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Edward Baron Turk
Hollywood Diva
A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald
$21.95, £12.95 paperback
978-0-520-22253-3
Available Now
486 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 60 black-and-white photos.
November 1998, Available worldwide
Categories: Cinema & Performance Arts; American Studies; Gender Studies; Autobiographies & Biographies
November 1998, Available worldwide
Categories: Cinema & Performance Arts; American Studies; Gender Studies; Autobiographies & Biographies
Free online edition (eScholarship)--available only to University of California faculty, staff, and students (List of public titles)
"A scrupulously researched work of scholarship that reads like a novel....The book's breathless pace is scintillating, but don't let the rhapsodic tone fool you. Hollywood Diva is an incisive look behind the scenes....Turk had unique access to McDonald's unpublished memoirs and private correspondence."—Brooks Peters, Opera News
"A dazzling blend of entertainment and scholarship....A joyful, enlightening analysis of a now misunderstood star."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Turk writes generously about the inclusivity of MacDonald's art and elegiacally about the idealism and commitment to values her life and work represented. Hollywood Diva is one of the most thorough, intelligent, and sensitive books ever written about a movie star, because it's about a lot more than Jeanette MacDonald." —Richard Dyer, Boston Globe
"Hollywood Diva seeks to reclaim the singer as a cultural force in a culture that has left her behind. . . . Turk has assembled ample documentation, which he has distilled into a well-paced, convincing treatment of MacDonald's career. He is generous, too, with the anecdotes." —Louis Bayard, Washington Post
"Turk's passion for the material is contagious. Along with setting the facts in order, he makes some very persuasive claims about McDonald's role as a cultural mediator between high and low art forms....Anyone who hasn't given McDonald a second thought may want to do so after reading Turk' s comprehensive and affectionate book.."—Ted Loos, New York Times Book Review
"Turk's research sets a new standard for excellence....He has written a provocative, entertaining and authoritative book."—Emily Wortis Leider, Los Angeles Times
"A dazzling blend of entertainment and scholarship....A joyful, enlightening analysis of a now misunderstood star."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Turk writes generously about the inclusivity of MacDonald's art and elegiacally about the idealism and commitment to values her life and work represented. Hollywood Diva is one of the most thorough, intelligent, and sensitive books ever written about a movie star, because it's about a lot more than Jeanette MacDonald." —Richard Dyer, Boston Globe
"Hollywood Diva seeks to reclaim the singer as a cultural force in a culture that has left her behind. . . . Turk has assembled ample documentation, which he has distilled into a well-paced, convincing treatment of MacDonald's career. He is generous, too, with the anecdotes." —Louis Bayard, Washington Post
"Turk's passion for the material is contagious. Along with setting the facts in order, he makes some very persuasive claims about McDonald's role as a cultural mediator between high and low art forms....Anyone who hasn't given McDonald a second thought may want to do so after reading Turk' s comprehensive and affectionate book.."—Ted Loos, New York Times Book Review
"Turk's research sets a new standard for excellence....He has written a provocative, entertaining and authoritative book."—Emily Wortis Leider, Los Angeles Times
"Anyone who cares about the Hollywood musical—or about diva iconography—will welcome this scrupulous biography."—Wayne Koestenbaum, author of The Queen's Throat
Jeanette MacDonald, the movie musical's first superstar, was an American original whose onscreen radiance mirrored a beguiling real-life personality. Based in large part on the author's exclusive access to MacDonald's private papers, including her unpublished memoir, this vivid, often touching biography transports us to a time when lavish musical films were major cultural events and a worldwide public eagerly awaited each new chance to fall under the singer's spell. Edward Baron Turk shows how MacDonald brilliantly earned her Hollywood nickname of "Iron Butterfly," and why she deserves a privileged position in the history of music and motion pictures.
What made MacDonald a woman for our times, readers will discover, was her uncommon courage: Onscreen, the actress portrayed strong charcters in pursuit of deep emotional fulfillment, often in defiance of social orthodoxy, while offscreen she personified energy, discipline, and practical intellect. Drawing on interviews with individuals who knew her and on MacDonald's own words, Turk brings to life the intricate relations between the star and her legendary costars Maurice Chevalier, Clark Gable, and, above all, baritone Nelson Eddy. He reveals the deep crushes she inspired in movie giants Ernst Lubitsch and Louis B. Mayer and the extraordinary love story she shared with her husband of twenty-seven years, actor Gene Raymond.
More than simply another star biography, however, this is a chronicle of American music from 1920s Broadway to 1960s television, in which Turk details MacDonald's fearless efforts to break down distinctions between High Art and mass-consumed entertainment. Hollywood Diva will attract fans of opera and concert music as much as enthusiasts of the great Hollywood musicals. It is first-rate cultural and film history.
What made MacDonald a woman for our times, readers will discover, was her uncommon courage: Onscreen, the actress portrayed strong charcters in pursuit of deep emotional fulfillment, often in defiance of social orthodoxy, while offscreen she personified energy, discipline, and practical intellect. Drawing on interviews with individuals who knew her and on MacDonald's own words, Turk brings to life the intricate relations between the star and her legendary costars Maurice Chevalier, Clark Gable, and, above all, baritone Nelson Eddy. He reveals the deep crushes she inspired in movie giants Ernst Lubitsch and Louis B. Mayer and the extraordinary love story she shared with her husband of twenty-seven years, actor Gene Raymond.
More than simply another star biography, however, this is a chronicle of American music from 1920s Broadway to 1960s television, in which Turk details MacDonald's fearless efforts to break down distinctions between High Art and mass-consumed entertainment. Hollywood Diva will attract fans of opera and concert music as much as enthusiasts of the great Hollywood musicals. It is first-rate cultural and film history.
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