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Hollywood Legends
Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes
Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio. Born the child of vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal, distinctive cello voice, megawatt smile, luminous saucer eyes, and flawless timing, she came into widespread fame in Warner Bros. musicals and comedies of the 1930s, including Blonde Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade.
Frequent co-star to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years.
Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and features numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues.
Frequent co-star to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years.
Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and features numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1993
25 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Kennedy
6 books3 followersMatthew Kennedy is a writer, film historian, anthropologist, and host and curator of the CinemaLit Film Series at the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco. He is the author of three biographies of classic Hollywood: Marie Dressler: A Biography (McFarland, 1999, paperback 2006), Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (University Press of Mississippi, 2007), and Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s, (Oxford University Press in 2014). He has contributed to various anthologies, including The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance & Musical Theater and of Film and Television (Cleis Press, 2004 and 2005). He is film and book critic for the respected Bright Lights Film Journal, and his articles have appeared in The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Performing Arts, San Francisco Chronicle, program books for the TCM Classic Film Festival and San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and the National Film Registry. Kennedy is a former modern dancer, arts administrator, concert producer, and contracted writer for George Lucas Books. He taught film history and anthropology at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and City College of San Francisco from 1994 to 2017. He has been a guest speaker at a number of venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, Pacific Film Archive, Mechanics Institute Library, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and on radio, podcasts, and television. His book Roadshow! was the basis of a film series on Turner Classic Movies. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship and a San Francisco Cable Car Media/Journalism Award. He holds a BA in theater arts from UCLA and an MA in anthropology from UC Davis, is a member of The Authors Guild, and is represented by Stuart Bernstein Representation for Artists in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 7, 2013
A few weeks after Christmas, my car was broken into. Only hours before, I took this book out to read on my lunch break. Thank goodness it wasn't stolen; it is quite a good read!
Joan Blondell was quite a fun actress, and that goes for the end of her career as well as the beginning. Why? Part of the reason is her work ethic. It sometimes got her into trouble. Her rough childhood made money an absolute necessity, and as long as she was getting paid, she didn't mind taking on several sub-par projects. She wasn't one to complain, and that sometimes kept her from great roles and the recognition she deserved, but she always gave it her all. Her participation in movies like Gold Diggers of 1933, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Grease landed her in the hearts of many generations.
It wasn't just her screen career that was interesting though. She was married to three important and interesting men. She had a son named Norman with cinematographer George Barnes. He was later adopted by second husband Dick Powell, who then fathered Joan's daughter Ellen. That relationship didn't work out, and her last husband was Mike Todd, a man of many faces. These marriages left different marks on Joan who swore off men in the final years of her life.
Matthew Kennedy has done a good job of researching his topic, seeing all but two of her film and television appearances (and one, Convention City, because it is a lost film). He has also done a service to the film industry by celebrating Blondell; she is a significant piece of cinema history who has been largely neglected over the years. Unfortunately, this neglect has made it difficult to dig up information, so this book is not as satisfying as one might hope, but it achieves its goal to celebrate a bright star.
Joan Blondell was quite a fun actress, and that goes for the end of her career as well as the beginning. Why? Part of the reason is her work ethic. It sometimes got her into trouble. Her rough childhood made money an absolute necessity, and as long as she was getting paid, she didn't mind taking on several sub-par projects. She wasn't one to complain, and that sometimes kept her from great roles and the recognition she deserved, but she always gave it her all. Her participation in movies like Gold Diggers of 1933, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Grease landed her in the hearts of many generations.
It wasn't just her screen career that was interesting though. She was married to three important and interesting men. She had a son named Norman with cinematographer George Barnes. He was later adopted by second husband Dick Powell, who then fathered Joan's daughter Ellen. That relationship didn't work out, and her last husband was Mike Todd, a man of many faces. These marriages left different marks on Joan who swore off men in the final years of her life.
Matthew Kennedy has done a good job of researching his topic, seeing all but two of her film and television appearances (and one, Convention City, because it is a lost film). He has also done a service to the film industry by celebrating Blondell; she is a significant piece of cinema history who has been largely neglected over the years. Unfortunately, this neglect has made it difficult to dig up information, so this book is not as satisfying as one might hope, but it achieves its goal to celebrate a bright star.
