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Tallulah Bankhead: A Scandalous Life
Marlene Dietrich called her 'The most immoral woman who ever lived', Cecil Beaton described her as a 'wicked archangel' . Born in Alabama in 1903, she became a big star in London in the early 1920's. Branded 'an unsafe and unsavory person' by the Hays commission in the early 1930's. In this highly entertaining book David Bret tells Tallulah's story in the only way it could be with shocking honesty and wit. What emerges is a vivid portrait of an immoral and wicked woman who was every inch a star and remains one of the greatest legends this century has ever seen.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
278 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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271 people want to read
About the author
David Bret
183 books14 followersDavid Bret is a French-born British author of showbiz biographies. He chiefly writes on the private life of film stars and singers.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 21, 2018
The word fabulous is overused, but Tallulah's life really was something like a fable. Her public persona was indeed scintillatingly scandalous, but her private life was even more so! Wicked wit, hedonism, compassion, charm, addiction, and prima donna theatrics are all to be found and in great abundance. I'd have preferred fewer details and more bon mots, but this is still an entertaining read.
September 11, 2007
well i've been given so many books on this topic i had to go ahead and read one of them. and she is a fascinating woman. if you forget that there was just as much booze, drugs and sex in years past as nowadays this book is a good reminder.
October 13, 2012
I first became interested in Tallulah Bankhead when some friends of mine told me I sounded like her. Still not too sure if that was a compliment. After reading about her I became fascinated by this great actress and her incredible life.
November 13, 2009
AMAZING. Interesting life, scandalous without seeming too morbirdly obsessed with her life.
August 20, 2022
Why did I select this book? First, I like and have read a few books about this era and show business: “There’s no business-like show business like no business I know”. Secondly, it broadened my interest in the famous Algonquin “Round Table” group and their own outrageous behavior. Columnist Dorothy Parker was the Queen of this group, and she was an interesting personality, as well as being as bizarre as Tallulah Bankhead. Third, and I hope least, it depicts a scandalous life! Tallulah was considered by many as “The most immoral woman who ever lived”.
Our author specializes in biographies of show business personalities. This book is typical of that genre, and name dropping is the normal and sensational style of these biographies. They are Like the tabloids, with headlines and pictures meant to arouse the viewer’s interest. Bret does not disappoint with his name dropping, every actor of the era is mentioned.
There are no footnotes in this book, therefore the ability to check sources is impossible. A statement by the author jumped out at me and based on my previous readings, it seemed incorrect. Our author states, “Tallulah got to know Winston Churchill. She was driven to his house in Westerham, where over dinner he surprised her by confessing that he had had an affair with Ethel Barrymore when she had appeared on the London stage.” It seems to me that all the great biographers of Winston Churchill most have missed this, or our current author is wrong!
The biographies of Churchill and even of his wife Clementine have never mentioned a sexual affair by Churchill. He was even considered by some to be asexual. He did stay many times at Coco Chanel’s home on the Rivera and even her biographer did not mention a floundering Winnie. He went to the Rivera in his usual role as a freeloader, enjoying the food and drink and doing some painting. Recent research from a 2018 article in “The Sunday Times of London” stated that his gal pal was Doris Castlerosse, the “promiscuous’’ great-aunt of model and actress Cara Delevingne. The article went on to say, “He was not highly sexed, and I don’t think he ever slipped up, except this once”. Things written in scandal sheets must be based on primary evidence, or they become scandalous lies particularly when the parties in question are long departed, so what are we to think of Bret’s unsubstantiated comment?
The book is full of hyperbole and sensationalism, it seems that all the males are bisexual, including “Duke” Wayne, say it ain’t so, John! This charge is amusing considering his iconic masculine image, again no footnotes! As You read page after page of hyperbole this reader wonders if all the crude language, nudity and drugs are just some kind of inside joke among the rich and famous? But it does prove the point that scandalous behavior sells newspapers, magazines and tickets to movies and plays.
After about one hundred pages of repetitious stories of Tallulah’s vulgar language, nudity and misbehavior, I began to like her! Unlike most of her contemporaries, she was not a manic depressive. Her life was her choice to be the outrageous Tallulah. She had the intellectual capacity to perfect her craft, she was among the elite women actors of her era. She produced and directed plays. She stepped up in politics to support her candidates and mingled in the highest political circles with the likes of Harry Truman, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and on the English side, Lord Beaverbrook. Tallulah had a soft heart; she gave many a fellow actor a helping hand in their time of need. She supported the war effort and raised millions of dollars though fund raising. She was smart enough to amass a few million dollars for retirement. Tallulah was not your typical dumb blond who is manipulated by others, she was her own woman, and I liked that about her. There was more to Tallulah then the portrayal of an out-of-control alcohol and drug infused manic depressive; to the authors credit he tried to illustrate her virtues. But Tallulah did her best to mask her real self behind a mask of outrageous behavior. If you like the tabloid approach to show business biography, you will like this book.
Our author specializes in biographies of show business personalities. This book is typical of that genre, and name dropping is the normal and sensational style of these biographies. They are Like the tabloids, with headlines and pictures meant to arouse the viewer’s interest. Bret does not disappoint with his name dropping, every actor of the era is mentioned.
There are no footnotes in this book, therefore the ability to check sources is impossible. A statement by the author jumped out at me and based on my previous readings, it seemed incorrect. Our author states, “Tallulah got to know Winston Churchill. She was driven to his house in Westerham, where over dinner he surprised her by confessing that he had had an affair with Ethel Barrymore when she had appeared on the London stage.” It seems to me that all the great biographers of Winston Churchill most have missed this, or our current author is wrong!
The biographies of Churchill and even of his wife Clementine have never mentioned a sexual affair by Churchill. He was even considered by some to be asexual. He did stay many times at Coco Chanel’s home on the Rivera and even her biographer did not mention a floundering Winnie. He went to the Rivera in his usual role as a freeloader, enjoying the food and drink and doing some painting. Recent research from a 2018 article in “The Sunday Times of London” stated that his gal pal was Doris Castlerosse, the “promiscuous’’ great-aunt of model and actress Cara Delevingne. The article went on to say, “He was not highly sexed, and I don’t think he ever slipped up, except this once”. Things written in scandal sheets must be based on primary evidence, or they become scandalous lies particularly when the parties in question are long departed, so what are we to think of Bret’s unsubstantiated comment?
The book is full of hyperbole and sensationalism, it seems that all the males are bisexual, including “Duke” Wayne, say it ain’t so, John! This charge is amusing considering his iconic masculine image, again no footnotes! As You read page after page of hyperbole this reader wonders if all the crude language, nudity and drugs are just some kind of inside joke among the rich and famous? But it does prove the point that scandalous behavior sells newspapers, magazines and tickets to movies and plays.
After about one hundred pages of repetitious stories of Tallulah’s vulgar language, nudity and misbehavior, I began to like her! Unlike most of her contemporaries, she was not a manic depressive. Her life was her choice to be the outrageous Tallulah. She had the intellectual capacity to perfect her craft, she was among the elite women actors of her era. She produced and directed plays. She stepped up in politics to support her candidates and mingled in the highest political circles with the likes of Harry Truman, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and on the English side, Lord Beaverbrook. Tallulah had a soft heart; she gave many a fellow actor a helping hand in their time of need. She supported the war effort and raised millions of dollars though fund raising. She was smart enough to amass a few million dollars for retirement. Tallulah was not your typical dumb blond who is manipulated by others, she was her own woman, and I liked that about her. There was more to Tallulah then the portrayal of an out-of-control alcohol and drug infused manic depressive; to the authors credit he tried to illustrate her virtues. But Tallulah did her best to mask her real self behind a mask of outrageous behavior. If you like the tabloid approach to show business biography, you will like this book.
March 2, 2008
A dreadful plodding prose style managed to diminish my glee in reading about the scandalous life of Tallulah Bankhead. It's exhaustive how many anecdotes were crammed into one biography to poor effect. Other readers have questioned the author's fact checking.
November 16, 2024
Tallulah Bankhead was a major entertainment personality throughout the early-to-mid 20th century and yet is barely remembered today. David Bret’s biography, ‘Tallulah Bankhead: a Scandalous Life’ is a frantic, searing portrait of a southern belle gone rogue. Defying the rules of the time which defined a woman’s behaviour and societies customs, Tallulah broke them all with her loud individuality fuelled by a lifetime of excessive sex, drugs, and alcohol. Despite appearing in numerous movies and countless stage roles she proved impossible to manage and vitriolic in her attitudes. Such a character certainly makes for an entertaining biography, although the subjects’ outrageous behaviour does become somewhat tiresome and repetitive as she deteriorates from being the life of the party to the scorn of those around her. David Bret writes with an exhaustive pace and narrative which ultimates wears out the reader. But Tallulah Bankhead was an original and should be remembered, if only through this adequate biography.
