It Took Nine Tailors

by Adolphe Menjou, M.M. Musselman

Autobiography of actor Adolphe Menjou—the consummate elegant Frenchman of the screen, but a native of Cleveland, Ohio in reality.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Media Tie In

238 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1948

Reviews

[Estott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining. A typical "as told to" autobiography of the era- everything is very smooth and positive. The chapters on Menjou's youth and his rise in the profession are the best, the later chapters have (as another poster has noted) too much golf. This book was undoubtedly published to help Menjou's reputation during the McCarthy era, of which there is not the slightest mention.

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superficial, but certainly a very fun read. Some interesting info on being a dress extra and bit part player at Vitagraph and other studios. Too much about golf. Very entertaining, but you don’t learn much about Menjou. Doesn’t mention politics or trash Chaplin.

[Samantha Glasser]

Read this book for free through the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/stream/ittooknine...

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the day of Menjou, this would have been four stars, but I'm giving it five for the retrospective insight it gives the reader into the evolution of film production, from the east coast to the west coast. Cleveland-born Menjou was the son of a French restaurant entrepreneur and his Galway wife; our little Adolphe learned quickly to adapt to changing circumstances and leverage his position into victory. A raconteur of sartorial splendour, Menjou seems to have timed his book's 1948 release to coincide with his controversial decision to "rat" on fellow troupers at HUAC. His HUAC "outings" of colleagues as "Communists" was in serious opposition to those who seem to have ended up on the "right side of history", but in the short term resulted in many blacklistings and aborted careers. Notwithstanding all of that unsaid drama, Menjou's hearty storytelling talent is in full sway, with tidbits about his contemporaries, and stories that reveal the essence of the mayhem that was motion pictures in the very early days. This book is freely available through the Internet Archive.