Customer Reviews

Virginia Bruce - Under My Skin

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Ms Bruce had a long and successful career and while she wasn't up there with Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, or Jean Harlow; she appeared in many films that were excellent and she did a fine job. Most people just knew her as the last wife of John Gilbert, but when you read this book, you find that she was much much more.

My only complaint is that the author spent too much time on the synopsis of her movies and not enough pages were devoted to what I (yes this is a personal preference) wanted to know. What was her relationship with her children? Why did she have her nephew as the executer of her estate rather than her son? The daughter (by John Gilbert) was living in Oregon on welfare, how much help if any did Ms bruce offer her? She had eight grandchildren, what was her relations with them?

Still, the book is a good read and most hollywood buffs wil enjoy the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed Scott O'Brien's biography of Kay Francis (Kay Francis: I Can't Wait to Be Forgotten) and eagerly awaited his next book - a biography of another glamorous motion picture actress of the 1930's, Virginia Bruce. I'm happy to report that this volume is as fascinating as his first.

Like Francis, Bruce is not as well known today as some of her contemporaries such as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and deserves to be rediscovered. A cool blond beauty from Fargo North Dakota, Bruce more or less stumbled into the movie business. Her intention upon moving to Los Angeles with her family was to study music at UCLA. A meeting with Mrs. William Beaudine (wife of the prolific director) changed the course of Virginia's life after Mrs. Beaudine persuaded her husband to give the girl a screen test. The book follows her career in film, radio and television with both descriptions of the films and background anecdotes. In addition to being a natural actress, Bruce proved to be fine vocalist and sang in several of her films, introducing Cole Porter's sultry love song "I've Got You Under My Skin" in BORN TO DANCE (1936.)

As James Robert Parish writes in the introduction, "...Bruce's off-screen life was far more exciting and exotic than any role she experienced on camera..." and O'Brien explains why that statement is true. After a short unhappy marriage to matinée idol John Gilbert, Bruce wed three more times: first to director-producer J. Walter Ruben until his early death at age 43 and then twice to aspiring Turkish writer-director-producer Ali Ipar. (The reason for the unwanted first divorce was because Ipar was conscripted into the Turkish army and as an officer he was not permitted to be married to a foreigner.)

The book contains more than 130 excellently reproduced photographs, endnotes following each chapter, and complete career credits.

Bear Manor Media, an independent publisher highly regarded for its rich (and refreshing)
catalog of lesser known entertainment genre books and essential biographies you won't
find published my mainstream (read: corporate) publishing houses has gained deserved
attention for a series of recent best-selling works including the definitive biographies of
Barbara Payton (Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by John O'Dowd) and Kay Francis (I Can't Wait
To Be Forgotten by Scott O'Brien). A quick browse at the office site
[...] will reveal an impressive list of in depth works on or by
subject name. Virginia Bruce - Under My Skin is a worthy addition to that list.

Biographer Scott O'Brien has selected one of the great (and greatly forgotten) names in
classic Hollywood history to profile. She was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful film
stars to emerge from the 1930s, yet she never reached the level of iconic stardom that
contemporaries such as Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow or Myrna Loy achieved. O'Brien
meticulously explores the personal and professional reasons why Virginia Bruce didn't
achieve her potential by examining her motivations in public and in private (ultimately
with self-destructive results).

By accessing archives of magazine interviews with Bruce, re-evaluating observations
reported by the like of Louella Parsons and Maria Riva (daughter of Marlene Dietrich),
directly interviewing Bruce's ex-husband and various family members, O'Brien successfully
brings Virginia Bruce to life in a way that is believable, intelligent and never pitiable. The
greatest challenge must have been the process of separating the glamour from the girl.
Here, O'Brien triumphs in making her more than an actress because he exposes the
vulnerabilities and strengths of Bruce as a mother, a wife, an activist and a survivor of
both savage Hollywood and an equally dramatic personal life. Under My Skin is by no
means a "love letter" to Bruce, but it is a well researched, tactful and skilled examination
into the tragedy of a talented, beautiful and popular figure in film history, desperate to
fall in love and stay in love, at any cost.

O'Brien truly impresses in his study of a name virtually unknown in 2008. He charts her
cinematic endeavors and off-screen exploits with detail to chronology and relevant
commentary from co-stars, industry insiders and Bruce's own reflections that read candid
and (often) prophetic. In 1929, she stated, "My chief purpose in life is to fall in love. I
don't know why I want to, but I do." Six years later, she would say, "Love tricks you into a
false sense of security. Maybe the old fairy tales are to blame. The old idea that people
got married and lived happily ever after. So we take love for granted, til that gray
morning when some of us wake up to find it has vanished." For Virginia Bruce, the gray
mornings were many - and for many years - whether she took love for granted or not.
Loaded with plenty of rare and personal photos of Bruce, O'Brien also masterfully clears
up the "Madame Wang" mystery and includes a comprehensive filmography of her
radio, theatre, TV and film works. Highly Recommended. By David Ybarra

Scott O'Brien has done an excellent job in putting together Virginia Bruce's life story, and his book features several interviews with close friends and family.

Virginia Bruce has always been of interest to Nelson Eddy fans, if only because she co-starred with him in the 1939 film "Let Freedom Ring." Of course there's an added interest in Virginia Bruce because she and Nelson Eddy dated for a time - not in late 1938 when they were filming "Let Freedom Ring," but back in 1934 in Nelson's early days at MGM. (Virginia also played Jeanette MacDonald's lady-in-waiting in MacDonald's first film, "The Love Parade".)

