This is classic Hollywood history as told through the life and
career of one of its most iconic actresses. The book benefits
tremendously from the author's meeting with Olivia de Havilland
after he was assigned to handle her projected memoir at the
Delacorte Press in 1973. Amburn also knew many of the key figures
in her life and career, a veritable pantheon of Hollywood royalty
from the 30s, 40s, and 50s: Jimmy Stewart, George Cukor, and David
O. Selznick, and he was an editor at William Morrow when the
company published the autobiography of de Havilland's difficult
sister Joan Fontaine. Superbly researched and full of delicious
anecdotes about Clark Gable, John Huston, Vivien Leigh, Laurence
Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Errol Flynn, David Niven, and Bette
Davis--particularly the bloody, bone-crunching fistfight Flynn and
Huston waged over Olivia--this book not only profiles one of the
finest actresses of her time, but also the culture of the film
industry's Golden Age. It details de Havilland's relationships with
the men who sought her--Howard Hughes, Jimmy Stewart, Errol Flynn,
John F. Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, and John Huston, as well as her
friendships with Grace Kelly, British Prime Minister Edward Heath,
Ronald Reagan, Victor Fleming, and Ingrid Bergman. Here, too, are
the fabulous and often surprising back stories of her 49 films,
including Gone With the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The
Snake Pit, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and the two for which
she won Oscars, The Heiress and To Each His Own. The account of the
filming of Gone With the Wind is unique in that the author
interviewed many of the people involved in the epic making of this
masterpiece as Lois Dwight Cole, who discovered the novel, producer
David O. Selznick, director George Cukor, agents Kay Brown and
Annie Laurie Williams, Radie Harris, Vivien Leigh's closest friend
in the press, and both Edie Goetz and Irene Mayer Selznick,
daughters of Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, the studio that funded,
released, and ended up owning Gone With the Wind. Also included in
this biography are Olivia's adventures with Bette Davis. They
appeared together in four movies and Davis tried to destroy her,
but Olivia stood up to Davis as no other actress had ever dared to
do. She won Davis's respect, and by the time they made their
biggest hit, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte, a lasting friendship
had blossomed. Undertaking a joint national publicity tour, they
attracted mobs of boisterous fans and, in private, reminisced about
the Golden Age of movies, evaluated the current crop of stars, and
exchanged observations about love goddesses, nudity, and
parenthood.
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