Tallulah!: The Life and Times of a Leading Lady

by Joel Lobenthal

Book Overview

Outrageous, outspoken, and uninhibited, Tallulah Bankhead was an actress known as much for her vices -- cocaine, alcohol, hysterical tirades, and scandalous affairs with both men and women -- as she was for her winning performances on stage. In 1917, a fifteen-year-old Bankhead boldly left her established Alabama political family and fled to New York City to sate her relentless need for attention and become a star. Five years later, she crossed...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060394358
• ISBN13: 9780060394356
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: It Books
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 2.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The artist in context

She's been dead for nearly 40 years and she's still controversial. There were certainly bigger stars, but there was one Tallulah. In my childhood I remember her as a deep-voiced woman who carried a long cigarette holder and called everyone "dahling." I had no idea that she had at one time been considered a great actress. She originated two of the great roles of the 20th Century American theatre: Regina in Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES and the Sabina in Thorton Wilder's THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH. She received the New York Film Critics Award as Best Actress for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT. Opinon was always divided on whether she was truly a great actress or merely a strong charismatic personality. Her professional achievements were overwhelmed by an oversized caricature of herself she popularized on radio. Rumors of her offstage behavior did not help matters. There have been several other biographies of Tallulah since her death. They have tended to focus on the sensational aspects of her life. Joel Lobenthal has subtitled his book, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A LEADING LADY. He examines the life of the artist and the context in which she lived and worked. This is a detailed work. He gives synopses of every play Bankhead ever appeared in and lets us know how critics, public and co-workers assessed her performances. He does not neglect the seamier side of Tallulah's life. Her alcoholism, drug usage, exhibitionism, numerous sexual escapades with members of both sexes are all recounted, often in more detail than previously reported. But the main focus is on the artist. Lobenthal has great respect for his subject's artistry, and that is very refreshing. The detail of this book may bore some people, but for those with a strong interest in the English speaking theatre of the 20th Century, this book will prove informative and provocative.

A Book For The Ages

Joel Lobenthal's book is a remarkable feat. He has rescued Tallulah Bankhead from her fans. I can't understand the horrid reviews this book has gotten from others on the site. I found his work utterly compelling and a vast improvement on every other book I've seen (all of which I've enjoyed by the way). It's just that Lobenthal has done something no other biographer has attempted-he has gone back and attempted to recreate the actual performances that she gave, by various means, including locating fellow castmates, some of them of extreme age but all of them with amazing, never before heard memories and anecdotes. They build up a picture of Bankhead as being the exact opposite of the coke-addled personality-driven dilettante we have been used to for a long, long time. And Lobenthal's research has deep roots! He worked on this project for close to 30 years, and it shows. He seems to know everything about Bankhead, but about American and British theater throughout the 20th century. Plus, he has persuaded his witnesses to spill all the beans and you'll find things out in this book which you never imagined about all of your favorite actors, writers and directors. What a roller coaster ride Bankhead had for a career. Things looked pretty bleak for her by the mid 1930s and then in rapid succession she landed a series of parts which put her once again in the thick of the theatrical action and even returned her to movies. As Regina Giddens in Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES, she brought her Southern gentility into play, and got out the claws. As Lily Sabina in Thornton Wilder's THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH, she brought European expressionism onto the Broadway stage during World War II. Philip Barry's FOOLISH NOTION, though not a commercial success, was an amazing dream play in which Bankhead's character imagined herself acting out alternative scenarios a la Pirandello. She made a personal success out of Noel Coward's PRIVATE LIVES, eclipsing the memories of Gertrude Lawrence and replacing them with a raw wit that attracted many gay fans. These fans, who stuck with her thick and thin, responded to something about her-both her emotional fragility and her perdurability. When she came to play Blanche in STREETCAR for Jean Dalrymple, in the 1950s, this claque dismayed her by hooting and carrying on as though they were watching Dame Edna. Bankhead's attempts at shading Blanche with vulnerability founding purchase in the wall of knowing laughter that greeted her every speech. Soon we will have the first DVD of LIFEBOAT, a propitious moment for those of us who, intrigued by Lobenthal's account of her acting, want to see it first hand. (We also have the late products FANATIC-a/k/a DIE! DIE! MY DARLING! and the animated THE DAYDREAMER, for which Bankhead provided a character voice.) Let's get those early Paramount films available, and A ROYAL SCANDAL, and number one on my want list MAIN STREET TO BROADWAY, in which she apparently plays herself, a

Divine, darling!

This superb book is not your average Tallu-as-one-liner biography. The author is serious about bringing out the human being, but he also doesn't shy from the delightful dastardly Tallu that lives through memory and legend. His investigations yield exciting clues to the woman behind the bravado, but the information is not presented as apologetic. I found Lobenthal's tone and approach to his compelling subject to be neighter judgemental nor 'icon-izing.' I loved his presentation of the plays she was in. Remember, some were not published for the public, presenting them revives a bygone day in theater history. And they conveyed the times, the sensibilities, in which Tallu was living. I read them as a sort of backdrop, although they also served the purpose of conveying her professional range. This is a rich and layered read about a woman who has often been reduced to stereotypes -- marvellous ones yes, but two-dimensional nonetheless. This book shows how much more daring and destructive and determined and divine she actually was. All the naughty fun of Tallulah here, but it's part of the complex and sophisticated mix of an actual person. Lobenthal has given a great gift to Tallulah lovers and theater lovers and to the grand dame herself.

Loved it

Sexy, funny and extremely well researched. A pleasure to read, this is both a rollicking tale of a tough, talented temptress and an education in theatre from the twenties to the fifties.