The Talmadge girls : a memoir

by Anita Loos

From the jacket flap: The lovely faces of Norma and Constance Talmadge are well known to all silent-movie buffs, but most people don't realize that behind all that glamour were two extremely funny women who enjoyed their work immensely and never made the mistake of taking it too seriously. In this delightful memoir, Anita Loos, who wrote many scripts for them and became a close friend of the Talmadge family, describes the antics not only of Norma and Constance - or Dutch, as she was called - but also of their plain sister Natalie, who was married to Buster Keaton, and of their witty mother, Peg, whose sharp perceptions and tongue managed to get the girls into the limelight and keep them there.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Media Tie In

204 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 1978

About the author

People best know American writer Anita Loos for her novels, especially Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925), which she later adapted for film; her many screenplays include The Girl from Missouri (1934).

She authored plays and her blockbuster comic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Loos

Reviews

[eden]

anita loos’s the talmadge girls reads more like a rich, elderly aunt’s reminiscence of her younger years in 20s hollywood, rather than a coherent biography of the talmadge girls as its title suggests. in actuality, the book itself should have been titled something along the lines of my life with the talmadge girls, writing for constance and norma, or even the talmadge girls and me— seeing as the actual content of the book is more autobiographical than anything. semantic argument aside though, the book is fun to read. the reader gets a lush, albeit, heavily glamorized look into late 1910s to mid 1920s new york, hollywood, and paris through the eyes of miss loos.

loos’s simple, understandable writing style paints a captivating picture of silent era hollywood– from parties, to vacations, to acting/writing, to moving studios across the country, to love, relationships, marriage, sex, and meeting nobility; it seems as though these women had lived through it all in their short years of stardom.

in hindsight, i don’t think i should have expected a serious biography. i went into this book expecting a semi-serious memoir featuring retellings of events from anita’s life and friendship with peg and the three talmadge girls. (a mistake on my behalf simply because i had been previously unfamiliar with anita’s writing style!) instead, it’s a humorous, occasionally frivolous recounting of her life as a writer for (most) of norma and constance’s silent films through the years 1918 to 1925. in terms of a biography, it’s loose. it doesn’t really “follow the rules” which makes it fun to read. not to relate this all to buster keaton but anita’s biography reminds me of buster’s autobiography– lots of laughs and a lot of “things that happened in my life as i remember it, just in chronological order.”

funnily enough, parts of this book tend to read more like a gossip column than a biography or a memoir. the book can oftentimes be rather tell-all as it explains the whos and the whats of silent era hollywood. it’s like anita loos had kept all these dishy details to herself and waited until everybody mentioned (or just about everybody) in this book had passed away so everything could come out. it’s like the spirit of louella parsons took over her for a few chapters.

i’ve mentioned it previously but i was also underprepared for how little norma, constance, and natalie were mentioned in a book that was named after them– natalie especially. compared to constance, norma, and peg there’s basically no mention of natalie (or nate, as she’s called occasionally throughout the book) much to my disappointment. i picked this up in hopes of trying to understand and learn more about her– seeing as there’s not much information about her online (other than her relationships to other people. ) i almost wish she had become a star like her sisters just so we could know more about her, but, alas, it’s clear through these little bits of anita’s writing that a superstar life was just not one natalie was meant to live. maybe one day we’ll know more about the enigmatic natalie talmadge but, for now, she remains in the shadows of her sisters.

all in all, the talmadge girls is an entertaining read– even if i wished it was more informative about the subject, rather than its author. i kept finding myself coming back for more even when i’d finished reading for the day. i was hooked by its simple prose and even simpler writing, anita loos managed to scratch that literary itch. (and perhaps that’s why she was so good at what she did!) the book just worked in some aspects. the talmadge girls isn’t perfect by any means but should anybody have really expected that? memories can change or decay over time (much like many of the films anita had mentioned writing for– even the movie she included the script for as a bonus in the back is a lost film!) people can, and will, embellish life events or stories just for the sake of entertainment and i think that’s what anita did here. she tried to tell her story in the most entertaining way possible, and in that sense i believe she succeeded!

[Ceejay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read! Anita Loos, who was a screenwriter when the Talmadge sisters were silent movie stars, presents an interesting, first person story of that era. It is, of course, the story of the Talmadge girls and their mother, and as such the reader learns of what life was like for movie stars of the silent era. It is well written, and all the stories told by Miss Loos make for an enjoyable read. In addition to being a screenwriter, Anita Loos was also the author of the novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes!

