The Purple Diaries
Mary Astor and the Most Sensational Hollywood Scandal of the 1930s
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Mary Astor and the Most Sensational Hollywood Scandal of the 1930s
Ratings1
Average rating5
"1936 looked like it would be a great year for the movie industry. With the economy picking up after the Great Depression, Americans everywhere were sitting in the dark watching the stars--and few stars shined as brightly as one of America's most enduring screen favorites, Mary Astor. But Astor's story wasn't a happy one. She was born poor, and at the first sign that she could earn money, her parents grabbed the reins and the checks. Widowed at twenty-four, Mary Astor was looking for stability when she met and wed Dr. Franklyn Thorpe. But the marriage was rocky from the start; both were unfaithful, but they did not divorce until after Mary Astor gave birth to little Marylyn Thorpe. What followed was a custody battle that pushed The Spanish Civil War and Hitler's 1936 Olympic Games off of the front pages all over America. Astor and Thorpe were both ruthless in their fight to gain custody of their daughter, but Thorpe held a trump card: the diaries that Mary Astor had been keeping for years. In these diaries, Astor detailed her own affairs as well as the myriad dalliances of some of Hollywood's biggest names. The studio heads, longtime controllers of public perception, were desperate to keep such juicy details from leaking"--Back cover.
Reviews with the most likes.
So JUICY. Loved every second of this audiobook. Readings of court transcripts involving Mary Astor while she's method acting for Dodsworth are unbeatable.
I loved the thorough research and classic-film details of this meticulously crafted biography about Mary Astor's “mother-love sacrifice:” her embarking on a custody battle with her ex-husband, who threatened to expose her diary. Here's a quote from the book that explains the import of Astor's diary extracts that were published in the 1930s: “Although the writing ... was ... ‘an over-emotional account of a romantic interlude,' never had so frank a document concerning a Hollywood personality's amorous adventures been made public. Astor spoke offhandedly about open marriages and extramarital affairs, presenting a woman who lived far outside the social norms of American morality. Thus, those diary extracts made for extremely steamy reading.” Egan is evenhanded and understanding throughout. And at the end of the book, after Astor had been through many, many difficulties and her film career was played out, I was stunned to learn that she was only 46 years old. An extraordinary woman.
