Compared with 1988's The Peter Lawford Story, a shimmering tower of sleaze by Patricia Seaton Lawford and Ted Schwarz, Spada's Lawford bio is serious and respectful. Spada (Grace, 1987, etc.) shoots for the big time at 512 pages, does heavy research and strong fact-packaging. The outstanding section of the book, the middle hundred pages, covers the ties between Jack and Bobby Kennedy and the death of Marilyn Monroe and manages to assemble that now-familiar story with verve and freshness. The subplot throughout these pages is Kennedy- supporter Frank Sinatra's tie with top Mafia boss Sam Giancana, with Sinatra, JFK, and Giancana all sleeping with Judith Campbell, and JFK enlisting Giancana to blow away Fidel Castro, and then RFK as attorney general attacking organized crime, with Giancana asking buddy Sinatra to smooth it with RFK by having RFK's brother-in-law and Sinatra Rat Pack member Lawford speak to RFK or JFK. When Lawford fails and Sinatra's power wavers in Giancana's eyes, and then JFK reneges at staying at Sinatra's massively rebuilt Palm Springs house, Sinatra exiles Lawford from the Rat Pack—forever. All this is lively and gripping and shows fresh spadework, but no new dirt. Lawford, a child actor from Britain, struck it big at 20 with an MGM contract, had his greatest hit singing and dancing in the ever-enjoyable Good News. A fantastic ladies' man, he married into the Kennedy family via Pat Kennedy, became JFK's Hollywood go- between with Monroe. He never sobered up and even had coke delivered to him by helicopter at the Betty Ford Clinic. His lack of self-confidence was apparently a gift from his mother, who told him he wasn't good enough or strong enough to survive without her. Sympathy for a poor devil, once the gayest of blades.
Pub Date: June 17, 1991
ISBN: 0-553-07185-8
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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