Hollywood's Hard-Luck Ladies

23 Actresses Who Suffered Early Deaths, Accidents, Missteps, Illnesses and Tragedies 
By Laura Wagner
McFarland & Company, Inc. Jefferson NC. 2020.
ISBN (e-book) 978-1-4766-3833-1

I'm tempted to say I enjoyed this book. But these women had such sad lives that one is left feeling mildly depressed by the litany of "early deaths, accidents, missteps" and all that other stuff listed in the title. It aggravated my pandemic-induced blues. 

But I did find it interesting. It rips the lid off the Hollywood studio system of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. In those days, an actor's success was defined by obtaining a contract to make films with a particular studio - MGM, RKO, Warners Brothers, etc. But those who were able to get a contract found their careers virtually held hostage by the decisions of powerful studio bosses. 

We can't blame the studios for all the hard luck described in these pages, though. Many of these ladies created their own problems. Particularly sad are the ones with mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, who had no access to the medications available today. 

The book itself is nicely put together: amply illustrated with photos, well written and well researched, with nearly 70 pages of references to sources used. Many of those sources are newspaper stories from the days when these women were still in the public eye. A surprising number were written by gossip columnists of the day. One wonders how much trust can be placed in the accuracy of gossip columnists’ writings, but perhaps there wasn’t much other material to use. 

I was drawn to this book when researching the actress Patricia Dane, who gets a 14-page treatment herein. Her bawdy behavior is virtually unmatched by any of the other women in the book, but her life didn’t turn out as badly as most of them. She lived until age 77. She wasn’t drug-addicted, mentally ill, married multiple times, left paralyzed by a horrible accident, killed by a drug overdose or treated badly by a succession of abusive boyfriends - at least, as Wagner tells the story. Depressing or not, this is fascinating stuff.

N.B. Read the Wikipedia article about Patricia Dane here.

WQED-FM Tower Climbers

My favorite radio station is WQED-FM, a classical music channel. Normally I listen for a couple of hours each day.

But WQED has been off the air for weeks due to technical problems. Now a “tower crew” is preparing to climb hundreds of feet up the antenna tower in the middle of a Pittsburgh winter to make repairs. You can read about that by following the link above.

The tower is on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Pandemic-sequestered Pitt students can take a break from their studies (if they are studying) to gawk at the tower climbers doing their dangerous task. 

 In the meantime, I am listening to WQED's internet stream. But it’s not the same as listening in HD radio format. WQED normally broadcasts two HD subchannels. I have an old Sony XDR F1HD tuner that does a great job of pulling in both of them.

 This is the sort of thing that takes on great significance when you’re stuck in the house for a nine-month pandemic, like Eskimos huddled in our igloo, waiting for winter to be over. But winter has just begun.

Sony has discontinued production of the XDR F1HD tuner, but used units are easy to find on the Internet. It's a component that connects to your stereo or AV receiver.

Richard Williams Goes Disco

Noted music critic and English hipster Richard Williams has just published a list of his favorite disco songs. 

When he was writing for Melody Maker, back in the 1960s, I read his articles religiously. This was the heyday of titanic acts like Cream, Traffic, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Clodagh Rodgers (heh heh) and the like. So it's a bit of a shock to learn that Williams even listened to disco. And to think of him taking the time to compile a list of his favorites... well, I'll be damned, as my father used to say. What is this world coming to? What the hell is going on here?

And I have to ask: why isn’t Boogie Oogie Oogie on this list? And what about Boogie Night? I’m Your Boogie Man? (I like songs with "boogie" in the title.) Lowdown? Stayin’ Alive? And of course: Do the Hustle???

 Seriously, I like a good disco song now and then. But a whole record of them… a whole night of it… how dreadful.

Read his blog entry: It's A Disco Night (Don't Stop).