Book Review: Scottie the Daughter of: The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith by Eleanor Lanahan

Book Review

Scottie the Daughter of…

Eleanor Lanahan

Book Description:

Providing an insider's look into a brilliant but troubled family, a biography of Scottie, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's daughter, is written by her own daughter and reveals her personality traits, relationships, and life as a journalist and political insider.

From the Publisher:

Until now, Scottie Fitzgerald has existed only peripherally in the biographies of her famous parents. Although this memoir contains riveting accounts of F. Scott and Zelda -- providing a unique perspective on these literary giants as only their daughter knew them -- it centers on Scottie, who managed to overcome being known as "the daughter of..." to became an important and influential member of the Washington jet set during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon years. In these pages, she comes to life as talented, driven, giving, as well as exasperatingly controlling, dominating, and strangely unable to show affection -- a trait that played havoc on the lives of her children. We see her through her marriages and affairs; her career as a journalist, writer, and political insider; her struggle with alcohol; and her complex relationship with her family, especially Tim, the son who, like Zelda, suffered from schizophrenia and ultimately committed suicide. Using diaries, journals, personal letters, and haunting photographs, Lanahan provides a fascinating portrait of a great American family, and an intensely personal, haunting look at the consequences of fame.

This book is out of print and not in ebook form. However, it is well-worth buying a used copy to read because it is that interesting.

Buy now:

Amazon Paperback

My 5-Star Review:

I really enjoyed this biography of Scottie Fitzgerald by her daughter Eleanor Lanahan. It begins with a comprehensive recap of the lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda and moves on to Scottie's childhood and then her adult years. For the first time ever, I felt that I was hearing the true story of these literary icons and their daughter. Through the years, biographers have dwelled on the glitz and tragedies of the lives of Scott and Zelda, but in this telling of it, you hear the clear truth of their lives without the glamour and drama. And despite it all, Scottie grew up to be an amazing person who was active in politics, a writer, and even a songwriter. All of this is described through letters to and from family members, a partially written memoir of Scottie's, and family memories. 

A wonderful and powerful story of a very special lady. Thank you Eleanor Lanahan for sharing the story of your mother's life with us all.

About the Author:

Eleanor Lanahan is an artist and filmmaker and is one of the executors of her grandfather’s estate. She is the granddaughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, and the daughter of Frances “Scottie” Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith, the Fitzgerald’s only daughter.

Book Review: Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling through Hollywood History

Hi all,

Are you a fan of movies and stories about celebrities old and new? Can't get enough of those often told stories of celebrities misbehaving? Then you are going to love this new book by Mark Bailey, Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling through Hollywood History. It was the title that drew me in (can't ignore an old Bogart line), and the stories kept me reading. I received this novel from NetGalley and Algonquin Books in return for my honest review. So here it is, more about this book full of hilarious stores and my review.

 

Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling through Hollywood History

Mark Bailey

 

Book Description:

True tales of celebrity hijinks are served up with an equal measure of Hollywood history, movie-star mayhem, and a frothy mix of forty cocktail recipes.

Humphrey Bogart got himself arrested for protecting his drinking buddies, who happened to be a pair of stuffed pandas. Ava Gardner would water-ski to the set of Night of the Iguana holding a towline in one hand and a cocktail in the other. Barely legal Natalie Wood would let Dennis Hopper seduce her if he provided a bathtub full of champagne. Bing Crosby’s ill-mannered antics earned him the nickname “Binge Crosby.” And sweet Mary Pickford stashed liquor in hydrogen peroxide bottles during Prohibition. From the frontier days of silent film up to the wild auteur period of the 1970s, Mark Bailey has pillaged the vaults of Hollywood history and lore to dig up the true—and often surprising—stories of seventy of our most beloved actors, directors, and screenwriters at their most soused.

Bite-size biographies are followed by ribald anecdotes and memorable quotes. If a star had a favorite cocktail, the recipe is included. Films with the most outrageous booze-soaked stories, like Apocalypse Now, From Here to Eternity, and The Misfits, are featured, along with the legendary watering holes of the day (and the recipes for their signature drinks). Edward Hemingway’s portraits complete this spirited look at America’s most iconic silver-screen legends.

Buy:

Hardcover on Amazon

Amazon Kindle

 

My Five Star Review:

Hang on lovers of old and new Hollywood, it's going to be a bumpy ride! As well as some stumbling, passing out, and even law-breaking. But mostly, you are going to laugh out loud at the crazy antics of your favorite Hollywood icons. Love them or hate them, the Hollywood bunch sure know how to have fun, and in Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling through Hollywood History, you get to hear about some of their most memorable drunken times. Bogie and his pandas, Sinatra and his toupee, how directors loved to drive their actors crazy and how actors loved driving the studios insane. It's all here. Stories of the stars and their favorite beverages as well as their hangouts.

