Book Review: The Voice of Villainy: The Betty Lou Gerson Story
Gerson was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Tennessee in 1914. Bailey does a nice job reconstructing the Gerson family history, as well as placing it in a wider historical context. She was able to collect an impressive amount of information on family events which took place over a century ago.
Betty's father became a successful, well-off industrialist, and she had a comfortable upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama, but the family was rocked by his sudden death just as she entered her teens.
As a young woman living in Chicago, Betty took acting classes and in fairly short order became a radio actress in the 1930s. She moved to Hollywood in the '40s, working steadily not only in radio but movies and television. At one point she was appearing in nearly a dozen radio shows per week, as well as in occasional small roles in films like UNDERCOVER GIRL (1950).Gerson was a steady working actress who was constantly busy yet never became a household name...but her most famous role, Cruella, certainly did!
Betty Lou Gerson died in Los Angeles in 1999, a few days after suffering a stroke. She was 84.
Bailey tells Gerson's life story in a fast-paced and interesting volume. The book seems to be very well-researched; Bailey describes some of her sources, such as recorded interviews and family remembrances, in general terms in the opening author's note.The biographical section of the book is 121 pages, followed by lengthy lists of Gerson's impressive performance credits; the total page count is 222. There are no photographs.
I enjoyed THE VOICE OF VILLAINY and learned quite a bit about the actress behind the iconic character. As a result of reading this book I'm likely to seek out the author's other books in the future.
Thanks to the author for providing a review copy of this book.
Tweet
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home