June 26, 2008
Bay Area author and professor Matthew Kenndy obviously loves Joan Blondell. Close readers will notice many of the book's stills come from his personal collection. They also will notice the care he put into writing a sympathetic-yet-balanced profile of an underappreciated film legend. The depth of detail he provides on her life and career will satisfy any fan. Some incidents from her life read like straight out of a movie, but her family's collaboration assures me of his accuracy. Joan Blondell sizzled in precode, and she remained a Hollywood workhorse into old age. It's a shame she never received an Oscar.
August 30, 2017
Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes gives us a chronological accounting of the actor’s life. Beautifully researched, it benefits tremendously from the full cooperation of her surviving relatives, including her children. It was her son who suggested that such a book be considered. He approached author Matthew Kennedy as the two were working on another project. It is a gift that he did so.
As expected the most compelling section is the first third when Blondell is working frantically and furiously at Warner Brothers. Her swift climb towards being an invaluable player in the studio’s talented stable make for heady reading. She arrives in Hollywood almost simultaneously with the advent of talking pictures with a young Jimmy Cagney, both fresh off a Broadway play that lands on the screen with the racy title of Sinner’s Holiday. While compelling in their debuts, Cagney’s magnetism is undeniable. The studio recognizes their hot property for what he is and quickly places him in starring vehicles with compensation to match. Cagney achieves this with some savvy and negotiation. Blondell’s compensation doesn’t achieve his, nor is she given those starring roles; her negotiation skill and representation is weaker and she is frequently used to bolster others’ work or enliven sagging pictures. Nevertheless, her presence in tight, rapid-fire pre-Code films is almost unmatched. It is only those women that truly reached the upper tier, such as Barbara Stanwyck, a friend of Blondell’s, that have greater presence. Some of the most memorable films of the era such as Night Nurse, Three on a Match, Blonde Crazy and the Busby Berkley musicals Dames and Gold Diggers of 1933 would be unrecognizable without Blondell’s presence. The latter’s finale number, Remember My Forgotten Man, with Blondell as its centerpiece, is arguably the most significant musical sequence of the Great Depression. The actress herself was taken aback by the critical and public response to its social significance. She was working so fast its impact had eluded her.
This well-researched biography covers all phases of this actor’s busy and tumultuous life, almost so much so that the larger arcs are elusive. Her marriage to Dick Powell lasts eight years but the ups and downs and moves are so frequent, and the intermingling of professional and personal so complex, that the longevity is almost lost. This is the most significant intimate relationship in Blondell’s life. Powell is the father of her two children, with her eldest being adopted by him in the early happy years. Yet this aspect of the book is a minor quibble and perhaps unavoidable given its sweep. It is enriched by numerous interviews, archival research, family memories and haunting recollections.
Blondell’s story spans much of the twentieth century and carries within it the tremendously complex changes occurring in the entertainment industry. Blondell adapts and sashays these changes with skill and sacrifice, working in not only vaudeville and movies, but theater, radio, summer stock and television. Consequently, she is sometimes missing from home for months at a time yet is a devoted mother; many times her children travel with her. More often, her struggles and heartaches, both professional and personal, are due to male attitudes than her own choices; as a woman I ached for her. When she died I cried. Through it all she retained the generosity of spirit that made her an audience favorite.
I knew Joan Blondell was something special when I was a small child. Sitting on the floor staring up at the television screen, watching Here Come the Brides, I took notice when she was introduced in the opening credits with her own solo title card, “and Joan Blondell as Lottie”. She was charming and warm, still beautiful but comfortingly maternal. She was the proverbial heart of gold in that series but she was more. She radiated something unmistakable, the charisma of a movie star, a Hollywood survivor. When Blondell appeared, she owned the screen. I tuned in week after week not just for teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman but for her. Her warmth was something I sorely needed in my life and I adored her for it. Imbued with the same spirit, this rendering of Blondell’s life is highly recommended.
For full review and more about Joan Blondell see: https://dreaminginthebalcony.wordpres...
As expected the most compelling section is the first third when Blondell is working frantically and furiously at Warner Brothers. Her swift climb towards being an invaluable player in the studio’s talented stable make for heady reading. She arrives in Hollywood almost simultaneously with the advent of talking pictures with a young Jimmy Cagney, both fresh off a Broadway play that lands on the screen with the racy title of Sinner’s Holiday. While compelling in their debuts, Cagney’s magnetism is undeniable. The studio recognizes their hot property for what he is and quickly places him in starring vehicles with compensation to match. Cagney achieves this with some savvy and negotiation. Blondell’s compensation doesn’t achieve his, nor is she given those starring roles; her negotiation skill and representation is weaker and she is frequently used to bolster others’ work or enliven sagging pictures. Nevertheless, her presence in tight, rapid-fire pre-Code films is almost unmatched. It is only those women that truly reached the upper tier, such as Barbara Stanwyck, a friend of Blondell’s, that have greater presence. Some of the most memorable films of the era such as Night Nurse, Three on a Match, Blonde Crazy and the Busby Berkley musicals Dames and Gold Diggers of 1933 would be unrecognizable without Blondell’s presence. The latter’s finale number, Remember My Forgotten Man, with Blondell as its centerpiece, is arguably the most significant musical sequence of the Great Depression. The actress herself was taken aback by the critical and public response to its social significance. She was working so fast its impact had eluded her.
