Review by Booklist Review
When Sammy Davis Jr. died, he left behind three books: an early autobiography, a later autobiography, and a nicely dishy book on show business and his fellow celebrities. Leachman would have benefited from such a strategy. With assistance from former husband (and author) George Englund, she provides a consistent voice for this collection of stories from her personal life and professional career, but these often-fascinating remembrances are in search of a clear structure. The most consistently used phrase in the book is more on that later, and though we're eventually given more, sometimes the most basic questions go unanswered or come too late to provide needed context and clarification. Most obvious here, though, is the talent, humor, and drive that took Leachman from little Lone Tree, Iowa, to New York and the stage and from there to Hollywood and movies and television. Despite her many roles, she's yet to play a character as wacky as herself.--Hawkins, Valerie Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Leachman has won an Oscar (The Last Picture Show) and nine Emmy Awards, placed third in the Miss America Pageant, and raised five children. Despite years as Phyllis on TV's The Mary Tyler Moore Show and memorable roles in films, she's probably now best known for her comedic turn on Dancing with the Stars, in her eighties, no less. The devil-may-care, unpredictable persona she exhibited there seems to embody the real Leachman. She shares her career and marriage highs and lows (her ex-husband is coauthor and the love of her life, though they are not together) and dishes on actors and lovers (e.g., Brando, Gene Hackman, Bobby Darin) in an entertaining though distracted way. She studied at the Actors Studio but came up with her own philosophy, "Acting is make-believe. Have fun" and "Don't be afraid you're going to make a fool of yourself." She lives what she preaches. Recommended for all public libraries and acting collections.-Rosellen Brewer, Sno-Isle Libs., Marysville, WA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
