American Prince: A Memoir
by Peter Golenbock, Tony Curtis
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.48 You Save: $24.47 (94%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of American Prince: A Memoir
Book Review: A Frenetic, Self-Congratulatory Life
Summary: 3 Stars
In this 2 and 1/2-star book, Tony Curtis spins his life story in such a positive, princely way that you're not sure whether to believe him. He leaves out enough key details to make the reader question whether he's telling the truth. Then he includes minor facts that go nowhere in developing his stories. In other words, it's a mumbled mixture that ranges from fun behind-the-scenes stories to repeated immoral confessions.
For example, his first chapter grabs your attention by discussing his getting a movie contract at age 22. He doesn't explain how he managed it, nor is he able to tell how he attracted a young Marilyn Monroe--she just suddenly appears and he invites her out. He does, however, repeat insignificant details like the hotel where Monroe was living or that new friend Burt Lancaster grew up on the west side of Manhattan.
Namely, this memoir is filled with minor trivia while failing to deliver complete versions of its most interesting stories.
In the third chapter he discusses his brother's childhood death, which sounds like it could partially be blamed on Curtis. But in telling the story, he claims the police showed up at his parents house to say the missing brother was in the hospital and instead of his parents going to visit, 13-year-old Tony was driven there by the police and the parents didn't go until the next day when the brother was dead. No explanation is given--why would the parents not go immediately? Was Tony to blame or not? He never reveals enough to explain some of his often difficult-to-believe stories.
When he gets to Hollywood he claims that all sorts of people just happened to fall into his lap, like Monroe. Most implausible was the first time he was at MGM in 1948, eating at the commissary and sitting down next to a girl he chatted with and asked for her name & number. It was Judy Garland. Come on, he didn't know Judy Garland when he saw her, yet he claims he was a movie addict? Then he didn't even call her? Many of the stories are told in this way--very few details, no explanations, and hard-to-believe scenarios.
Much of it seems like bragging--he tells how he knew at a young age that he was attractive, especially to older women. He steals, lies, cheats, skips school--all without any remorse. He claims to be a person who dislikes violence but then tells numerous stories of beating up kids who made fun of him, then not receiving any consequences.
He compares himself as equal to pretty much every famous person he encounters--Sinatra, Olivier, Gene Kelly. He doesn't seem to get that he wasn't in their league. He did a few decent pictures that were mostly "B" quality but considers himself an "A" lister. He's not.
He takes credit for casting Sidney Poitier in his first major role, The Defiant Ones. The Curtis complains that even though they both were nominated for Oscars, Tony didn't win. He blames it on Hollywood's anti-Semitism!?! Is he kidding? The movie studios were filled with Jewish Academy voters! He writes, "I was making important pictures and I felt I deserved some acclaim from my peers." What a jerk.
Curtis also feels the need to mention just about every sexual encounter he had, often with unknown or unnamed people who the reader will not care about. He even has to make sure to include the come-ons from men that rub up against him. The book is also filled with crude language and could have been written with a little more class. The entire thing is so repetitive--he tells little about the movies he makes and instead focuses each chapter on the women he beds, the stars he hangs out with and the people that adore him.
The book just keeps getting worse as it goes along. Curtis becomes a despicable person who cheats of every wife without conscience. He claims a "need" to "be loved" by women and uses that as his excuse for sleeping with just about every co-star. What's most sad is that his children are pushed to the side--he virtually ignores them in life and barely mentions them in this book. He blames their bitterness toward him on his ex-wives, but it's easy to see here that he was a terrible father and horrendous role model. Namely, if you like him on the movie screen, don't read this book because it will disgust you whenever you see his face again.
The book's title is a boastful misnomer--Curtis's celebrity died out years ago and his years as a screen star were limited to a couple of decades of often mediocre pictures, unlike true screen royalty like Cary Grant who lit up the screen for forty years and then still was an icon long after he stopped making movies. But despite Tony's self-love the book contains often entertaining stories, no matter how hard they may be to believe.
Book Review: RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "BERNIE SCHWARTZ BECAME A HOLLYWOOD STAR & A HYPOCRITE"
Summary: 5 Stars
Bernie Schwartz was born into a semi-dysfunctional Jewish family in New York in 1925. Bernie's family barely got by financially, but always had more than enough arguments between his Mother and Father to go around. Facing unhappiness morning-noon-and-night at home... and harsh anti-Semitism out in the streets... Bernie's only refuge... was his love of the movies. Any money he would earn whether from selling newspapers or shining shoes was spent on going to the movies. Bernie's dream was to one day be in the movies. His dream would eventually come true... under the name of TONY CURTIS!