This well-researched biography covers all phases of this actor’s busy and tumultuous life, almost so much so that the larger arcs are elusive. Her marriage to Dick Powell lasts eight years but the ups and downs and moves are so frequent, and the intermingling of professional and personal so complex, that the longevity is almost lost. This is the most significant intimate relationship in Blondell’s life. Powell is the father of her two children, with her eldest being adopted by him in the early happy years. Yet this aspect of the book is a minor quibble and perhaps unavoidable given its sweep. It is enriched by numerous interviews, archival research, family memories and haunting recollections.
Blondell’s story spans much of the twentieth century and carries within it the tremendously complex changes occurring in the entertainment industry. Blondell adapts and sashays these changes with skill and sacrifice, working in not only vaudeville and movies, but theater, radio, summer stock and television. Consequently, she is sometimes missing from home for months at a time yet is a devoted mother; many times her children travel with her. More often, her struggles and heartaches, both professional and personal, are due to male attitudes than her own choices; as a woman I ached for her. When she died I cried. Through it all she retained the generosity of spirit that made her an audience favorite.
I knew Joan Blondell was something special when I was a small child. Sitting on the floor staring up at the television screen, watching Here Come the Brides, I took notice when she was introduced in the opening credits with her own solo title card, “and Joan Blondell as Lottie”. She was charming and warm, still beautiful but comfortingly maternal. She was the proverbial heart of gold in that series but she was more. She radiated something unmistakable, the charisma of a movie star, a Hollywood survivor. When Blondell appeared, she owned the screen. I tuned in week after week not just for teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman but for her. Her warmth was something I sorely needed in my life and I adored her for it. Imbued with the same spirit, this rendering of Blondell’s life is highly recommended.
For full review and more about Joan Blondell see: https://dreaminginthebalcony.wordpres...
February 27, 2020
A beautiful actress with loads of personality and a heart to match. She suffered many travails but kept her spirits up by finding solace in her work . A line from a poem she wrote ; " There is beauty in getting up after a fall , in breaking someone else's fall ".
August 1, 2018
I have seen many Joan Blondell movies and I just love her. She is such a doll in her many, many precode movies, and I can't tell you how many times I watched Grease as a child. This biography was on my wish list for a long time, so I decided it was a must-read for #classicfilmreading this summer! This is a very well researched and written book. It starts with her parent's involvement in vaudeville and ends after her death with a little summary on all of the most important people in her life. It covers her childhood travels performing around the world, getting into Broadway and Hollywood, her 3 tumultuous marriages, her children and grandchildren, her roles in films and plays throughout her life and her health struggles at the end of her life.
After reading this book, I love her even more and I was happy to have gotten such and inside look at her life. Many family members, friends and fellow actors and colleagues gave quotes and stories for this book. I was also sad for her. I felt like she had to work so hard and wasn't appreciated by the film studios like she should have been. She was a true workhorse and consummate professional, which was an immense benefit to the studios, but she was never rewarded with the kind of roles she really wanted and deserved. She had tough luck with husbands, and some rough times with her children. Many of the plays she did as she aged did not fare so well, and the films she did toward the end of her life were hit or miss. I felt like she just never quite got what she deserved after working so hard and for literally her entire life.
If you've ever seen a Joan Blondell movie, you'll certainly enjoy this book. The day I finished this book was a day of pre-code films on TCM, and I just watched her in Blonde Crazy and Footlight Parade with a totally new view and appreciation of her perfection of her craft.
After reading this book, I love her even more and I was happy to have gotten such and inside look at her life. Many family members, friends and fellow actors and colleagues gave quotes and stories for this book. I was also sad for her. I felt like she had to work so hard and wasn't appreciated by the film studios like she should have been. She was a true workhorse and consummate professional, which was an immense benefit to the studios, but she was never rewarded with the kind of roles she really wanted and deserved. She had tough luck with husbands, and some rough times with her children. Many of the plays she did as she aged did not fare so well, and the films she did toward the end of her life were hit or miss. I felt like she just never quite got what she deserved after working so hard and for literally her entire life.