As a lover of old Hollywood, I couldn't wait to dive into this book telling stories of celebrities from the silent era on up. Some stories I had heard before from reading biographies of celebrities, and others I had not. Many made me laugh out loud. From its inception and throughout the 40s, 50s and even 60s, Hollywood was a wild place, (still is) and the stars seemed like children no one could tame. Drunk children. But you can't help but laugh at some of the stunts they pulled. The author also tells stores from the sets of top movies as well as all the famous hangouts, old and new. And to top it off, recipes of some of the celebrities favorite drinks are included.

I really enjoyed this book. It was amusing and entertaining. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a passion for fun stories from Hollywood.

(I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Algonquin Books in exchange for my honest review.)

 

Cheers,
Deanna

Book Review: The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski by Samantha Geimer

Hi all,

I've always had an interest in the Manson Family murders that occurred in 1969 and have read almost every book and watched pretty much every documentary on it. Actress Sharon Tate, wife of Producer/Director Roman Polanski, was killed by the Manson family that fateful night. She was eight months pregnant at the time. Eight years later, Roman Polanski was back in the news, except this time, he was the perpetrator. He was arrested for the rape of a thirteen year old girl. At that time, the public did not know the identity of "the girl". Polanski skipped the country and has, ever since, been unable to return to the United States. As the years went by, I'd see Polanski's name in the news every so often and wonder about the girl, now a grown woman, and how she felt every time he won an award or received attention when he was never punished for the crime of her rape. Well, now I don't have to wonder anymore. When I saw that she had written a book about her experience and how she's coped with the legacy of it over the past 36 years, I just had to read it. Here is the book description and my review.

 

The Girl:

A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski

Samantha Geimer

Book Description:

In this searing and surprising memoir, Samantha Geimer, “the girl” at the center of the infamous Roman Polanski sexual assault case, breaks a virtual thirty-five-year silence to tell her story and reflect on the events of that day and their lifelong repercussions.

March 1977, Southern California. Roman Polanski drives a rented Mercedes along Mulholland Drive to Jack Nicholson’s house. Sitting next to him is an aspiring actress, Samantha Geimer, recently arrived from York, Pennsylvania. She is thirteen years old.

The undisputed facts of what happened in the following hours appear in the court record: Polanski spent hours taking pictures of Samantha—on a deck overlooking the Hollywood Hills, on a kitchen counter, topless in a Jacuzzi. Wine and Quaaludes were consumed, balance and innocence were lost, and a young girl’s life was altered forever—eternally cast as a background player in her own story.

For months on end, the Polanski case dominated the media in the United States and abroad. But even with the extensive coverage, much about that day—and the girl at the center of it all—remains a mystery. Just about everyone had an opinion about the renowned director and the girl he was accused of drugging and raping. Who was the predator? Who was the prey? Was the girl an innocent victim or a cunning Lolita artfully directed by her ambitious stage mother? How could the criminal justice system have failed all the parties concerned in such a spectacular fashion? Once Polanski fled the country, what became of Samantha, the young girl forever associated with one of Hollywood’s most notorious episodes? Samantha, as much as Polanski, has been a fugitive since the events of that night more than thirty years ago.

Taking us far beyond the headlines, The Girl reveals a thirteen-year-old who was simultaneously wise beyond her years and yet terribly vulnerable. By telling her story in full for the first time, Samantha reclaims her identity, and indelibly proves that it is possible to move forward from victim to survivor, from confusion to certainty, from shame to strength.

 

Buy The Girl by Samantha Geimer

 

Amazon Kindle

 

Hardcover

 

B&N Nook

 

My 5 Star Review:

The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski by Samantha Geimer is simply riveting. Samantha shares her story, starting with a description of her home life to give you a background on her family, describing how she became associated with Roman Polanski, reliving that eventful day and evening that changed her life, then telling of her life afterward with great honesty. She doesn't paint herself as a helpless little victim or as a perfect angel. Nor was she a conniving young woman who, along with her mother, planned to snare Polanski in a trap so she could profit from it, as many people asserted. Samantha was raped by a man over thirty years older than she was, and all she wanted was for justice to be served and then to move on with her life. Unfortunately, she got neither.

Roman Polanski skipped out of the U.S. before he was sentenced for the rape and has since been a fugitive from justice. But he hasn't exactly been hiding out. He's worked, made movies, and even won awards for his work. When he was nominated for an Academy Award for best director for his movie The Pianist in 2003, the "artist" community was actually outraged that he wasn't able to return to the U.S. for the award ceremony just because of a rape he'd committed 25 years earlier. Again, years later, he was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland for the outstanding warrant when he tried to attend the Zurich Film Festival where he was to win an award. Celebrities were up in arms about the arrest, conveniently forgetting that years before, Polanski had raped a young girl. And each time Polanski was in the news, Samantha was bombarded by the press for her opinion on the matter, instead of being left alone to live her life.

Samantha explains all of this in her book, as well as all the nitty gritty details of her life, good and bad. She doesn't whitewash anything about her life. She also explains why, after years of trying to stay out of the spotlight, she finally came forward to tell her story. It's an interesting story to read, and it's refreshing to finally hear her side of the story after years of blatant lies fed to us by the media. If you enjoy true life stories, you will enjoy Samantha's story.

 

Cheers,

Deanna