When Bernie was ten years-old, he and his younger brother Julius, who was six, were put in an orphanage for two weeks... a time that seemed like an eternity and would affect the future movie star for his entire life. As Bernie entered his teens he was made aware of his good looks by the way females started responding to him, and also by the way some guys would accuse him of being gay. His Mother would always make him take care of Julius and that would require Bernie to take his younger brother with him when he hung out with his friends. Most thirteen-year-old kids wouldn't want their nine-year-old brother hanging around with them when they were with their friends, so on one such occasion Bernie told Julius; "Go play with your own freakin' friends." Julius went on his own and didn't come back that night... and then the cops came to the door. Julius was hit by a truck and died very soon after. This was another major influence on the eventual psyche of Tony Curtis the man.
Bernie was so unhappy at home... and had no interest in school... so in 1942 during World War II, despite being only sixteen-years-old he enlisted in the Navy by forging his Mother's signature.
"FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, I TASTED THE UNBELIEVABLE FREEDOM OF BEING ON MY OWN. MY MOTHER WASN'T SCREAMING. MY FATHER WASN'T SITTING THERE LOOKING MOROSE. ALL AROUND ME WERE THE EAGER YOUNG FACES OF GUYS LIKE ME, AND WE ALL BECAME FRIENDS. I ENJOYED THE NAVY BECAUSE OUR COUNTRY LOOKED AFTER US. THE NAVY WAS MY SURROGATE FAMILY. I HAVE TO SAY THAT I TOTALLY ENJOYED THE NAVY EXPERIENCE." When he got out of the Navy thanks to the GI bill he got involved in acting classes and did some theatre, and got discovered and sent to Hollywood and signed a contract with Universal Studios... and as they say the rest is history. But as Bernie becomes TONY CURTIS... though the history shared in this book is always interesting... the view the reader sees of the person Tony becomes is less than flattering. This in no way takes away from the enjoyment of the book... it just does not leave the reader with a very high perspective of Tony Curtis the person.
From falling in love with a young unknown Marilyn Monroe... and then both going their separate ways to pursue fame... Tony throws around his bedroom conquests like someone throwing away a no-deposit-no-return bottle. Curtis unabashedly drops sexual partners names... including ones he married... and shamelessly tells of his unconscionable continual cheating with women during numerous marriages. From Marilyn... to Anita Ekberg... to Yvonne De Carlo... to Janet Leigh (married)... to Gloria De Haven... to Playboy Bunnies (numerous)...to Christine Kaufman (who was seventeen when they started their tryst... and he was still married to Janet Leigh at the time... and he was thirty-seven and she was eighteen when he married her)... to Natalie Wood... to Penny Allen (married)... to Susan Hampshire... and many more. Yet when Christine fooled around on him, he had the audacity to say: "I FELT CHRISTINE HAD VIOLATED MY TRUST, WHICH MADE ME WANT TO EXPLODE. SURE, I HADN'T ALWAYS BEEN FAITHFUL TO HER, BUT I'D ALWAYS BEEN DISCREET. AND I'D ALWAYS FIGURED THAT AFTER I'D HAD A LITTLE FUN I'D GO HOME TO THE WOMAN I LOVED MOST OF ALL."
This book takes you through his later years which included cocaine addiction and on into his eighties. As I said earlier... when you are done reading this book, you may not think much of Tony Curtis the man... but you will have enjoyed the journey.
Book Review: Good Read about a Not So Good Guy
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't think Tony Curtis ever turned down a movie, no matter how bad the script was. He never mentions refusing any film. All you have to do is make the offer and he's in. If he wonders why his career didn't win him Oscars or provide work after his looks were gone, there's the answer. He produced a huge body of mediocre work and just a handful of stand-outs. He was in it for the fame, the money, and the easy access to beautiful women without morals. And this is what you get.
But he wants to blame it on anti-semitism. There are so many prominent Jewish people in the movie industry, how was being Jewish a handicap? Yet, he plays the Jewish card relentlessly throughout this book.
Hollywood actresses are totally devoid of morals. They sleep with everyone they meet. They have no problem with one-night stands, dressing room trysts, married men; they just do it. Curtis' life is a sexual smorgasboard. I just finished Robert Wagner's and Roger Moore's autobiographies and I think everyone slept with everyone. They all mention bedding the same women.
Curtis has a peculiar moral standard. As long as he is discreet about his affairs, that's permissable, but any wife of his better not do anything. Then he is humiliated and furious. He married younger and younger girls and then is shocked and dismayed that they get bored with him and want to have fun with their own age group.
Although he goes into detail on how he was offered every movie and how he got every movie star into bed, he doesn't seem to have been present at the birth of any of his many children. He barely mentions them. He's upset at his son's death by overdose, but equally as upset that the minister didn't mention his name at the boy's funeral! He chastises each wife for not giving him the love he "needs," but provides no evidence that he ever thought about their needs.
