Loretta Young was one of those stars easy to mock - pretty, conscious of being a star, famously devout Catholic (she would refuse to do certain scenes/play certain roles, had a swear jar on set), hosted her own TV show where she entered a door every week with a new gown, always having crushes on co stars, participants in one of the juiciest scandals in Hollywood (having Clark Gable's love child), featuring in so many decorative roles.
But you don't have careers as long as successful as hers for no reason, and she had plenty of positives: ferocious work ethic, great dignity, street smarts (she knew about camera angles, lighting, dresses, etc). She could act as she occasionally got the chance to show. Fellow stars like Robert Mitchum would mock her gently but also had great respect for her.
Young was a child star - mum was a stage mum (most female stars of this era seem to have one), and Loretta and her two sisters went into the biz. Loretta became the biggest star of the three - she was very pretty, took direction well, and found consistent work. Most of her parts were decorative but she occasionally got a meaty role like in Platinum Blonde and she enlivened several pre-Code movies like Man's Castle.
Her career stepped up a notch when she went over to 20th Century Fox - who did use her as a clothes horse to look at the leading man a lot but also gave her some good chances: Ramona, The Story of Alexander Graham Bell. Her career kept going when she left Fox in the 40s and stepped up towards the end of the war when she was given some meaty roles and became a real box office draw: The Stranger, Rachel and the Stranger, The Farmer's Daughter (which won her an Oscar - Dore Schary was a big fan of Loretta ).
The tide started to go out in the 1950s but Loretta stayed ahead of the curve moving into TV where she enjoyed great success, and also creative fulfilment, playing all sorts of roles on her show. She had a dodgy second husband who fleeced her for a lot of cash (all these stars seem to have dodgy husbands) but she held on to enough to have a comfortable life. One of her sons became a pop star in the Moby Grape! (Like Jerry Lewis' son.)
She spent retirement doing a lot of charity work and socialising and lived to a ripe old age. She admitted herself she was never a great actor like Bette Davis, or even a top rank star, but she had a pretty good career with impressive credits.
She was a participant in one of the most famous Hollywood scandals: having Clark Gable's love child. This book reveals that Gable actually date raped her - something which I didn't want to believe but was all too easy to believe considering the time. Young had crushes on most of her male co stars - she's constantly falling in "love" with Spencer Tracy, with Jeff Chandler, with all of them - but not actually doing anything about it. She was a true "actress", who enjoyed the romance of infatuation with her costars - and Gable took it to another level. It would have been hard for Young to prove and/or do anything about - she had the baby and adopted it herself.
In many respects Young was an exasperating ninny - hopeless about men (she let her second husband get away with a lot of money), overly interested in clothes, didn't push herself as an artist - which made this book frustrating for me. But there was much to admire as well. Funk knew Young and at one stage this was going to be a memoir, so there's plenty of terrific material, mostly from her. If you're even only vaguely interested in Young you should read this.
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