2022 Classic Film Reading Challenge: MY BOOKS!
It's finally summer, and you know what that means... It's time for the Classic Film Reading Challenge!
I've pretty much accepted at this point that I'm only going to read biographies and memoirs, so this year I tried to pick as many 'written by' or 'as told to's as I could find; and I tried to spread out the years with the actresses and actor I picked.
We've got silent era, Pre-Code, and mid-century represented, so here are my picks:
1. June Allyson by June Allyson (with Frances Spatz Leighton)
2. Ginger: My Story by Ginger Rogers
3. The Things I Had to Learn by Loretta Young (as told to Helen Ferguson)
4. Doris Day: Her Own Story by A.E. Hotchner and Doris Day
5. He's Got Rhythm: The Life and Career of Gene Kelly by Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson
6. Hope: Entertainer of the Century by Richard Zoglin
June Allyson has always been on my radar but it wasn't until recently that I started to think of her as more than just someone whose movies I could watch on TCM. There's something fascinating to me about her raspy voice and plucky film persona that I want to read about in her own words. As someone who doesn't really know that much about June Allyson off-screen, I'm looking forward to reading this book.
My love for Ginger is well-documented here, and I keep hovering around re-reading her memoir every time the Classic Film Book Challenge comes around, so this year—especially now that I've seen more of her movies and learned more about her than I knew when I first read this years and years ago—I'm finally doing it.
Loretta Young occupies this fascinating dichotomy in Hollywood where she played whatever type of character her contract required but privately she was a very religious, very proper woman. I enjoy her movies, I'm hoping to watch more of them, and what put her on my radar this year was, oddly enough, the TCM featurette about her by her goddaughter Marlo Thomas.
Plus, I found a rare first edition of her 'autobiography' on Thriftbooks that dates back to 1961 and I'm obsessed with it. The dust jacket is amazing, the fonts are so stylish...I read reviews of the book before I bought it and it's a surface level look at her life (I'm not anticipating any earth-shattering revelations about Clark Gable in this one), but I couldn't resist!
Hi. Did you really expect me to pass up an opportunity to read Doris Day's 'autobiography' when I found a copy?
If I had to choose between Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire as my favourite dancing man, I'm not sure who I'd pick, but I know virtually nothing about Gene's life (just that was mean to Debbie Reynolds on the set of Singin' in the Rain and Fred Astaire stepped in to teach her how to dance) so I'm taking the opportunity to learn more!
I love to choose a big biography about an actor I've seen a lot of but know very little about every year. First year was a whopper about the first 30 years of Barbara Stanwyck's life; last year was a tome about Spencer Tracy. This time I've chosen a biography of Bob Hope. I've enjoyed him in the movies of his I've seen (especially in Bachelor in Paradise), so now's the chance to learn about his life and century.
Are you participating in the Classic Film Book Challenge? Comment and tell me what you picked!
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