Before reading this book, I knew little about what would have interested Nelson Eddy beyond the obvious physical beauty. He went for young blonds, true, but not airheads. But Virginia Bruce obviously had a keen mind; the biography reveals that at one time she thought to run for California legislature.

Obviously Virginia Bruce had her personal demons. They are mentioned candidly in the book, because Scott O'Brien's sources did open up to him. I wish they had even been more candid but I know from researching Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, there is often a tendency for sources to want to make these people look as good as possible, playing down the negatives. They don't want to blurt out the bad stuff. They think they are protecting the person...and perhaps they are. But for posterity's sake, we can lie to ourselves but we really do have inquiring minds...and we want to know all we can about how this lovely, gentle young actress became a lonely alcoholic in later years, despite having children and grandchildren.

Scott O'Brien's picture of Virginia's later life rings true to my own experience. Virginia Bruce was in and out of the Motion Picture Home during the same years that I knew Jeanette's sister Blossom Rock, who also lived there. I was always interested in meeting and speaking with residents that had known or worked with MacDonald or Eddy. Yet I never interviewed Virginia Bruce. I visited her a couple of times but she was not particularly sociable or chatty. The book notes that she was also treated there for a broken hip, cancer and cirrhosis. And yes, what I really remember about her is that is that here was a very ill woman but - she still smoked!

I did not immediately recognize Virginia Bruce when I met her; she was heavy and much changed. She seemed pretty much a loner and regretted that she ended up her life cooped up in a small hospital room. And it's borne out by a poignant quote from the book made by her: "Do you think when I'm gone anyone will remember that I had awfully dreamy eyes?" And another: " Do you know Norma Shearer is just down the hall? She was the biggest of them all and here she is, blind and dying, after all that, all that fame and riches and now this. Maybe I haven't had it so tough."

I highly recommend this book and applaud the author for writing about a lesser Hollywood star that others might not have bothered with. After I finished reading it, I put "Let Freedom Ring" on my DVD player to watch, since I had a new understanding of what Virginia Bruce was all about. For once - I watched her throughout the movie instead of Nelson Eddy.

And maybe that's my highest praise to a fellow movie star biographer - if after reading it you want to revisit that star's films again - you've done your job.

Scott O'Brien has done it again! he followed up his splendid biography of Kay Francis with this equally superb book on another (needlessly) neglected screen actress. I'm hoping that this biography will resurrect interest in Virginia Bruce the way O'Brien's previous book helped gain interest again in Kay Francis. Virginia Bruce was one of the bright lights of 1930's film and she deserves this well researched and written book.

Film historian/biographer Scott O'Brien has done it again.

After his solidly researched homage to the incomparable Kay Francis in I Can't Wait to be Forgotten, he has constructed another solidly crafted tribute to Virginia Bruce, one more 1930s star rescued from oblivion.

Known today by aficionados primarily for her "vixen" roles as the Ziegfeld Follies Girl with designs on the impresario, or as the man-stealing "other woman" in Born to Dance, O'Brien however, refuses to write off Bruce as a "secondary blonde".

O'Brien imbues his book with contemporary reviews, numerous stills and critical insight, exposing and building on the theme of "under-development" and "waste" that often pervades star narratives. The combination of studio system politics, competition for coveted roles, along with a sometime compliant approach mired Bruce in too many sequels and knock-offs that consigned her to M-G-M's second star echelon, almost rendering her cinematic contribution "undistinguished".

Resisting this assessment, O'Brien delves into many of Bruce's hard-to-find films----Downstairs, Kongo, Woman Against Woman, and Stronger Than Desire, revealing some adroit performances from an actress who had the prerequisites for major stardom but didn't receive all the breaks.

Significantly, O'Brien builds empathy for Virginia Bruce's personal struggles-----an early marriage to suicidal screen lover John Gilbert, the premature death of second husband director J. Walter Ruben, her resilience in a turgid match with Turkish fortune hunter Ali Ipar, ending in Bruce's decline into poor health and alcoholism.

As with Kay Francis, O'Brien doesn't lead our readership by judging his subject's choices.

O'Brien's book is bound to inspire historians and cinephiles in exploring Bruce's oeuvre. As much as we love them---Bette, Kate, Joan, Greta and Marlene---we don't need more works these superstars.

New research/critical works on many other unjustly neglected stars from Hollywood's Golden Age is sorely needed.

J.Worrell
Canada

Scott O'Brien's bio on Kay Francis was a best seller. He doesn't disappoint with this one on Virginia Bruce.
The book is full photos of all the great stars. She touched so many of their lives. Not just with her beauty, but her intelligence.
Her honesty is captured with Scott's own honest approach of his subject.

I didn't know much about Virginia; but now remember her, after reading the book; from TV shows and some movies, when I was a kid.
I liked her in Adventures In Washington with Gene Reynolds. I can't wait to see more of her films.

Craig Smith

This little remembered star deserves to be honored and remember for her large body of work. Great book with much interesting history of the Golden Era of movies

Having rezd so many bad film and theatre bios --Mssrs. higham, Spoto, and Mosely leap to mind -- I was delighted with Mr O'Briens beautifully researched, nothing-left-to-chance book about the beautiful and talented Virginia Bruce. The book contains little of the gossipy tittle-tattle that so many of this genre have, and the scrupulous, chapter by chapter footnotes of sources is impressive. Now someone needs to reissue DVDs of Bruce's films, for Mr O'Brien has whetted my appetite to see many of them.