Happy endings are good

Detour: A Hollywood Story by Cheryl Crane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Cheryl Crane was the daughter of iconic Hollywood sweater girl Lana Turner, who had a bad habit of choosing her men unwisely. One of the men with whom Turner had a relationship was a small-time hood named Johnny Stompanato. A jealous and abusive man, Stompanato was eventually stabbed to death by Crane, who was 14 at the time and claimed she was protecting her mother. The court agreed and ruled the killing a justifiable homicide. And there the story ends. Or so I had supposed.

In truth, Cheryl's story is just beginning. After her trial she was made a ward of the state and sent to a girl's boarding school, where she rebelled and eventually escaped. She later had a bout with drugs, was arrested for lewd conduct, and placed in a mental institution, where she attempted suicide. After treatment, she was released and began working in her father's upscale celebrity restaurant as a seater. Her life was finally on the upswing.

What really changed her life, though, was meeting Joyce "Josh" LeRoy at a party at Marlon Brando's one evening. The two quickly became a couple and are still together at this writing, over 35 years later.

Because Crane was assigned a co-writer for Detour, it is impossible to know which actual words are hers and which Cliff Jahr's, but it is the story--the history--that is the main lure of the book. It gives us a glimpse into the very interesting life of a woman who became an early gay-rights pioneer and influential AIDS activist. Not something you would have guessed from the scandalous tabloid headlines about her in the 1950s.

It is not a literary classic, but it is an important autobiography. For its insights and its revelations, I am rating this book a 3.5 or a little higher--closer to a 4 than a 3.





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