If you've ever seen a Joan Blondell movie, you'll certainly enjoy this book. The day I finished this book was a day of pre-code films on TCM, and I just watched her in Blonde Crazy and Footlight Parade with a totally new view and appreciation of her perfection of her craft.
July 28, 2010
Nice history of Joan Blondell. What I learned about Miss Blondell is that she had an amazing work ethic - in showbiz as a small child, worked till almost the day she died. Her relationships weren't that great; but then the same is true for many who aren't in showbiz.
The writer had some trouble with understanding mental illness (and no, it wasn't Joan's mental illness); but this is a common problem among writers. For good or for bad, he doesn't speculate on the emotional effects of the sexual assault on Joan, except for the obvious physical problems that resulted. Since Joan was not interviewed or talked about the emotional aspect of the assault, it's not surprising that this was glossed over.
If you're looking for a book about the glamorous side of Hollywood or prima donnas, this isn't the book. She was never rich. Her second husband, Dick Powell, became rich due to real estate investments and becoming a studio executive. Her third husband, Mike Todd, was rich prior to and after their marriage. She wan't a boat rocker or rebel in the studio system. Interested in Miss Blondell or the Warners Studio of the 1930s - then this is a good book to read.
The writer had some trouble with understanding mental illness (and no, it wasn't Joan's mental illness); but this is a common problem among writers. For good or for bad, he doesn't speculate on the emotional effects of the sexual assault on Joan, except for the obvious physical problems that resulted. Since Joan was not interviewed or talked about the emotional aspect of the assault, it's not surprising that this was glossed over.
If you're looking for a book about the glamorous side of Hollywood or prima donnas, this isn't the book. She was never rich. Her second husband, Dick Powell, became rich due to real estate investments and becoming a studio executive. Her third husband, Mike Todd, was rich prior to and after their marriage. She wan't a boat rocker or rebel in the studio system. Interested in Miss Blondell or the Warners Studio of the 1930s - then this is a good book to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 14, 2017
Joan Blondell has always been a favorite of mine, with her gorgeous eyes and superior (if underappreciated) acting skills. I was so pleased to read this biography because she truly was a marvelous, warm, and down-to-earth person. How often is that the case with Hollywood stars? What a treasure!
February 18, 2017
First time I ever truly got bummed out when the subject of a biography was on her deathbed. What an amazing person.
February 24, 2014
I absolutely adore Joan Blondell, and I feel like Kennedy does too. He clearly holds Joan, and her career, in very high regard, and because of this, I think he does her justice. Joan was a wonderful woman who never achieved happiness in her personal life or greatness in her career, both of which she deserved as much as anyone. Despite this, Joan inspired and continues to inspire many people with her radiant screen presence in all her film appearances. She was a true professional, and an honest and loving woman who suffered, but never complained. My respect for this wonderful actress has only reached greater heights after reading this book.
A notable passage is the one in which Kennedy describes the "Forgotten Man" sequence from Gold Diggers of 1933. Gave me goosebumps and put tears in my eyes.
A notable passage is the one in which Kennedy describes the "Forgotten Man" sequence from Gold Diggers of 1933. Gave me goosebumps and put tears in my eyes.
June 11, 2008
It was great to learn more about an underrated classic movie star, but the second half of the bio really trailed off and turned into a litany of the bit parts and tv roles Blondell took to make ends meet. But it was worth it for the dish about The Opposite Sex – Blondell asked June Allyson for the job!
August 21, 2008
One of the best bios I've read in a long long time. Well researched and written so well it makes me jealous! Joan Blondell has long been a favorite of mine, under appreciated by many, this wonderful bio sets the record straight without pulling punches. It was great to read and I'm happy it has a spot on my bookshelves.
Currently reading
August 21, 2008I'm most of the way through this, and I'm enjoying it, although the nitpicker in me would quibble with the writing and even some of the research.
This is the kind of movie history book I grew up on. Not a great piece of literature, and probably not terribly well researched, but a fun fun read.
This is the kind of movie history book I grew up on. Not a great piece of literature, and probably not terribly well researched, but a fun fun read.
February 9, 2016
This was such a good book it actually brought tears to my eyes. She was so great opposite James Cagney in BLONDE CRAZY she crackled. You can't help but be captured by her charm. She endured tragedies all her life and kept working until the day she died. God bless her. What a great lady!
