So Far, So Good: A Memoir

by Burgess Meredith

The actor discusses his stage career in the 1920s, his film career, Hollywood parties, his blacklisting during the communist witch hunts of the 1950s, and anecdotes about Lauren Bacall, Jeff Bridges, Charlie Chaplin, Jimmy Stewart, and others. 40,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Film, Biography

Hardcover

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed radio, theater, film, and television.

Meredith was well known for his portrayal of the Penguin in the television series Batman from 1966 to 1968 and in the 1966 film based on the TV series.

Meredith also performed voice-over work. He provided the narration for the war film A Walk in the Sun (1945). As a nod to his longtime association with the original Twilight Zone series, he served as narrator for the 1983 film. He was also a TV commercial voice for numerous high profile clients.

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior to reading this memoir - published a scant 3 years before his death at age 89 - the most I knew about Burgess Meredith was from seeing him in the role of the Penguin in the Batman TV series during my school days back in the 1970s; the role he reprised in the TV movie Tail Gunner Joe as the lawyer Joe Welch, who during the televised Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954, helped bring down the demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy whose reckless anti-Communist crusade ruined the careers and lives of many innocent people; and an episode from the TV series The Twilight Zone in which he was a henpecked bookworm who finds himself the survivor of an apocalyptic catastrophe, contemplating suicide until he chances upon the ruins of a library. I saw him solely as an actor who managed to have a long career in both film and television. One of those character actors many of us recognize, but when pressed, couldn't say their names.


Not so. There was much more to Burgess Meredith than meets the eye. He comes across in the memoir as very honest about himself and his life experiences. He came from a troubled home in OH. His father, a doctor, was an alcoholic who abused Meredith's mother (whom he adored) who abandoned the family and went on to live in Canada. As a boy, Meredith (who was found to have talent as a singer) would earn admission to 2 prestigious schools and later attend Amherst before going on to study acting with Eva Le Gallienne through her repertory company in New York (one of Meredith's classmates was John Garfield), which served as a springboard for Meredith finding stage work on Broadway (where he honed his talent and earned a few rave reviews from theater critics) and Hollywood.


I was also fascinated to learn about the many notable personages (in film, theater, and through his hobbies) with whom Meredith came into a contact. Examples: Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Elia Kazan, Ingrid Bergman, the composer Kurt Weill, the playwright Maxwell Anderson, Franchot Tone, Hedy Lamarr, John Huston, James Thurber, John Steinbeck, Alexander Calder (the conceptual artist), Paulette Goddard (who would become one of Meredith's 4 wives), Zero Mostel, Carroll O'Connor, Jeff Bridges, and the war correspondent Ernie Pyle (whom Meredith met during his World War II service as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force; Pyle was later killed in the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945).


What's more: besides acting, Meredith was also a director (stage and screen), a licensed pilot, an owner of horses whom he raised and raced, and a deeply contemplative man about life and the world as he came to know it. I very much enjoyed getting this rounder view of Burgess Meredith. His life was diverse and fascinating. He was a man of deep passions who once went broke, and, at various stages of his life, underwent psychiatric counselling. And through it all, he never lost his zest for LIFE.


Frankly, I'm at a loss as to why other Goodreads reviewers of this memoir decry Meredith's name-dropping. Geez! Surely, the reason why most of us read memoirs from famous people is out of an overweening curiosity (many of us have) to find out how many other notables figured prominently in the lives of the memoirists!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actor, director, and apparently unsung Don Juan, Burgess Meredith has written a sprightly autobiography heavy on anecdote and portraiture (of his friends and colleagues) and light on both the art and detail of his remarkable career. There are funny stories abounding and memorable depictions of his circle of acquaintance (including John Steinbeck, James Thurber, and Zero Mostel). Those looking for in-depth analyses of the crafts of acting and directing will not find much here. Nor will those hoping for details on the creation of Meredith's many films. Only a comparative handful are mentioned, and a scant few of those in any depth. He writes at some length about his breakout film, WINTERSET (the play version of which he had also starred in), but has barely ten words for his much-better remembered film from the same period, OF MICE AND MEN. There are paragraphs about ROCKY and DAY OF THE LOCUST, but an entire chapter devoted to a disastrous film called THE YIN AND YANG OF MR. GO. Meredith writes in an extremely pleasant style and seems not to hold very many grudges. He writes with pleasure of his friends and even most of his several wives (most prominently, Paulette Goddard). The book is a very enjoyable experience, but it hasn't the depth to please thoroughly anyone who yearns for deeper insights into the man or his career.

[Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading about Burgess Meredith and his life experiences. Much of the book is about his professional career that happened before my time so I wasn't familiar with the people in, but it was interesting reading for historical value.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoy Burgess Meredith's acting when he comes on screen. His memoir, however, is a bit disjointed and focuses on the timelines of his interactions with people rather than the timeline of his life, suggesting he wasn't quite the captain of his own ship but was satisfied to drift along wherever the current took him. That's okay, no judgment here, I still found his perspective interesting.

[Zach Koenig · Rating 1 out of 5]

Burgess Meredith was one of the finest actors to ever grace the screen or stage--there is absolutely no disputing that. Alas, this memoir is an absolute mess from beginning to end.

Perhaps auto-bios were more like this in the 1990s, or perhaps Meredith just didn't quite know how to get his thoughts down in print form, but "So Far, So Good" is almost un-readable as a career narrative. The main problem? It breaks one of the cardinal rules of nonfiction writing, which is that one can't just recite life experiences without trying to relate them at least in some way to the reader. Here, Meredith structures his memoir via his experiences with other stage and screen luminaries--many somewhat obscure (though maybe less so at publication date?) from his stage days in the 1930s-1950s. There is no common thread or arc to follow--just Burgess rambling on about his relationships with important people in his life but likely completely unknown to the reader.

Meredith's tone is also quite odd in this tome. Much attention is given to the sexual orientations and practices of his fellow co-stars and friends--with an entire chapter devoted to a sort of wink-and-nod "I had affairs with all these beautiful women" connotations. In fact, the entirety of "So Far, So Good" is written in this manner. It feels less like real introspection and more Burgess playing another role in front of an audience (us readers)--that of a bawdy young man.

I struggled through the first 100-or-so pages of this book because of the respect I have for Meredith the actor--but after that I had to begin skimming. It certainly doesn't help that his most notable projects (at least from a public perspective) such as The Twilight Zone, Batman '66, & Rocky are given all of a few sentences here and there. Again, no disrespect to the man himself--but this is a failure of a memoir if ever one was produced.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot quite grasp or put my finger on it but, something is "off" with this author's writing. He weaves off into a kind of an attempt at lyrical poetic style writing which (to me) fails dismally. Then he begins to make sense again only to meander off once more. The actual stories are thin and lackluster. While a good actor, Burgess Meredith must have had a ghostwriter. who did not quite deliver.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting anecdotes about a lot of people, but toward the end he seemed to run out of steam and simply transcribed lengthy conversations he'd recorded between himself and John Huston, or a long letter from Jeff Bridges, or questions and answers at workshops. But the first three quarters of the book is pretty interesting.
He never even mentions "Time Enough at Last"!

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super memoir, of an under-rated actor. Who had a challenging life in more ways then one. From early Broadway success to movie stardom, he was a master of his craft.

[Q · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was disappointing. Perhaps I will sound like an ingrate or a simpleton saying this, but I wish he would’ve talked more about his specific experiences making his movies and Batman. Instead, he spent the majority of the book talking about how great of an actor he is and how great of actors and writers his friends are. Maybe I just don’t like celebrities and the self congratulatory nature of New York and Hollywood, but I definitely like him less now than I did before starting this memoir. Even so, I did learn that he was in some other movies I like, in addition to “Of Mice and Men” and the “Rocky” films which are some of my favorites.