Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming

Myrna Loy's ravishingly witty portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man movies of the 30s and 40s elevated her to near-icon status as the wife every man wanted and every woman wanted to be: she created one of the most loved and timelessly entertaining characters in film history and became, herself, one of the most popular Hollywood actresses of her time. A poll of twenty million fans crowned her Queen of the Movies. Now, with candor and warmth, this most private of stars takes us from the Montana of her girlhood to her beginnings in the Hollywood of the 20s, and beyond. We follow her from silents to sound as her career is catapulted, in 1934, into high orbit by the first of six Thin Man movies she made with William Powell ... she perceptively profiles Rudolph Valentino, who discovered her, and the other legends with whom she worked, played, and formed lasting friendships. With the onset of WW II she develops the activist in herself while working for the Red Cross and carrying on a long-distance mutual infatuation with FDR. Over the years she would support the UN, fight Joseph McCarthy, and serve on civil rights commissions. She participates in presidential campaigns and works with Truman, Dean Acheson, and Eleanor Roosevelt -- and shares with us her astute perceptions of them all. We see her career enter a new phase, as she moves to more mature roles with unusual grace and success; and she gamely tries television and theater at a time of life when most performers would be content to rest on their laurels. Interspersed with Loy's lively and revealing narrative are the words of friends from her childhood and youth as well as reminiscences by colleagues such as William Powell ("The smartest thing I ever did was to marry Myrna Loy on the screen"), Cary Grant, and many others. What emerges from this book -- a personal account as direct as it is entertaining -- is the portrait of a talented, spirited, indomitable woman: in other words, the real Myrna Loy.