You can only play the Jew-card and bad-mommy card so much before your pity party starts to backfire. Personally, I think his bad choices of movie roles is what put the chill on his career. You can't expect to take any acting job for the money and still have a body of artistic work to show for it. You can tell a person is no longer able to see themselves in a realistic light when they bring out the bad toupees, and he went though a phase of ridiculously thick blonde-gray hair before conceding baldness, and in his TV appearances promoting this book, he wore a ludicrously large white cowboy hat.
Still and all, I was never bored reading his story, just amazed. But considering that everyone else's autobiographies are often just as lurid, it must just be what Hollywood is like. It's probably no different now. I plan to read George Hamilton next, and no doubt it's the same story!
Book Review: Hardly a prince among men
Summary: 3 Stars
Simply by acknowledging the title of this memoir, Tony Curtis obviously fancies himself a prince among men. Yet the behavior he recounts here, divulging it of his own volition, makes it clear that he is anything but regal.
Much to his credit, Mr. Curtis is brutally self-aware and revelatory regarding his life in AMERICAN PRINCE. His honesty is admirable; his life, less so.
He seems to have no shame about the way in which he regularly cheated on all of his wives; if anything, he seems rather proud. He also is unashamed of--if somewhat perplexed by--the fact that he has not been able to sustain ongoing relationships with any of the children he had by three of those wives, or with his children's children in turn.
The report of his brother Julie's death is one of the most touching I ever have read. Taken in the context of this larger work, however, one cannot help wondering whether his failure to supervise the younger boy, as he was instructed to do by his parents, led to the circumstances which killed Julie.
Even the report of his mother's death, horrible as she apparently was to him, reflects so poorly on Curtis that one wonders why he included it in the memoir.
Still, Tony Curtis did arrive in Hollywood at the very end of the famous studio system and he has some wonderful anecdotes to share about that time. He knew almost everyone who counted in what was a golden era, most of them now long gone. His life was peopled with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Mae West, Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson, Debbie Reynolds and on and on.
He does not hesitate, either, to tell things as he saw them, even if his recollections are less than kind. He is nothing if not forthcoming. On the other hand, he and his editor do not get everything right. Contrary to the assertion contained in AMERICAN PRINCE, Debbie Reynolds did marry after her divorce from Eddie Fisher; in fact, she married another two times.
The studios fostered the theory that movie stars were America's royalty. Still, the simple fact is that movie stars are very ordinary people, often blessed with shockingly good looks ... perhaps a bit of talent ... and a great deal of luck. Certainly, in common with many others, nothing about Tony Curtis' life is particularly uplifting. Very much the opposite: Many of these people clearly are gauche, ill-educated and obsessively self-involved.
This doesn't take away from the fact that Tony Curtis was a genuine beauty when he was young, that he starred or co-starred in some classic films and that he has written a book that is a fascinating read.
Book Review: It's all about him, him, him, him, him, him, ad infinitum
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not a big fan of Hollywood biographies, but once in a while, I'll read one out of idle curiosity. My last excursion was William Shatner's autobiography and it was a delight. The man has had a far richer life than I would have imagined. Marlon Brando and Bob Dylan also penned interesting biographies describing their very interesting lives, both outer and inner.
I remember Tony Curtis from my youth as being a "pretty boy" who appeared mostly silly, forgettable movies, but also appeared in great films such as "Some Like It Hot", "The Defiant Ones" and "Spartacus".
So why not, I figured, and spent the very few hours this book requires to read.
It is, in a single word, awful. Or perhaps more to the point, Tony Curtis presents himself as a rather vapid person whose overriding interest was having sex with virtually every woman he met (even during the course of three marriages), essentially ignoring the children he fathered in each of those marriages (and then complaining that most of these children have strained relationships with him), who his "close" friends were and are (Sinatra, Brando and Hefner, of course, and oh so many others), what cars he drove and so on and forth till the cows come on.
Curtis is "oh, woe is me" from the first page on. His mom and dad were mean to him. He didn't have a lot of friends when he was a kid. He was sensitive to slights, real or imagined, because he was a (non-practicing) Jew. His wives didn't understand him. His children don't like him. When he was in his sixties, he no longer got movie parts. And on and on and on.
It is all about Tony Curtis, which would be fine if there was some depth of any kind to it, but there isn't.
The book is a chronological catalog of his sexual dalliances, his movies, his various marriages, his trips here and there, throwing barbs at mostly dead enemies and people who he feels didn't treat him right.
Overall, my conclusion is that Tony Curtis is a very shallow person who has spent his life feeling sorry for himself, still does, and used that as an excuse for the way he treated people, including his wives and children. Not a very nice person - and it is surprising to see that Curtis is arrogant and self-centered enough to believe people will want to read about his life.
About all that can be said in praise of this book is that co-author Peter Golenbock records this egotistical ramble in a readable style.
Jerry