My Lucky Stars by Shirley MacLaine

One of my favourite discoveries this year has been Shirley MacLaine. 

And so, when I found a copy of her Hollywood memoir My Lucky Stars at a roadside book sale for $2, I snatched it up and devoured it.

What I love about her mid-century movies is the innocent yet ferocious way she plays her characters. On paper, they may seem fragile or kooky, but Shirley imbues her heroines with such a sense of strength that make them seem so vital.

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Over the past year, I've come to adore her performances in Artists and Models, All in a Night's Work, What a Way to Go!, Gambit, and Sweet Charity. I already loved her in The Apartment, The Children's Hour, The Turning Point, and The Yellow Rolls-Royce, so seeing her in more films has been a treat. 

There's an extended section on her friendships with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin (which make her infinitely cool, in my opinion) and how she grew into their equal as her career continued. I loved reading about her time on Broadway and how Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon were inspirations for her (and how she later came up with the idea for Fosse's 1979 opus All That Jazz, one of my favourite films). 

The way Shirley writes about being a part of the Hollywood machine, from how she finds her characters and their voices to how film sets used to be run, is one of the most eye-opening and honest descriptions I've ever read, and I'm glad that one of the few remaining stars from that era is still around to tell us how it was. 

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Of course, Shirley devotes a large section to Terms of Endearment, the film that finally earned her an Oscar in 1983. One of my favourite Oscar moments of all time is when she won and announced at the end of her speech, "I deserve this, thank you," and honestly, reading about some of the behind-the-scenes antics by Debra Winger and James L. Brooks... she totally did deserve the win for putting up with it all. 

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If you love backstage gossip, a diary-like account of Hollywood and the opinions of a strong woman (who has some great thoughts on 'women's pictures' and how executives have denigrated actresses as the motion picture industry has rolled one), then I think you'll enjoy Shirley MacLaine's memoirs. 

And, since you know I love it when the stars share details about their friends and co-stars, here are some of my favourite snippets from My Lucky Stars: 

On Audrey Hepburn: "Audrey had a nobility of spirit and a sense of fawnlike fun that touches my heart to this day when I think of her. She possessed qualities of such rare richness that her penchant for perfectionism seemed simply a trifle. I used to wish I could have her style and talent for fashion. I felt gawky and unkempt around her, and I told her so. She said not to worry, she would teach me how to dress if I would teach her how to cuss. We made a deal that neither of us lived up to!"

On Dean Martin: "While we were filming All in a Night's Work, I developed a real crush on Dean. By now, I had finally become a 'girl' to him too. I didn't know what to do about it. So, one night after work I stopped by his home to talk. I didn't know what I was going to say..." 

On how Frank Sinatra 'helped' her earn her first Oscar nomination: [The shoot for Some Came Running was behind schedule and instead of filming the outstanding scenes, Frank tossed out the script pages and later realized it was one of Shirley's biggest scenes] "'Let the kid get in the way of the bullet,' he said to Sol Siegel. 'That'll make the audience feel sorry for her because she tried to save my life. Might get her a nomination out of it.' He was right. I got my first Academy Award nomination for Some Came Running. I wondered what would have happened had he wanted two or three martinis that day." 

On Jack Lemmon: "My darling Jack is the epitome of what it means to be a nice person. He was always prepared, yet mischievously open for a good laugh."

On telling Glenn Ford that Eleanor Powell (his ex-wife) was her father's favourite star: "...Glenn was not amused. He was competitive with Eleanor. He hadn't resolved their split."

On Elizabeth Taylor: "Even when she reigned supreme as Hollywood's exquisite misty-eyed temptress, she talked of quitting 'it' before 'it' quit her. She is funny and cynical about having lived the life of a supreme celebrity as early as she could remember."

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Have you read any of Shirley MacLaine's books? Which one should I read next? Let me know in the comments!