In Search of Donna Reed - Hardcover

Fultz, Jay

  • 3.75 out of 5 stars
    52 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780877456254: In Search of Donna Reed
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0877456259 ISBN 13: 9780877456254
Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr, 1998

Synopsis

Traces the life of the actress from her rural Iowa childhood to her stardom in film and television, to her later years

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About the Author

Jay Fultz has taught lm history at the University of Nebraska and published articles on James Agee. He was Bison Books editor at the University of Nebraska Press.

Reviews

"Donna Reed probably came closer than any other actress to being the archetypal sweetheart, wife and mother," asserts Fultz, in this workmanlike biography. Probably best known as Mary in It's a Wonderful Life, the Iowa-born Reed (1921-1986) embodied the "nice" girl and the "good" woman in most of her films, although she earned an Oscar for her portrayal as a (rather sanitized) prostitute in From Here to Eternity. When film roles dwindled in the late 1950s, Reed turned to television and, with her producer husband, Tony Owen, developed The Donna Reed Show, which became a solid hit and ran for eight years. With the Vietnam War escalating in the 1960s, Reed, long a staunch Republican, began to move closer to the political center; as the mother of two sons of draftable age, she was committed to the antiwar effort. Her return to TV in the 1970s was marred by her unhappiness over what she saw as slipshod TV production and, later, her bitterness over her unexplained firing from Dallas in 1985. It was her last role, as she died in January 1986 of pancreatic cancer. The prose is often awkward ("Donna's two sons would be fodder for the Viet maw" or "Social life resumed in Sunny Cal"), and Fultz's efforts to characterize Reed as a feminist seem somewhat arbitrary, although in later life she did become more politicized. But what comes through most clearly is the image of a traditional woman committed to familyAi.e., Donna Reed. (June) FYI: Fultz has served as editor of Univ. of Nebraska's Bison Books and was the primary source for A&E's Biography presentation of the life of Donna Reed.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Univ of Iowa Pr
Publication date
1998
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0877456259
ISBN 13 
9780877456254
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
236
Rating
  • 3.75 out of 5 stars
    52 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780877457725: In Search of Donna Reed

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0877457727 ISBN 13:  9780877457725
Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 2001
Softcover