "Touch of Hollywood" (the REAL Hollywood) into my home.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, February 10, 2009

By 

Tragiclaura "Tragiclaura" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: There Really Was A Hollywood (Paperback)

This is a pretty good autobiography. Leigh comes off as a lovely lady--someone you would want as a friend. The times she recounts with Tony Curtis are really sweet -- it seems like she was deeply in love with him. I felt that the book didn't go into enough detail about her films and it ended rather abruptly after her marriage with Curtis fizzled. Would like to hear more about what the later years were like raising the girls with new husband Bob. But still, I enjoyed it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truthfulness and Good Taste Can Go Hand in Hand, August 21, 2009

By 

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

This review is from: There Really Was a Hollywood (Hardcover)

In the preface to this memoir, Janet Leigh discusses meeting a cabdriver who, when told she is working on a book, advises her that he hopes it won't be a trashy "tell-all." While she doesn't veer in the opposite direction, making her reminiscences sugary-sweet, she does follow the gentleman's advice and provides a tasteful rendition of her life. She is honest, but not mean-spirited. That is a very fine line to walk, but she walks it fairly well.

Most people picking this book up will do so because of her years with Tony Curtis, and a large portion of the book is devoted to that era in her life. She also goes over her childhood, first romances and marriages and start of her career, and her insecurities. The book ends with the start of her marriage to Bob Brandt - a marriage that lasted for more than 40 years and only ended with her passing in 2004. Miss Leigh is humorous, gentle, even-handed and classy. It's an excellent look behind the glamour that we see on the red carpet - not all she experienced was pleasant, and she's truthful about that. She lays no blame on any one person for her unhappy moments, and even her most negative comments (about von Sternberg) are shared in an elegant manner.

The only thing I didn't care for, though I understood the reasoning behind it, was Miss Leigh's use of third-person narrative for the first 50 pages of the book. This was the period when she was still Jeanette Morrison, and she doesn't write in the first person until she "becomes" Janet Leigh. Reading a memoir in this way is difficult and, in the end, annoying. If it weren't for that, I would have given There Really Was a Hollywood five stars.