Hollywood Beauty

At 15, Linda Darnell left her Texas home to live the Hollywood dream promoted by fan magazines and studio publicity offices. She appeared in dozens of films and won international acclaim for Blood and Soul (opposite Tyrone Power), Forever Amber , A Letter to Three Wives , and the original version of Unfaithfully Yours . Driven by a stage mother to become rich and famous, but unable to cope with the career she had longed for as a child, Darnell soon was caught in a downward spiral of drinking, failed marriages, and exploitative relationships. By her early twenties she was an alcoholic, hardened by a life in which beautiful women were chattels, and by the time of her death at 41, she was struggling for recognition in the industry that once had called her its glory girl . Hollywood Beauty begins in the Southwest during the Depression, when Pearl Darnell became obsessed by the glitter of the movie world that would dominate her childrens' lives. We follow Linda's path from her Texas childhood and first public success - during the state centennial in 1936 - through her contract work with Twentieth Century-Fox. Davis documents Darnell's discovery and marriages, the adoption of her daughter, the making of many well-known films, and her emotional difficulties, leading up to her tragic death by fire. The book examines America's public worship of movie stars and superficial success - its motives and consequences - and the addiction to escapism that this worship represents.

Pagina's: 236, Hardcover, University of Oklahoma Press