Book review - "Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography" by Victoria Price

A rarity among bios written by children of famous stars in that its author has actually undertaken extensive scholarship - so much so, in fact, that it could stand alone as a bio even without the "daughter" section, that is like a"cherry" on top. Price deserves an excellent book about him and this one is it.

Victoria Price came along when dad was in his mid-fifties - he was an often absent father (which, since we're talking about the 60s when Price was at his stardom peak, you can understand), whom she adored and had a good relationship, until he left her mother for Coral Browne, whereupon things got a bit distant until Browne's death.
So this isn't a nasty grave stomping bio - nor is it a hagiography. It's really well balanced: Price loves and likes her father, admires his skill, but is not slow in shying away from his less pleasant side. Vincent could be a mean drunk, take out his bad moods at home (no surprise when you think about it as everyone who worked with him would remark on how nice and charming he was - he'd have to let off steam some time), probably squirmed out of war service in WW2 (or rather let 20th Century Fox do the job for him), showed anti-Semitic tendencies during the 30s (though he gradually became a great liberal), wasn't particularly brave during the McCarthy era (he was graylisted, and got out of it by writing a letter where he said people who didn't name names were un-American), received "assistance" on a 50s television quiz show. She also - and this really surprised me - admits dad may have been bisexual.

Price had an amazing life and career. He was never an A+ star like John Wayne, but he was definitely a star, one with drawing power at the box office - in the theatre and films, especially in horror. At a time in his life when many actors his age were drifting towards retirement he was given lead roles - indeed,vehicles. Even during the 70s and 80s he remained in demand - perhaps not as much demand as he would have liked but you can say that for every actor.

The book is full of surprises. I knew Price was into art - but didn't know he was able to incorporate it into his career so much. For instance, he ran a few art galleries, bought art for Sears, wrote many columns on it, hosted shows, even travelled the world on behalf of the government or various arts boards on art related matters. Price loved art but there's no doubt art was useful for Price's career - for instance, during a career lull during the 50s, he helped keep his name in front of the public by doing well on a 50s game show, and he made money from lecturing. I was also unaware of this 50s game show scandal -there was a Congressional inquiry into the whole genre following the admissions of rigging on Twenty One into which Price was dragged - although he never cheated it was revealed that the makers of the show had given him some help(i.e. letting him see the questions some time beforehand).
Another surprise was Price's greylisting in the 50s - despite growing up conservative (he admired the Germans for a time in the 30s on his European travels) his association with"premature anti-fascist" groups almost did major damage to his career, and he had to write a grovelling letter to get out of it (like another grey-listee, Edward G Robinson, he was partly rehabilitated by being hired on The Ten Commandments by right-winger Cecil B de Mille).

Price's background is also very interesting. Grandad made a fortune by inventing baking powder - only to lose most of it in the 1893 crash. Dad made a lot of money in the candy business - only he kept it. Vincent was kind of the odd one out in his family, slightly bohemian; he went to Yale, got a degree, worked as a bit as a teacher. Then he went to London to study art and wound up on the stage.

He was lucky - he was cast as Prince Albert in a play about Queen Victoria which had a short but very well received run at the Gate Theatre, then was cast in the same play when it was put on Broadway - the play was a hit and enjoyed a two year run, as good a launch as any actor has ever had. He was also blessed with height, looks and that marvellous voice.
But that's not enough. Price was smart - he knew he had been lucky and made up for it by working extremely hard. For instance, he translated his Price Albert part into German and learned it that way to get the feel of how German-speaking Albert may have thought. He would use his breaks during the long theatre run to work in summer stock. He tried to expand his horizons wherever possible, frequently returning to theatre(in the 40s he had another long run in "Angel Street"). He was polite to journalists and fans and always kept working. He had a good run in the 40s while under contract to Fox.
His career hit a bit of a lull in the 50s but he bounced back big time in the 60s with the AIP Poe films; Price was the biggest name to work for AIP but the studio did a lot for Price, too - they gave him some great roles, at least in the first half of the 60s (no one gets too excited about the ones in the second half of the decade except for Witchfinder General). And so he remained employed right up until the end. He did everything he could have wanted - comedy, drama, film noir, thrillers (he never wanted to do Westerns).Occasionally there's a bit of a whine about "never got to do Shakespeare", but he could have if he'd wanted to, and besides there was Theatre of Blood. Ditto every now and then he'd complain "they won't let me do comedy", but he did a lot of comedy, or "I'm typed in horror films" but some of those films gave him his meatiest parts. Price left it all on the field.

The last section of the book is the "Coral Browne" section - she takes over the book as she seems to have done Price's life (surely he had a bit more impact). Price's daughter was perhaps not the most objective here, but to be fair she quotes others who all seem to say the same thing: Browne was a very sexually active, crazy, funny, flighty woman who acted as a steamroller (knowing a few actors I can picture just what she would have been like). She was an Aussie, who faced prejudice due to her Aussie accent in London - one of her big breaks was an affair with Paul Robeson! She deserves her own bio.