The leading ladies

by James Robert Parish

This wonderful book is about 6 leading ladies and the ones they pick are interesting; Joan Bondell, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Rosalind Russell and Barabara Stanwyck. It covers the lives of each during the times they were making their movies and has a complete flimography and is well written.
I don't know if it is still available but I recommend it for fans of these gals (and who isn't a fan of at least 3 of them!).

Genres: Film, Biography, Historical

526 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

James Robert Parish, a former entertainment reporter, publicist, and book series editor, is the author of many published major biographies and reference books on the entertainment industry including Whitney Houston: We Will Always Love You; The Hollywood Book of Extravagance; It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks; The Hollywood Book of Breakups; Fiascos: Hollywood’s Iconic Flops; The Hollywood Book of Love; Jet Li; The Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in Hollywood; The Hollywood Book of Death; Gus Van Sant; Whoopi Goldberg; Rosie O’Donnell’s Story; The Unofficial “Murder, She Wrote” Casebook; Today’s Black Hollywood; Let’s Talk! America’s Favorite TV Talk Show Hosts; Prison Pictures from Hollywood; Prostitution in Hollywood Films; The Great Cop Pictures; Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films; Pirates and Seafaring Swashbucklers on the Hollywood Screen; Gays and Lesbians in Mainstream Cinema; Hollywood’s Great Love Teams; and The Fox Girls. Mr. Parish is a frequent oncamera interviewee on cable and network TV for documentaries on the performing arts. The author resides in Studio City, California.

Reviews

[Diane]

Surprised there are no reviews. Like J.R. Parish's other books
("Hollywood Beauties", "Glamour Girls") there are some surprise
revelations (to me) about some of the actresses.
Joan Blondell of the sassy "I'm a gal who knows all the answers"
etc was really a shy person who never felt comfortable around
Hollywood phoniness. She came to Hollywood as the sole support
of her parents, a pair of seasoned vaudevillians who were now
destitute and her vulnerability made her a three time loser in
the marriage market. Her first husband was almost 17 years her
senior and very remote, second husband Dick Powell was a miser -
some of the insights into their divorce - he forced her to
divide up their toilet paper!! are quite shocking and her third,
Mike Todd, was a violent bully.
Reading between the lines of the Olivia DeHavilland chapter, she
was very headstrong and unforgiving, I know, I found it quite hard
to believe - Melanie, no way!! Her 1950 Oscar acceptance speech
was very unpopular and critics considered it to be almost gloating.
In the late 1950s many people were urging her to forgive her mother
for remarks she had made about Olivia's first husband in the early
1940s!!!
Barbara Stanwyck is the actress who stands out as the one who had
both vulnerability and toughness. She also had no temperament.
Leaving school at 13 and with childhood spent in a myriad of foster
homes, from the start she had a special talent according to a man who
directed her first screen test. No one thought she would be any
good and no one gave her any tips except this chap but she still
performed like a trouper. At the end he apologized for the way the
studio had treated her and he also said it was a priviledge to know
a real actress. He said he was also a failure and was returning to
England but Barbara was always grateful to Sir Alexander Korda for
giving her belief in herself.
The other three leading ladies are Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and
Rosalind Russell - all given the same "star studded" treatment. All
ladies are given over 80 pages each with a very concise filmography.