#ClassicFilmReading: Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies by Lara Gabrielle
What a delightful, beautifully written biography about an actress and trailblazer who never gets her due with modern audiences!
I had Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies on my reading list last summer but life got in the way and I didn't end up reading much. This year I knew I wanted to commit to reading some Old Hollywood biographies and Marion's biography was at the top of the list.
Ever since that fateful January when TCM decided to make her Star of the Month I've been searching out more of Marion's films. She's just such a treat to watch on screen; perfectly capable with whatever scenario the script demands, and a pioneer who's not brought up often enough in conversation with the likes of Carole Lombard, Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, etc., etc., etc.
Lara Gabrielle didn't just write the definitive biography of Marion Davies, she puts together the story in such a way that you feel like you're in the room with Marion herself. From her early days in tenement New York to the rusty days in a New York City movie studio before she ultimately makes the trek out West to Hollywood and becomes the doyenne of the town, every step of the way you're living and breathing alongside Marion.
We understand her familial relations in perfect, minute detail. We know what's going on in the wider world because Lara takes the time to put what's happening at each point in Marion's life into context. And we know every tiny detail of her controversial relationship with William Randolph Hearst, which helps frame Marion's career: the man had a chokehold on her livelihood from the moment he entered her life and the weight of that association plagued her after his death.
I did enjoy these sections, more about Marion's personal life, because while I can see for myself her acting talents, the most I know about her personal life and relationship with Hearst is mostly due to tabloids or 'inferring' based on Citizen Kane or other tales. For all the ways you think it might have been a controlling relationship, with the power imbalance between the ultra-rich Hearst and the pulled-up-by-her-bootstraps Marion, Lara does a great job showing that Marion had a lot of agency even though the sandcastle does eventually crumble around her. Damsel, Marion was not.
Ultimately, if you're looking for a biography and a mood, I can't recommend Captain of Her Soul enough. Every sentence reads like it was lovingly and carefully constructed and the reverence Lara holds for Marion Davies seeps through every line without ever getting saccharine.
Kudos, Lara! I hope you're working on another atmospheric biography!
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