Although Irene Manning is best known for her film work with James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Dennis Morgan, 'The Rebellious Prima Donna' reveals even more, including her associations with some of the finest talents of American Musical History - including Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, and the team known as Lerner and Loewe, in their very first Broadway show.

Many of the details in this book you may have read elsewhere. On the other hand, many more are untold stories. If it were not for Francis Stacey, Eric Stacey's widow, this book would not have been written. For it was Fran who wanted, encouraged, and supported the story about a special man in a magical time. Eric Stacey from Ramsgate (Kent) England, an assistant director, who was often relegated to the sidelines as a traffic cop, and his ultimate work seen in Gone With The Wind. As its producer, David O. Selznick wrote (December 5, 1942) in part, ..". Stacey's] activities were those connected with Gone With The Wind, a picture making extraordinary demands on his] position." In retrospect, there seems to be a certain element of fantasy, paranoia, artifice and illusion in these recollections. Except for the apparitions that haunted the cast and crew of the film to the end of their lives. Native New Yorker Gene Arceri began his career with various theatre enterprises at the Lincoln Center and elsewhere. He now resides in San Francisco, where he is a multi-media personality. Arceri's books on Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Hayward, Betty Hutton and "Charlie of Nob Hill" have been well-received worldwide, as has his column for the past ten years for Jo Lee Magazine on the internet.

The first book on the lovely comedian/actress, Betty Hutton!