Featured Player: An Oral Autobiography of Mae Clarke (Hardcover)

From the Publisher: When Mae Clarke arrived in Los Angeles in 1929, she was a headliner in vaudeville who preferred the New York stage to acting in movies. She went to work for Fox and planned to stay just long enough to fulfill her contract. Her stay lasted 63 years. After distinguishing herself as Molly Malloy in Howard Hughes' production of The Front Page, Mae Clarke took a two-day job at Warner Bros. that changed her life. In an unbilled bit, she allowed James Cagney to grind a grapefruit in her face and, at the age of 20, achieved a kind of fame that would haunt her for the rest of her life. This isn't the story of a star, but rather a featured player - a talented actress who supported herself in movies and television for almost 40 years. Though hampered by failed marriages, bad luck, and bouts of mental illness, Mae Clarke managed to appear in 90 feature films, including such classics as Waterloo Bridge, Frankenstein, Lady Killer, Singin' in the Rain, Pat and Mike, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.Presents the result of conversations between writer James Curtis and Mae Clark (1910-1992), an actress who has the misfortune of being best known for a scene in which James Cagney grinds a grapefruit into her face, but whose talent and hard work in the acting business, in spite of personal misfortune, shine through. Includes an introduction by Curtis and b&w film stills. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.