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Talmadge Girls are Norma, Constance and Natalie Talmadge and their mother Peg. Norma was one of the most famous dramatic actresses in the 1910s and 20s, although she dabbled in comedy. Blonde Constance AKA "Dutch" was better known for her comic abilities and was the more popular sister socially. Natalie was not in movies because her looks and charms waned in comparison to those of her siblings, but she went down in history as the wife of Buster Keaton.

The author is easily distracted and flits between any topic that comes to mind, so this book is not wholly focused on the Talmadge sisters. It is a shame that this is the only book written about them. They each deserve their own biography as they were each very famous and talented. Not all of their surviving films are gems but they are worth checking out to glimpse these actresses.

However, if looked at as a breezy read filled with personal anecdotes and a slice of life at the time, this book satisfies. I loved the section about the group traveling to New York at the last minute to celebrate Christmas.

"I pity folks who never knew the railroads of our youth! Today a cross-country trip consists in processing human bodies from one teeming airport to another. The degradation starts with bring frisked for firearms like common mafiosi..." If only Miss Loos could see how escalated that practice has become today.

[Jeslyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anita Loos was one of the top screenwriters during the reign of silent film, but this jumbled arrangement of recollections does her little credit. Though ostensibly a biography of Constance and Norma Talmadge, it has an over-generous helping of autobiography added, and the sum total comes across as random reminiscences on a gossipy afterrnoon recalled through a haze of sherry and age, without the hilarity or poignancy that makes looking back worthwhile.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loos on the Talmadges as she knew them!

[Colleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Wake up, you little slut, said Peg. "We've got a big day ahead of us."

You know silent film is rife with tragedies--the sad twilight of crumbling Pickfair, the unfunny ends for Keaton, Normand, Arbuckle, etc. etc. , deaths at the height like Valentino or rousted homeless as an old lady like Mae Murray. Heck, the very first movie star of all killed herself by eating ant paste. But for THIS book to be the ONLY book on the Talmadge sisters is a tragedy in itself.

I think it doesn't help matters that they briefly flit through other books, always as villains, conspiring with Natalie to destroy Buster Keaton's career. I am a big Buster fan to say the least, and it's through books on him, that led me to read this one years ago, which I'm re-reading now. (It's just as horrible as I remember it.) A great many of their films were lost, but not all of them and some of their movies are very important! I've wound up seeing a dozen or so--mostly of Norma's, since Constance's films are sadly mostly lost. I even took the time to track down a copy of New York Lights--the infamous first talkie of Norma's, which later was spoofed in Singin' in the Rain. Norma, like John Gilbert, had a perfectly normal 1930s voice. Not really that different than anyone else's I thought, and not as distinctive as like Jean Harlow's accent. It just wasn't that exciting of a movie, but not terrible either.

Even though pretty much derided and overlooked as they've been, someone needs to do a serious appraisal of the two of them--a much more interesting duo I think than Lillian or Dorothy. However, you see them through the eyes of Anita Loos--so it's 80% references to how awesome and smart and fashionable Anita Loos is, 15% how her employers/friends Constance & Norma were not quite as good as herself, 5% some facts. Wikipedia entries on the Talmadge girls have more information on them than this book. I just find Loos completely repellent a person, even though I like her plays and fiction, her memoirs (also hated A Girl Like I) and this book just reveal to me how self-aggrandizing she was.

In a way I guess you can see this book as a strange meta-memoir, crazy funhouse mirror, where we the readers get to read an indulgent and rather mean-spirited reflection of the author rather than the intended subjects. Except I doubt Anita was trying to hit any higher level with this, regardless of all the pretension within--this has all the earmarks of a cash grab for profit at the end of her career, and spreading mud all over the two, since the Talmadges were dead, and no one really knew what happened to the sons (ranchers maybe)--they make the perfect targets.

The main and most damning example of just how much Anita Loos SUCKS is once again feels the need to bash Barbra Streisand, which in a way doesn't make sense, especially since she hung out with Fanny Brice (or just bought her knock-offs). It was kind of cool to know that Fanny Brice and the Talmadges hung out--because I can see that. Highly recommend Fanny Brice's autobiography, speaking of biographies--incredibly smart and witty woman. In an interview with Norma in some 20s magazine, I read that she had an entire room in her mansion devoted to Napoleon, and that was her well known hobby as a Napoleonic memorabilia enthusiast. It is what actually got me to read my first book on Napoleon… but of course none of that is mentioned in this book. Norma through Anita’s eyes is a sleepy, lazy, coasting through life, pragmatist that will do whatever Peg, the Leviathan to her little dreadnaughts, orders.

