One More Time

Carol Burnett spent most of her childhood in a Depression-scarred Hollywood neighborhood, where she lived in a single-room apartment with her endearingly batty grandmother, Nanny, a hypochondriacal Christian Scientist with a buried past. The child of two alcoholic parents, Burnett presents a sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking coming-of-age: from her sadly hopeful mother, who was hooked on Tinseltown fantasy, to the first signs of her own comic gift; from happy weekends spent with her father, to their last tragic meeting in a public sanatorium.

Featuring a new Afterword by the author, about teaming up with her daughter to bring this story to Broadway, One More Time is an intimate, touching, and astonishing narrative of a financially desperate but emotionally rich childhood on the wrong side of Hollywood’s tracks.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

YA Carol Burnett's memoir is like the woman herself: humorous, earthy, and honest. Written as an extended letter to her three daughters so that they could come to know her parents and the grandmother who raised her, she constructs with painful clarity a picture of her impoverished childhood. Her parents were both alcoholics, and she was left in the care of her eccentric grandmother, who loved her intensely. Teens will sympathize with her loneliness and feelings of rejection at glamorous Hollywood High, where she felt ``Stupid. Dumb. Outnumbered. Overwhelmed. Little. Insignificant.'' Aspiring young actors and actresses will follow with interest her attempts to define her talent and find success first at UCLA and later in New York. Even though readers know that she will be a star, there is a feeling of great satisfaction as she acquires increasingly important roles. YAs need not be fans of Carol Burnett's popular television show to appreciate her compassion and wit. Rosemary Smith, Albright Middle School , Houston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Burnett's frank, moving account of growing up in squalor has the air of a bestseller. At 53, the popular performer looks back at the years of poverty and insecurity of her Hollywood childhood, sharing a one-room apartment with her maternal grandmother, Nanny. Burnett's parents were divorced, and both were alcoholics. Readers feel the deep love with which she recalls her father, mother and Nanny (a woman endearing despite her conniving and other terrible traits). In an unforgettable scene, Burnett describes her mother going alone to a hospital to bear her illegitimate daughter Chrissie, who is Burnett's best friend. This memoir is a Cinderella tale by a woman stronger than her family and perhaps luckier. She built a career with grit and a little help from friends she thanks in her zesty story. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to Ladies' Home Journal; Literary Guild dual main selection; author tour.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This could be more accurately called Carol Burnett: the early years. The story ends in 1960 with Burnett finding fame and fortune in New York on the Garry Moore TV show. For the most part one is swept up in Burnett's account of her confused and often messy childhood. She was brought up mainly by her colorful grandmother, who fought incessantly with Carol's mother, who was in turn at odds with her alcoholic husband. Their living conditions in the early years were deplorable, and yet through all the suffering there were many touching and loving moments. The accounts of family bickering have a tendency to become tedious as the story meanders along. One assumes that a sequel is being planned. Literary Guild dual main selection. Samuel Simons, Memorial Hall Lib., Andover, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.