August 30, 2008
I'm so glad to have learned more about Joan Blondell and her career.
November 30, 2008
Very well written and I am glad that there is finally something out there on Joan but I felt as though the ending of the bio was lacking and became boring.
May 23, 2016
I enjoyed reading, for I always like her and wanted to know more. I love all her movies. Joan was a great actress.
May 1, 2016
well written book but I struggled to get thru it
February 1, 2017
The definitive biography on the strong, smart and sassy Blondell, who was so much more than just a Pre-Code cutie.
April 4, 2018
suprisingly well done.
July 12, 2020
A pretty complete and well-researched account of the life of Joan Blondell, whose film career started in the pre-Code era and lasted in smaller parts through the 1970’s. She was a star who never quite became a superstar, in part because of how she was treated by the studio, and in part because she didn’t consistently fight as aggressively as others for better parts or more money. She was a lovely woman on and off the screen, down to earth and with a sense of kindness and humor, and the book brings all of that out.
Early on in her life, Blondell knew the kind of trauma painfully common to a lot of women, being preyed upon on as a child on her family’s vaudeville tour, having to jump out of a car while being assaulted after winning a beauty contest, and being brutally raped by a policeman while working in a library. She also knew what it was to be poor, which would inform her work as an actress in the Depression years. “I’ve known what it is to wonder where I was going to sleep when night came,” she said. “I’ve been at a stage of pocketbook flatness when half a sandwich, shared with another girl in the same predicament, was a banquet.”
The book is filled with little tidbits of information that were interesting to me, such as her meeting James Cagney for the first time at a rehearsal, rebuffing Jack Warner’s attempt to rename her Inez Holmes, and the incredibly long hours for actors in that period, who were paid by the week and hence worked very hard to crank out pictures quickly (she made 20 movies over 1931-32 alone). We also get details for some of the things censored by Joseph Breen during the Production Code era – a very salacious musical number that would have been in the movie ‘Dames’ (1934) that included Blondell as a feline inviting a rodent to “come up and see my pussy sometime”, the complete destruction of all prints of the film ‘Convention City’ (1933), and removing a tender and very lovely scene from ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ (1945). There’s also a pretty funny anecdote about an appearance on Lucille Ball’s show, and despite being a consummate professional, storming off the set with an expletive in front of a live audience after taking a lot of crap from Ball.
Blondell’s personal life is covered extensively, including the hardships of her marriages - the seven abortions her first husband George Barnes coerced her into getting, the lack of physical spark in her marriage to second husband Dick Powell, and the mental and physical abuse suffered at the hands of third husband Mike Todd (though he “brought about her erotic awakening” and “she marveled at his bedroom stamina.”) Amidst the turmoil she got a marriage proposal from friend Clark Gable, but turned him down, though she did leave Todd when she caught him leering at her 12-year-old daughter.
The book gets pretty detailed in all of the various television and minor movie appearances she was in later in her career, as well as the lives of her extended family, a lot of which was less interesting to me. On the other hand, by doing this, it does give a very complete account of her life. The research put in by Kennedy is fantastic, and he provides extensive references. In the end we get a true glimpse into this woman – her life experience, how she thought, and what it was like to be an actor over the various periods of her life. It’s an interesting backdrop to then seeing her on the screen, and makes me appreciate her more.
Early on in her life, Blondell knew the kind of trauma painfully common to a lot of women, being preyed upon on as a child on her family’s vaudeville tour, having to jump out of a car while being assaulted after winning a beauty contest, and being brutally raped by a policeman while working in a library. She also knew what it was to be poor, which would inform her work as an actress in the Depression years. “I’ve known what it is to wonder where I was going to sleep when night came,” she said. “I’ve been at a stage of pocketbook flatness when half a sandwich, shared with another girl in the same predicament, was a banquet.”
The book is filled with little tidbits of information that were interesting to me, such as her meeting James Cagney for the first time at a rehearsal, rebuffing Jack Warner’s attempt to rename her Inez Holmes, and the incredibly long hours for actors in that period, who were paid by the week and hence worked very hard to crank out pictures quickly (she made 20 movies over 1931-32 alone). We also get details for some of the things censored by Joseph Breen during the Production Code era – a very salacious musical number that would have been in the movie ‘Dames’ (1934) that included Blondell as a feline inviting a rodent to “come up and see my pussy sometime”, the complete destruction of all prints of the film ‘Convention City’ (1933), and removing a tender and very lovely scene from ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ (1945). There’s also a pretty funny anecdote about an appearance on Lucille Ball’s show, and despite being a consummate professional, storming off the set with an expletive in front of a live audience after taking a lot of crap from Ball.