June 30, 2021
** 3 stars **
This biography of Tallulah Bankhead was interesting only because Tallulah herself was a larger-than-life and over-the-top character about whom many amusing and shocking anecdotes are recounted. Bret's writing style left much to be desired for me, although it did improve in the latter half to third of the book. For the most part, Bret presents Tallulah's life in a very matter-of-fact way, which for me did not do justice to her highly volatile emotions, intelligence, and razor-sharp wit. Still glad I read this, though, but I would only recommend it for serious fans of Miss Bankhead. I will press on in my quest for a biography that does Tallulah justice!
This biography of Tallulah Bankhead was interesting only because Tallulah herself was a larger-than-life and over-the-top character about whom many amusing and shocking anecdotes are recounted. Bret's writing style left much to be desired for me, although it did improve in the latter half to third of the book. For the most part, Bret presents Tallulah's life in a very matter-of-fact way, which for me did not do justice to her highly volatile emotions, intelligence, and razor-sharp wit. Still glad I read this, though, but I would only recommend it for serious fans of Miss Bankhead. I will press on in my quest for a biography that does Tallulah justice!
September 21, 2023
There haven't been many people like Tallulah Bankhead. Someone who lived their life with so much passion and recklessnes while giving absolutely ZERO f*cks about what anyone thinks is a truly rare and truly admirable trait. I don't think I'll find another celebrity who can inspire such great quantities of dislike and admiration in you simultaneously very soon!
Until next time dahling! 👄
Until next time dahling! 👄
January 27, 2022
OMG....how many times can you tell us Tallulah answered the door naked, was bi-sexual, smoked and drank too much, hooked on opioids, said "dahling" all the time.....eveor, every play had the stars, director, writer listed....shoot me now - BUT I am no quitter....TEDIOUS....
August 4, 2016
It starts as another gossipy and trashy biog but half way its tone and topic shifts dramatically to a much more appealing and interersting reading. Not just scandals and other (un)true factoids, rumours which you feel are overconstrued sometimes, the second half utilizes diverse narratives to paint the character more as a personality acress than a junkie/drunk star.
Her wit, humour and excitement for life do transpire more towards the mid section of the book.
Some episodes are so intimate and reported word by word that I still question whether these really happened or were just related and embellished unnaturally or even made up.
I exploded with laughter so many times that it made me forget some of the negative aspects of this tale.
This is probably the 5th and counting (auto)biog read about her. This one is probably the most concise but not terribly complete of all. I was happy not to have read as first but hope it won't be the last.
Her wit, humour and excitement for life do transpire more towards the mid section of the book.
Some episodes are so intimate and reported word by word that I still question whether these really happened or were just related and embellished unnaturally or even made up.
I exploded with laughter so many times that it made me forget some of the negative aspects of this tale.
This is probably the 5th and counting (auto)biog read about her. This one is probably the most concise but not terribly complete of all. I was happy not to have read as first but hope it won't be the last.
August 21, 2016
I knew Tallulah solely from her scadalous quotes and a few hostile reviews, so I assumed she was a mediocre actress who survived on notoriety alone. It turns that this is not true. Some of her performances were positive triumphs. I also assumed she was completely selfish. This is not true either: she was a loyal friend and stood up for blacks, servants, refugees and other unfortunates. She had her share of hates, but no prejudices. She did indeed love to shock people and seldom wore panties. Her speciality was opening the front door in the nude. And of course she had numerous affairs with both men and women and often with several at once. But here she was simply doing openly what most of her colleagues were doing in secret. As a result, she avoided the lies and blackmail that dogged so many other actors and actresses of the day. Altogether she was a much more interesting person than I knew.
October 3, 2014
The only complaint I have about David Bret's biography is a dearth of photographs ... Tallulah Bankhead was so photogenic, iconic, and outrageous, it would have been nice to compliment this chatty chronicle with more visual bling. Sort of definitive account of TB's many mind-blowing exploits here and abroad.
February 10, 2014
fascinating and riveting capture of a true gusto-woman -- really liberating - a lady who had some fun and adventure -
November 27, 2016
What a character, would have been a gift to reality to. So bearing that in mind I found this rather a pedestrian read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews