I Just Kept Hoping - Hardcover

Stuart, Gloria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316815713 ISBN 13: 9780316815710

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 1999

Synopsis

One of Hollywood's most accomplished and long-lasting stars relates her experiences from her early film work and her marriage to a respected screenwriter to her triumphant return in "Titanic"

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

The elderly star of Titanic tells alland then some. Dropping names and dripping exclamation points, Stuart, the oldest person ever nominated for an Academy Award, gives herself the full diva treatment, with the help of her daughter, a cookbook and gardening author. Stuart takes us briefly through her Santa Monica (Calif.) youth and relives her days as a B-movie beauty who starred in a slew of forgettable films with titles like Laughter in Hell, along with such James Whale movies as The Invisible Man. It's not that Stuart has led a dull life; she was instrumental in organizing the Screen Actors Guild, and with her second husband, writer Arthur Sheekman, she moved in social circles that at various times included Humphrey Bogart, Dorothy Parker, Groucho Marx, and M.F.K. Fisher. But because her ego seems about as big as that doomed luxury liner, Stuart treats all of these potentially interesting subjects in a cursory manner and lavishes a great deal of attention on her own artistic impulseseverything from bonsai to painting to silk-screening. Sometimes she is unintentionally hilarious: ``Dead in the water. What to do? It was then that the art of decoupage came into my life.'' Other times, Stuart displays a childish need to shock, describing certain parts of her anatomy as a sixth-grade boy might and announcing (as though we had asked), ``I am devoted to masturbation.'' Surprisingly, apart from fawning over director James Cameron, Stuart has comparatively little to say about Titanic; she does reveal that someone once spiked the crew's clam chowder with angel dust. True to form, the author spends most of her time chronicling her return to celebrity and agonizing over whether she would receive the Oscar for her role as Old Rose. When Stuart looks back at her earlier films, she wonders, ``What had I done to deserve all this dreck?'' Those who pick up this book will likely ask themselves a similar question. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

Stuart was "just another" ice cream blonde who had appeared in mostly B-grade Hollywood movies in the 1930s and 1940sAuntil she was cast in her Oscar-nominated role as Old Rose in the phenomenally successful Titanic. Now the world wants to know more about the obscure origins of this feisty, free-spirited octogenarian. Here, she recounts her bohemian youth in California, her disenchantment with Hollywood, and her high jinks with friends such as Groucho Marx and Humphrey Bogart. While reading, one longs for a romantic, seemingly simpler age when leisurely steamship cruises to the Orient, such as that taken by Stuart and her second husband, were not unusual among a certain set. More recent vignettes are lackluster by comparison. Stuart claims that her life has essentially been a quest to "make her mark," which culminated with Titanic. This bookAa collection of musingsAstems from the author's new-found fame, without which it probably would not have been written. Recommended for general collections.AJayne Plymale, Univ. of Georgia, Athens
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0316815713
• ISBN 13: 9780316815710
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336