Joan Blondell A Life Between Takes (Hardcover)

From the Publisher: Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio. Born the child of vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal, distinctive cello voice, megawatt smile, luminous saucer eyes, and flawless timing, she came into widespread fame in Warner Bros. musicals and comedies of the 1930s, including Blonde Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade.|Her dramatic gifts were showcased in the family classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the film noir Nightmare Alley, and the tearjerker The Blue Veil, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Later, she became a staple of television through countless guest spots and her Emmy-nominated role in the 1960s series Here Come the Brides. In testimony to her versatility, she finished her career with a dynamic turn in John Cassavetes' Opening Night and a cameo spot in the hit musical Grease.|Frequent costar to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years.|Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and features numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues.