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What Are You Reading

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Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake (with Donald Bain) published in 1969

Eddie Muller, the host of TCM's outstanding "Noir Alley," turned me onto this one, in part, because he mentioned that he wrote the introduction. Well, I'm a fan of Muller, but I expected more than a brief two-and-a-half pages from him. However, what he wrote was good and the book is an entertaining enough fast read.

Autobiographies are what they are - a person writing his or her own history. Even an honest attempt at the truth would suffer from memory lapses and unintentional bias, but how many write an honest autobiography?

Based on my general knowledge of Ms. Lake's life, which includes a biography of it read many years ago, Ms. Lake wasn't shooting for total honesty in this one. But what the heck, it's a book by a huge Golden Era star that has some fun inside-Hollywood tales and adds something to the Veronica Lake story.

After her not-great-not-horrible upbringing, including the early loss of a father, but a very good relationship with her ensuing stepfather and a mixed one with her driven mother, Lake came with her family to Hollywood at sixteen years old.

In a case of almost instant stardom, less than two years after her first role as an extra, Lake was a major star. First, in a wonderful happenstance during a promotional shoot, an airplane's propeller wash wrapped her skirt tightly around her, creating a perfect and very popular cheesecake publicity photo (see below) for her first real movie, I Wanted Wings. Then, with all but no experience, she improbably got the starring role in her next movie, the smartly funny and socially conscience Sullivan's Travels, and it was a hit.

Veronica Lake movie star and sex goddess was launched. And, for the next few years, several hits followed propelling her and her peek-a-boo hairstyle to mega stardom. But throughout it, Lake, by her own admission, was often difficult to work with. While she claims it was to cover for her insecurities, even with her spin, you're still thinking stardom might also have gone to her head, at least somewhat.

Add into that time period her first of four marriages, the birth of her first child, the death of her stepfather and a break with her mother and a lot of chaotic life was squeezed into a narrow window. Also lightly touched on was too much drinking and way too much spending.

But there were also some wonderful Golden Age of Hollywood moments as when lothario Errol Flynn takes her rejection of his suggestion for a roll in the hay in stride, which led to a nice platonic friendship between the two. Even better was the description of a quixotic night-long bender Lake had with Gary Cooper where the two enjoyably spent the evening (deep into the morning) hopping from one tawdry strip club to another critiquing the women "performers" as they went.

Lake characterizes all her issues - the spending, the fighting with the studios, her difficult reputation - as part of her rebellious nature, but that makes one wonder what exactly was she was rebelling against other than adulthood. Sure, studios weren't fair and some family and friends tried to use her, but that's also called life. Stars like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford fought their way through the same issues to forge decades-long careers.

Unfortunately, Lake's anger and personal life - including a divorce and second rocky marriage - worked against a long career so that less than ten-years later, by the end of the forties, her time in movies was all but over just when her spendthrift ways had pretty much drained her bank account.

From there, Lake spent the fifties into the sixties milking some good money out of her fading stardom via TV and summer-stock work, but usually spending more than she made, so that any slowdown in income quickly became a crisis. This time also saw periods of alcoholism, the failure of marriages number two and three and inconsistent parenting of her, now, three children.

To her credit, Lake doesn't gloss over or excuse all of her self-inflicted problems, but when you think through her explanations, you see many gaps that don't reflect favorably on the star. And what most jumps out at you is that she seemed only to learn very, very slowly from her mistakes.

To wit, even in the late fifties, after having been up and down financially several times and after a publicly embarrassing exposure when she was bartending in a run-down hotel in return for a room, she immediately took an expensive apartment when she caught a good job in radio for a few months. You almost want to scream at the book, "save some money, you should know better by now." But that was not what Lake, the self-described "rebel," would do (until later in life).

In the end, we're left with a woman with many personal shortcomings that hurt her more than anyone else (except, maybe, her children). Despite all that, I still love Veronica Lake the movie star. This Gun for Hire was a picture I first saw in my teens where Lake and her famously flowing blonde locks hooked me for life.

I wanted to read that her life turned out well and I wanted to blame her problems on others, but even with her spin, you come away from her autobiography mainly disappointed because she seems like a reasonably decent person who was also her own worst enemy. However, at least by the late sixties, it appears she had settled down into an okay life with the self-destructive extremes and excesses kinda sorta behind her. Who knows what's true and what's Lake-spin in Veronica, but still, the book is a fun enough quick swim through a notable rivulet of Golden Era Hollywood.


The career-boosting promo picture from I Wanted Wings
c17c31c605af065207cb29d77bd4935a.jpg


And the famous peekaboo hairstyle
VeronicaLake.jpg
 

Harp

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8,508
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Chicago, IL US
^^^Veronica Lake^^^

I was more infatuated with Linda Darnell and Ingrid Bergman, remain smitten and will ever be,
but Veronica Lake escaped my notice; although I did hear that bartending tale told elsewhere,
cannot recall if it was New York or LA locus. After learning more about Gloria Graham earlier
the starlet as fallen angel is becoming a familiar unfortunate script.

superb review.
 

AmateisGal

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6,126
Location
Nebraska
I'm reading Lauren Bacall's memoir, By Myself, and am into the part where she and Bogie meet and fall in love on the set of To Have and Have Not. She was so nervous and would always shake during her scenes that she learned to put her head down, her chin almost touching her chest, and that greatly reduced her shaking. Thus, 'The Look' was born!

Reading the love letters Bogie wrote her...oh my. Those two truly did have a once in a lifetime kind of love.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
SCOTUS blog Republican Party of PA v Degriffenreid; Corman v PA Democratic Party
Petitions for certiorari denied 2/22.21

A 6-3 ruling with Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissenting. Chief Justice Roberts leading the usual suspects
plus a surprising Barrett with Kavanaugh. Sulla led his legions inside Rome, and Roberts leads a line
of black robed jurists inside a silent tyranny within Article II of the US Constitution.
For a Court ready and primed for every conceivable cultural or societal issue this taciturn denial
thunders corruption writ large.
 
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17,188
Location
New York City
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The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner, the first Perry Mason novel originally published in 1933

I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of the old Perry Mason TV show, but kinda sorta know about it by reputation. I just started watching the new HBO version of Perry Mason, which is very good, but it injects a lot of modern identity politics and 2021 social-justice-warrior tics into a 1930s character.

I had also never read a Perry Mason book before this one. But after having just seen a 1930s Warner Bros. Perry Mason movie (comments here: #28433), I decided I needed to go to the original source material - the first Perry Mason book written - to see what had birthed almost a hundred years of Perry Mason cultural iterations.

There's a lot of cool 1930s stuff in The Case of the Velvet Claws and Mason himself is interesting enough, but the real gem in the original novel is Mason's secretary Della Street. Heck, had author Gardner done nothing other than named her Della Street, he'd have had something to be proud of, but he did more.

He created a strong, smart woman not as imagined by today's period writers obsessed with checking every intersectionality box, but a 1930s woman who thinks for herself, calls Mason out on his BS, shows physical courage (but doesn't beat up men twice her size as modern writers preposterously imagine women regularly do) and is sexy in a not-obvious way.

And, yes, she's a secretary and she cries, so, horrors, she's in a traditional woman's role and has some, what were once considered, feminine traits. Yet, no one reading The Case of the Velvet Claws will fail to appreciate the strength, courage and integrity of this woman. I'd choose her over almost every man in the book to go into battle with.

Even though Della Street lifts every page she's in, this is still a Perry Mason novel and he doesn't disappoint in a very 1930s way. A lawyer cum private investigator who has an odd moral code that basically says: if I take on a client - innocent or guilty, good or bad - I will use every legal and many illegal means to get him or her off. Today of course, his clients would have to be oppressed underdogs, but today we don't value individual integrity unless it's in service to the privilege-discrimination political Talmud.

But this Perry Mason is a 1930s hero who plows his own path in service to his own personal code. So in The Case of the Velvet Claws, his client is a lying criminal who throws Mason under the bus repeatedly, but he still fights like heck to get her off, not so much for her, but for his professional integrity. And if that isn't enough to turn off today's progressive elites, he actually charges his clients money versus our crazy modern morality that all but requires heroes to be averse to taking money for their work as if it's dirty or beneath them.

The titular case itself is what's become a by-the-numbers murder mystery, but it must have felt fresher in the 1930s. A wealthy and reclusive owner of a scandal-sheet newspaper that, effectively, blackmails people it has dirt on is murdered. Everyone, including the owner's son, his business partner, his young and pretty wife (Mason's client), his housekeeper and Mason himself (his client set him up, yup) is a suspect.

The fun in this one is not figuring it out, but watching Mason manipulate suspects, tangle with the police, create elaborate ruses to trick people into talking while, basically, staying one tiny step ahead of everyone as they all try to bring him down for various reasons.

At the distance of nearly ninety years, the plot is the least special thing in the book. What is special, and refreshing, is a hero in service to his own moral code - a man of personal integrity and honor for integrity and honor's sake, not one charitably fighting for the underdog (the dominant hero standard since the 1960s).

Mason's real friends would do anything for him, not because he's saving the world or freeing the oppressed, but because they know he is a man of character, a man they can trust. Della Street has the same code - her word is worth more than five signed contracts. Watching these two honor their own value system and not bend at the knee to every modern political piety is almost jarring as, today, we've become programmed to expect our heroes to be social justice warriors above all else.

While the 1930's Warner Bros. movie was, kinda, consistent with Mason's character in the novel, it strayed a bit, as did (I think) the later TV version and today's HBO one where Mason, of course, has addiction and anger management issues. Fair enough, as every generation defines its heroes in its own way, but it's still a nearly hundred-years-long compliment to Erle Stanley Gardner that his pulp-fiction creation has had cultural currency throughout that entire time.

Heck, maybe one day we'll even have the courage as a culture to appreciate the progenitor Mason - a man of integrity who lives by his own code, isn't an oblation to modern politics and who isn't opposed to making a (sorta) honest buck. For now though, we can simply read the original Erle Stanley Gardner Mason novels to see a world where all of those things are valued.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
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8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Mason, to some extent I believe was modeled after Irish silk Charles Phillips who defended Courvoisier
in The Old Bailey, firmly staking the common law right to trial down, yet not without attendant controversy.
Courvoisier committed murder-and copped to it to Phillips, but still demanded a defense. Phillips paid a personal
and professional price, cat-out-of-the-bag, opprobrium with public outrage.
 
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12,934
Location
Germany
Ingsoc's O'Brien = Doublethink??

Haha, this guy is simply schizophrenic! :D

But I think, that's the point of the whole story.
We don't know, if O'Brien is really a man of the party or not. And if the "brotherhood" does exist or not.
But it seems, that O'Brien got some weak moments in front of Winston.
 
Last edited:

Harp

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Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Paul Fussell's Wartime: Understanding and Behavior during the Second World War

Fussell has some interesting opinions. He somewhat reminds me of SLA Marshall whose fire ratio theory is horseshit.
Fussell follows along similar scatological theory based on innate conjecture of whatever rhyme at the moment
strikes his fancy. A different soldier who marches to another cadence, that's Paul.

Sorry, just some serious grunt differences of view.;):)
 

AmateisGal

I'll Lock Up
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6,126
Location
Nebraska
Fussell has some interesting opinions. He somewhat reminds me of SLA Marshall whose fire ratio theory is horseshit.
Fussell follows along similar scatological theory based on innate conjecture of whatever rhyme at the moment
strikes his fancy. A different soldier who marches to another cadence, that's Paul.

Sorry, just some serious grunt differences of view.;):)
I've heard that he's not entirely reliable. However, I'm well-versed enough in the field to know that he's definitely cherry picking evidence to support his conclusions. What this book does, however, is give us a nice shot in the arm to counter all those gooey "the Greatest Generation is amazing!" and "this was a good war!" narratives so prevalent at the time (and arguably, still prevalent today).

His cynicism is quite noticeable, but I think, it is justified in many ways.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
I've heard that he's not entirely reliable. However, I'm well-versed enough in the field to know that he's definitely cherry picking evidence to support his conclusions. What this book does, however, is give us a nice shot in the arm to counter all those gooey "the Greatest Generation is amazing!" and "this was a good war!" narratives so prevalent at the time (and arguably, still prevalent today).

His cynicism is quite noticeable, but I think, it is justified in many ways.

As a Vietnam veteran, I envy the Second World War generation to great extent and admire these souls
even more; but utopian attribute so common said, perhaps is the inevitable result of post war cynicism
seeking badly needed relief. Complacency breeds contempt and honest consideration for genuine heroism
with acceptance of a blood cup portending early death.

So, when do you start the PhD kiddo?
 

AmateisGal

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,126
Location
Nebraska
As a Vietnam veteran, I envy the Second World War generation to great extent and admire these souls
even more; but utopian attribute so common said, perhaps is the inevitable result of post war cynicism
seeking badly needed relief. Complacency breeds contempt and honest consideration for genuine heroism
with acceptance of a blood cup portending early death.

So, when do you start the PhD kiddo?
August 2021!

Nervous yet excited. Can't wait to get back into the classroom again.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Culled Louisiana Derby material off the Net, playing truant from more professional pursuits in light
of Patroclus whose day I have tried-unsuccessfully-to play a shameless pagan role. :D
 
Messages
12,734
Location
Northern California
View attachment 317205
The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner, the first Perry Mason novel originally published in 1933

I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of the old Perry Mason TV show, but kinda sorta know about it by reputation. I just started watching the new HBO version of Perry Mason, which is very good, but it injects a lot of modern identity politics and 2021 social-justice-warrior tics into a 1930s character.

I had also never read a Perry Mason book before this one. But after having just seen a 1930s Warner Bros. Perry Mason movie (comments here: #28433), I decided I needed to go to the original source material - the first Perry Mason book written - to see what had birthed almost a hundred years of Perry Mason cultural iterations.

There's a lot of cool 1930s stuff in The Case of the Velvet Claws and Mason himself is interesting enough, but the real gem in the original novel is Mason's secretary Della Street. Heck, had author Gardner done nothing other than named her Della Street, he'd have had something to be proud of, but he did more.

He created a strong, smart woman not as imagined by today's period writers obsessed with checking every intersectionality box, but a 1930s woman who thinks for herself, calls Mason out on his BS, shows physical courage (but doesn't beat up men twice her size as modern writers preposterously imagine women regularly do) and is sexy in a not-obvious way.

And, yes, she's a secretary and she cries, so, horrors, she's in a traditional woman's role and has some, what were once considered, feminine traits. Yet, no one reading The Case of the Velvet Claws will fail to appreciate the strength, courage and integrity of this woman. I'd choose her over almost every man in the book to go into battle with.

Even though Della Street lifts every page she's in, this is still a Perry Mason novel and he doesn't disappoint in a very 1930s way. A lawyer cum private investigator who has an odd moral code that basically says: if I take on a client - innocent or guilty, good or bad - I will use every legal and many illegal means to get him or her off. Today of course, his clients would have to be oppressed underdogs, but today we don't value individual integrity unless it's in service to the privilege-discrimination political Talmud.

But this Perry Mason is a 1930s hero who plows his own path in service to his own personal code. So in The Case of the Velvet Claws, his client is a lying criminal who throws Mason under the bus repeatedly, but he still fights like heck to get her off, not so much for her, but for his professional integrity. And if that isn't enough to turn off today's progressive elites, he actually charges his clients money versus our crazy modern morality that all but requires heroes to be averse to taking money for their work as if it's dirty or beneath them.

The titular case itself is what's become a by-the-numbers murder mystery, but it must have felt fresher in the 1930s. A wealthy and reclusive owner of a scandal-sheet newspaper that, effectively, blackmails people it has dirt on is murdered. Everyone, including the owner's son, his business partner, his young and pretty wife (Mason's client), his housekeeper and Mason himself (his client set him up, yup) is a suspect.

The fun in this one is not figuring it out, but watching Mason manipulate suspects, tangle with the police, create elaborate ruses to trick people into talking while, basically, staying one tiny step ahead of everyone as they all try to bring him down for various reasons.

At the distance of nearly ninety years, the plot is the least special thing in the book. What is special, and refreshing, is a hero in service to his own moral code - a man of personal integrity and honor for integrity and honor's sake, not one charitably fighting for the underdog (the dominant hero standard since the 1960s).

Mason's real friends would do anything for him, not because he's saving the world or freeing the oppressed, but because they know he is a man of character, a man they can trust. Della Street has the same code - her word is worth more than five signed contracts. Watching these two honor their own value system and not bend at the knee to every modern political piety is almost jarring as, today, we've become programmed to expect our heroes to be social justice warriors above all else.

While the 1930's Warner Bros. movie was, kinda, consistent with Mason's character in the novel, it strayed a bit, as did (I think) the later TV version and today's HBO one where Mason, of course, has addiction and anger management issues. Fair enough, as every generation defines its heroes in its own way, but it's still a nearly hundred-years-long compliment to Erle Stanley Gardner that his pulp-fiction creation has had cultural currency throughout that entire time.

Heck, maybe one day we'll even have the courage as a culture to appreciate the progenitor Mason - a man of integrity who lives by his own code, isn't an oblation to modern politics and who isn't opposed to making a (sorta) honest buck. For now though, we can simply read the original Erle Stanley Gardner Mason novels to see a world where all of those things are valued.

Although I gave you a “like” I had to skip your review of The Case of the Velvet Claws as I am trying decide if I should read Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress or the aforementioned. I have wanted to read a Perry Mason story since watching the HBO series, but I really would like to read something by Mosley as well. Such a difficult life I have.
:D
 

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