Consider Your Ass Kissed

by Ruta Lee

"Consider Your Ass Kissed"




By Ruta Lee




Ruta Lee's memoir, entitled "Consider Your Ass Kissed" (released through Briton Publishing), is a treasure trove of wonderful personal stories and anecdotes with rare first-hand and authentic memories of the entertainment industry. 




  - Her starring roles in films such as "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" to 'Funny Face" "Bullet for a Badman" "Witness for the Prosecution" "Sergeants 3"




  - Ruta has worked with Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, James Garner, Johnny Carson, Fred Astaire, Robin Williams, Howard Keel, Bob Crane, Frank Sinatra, and the rest of the Rat Pack, the list goes on!




 - The iconic ladies she called friends are, Rona Barrett, Phyllis Diller, Julie Newmar, Lucille Ball, Sally Fields, Gypsy Rose Lee (no relation) and her best friend and founder of Thalians, Debbie Reynolds.




 - During Ruta's film career, she launched into television success with over 2000 appearances on shows from Perry Mason to Power Rangers, Twilight Zone to Murder She Wrote, Hogan's Heroes to Love Boat, Roseanne and auditioned for the role of Ginger on Gilligan's Island.

 

 - The Thalians, founders Debbie Reynolds, and Ruta were the Leading Ladies of "Hollywood for Mental Health" raising millions for The Thalians Mental Health Center, with star-studded events.




 Now The Thalians are working with UCLA's "Operation Mend" for the mental health of returning disabled Veterans. The Thalians honored Ruta Lee for her dedication to mental health. She joined the ranks of previous honorees, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Mary Tyler Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Lansbury, and Clint Eastwood, to name just a few.




 - During Ruta's thriving film career, she launched into television success with over 2000 appearances, starring and guest-starring in shows like Perry Mason, George Burns & Gracie Allen Show, Andy Griffith Show, Dragnet, Peter Gun, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Marcus Welby MD, Twilight Zone, Ironside, The Flying Nun, Hogan's Heroes, Mork & Mindy, Benson, The Love Boat, Roseanne, Days of Our Lives and, of course, 77 Sunset Strip, The Lucy Show, and even auditioned for the role of Ginger on Gilligan's Island.

251 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 5, 2022

Reviews

[Penny Peck · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this funny memoir, actress Ruta Lee recounts the major events of her life. Even though she isn't an "A list" star, she knew many of them, and devoted her life to charity work with the Thalians. The book has many editorial flaws (typos, etc.) but if you ignore that, it is a fun read. She talks about the films she made, including SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, her many TV appearances, and her stage performances as well as her personal life. A quick read and insight into the 50's, 60's, and 70's actress and her friends.

[Russell Sanders · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a teen, I saw Ruta Lee perform many, many times at the Ft. Worth, Texas, theater, Casa Manana Musicals. She was a delight, and she became a Ft. Worth treasure. Recently, I saw an interview with her. She was promoting this book, her autobiography, Consider Your Ass Kissed! She was so delightful in the interview that I was compelled to purchase the book. Sadly, in that interview, she told the two best stories in this book, a book that is woefully spare on actual stories. It is mostly a series of name-droppings, with Lee not dong much more than telling us how much she liked this or that celebrity. A seemingly endless section is on leading men. In that section, she names a movie or TV episode she was in and basically tells who was in it, most of the time simply telling us how wonderful the guy was to know. I feel firmly Lee would be fun to sit and chat with, but this book leaves a lot to be desired. I suspected it was transcribed from her talking into a tape recorder, and the final pages confirm that, as she thanks a friend for taping and transcribing her words. But a woman who has had such a storied career deserves so much more than that. This is a woman who was in the original film cast of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a woman who has hosted many TV game shows, a woman who has performed in plays and musicals throughout the country, a woman who has listed, in an appendix, hundreds of TV episodes she appeared in, and finally, a woman who—with Debbie Reynolds—ran a successful charity, The Thalians. Had a “ghostwriter” been employed, one who could coax more depth of out of Lee’s ramblings and one who could have structured the book into more readable prose, Ruta Lee’s life would have been a story that entertained and not been reduced to “And then I met….” Ruta Lee is now “up in years.” We can sometimes forgive our grandparents or aunts or uncles or elderly cousins for their lack of sensitivity as they relate stories. But this is a woman who is head of a world-famous charity and a woman who has lived a life filled with all types of people. I truly can’t forgive her terminology when she speaks of transsexuals (rather than transgenders) or when she more often uses euphemisms for stars who we know were gay. I also was quite offended she found it important to let us know—when describing a robbery—that the assailant was Black, a fact that had absolutely nothing to do with the occurrence. She was simply robbed at gunpoint, and there was no reason whatsoever to tell the robber’s skin color in order to describe the experience. But what truly offended me the most was the lack of editing of the book. It was published by a publisher whose website touts their professional editing. But this book is rife with misspelled words—“pizazz” instead of “pizzazz,” “guardian angle” instead of “guardian angel,” and many, many other words plus celebrity names misspelled as well. Also, there are typos galore! Finally, it was as if, upon first-reading of the manuscript, someone said, “Hey, I heard of this thing called a comma. Let’s throw some in.” I swear commas were just thrown in willy-nilly. Often, while reading, I had to re-read a sentence so I could either mentally insert or remove a misplaced or missing comma in order to glean the meaning. Ruta Lee is a wonderful woman. I have no doubt about that. She is bundle of talent, and it appears many, many people love her. She deserves a biography much better than this.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining memoir. Lee seems to have enjoyed her life. She didn't have the biggest career, but she found her niche in the guest star/game show circuit mixed with some theater work. Her dedication to the Thalians is quite admirable. I could have done without the "kids these days are so self-centered" bit. Just because they don't want to help your charity doesn't mean they are uncharitable. The book could have used a bit more editing (she confused Jameson Parker and Parker Stevenson which should have been caught).

[Howard Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deliciously wicked and charmingly honest thru 3/4ths of the book. The end is a bit of name dropping and too quick a wrap-up for my taste.