Gloria and Joe: The Star-Crossed Love Affair of Gloria Swanson and Joe Kennedy

by Axel Madsen

An account of the secret three-year love affair of 1920s movie star Gloria Swanson and businessman and political partriarch Joseh P. Kennedy, Sr., provides a revealing portrait of two of the century's most famous people and a glimpse of Hollywood in the Roaring Twenties

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

328 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1988

About the author

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Madsen

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly comprehensive look at early movie making and empire building. Gloria Swanson, a brave and smart actress produced her own pictures. She was aided by her lover Joe Kennedy who seemed to be a player at everything in the early part of the 1900's. The beginning of this book reminded me of "Room 1219", and involved many of the same people. This book goes so in depth into the lives of Gloria and Joe that sometimes I became uninterested. That's my failing not the author's.

[Willo Font · Rating 4 out of 5]

They where crazy

[Mlchelle Caron · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horribly written

I couldn't read much of it. Extremely long paragraphs, run on sentences and dangling participles! It was boring and half the time difficult to make sense of the story. Don't waste your time!

[Anne Hendricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh boy, the Kennedy men sure could cheat - and Gloria Swanson proved to be the gal that Joe wanted in his years in Hollywood.

I've read Swanson's autobiography from the 1980s, so this was the fill-in for what I wanted to know.

Well researched, with biographical background on both that led up to the affair.

A must for any Kennedy reader's library!

[Mitzi Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old Hollywood

I loved the names and titles, the whole milieu of film industry from its beginning, the business of film, all of it. Hard to find details fill this NF account of a selfish but brilliant man and a beautiful but vulnerable woman. Good stuff.

[Becky Kimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It made me sad to learn about the infidelities and other failures of the Kennedy clan patriarch. We are all human and none deserves to be on a pedestal. Insight to movie industry intriguing.

[Kelly M Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable quickie

Excellent if you wish to refresh what you already know of Swanson and learn a bit about Kennedy. Its a rehash but an easy quick, well written read