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Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams
Vintage TV series tie-in paperback
151 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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April 6, 2019
So, reading this was really to get an outsiders perspective on Penny Marshall’s and Cindy Williams’ memoirs. The “real story” if you will, as the truth usually lies somewhere between one side of the story and the other.
The slight problem is this book was written in the 70s while the first season of Laverne & Shirley was on the air. Therefore it can only tell the blended story up to that point.
What I will say, as far as the details of how the girls came to the show and their motivations for joining the cast, they’re more consistent with Penny’s account of things than Cindy’s. However, this book makes it seem like neither girl really wanted to do the initial Happy Days roles when in both their memoirs they said they were excited to do it since it was just supposed to be a one show spot and some quick cash, which they both needed at the time. One contradiction between this and Cindy’s memoir is that she didn’t want to do Laverne & Shirley initially because it would hurt her movie career. Penny said this in her memoir as well because back in the day people didn’t do all the things (movies, TV, commercials, etc.) and normally stuck to one area. But in Cindy’s memoir she says that she didn’t want to take it initially because she was committed to a writing project on which she and Penny had teamed up. Both could be true, but that was just an inconsistency.
Another thing I found really really odd was how nervous, anxious, and shrinking violet Penny seemed to be in this book. If that was true, those facets of her personality were not revealed in her own memoir, or at least not THE main focus of it. Yes, she said she hated watching herself on screen and that she didn’t like her looks, but that’s all this book seemed to focus on. In this characterization of Penny, someone might as well have been talking about me: totally insecure about everything she does, hates her looks, likes to sleep in, hates beer because it makes her sick, most comfortable in jeans and tees, would prefer staying home and doing crafts and puzzles with her daughter and husband than going out on the town, and just generally being nervous - even when things are good - that the other shoe is bound to drop at any moment. However, she was in her 30s in the 70s and wrote her memoir at 70 something. Your memories and personality change over time, so perhaps at 30 this was how she acted but became more confident and outspoken the older she got.
All in all, interesting read but the writing was very 70s gossip mag despite having actual interviews with the girls and their costars. The tone was a bit sensationalized but I think at the time that was probably the selling point.
The slight problem is this book was written in the 70s while the first season of Laverne & Shirley was on the air. Therefore it can only tell the blended story up to that point.
What I will say, as far as the details of how the girls came to the show and their motivations for joining the cast, they’re more consistent with Penny’s account of things than Cindy’s. However, this book makes it seem like neither girl really wanted to do the initial Happy Days roles when in both their memoirs they said they were excited to do it since it was just supposed to be a one show spot and some quick cash, which they both needed at the time. One contradiction between this and Cindy’s memoir is that she didn’t want to do Laverne & Shirley initially because it would hurt her movie career. Penny said this in her memoir as well because back in the day people didn’t do all the things (movies, TV, commercials, etc.) and normally stuck to one area. But in Cindy’s memoir she says that she didn’t want to take it initially because she was committed to a writing project on which she and Penny had teamed up. Both could be true, but that was just an inconsistency.
Another thing I found really really odd was how nervous, anxious, and shrinking violet Penny seemed to be in this book. If that was true, those facets of her personality were not revealed in her own memoir, or at least not THE main focus of it. Yes, she said she hated watching herself on screen and that she didn’t like her looks, but that’s all this book seemed to focus on. In this characterization of Penny, someone might as well have been talking about me: totally insecure about everything she does, hates her looks, likes to sleep in, hates beer because it makes her sick, most comfortable in jeans and tees, would prefer staying home and doing crafts and puzzles with her daughter and husband than going out on the town, and just generally being nervous - even when things are good - that the other shoe is bound to drop at any moment. However, she was in her 30s in the 70s and wrote her memoir at 70 something. Your memories and personality change over time, so perhaps at 30 this was how she acted but became more confident and outspoken the older she got.
All in all, interesting read but the writing was very 70s gossip mag despite having actual interviews with the girls and their costars. The tone was a bit sensationalized but I think at the time that was probably the selling point.
Displaying 1 of 1 review