The Girl From Missouri

by John Spahn, Olga Shirnina (Illustrator)

For more than eighty-five years actress Jean Harlow has been portrayed on screen and off as the legendary, one-dimensional, charming, dumb blonde tramp of the 1930s. This is how she is remembered. Anyone that knows her story knows this. This is the stereotype perpetuated by her biographers, none of whom read the back-story, or heard the Siren's song.

Miss Harlow did not outlive her reputation, but she did repudiate the bad publicity that inspired it before her sudden and unexpected death at age twenty-six.

Her story is told in hundreds of personal interviews, forty-five motion pictures, dozens of radio broadcasts, articles she wrote on various subjects, her posthumously published novel, and hundreds of records and documents in MGM studio files.

Topics she discussed are as timely today as they were eighty-five years ago and family, men, love, marriage, divorce, suicide, education, money, fashion, make-up, diet, exercise, publicity, fan mail, public figures, movie stars, and motion pictures.

The Girl From Missouri is the autobiographical story of a girl who longed for love in a marital relationship, and who really wanted to be a writer not a movie star. The story portrays the actress as a real person, and chronicles her struggle to experience love in marriage, and her desire to become a fine actress and writer.

And it is a story about Missouri values, and how those values, instilled in her at a young age by her parents and grandparents, particularly her grandfather, enabled her to survive the sham of Hollywood.

Cover My dearest love to my grandad-the man I love best in all the whole world- Harlean (Jean Harlow)

Genres: Biography

584 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2016

Reviews

[Strawberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of confusion about this book! It is listed as a work of “creative nonfiction”, and if I understand correctly this means that the author went through all of the articles that Jean wrote, personal interviews she gave, records and documents kept by MGM, etc. that had been squirreled away in the attic of the head of MGM’s publicity still department, and presented her words, her story, in a way that would read coherently and like a fiction novel in order to keep the readers’ interest. This took him YEARS to complete, but they are all Jean’s words. That being said, I’m kind of torn on how I feel about this book. There are some wonderful moments, like anytime she describes time spent with Clark Gable (it was a brother/sister relationship that would last up until her death), and the time she went to Hearst Castle for The Chief’s birthday (it’s a bizarre story). Then there are some dull moments, like whole chapters devoted to fashion, makeup, diets, and that platinum hair (she complained about her hair typecasting her the same way another blonde bombshell- one who idolized Jean so much when she was a kid that she told classmates she was named after her- would two decades later). But mostly, it was heartbreaking. It’s a horrible feeling to read about someone’s hopes and dreams for the future when you know they’re not going to live long enough to achieve any of them. So definitely keep this in mind if you are considering giving this book a read. Otherwise, it is a (mostly) fascinating look at one of Hollywood’s most misunderstood actresses.

[Susan Kokomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Girl From Missouri

A wonderful insight into the life of Jean Harlow,
In her own words too, and some history of the times in which she lived.

[carmilla poe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yuck did not like it boring very uninteresting would have liked more facts instead of the fille............,................................................... ...........................................................................................................................rs

Did not like it was too many words not enough fact very boring in my opinion could not hold my attention

[Susan Molloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this was interesting, I am not sure how true to the facts this book is. At best, this was an entertaining read, if not altogether factual. It was a good filler during my lunch breaks at work.

🟣 Kindle.