Anyways, Loos juxtaposes a picture of Norma Talmadge with a F. Scott Fitzgerald quote on her that she was epitome of glamor, with a very unflattering photo of Barbra, in her late 70s perm period, mid scowl with her mouth half open, squinting at the light or person off camera and a quote of: "In the 1970s a rather different taste in femininity (see above right) has taken over." I can’t even find this photo in Google Search--is it just a half second clip from a movie or discarded shot that Loos is using as evidence that Barbra Streisand isn’t perfect looking every second? This is the SECOND time Anita has dissed Barbra in such a way--she did the same thing in her autobiography, again showing a picture of Babs as evidence on how shitty the present day was to her. I think Anita Loos is a terrible person--and I don't get why more isn't made of this!? Sure, Gentleman Prefer Blondes was a funny book, on parish with anything Wodehouse wrote I'd argue, but even that book has its genesis in mean-spiritedness. And Loos's relationship with John Emerson is GROSS and it plays out over the course of this book too.

In the divorce between Norma & Joe Schenck, wealthy producer and as an elderly man predator to young Hollywood starlets, as Norma's fault, for not appreciating Joe enough and finding love with Gilbert Roland preferable over his "sexual sadism." Um, what? In fact there's a bunch of parts where Loos seems to laugh off abuse and lots of odd quotes that I don't trust at all. Loos seems almost like a lead from a Jacqueline Susann novel than a real person and the Talmadges just second rate minor characters in a book about herself. If you are going to read about old Hollywood I think, a far better memoirist is Adela Rogers St. Johns--I think she has a far better sense of reflection about those times with deeper understanding than Loos, who seems to have gotten far less as she got older (and really, that might be part of it. I enjoy all her early writings--it’s everything as an old lady that I find so repulsive). Lillian Hellman also went to the dark side around the same time too…

Here’s a better Norma Talmadge picture:

[Kathleen Vincenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote a review for my blog:

The Talmadge Girls by Anita Loos

[Jaylia3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is at least as much about author Anita Loos, an early Hollywood screenwriter who wrote scripts for some of the silent movies that stared the Talmadge sisters, as it is about those sisters themselves, but that suited me fine. It was fun to read gossip about Eleanor Roosevelt (who knew she had it in her?) and about the first time Loos and the sisters saw Coco Channel skirts in Paris (as soon as she got to their hotel Loos sent all her skirts out to be hemmed much shorter.) The book includes the racy but sweet (in the way only old movies can be) script for The Virtuous Vamp, written by Loos and starring Constance Talmadge

[Brooke Stephenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the stories and the time period, but it was a mixture of stories with accounts like I already knew the sisters history (which I didn't). I still enjoyed it and it will lead me to read her other stories.

[Annie Garvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that Loos had an ax to grind. A less biased book is The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era by David W. Menefee.

[Michael Burge · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read from many perspectives. Books that meander through memories, as this does, are rarely published today; but Loos' recollections of the silent film era are full of humour, pathos and candour about the forces that created stars like the almost-forgotten Talmadge sisters. The portrait of stage-mother Peg is wonderful. Anyone who loves nostalgic storytelling will love this. I read it as a resource, a way into the silent film era, and for that reason alone, it was perfect.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonably good if brief read,with only tenuous connections to the talmadge sisters puffed out at the end by excerpts from films scripts and photos.a more in depth biography would have better.saying that the snatches of their life come from someone who did know them not some anecdotes passed down the line like Chinese whispers.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always wondered if Constance went through life with people coming up her saying, "Tush tush, this is no place to eat onions!" I would have! And she would've laughed and said "Oh, you!" as she teasingly hit me with the heel of her open hand. And she would've asked me out tea and I would've done my best not to ask her why Natalie was so mean to Buster Keaton.

[James P. Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, gossipy book. Focus is a more on Constance Talmadge and her mother more than the other sisters, but it's still worth reading if you're into this time period.

[Danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not enough Talmadge.

[Aria · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was almost okay.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bubble gum delight! Gives a real feel for the early days of film celebrity.