Title: There really was a Hollywood
First published: 1984
Description: She was born Jeanette Helen Morrison in 1927, a shy, sensitive, extremely pretty only child of a teenage couple. As her parents moved from town to town and as bright Jeanette was skipped ahead grade to grade, she found comfort and continuity in her weekend stays with her "babysitter," the movies. By age eighteen, Jeanette was a senior in college and possessed three things: a devastating secret, a new marriage, and an uncertain future. And then Norma Shearer saw her photograph and took it back to Hollywood. This is the candid, passionate, often dazzling autobiography of one of the best-loved actresses in Hollywood, Janet Leigh, the star of such favorites as Little Women, My Sister Eileen, Prince Valiant, Touch of Evil, Scaramouche, The Vikings, Bye Bye Birdie, The Manchurian Candidate, and, of course, Psycho, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. Focusing on the years 1946-1962, Janet's story encompasses the time of the great Hollywood transition: the decline of the legendary movie studios, the advent of television, and the rise of the independent studios that would change the professional face of Hollywood forever. Janet's own story is one of an ingenue who joined the "family" at mighty MGM, a beautiful actress who dated Hollywood's most eligible bachelors (and fended off the persistent cloak-and-dagger advances of Howard Hughes), an international star whose marriage to and divorce from Tony Curtis made for one of the most publicized relationships in history, and a dynamic public figure whose energy and zest for life are fueled by her private role as a mother and wife. Full of touching, funny and often outrageous stories about her friends and colleagues, this book is ultimately the story of one woman's growth and survival in an industry that has destroyed so many of its own. --Adapted from dust jacket.
Subjects: Biography, Motion picture actors and actresses, Large type books
Places: United States
People: Janet Leigh