Lana: The Life and Loves of Lana Turner
Has enough time passed so that an assessment of Lana Turner will not put the murder of her boyfriend by daughter Cheryl Crane on center stage? Of course not--just open to the middle, and there it is--but this is a good star bio of Turner, anyway. Wayne doesn't stint on details of the 1958 slaying of reputed mobster Johnny Stompanato but also affords quite a look at the life of one of the last studio-created American movie stars. Turner was the original "sweater girl" and, according to Hollywood legend, was discovered sipping a soda at a Sunset Boulevard cafe{‚}. From that portentous beginning, her career careened through years as a starlet and pinup girl to real acting parts to the studio bosses discovering she was the perfect leading lady for high-budget melodramas. Meanwhile, her incredibly stormy offscreen life included a marriage to the eerily tempestuous bandleader Artie Shaw. Wayne covers it all admirably, showing sympathy but avoiding whitewashing or fawning.Mike Tribby