Blondell’s personal life is covered extensively, including the hardships of her marriages - the seven abortions her first husband George Barnes coerced her into getting, the lack of physical spark in her marriage to second husband Dick Powell, and the mental and physical abuse suffered at the hands of third husband Mike Todd (though he “brought about her erotic awakening” and “she marveled at his bedroom stamina.”) Amidst the turmoil she got a marriage proposal from friend Clark Gable, but turned him down, though she did leave Todd when she caught him leering at her 12-year-old daughter.
The book gets pretty detailed in all of the various television and minor movie appearances she was in later in her career, as well as the lives of her extended family, a lot of which was less interesting to me. On the other hand, by doing this, it does give a very complete account of her life. The research put in by Kennedy is fantastic, and he provides extensive references. In the end we get a true glimpse into this woman – her life experience, how she thought, and what it was like to be an actor over the various periods of her life. It’s an interesting backdrop to then seeing her on the screen, and makes me appreciate her more.
June 29, 2024
Joan Blondell comes across as a class act in this biography of her life, from her early days as a a child on the road with her vaudeville parents to her Hollywood career. She seems resilient and charming, someone who did not make too many waves, but maybe in lifht of the times in which she lived, could have stood up a bit more to her first husband and the studios who underpaid her competed to her male stars, such as James Cagney.
I best remember her as one of the librarians in the Katherine Hepburn-Spencer Tracey film, Desk Set. She was in her fifties then, but still game, lively, and intelligent. To survive as long as she did in Hollywood is a testament to her talent and her resolve. I wish she had better success in her marriages, but her closeness to her family is commendable. She seems likeable and strong, a pleasure to read about.
I best remember her as one of the librarians in the Katherine Hepburn-Spencer Tracey film, Desk Set. She was in her fifties then, but still game, lively, and intelligent. To survive as long as she did in Hollywood is a testament to her talent and her resolve. I wish she had better success in her marriages, but her closeness to her family is commendable. She seems likeable and strong, a pleasure to read about.
March 5, 2021
Joan Blondell is best known for smaller parts where she is the wisecracking woman with a heart of gold. She had a long and generally successful career in film and television. Some may remember her from 1930's Busby Berkley musicals, while younger generations may only remember her as the funny diner waitress in Grease, one of her final roles. The song "She Works Hard for the Money" could be about Joan, who grew up in a vaudeville traveling family and throughout the years constantly supported her extended family, her children and their children. Unlucky in love, Joan had three failed marriages, and survived a traumatic sexual assault when she was a young woman (warning) but she was loved by basically everyone she worked with, cast and crew, and is remembered fondly by them all.
January 16, 2026
Thanks to Matthew Kennedy for this extensive look into the great Joan Blondell's life. As a huge Joan admirer, this book was very hard to read when it came to the physical and emotional trauma she dealt with in parts of her life. much of it enraged me, but because Joan was a strong woman, she overcame it with little complaining. It seems everyone Joan touched in her life, including us fans who never met her, loved and admired her. If you are a Joan fan like me, read this book. She was an incredible woman and in the vernacular of her time, "She was really something!"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2021
I have become a new fan of Joan Blondell, and I’m so happy I read this book. It’s a well-written, tender look into her career and life. There are a decent amount of “we don’t really know for sure” moments, but it’s clear the author worked hard to make the book as insightful as possible.
My only critique is the sometimes odd choices while describing women. Older women were basically labeled as “gross” and “ugly,” which I didn’t think was needed at all.
My only critique is the sometimes odd choices while describing women. Older women were basically labeled as “gross” and “ugly,” which I didn’t think was needed at all.
November 6, 2023
I enjoyed reading about Joan Blondell's life. My mine exposure to her as an actress was her role on "Here Come the Brides". It was fun learning about her years in the movies and gave me ideas for future classics that I may want to watch. It was also my first knowledge of the life of Mike Todd. I always thought of him as the one husband of Elizabeth Taylor that made her a widow.
December 7, 2024
Besides the fact that this book is about my great aunt it is so well written so well quoted and really gives you an understanding about what actors of their generation went through and how they really are people just like everyone else.
March 2, 2020
loved it! Highly recommend it!
September 3, 2020
A truly remarkable career.
April 15, 2024
I had always wondered about this woman as I am a old film butff. Amazing woman
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews