From Publishers Weekly
Wayne, a seasoned biographer of studio-era stars (Eva's Men; Gable's Women; etc.), serves up fun dish on the gals from the studio that once billed itself as having more stars than there are in the heavens. She presents them all-Jeanette, Joan, Judy, Ava, Liz and more-in breathless style, paying equal attention to the undergarments they didn't wear and to the men they loved most. With the adeptness of someone familiar with her subjects and not afraid to read minds, Wayne eases in and out of the stars' thinking as they love, drink, act, divorce and attempt suicide. Throughout all these goings-on, there is the overwhelming presence of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) complained it was the pictures that got small, but this book makes the case that it was the studios that died and ruined movies. All Wayne's subjects appear to be controlled by studio head Louis B. Mayer, through both his direct actions and the influence of his thinking. As Wayne tells it, he kept lovers from marrying and dictated roles his stars resented. Yet generally, the stars remembered him fondly, e.g., Jeanette MacDonald, who said after his death, "One of the greatest sadnesses of life is to realise [sic] how much you owe someone when it's too late...." For diehard fans, there's not much new here, but what is, is choice. 16 pages of b&w photos.-- how much you owe someone when it's too late...." For diehard fans, there's not much new here, but what is, is choice. 16 pages of b&w photos. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Wayne, the author of eight other celebrity biographies, reveals some advice that she received from Joan Crawford: "The bigger they are, the less they tell. Talk to the writers, security guards, chauffeurs, cameramen; the 'little people.' They knew more about me than I did." Wayne must have taken her advice, because this Hollywood Babylon-style tell-all does reveal some little-known facts about the "Golden Girls" of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including Crawford, Greta Garbo, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, and Jeanette McDonald. McDonald and Nelson Eddy, for example, really were in love. Turner was married seven times but never to the love of her life, Tyrone Power, who was in love with Garland. It goes on and on. Sadly, many of these stars are unknown to younger theatergoers, but this fun, gossipy book makes a good (if sensational) entr e to their careers and milieus. Recommended for public libraries.Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Libs., Salinas, CA Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Fans of the golden age of Hollywood and glamorous movie legends will enjoy Wayne's collective film biography. In the late 1960s, the author interviewed such stars as John Huston, George Cukor, and Joan Crawford, as well as numerous insiders (stand-ins, cameramen, and chauffeurs), which supplied her with material for more than eight previous books on famous actors. Here, the focus is on the "golden girls'" love lives and their movies. Dense with juicy gossip, the 15 profiles focus on the big-name female stars of MGM during Hollywood's heyday. The love affairs, divorces, abortions, fights, and drug and alcohol binges are all relived, and the author obviously has favorites. She gives honest but positive profiles of Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, but her chapter on Judy Garland is critical of the performer's selfishness. Wayne does well in showing why these charismatic women still have adoring fans: simply put, their lives were more dramatic and exciting than the movies they played in. Michelle Kaske
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Garbo and Crawford. Ava, Hedy, Judy, Liz epitomized Hollywood's golden era. With a trembling lip or sultry eye, with a tear or song or husky whisper, these women held moviegoers across America in their sway from the hard times of the 1930s through the booming postwar years to the early sixties. They were royalty and box office, and led pampered public lives-furs, jewels, designer gowns; limousines, flash bulbs, handsome escorts-that captured the national imagination. They also signed seven-year contracts with a morals clause, and the more they slipped, the more the secret abortions, efficient cover-ups, legal legerdemain, and dropped charges bound them to the wizard in their Oz, Louis B. Mayer. The slips are here along with the successes. Here, too, are the Blonde Bombshell Jean Harlow, Million-Dollar Mermaid Esther Williams, Sweater Girl Lana Turner, and bad girl Ava Gardner ("She can't act. She can't talk. She's terrific," declared Mayer after her screen test). From Jeanette MacDonald and Norma Shearer to Princess Grace and Dame Elizabeth Taylor, the sixteen portraits in this lively, photograph-filled volume, each accompanied by the star's filmography, tell the tales that have long lay hidden behind the gossip and the glories of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's glamorous golden girls.

FROM THE PUBLISHER