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Everything and Nothing : The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy
The autobiography of Dorothy Dandridge, Hollywood's first Black sex symbol and first Black best actress Oscar-nominee, examines her early life, slow rise to stardom, and swift decline. The book was completed shortly after her tragic death at the age of 42 in 1965 of a drug overdose. Dorothy Dandridge's life story is the stuff Hollywood dreams--and nightmares. Everything and Nothing recounts her rags-to-riches-to-rags story form her personal point of view. Dandridge recalls her humble beginnings in Depression-era Cleveland, Ohio, her rise to fame and success as the first African American to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination (for her role in Carmen Jones), the disappointments and pain of her childhood and family life, and her downward spiral into alcoholism and financial troubles, Everything and Nothing is a mesmerizing and harrowing journey through the life and times of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable stars.
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 17, 2014
I have always been curious as to the story of Dorothy Dandridge. Her unmistakable beauty, both her acting and singing abilities, I wanted to know more about this talented lady and her life. As I read her story in her words I learned of her heartbreaking misfortunes.
Dandridge faced racism and sexism in her personal and professional life. A woman objectified, seen as a trophy and nothing more through the eyes of men. A woman desiring a husband and a family, never finding sincerity with her male interactions. Yearning to love and to be loved, always falling short. Her childhood was turbulent, raised by a struggling single mother. Extended family physically abusive, an estranged father’s presence after she became well known. Two failed marriages, a special needs child, bankruptcy, declining career, homelessness, this woman survived it all…barely. She took ownership of her mistakes, nonetheless they left her fractured. The emotional and mental carnage draining her of her sense of self, Dandridge starts slipping. Worn out, penniless. Her sudden death a surprise to all, was it by her own hand or was it natural causes? I investigated further and it was determined her death was ruled natural causes.
A beautiful woman possessing talent overcome by loneliness, wanting and needing love, however it remained forever elusive. A woman defeated, a casualty of life. Such a sad, sad story of a woman bearing grace and unlimited potential. I asked myself if Dandridge had been born in this era would her life have been different or would her undeniable beauty be her curse, her cross to bear? The woman and her story is so compelling, it leaves the reader asking various ‘what if’ questions.
I’m not one known to be ‘star struck,’ given her beauty combined with her best known for being the first black actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1954 film Carmen Jones, naturally my curiosity piqued requiring me to learn more of this memorable woman.
Dandridge faced racism and sexism in her personal and professional life. A woman objectified, seen as a trophy and nothing more through the eyes of men. A woman desiring a husband and a family, never finding sincerity with her male interactions. Yearning to love and to be loved, always falling short. Her childhood was turbulent, raised by a struggling single mother. Extended family physically abusive, an estranged father’s presence after she became well known. Two failed marriages, a special needs child, bankruptcy, declining career, homelessness, this woman survived it all…barely. She took ownership of her mistakes, nonetheless they left her fractured. The emotional and mental carnage draining her of her sense of self, Dandridge starts slipping. Worn out, penniless. Her sudden death a surprise to all, was it by her own hand or was it natural causes? I investigated further and it was determined her death was ruled natural causes.
A beautiful woman possessing talent overcome by loneliness, wanting and needing love, however it remained forever elusive. A woman defeated, a casualty of life. Such a sad, sad story of a woman bearing grace and unlimited potential. I asked myself if Dandridge had been born in this era would her life have been different or would her undeniable beauty be her curse, her cross to bear? The woman and her story is so compelling, it leaves the reader asking various ‘what if’ questions.
I’m not one known to be ‘star struck,’ given her beauty combined with her best known for being the first black actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1954 film Carmen Jones, naturally my curiosity piqued requiring me to learn more of this memorable woman.
June 11, 2008
I was really sadden to read all the stuff that Dorothy has been through in her life.
January 8, 2009
This is the 2nd book I read on DD. The first being Earl Mills book. Read it when I was in high school. Checked it out from DPD.
Since this is an autobiography you feel so much closer to her reading this.
Finding out about her diet, personal relationship to daughter and the abuse she received from her Aunt and so much more.
Although many that were close to her said she was heavy on prescription pills and alcohol while doing this book, I still find it valid.
Since this is an autobiography you feel so much closer to her reading this.
Finding out about her diet, personal relationship to daughter and the abuse she received from her Aunt and so much more.
Although many that were close to her said she was heavy on prescription pills and alcohol while doing this book, I still find it valid.
October 28, 2013
Dorothy Dandridge revealed how some people choice of self destruction was drugs or alcohol, hers were white men. Seems like men in her life never treated her as the movie star the world got to see. True to form story of the star never able to find true love and settling for unscrupulous men who used her vulnerability of low self esteem masked in big Hollywood stardom.
March 11, 2012
I truly enjoyed hearing about things from her perspective. This is one of the first autobiographies I read as a young adult. I think I'd have been a lot slower in finding out about Ms. Dandridge, if it hadn't been for my paternal grandmother.
Read
March 7, 2014I have a special place in my heart for Dorothy. This book is like the other three I own in that it forces you to focus on her personal life more than her contributions to the acting world.
June 20, 2018
A magnificent, candid memoir...a great lay, very sensitive, talented, world famous, but naive in certain ways. A work that can bring tears to one's eyes
June 28, 2025
4.5 ☆
i finished reading this, closed the book and cried. my heart hurts for a woman i never met. dorothy dandridge is a woman whose story deserves to be heard. most importantly, her story deserves to be heard from dorothy herself. i truly believe she wrote this book with the intent of being a cautionary tale.
though she received praise and recognition in her life, she doesn’t receive such in her death. especially in comparison to comparable women of her time. of course, she is often referred to as “the black marilyn monroe” but even other women of color of the time such as josephine baker or lena horne are more widely known and discussed. ‘everything and nothing’ is such an important book because it’s written from the source. you read her triumphs and trials, her highs and lows. most importantly, you read it from a foundation of humility, grace, authenticity and honesty.
dorothy is what i would call an “imperfect victim” and you have to read this book being fully aware of that fact. she makes questionable choices (frequently!) and while we get some insight into why (less than favorable childhood, low self esteem, self worth rooted entirely in her race etc) there were so many moments when i just wish dorothy had a support system.
maybe... more than needing a support system what dorothy needed was to follow her mind rather than her heart. a stand out decision dorothy made (that actually frustrated me greatly) was her spending two chapters discussing how she was physically abused as a child by a family friend (perhaps aunt?) and yet dorothy made the choice to leave her non-verbal child with this woman. i was in shock. her daughter, lynn, has no formal diagnosis given in the book, but due to the time is referred to as r*tarded. she mentally and developmentally could never grow past the age of 7. it was incredibly hard to read about dorothy feeling like a failure about her daughter and her disgusting husband at the time made the experience no better.
dorothy was a major pioneer in moving black creatives and performers forward in america. she was allowed in buildings poc weren’t allowed in. she was performing in a style more familiar to white audiences. she was nominated for major awards that black women had never been nominated for. she loved to push the envelope of race relations and, more importantly, show a different side to black women that america wasn’t used to seeing.
so much of this book was about dorothy’s personal stories- mostly about love and career. very little about family, her daughter, or much else. even her personal antidotes about acting were quite somber and far and few between. it’s clear that she was a beautiful woman with a tragic story and a woman who suffered tremendously with self esteem issues. so much of her worth came from public perception and her ability to be marriage worthy. dorothy fiercely thought that being hell bent on marrying a white man was perhaps a losing battle, but that she needed the respectability that came with that marriage.
apparently, dorothy died shortly after writing this book which makes the final chapter especially heart breaking to read. i believe she knew what was to come. her body was giving up on her, she was drinking more, dependency to painkillers and mood stabilizers was near, her money was gone, her child was gone. it was all quite devastating to read.
reading about dorothy dandrige was a beautiful experience. this was a woman so highly intelligent, but cursed with a naivety that was her downfall. she couldn’t stand herself despite being so well loved. reading the inner musings of a woman so talented and beautiful just to read that she was an ordinary woman going through hardships was humbling, but powerful. i think it’s apt to end this review with the final paragraph of dorothy’s autoiography:
tw/cw: abandonment, ableism, addiction, anxiety, cheating, child abuse, depression, gaslighting, racism, sexual assault of a child (dorothy's aunt checked for dorothy's virginity by inserting fingers into her vagina), suicidal thoughts
i finished reading this, closed the book and cried. my heart hurts for a woman i never met. dorothy dandridge is a woman whose story deserves to be heard. most importantly, her story deserves to be heard from dorothy herself. i truly believe she wrote this book with the intent of being a cautionary tale.
though she received praise and recognition in her life, she doesn’t receive such in her death. especially in comparison to comparable women of her time. of course, she is often referred to as “the black marilyn monroe” but even other women of color of the time such as josephine baker or lena horne are more widely known and discussed. ‘everything and nothing’ is such an important book because it’s written from the source. you read her triumphs and trials, her highs and lows. most importantly, you read it from a foundation of humility, grace, authenticity and honesty.
dorothy is what i would call an “imperfect victim” and you have to read this book being fully aware of that fact. she makes questionable choices (frequently!) and while we get some insight into why (less than favorable childhood, low self esteem, self worth rooted entirely in her race etc) there were so many moments when i just wish dorothy had a support system.
One Sunday late in 1964, as I prepared to do this book and held the contract in my hands, I telephoned some friends to break the news. Much to my astonishment they said, "What, an auto-biography? Who are you to do an autobiography? What have you accomplished? If you tell your story, you’ll set Negro womanhood back a hundred years. You make a damned poor image of a Negro woman. You will do us no good. Nothing in your career has any meaning for the Group." As I listened I wanted to die. .. to hear my friends tell me that they viewed me and my career as meaningless trash.
maybe... more than needing a support system what dorothy needed was to follow her mind rather than her heart. a stand out decision dorothy made (that actually frustrated me greatly) was her spending two chapters discussing how she was physically abused as a child by a family friend (perhaps aunt?) and yet dorothy made the choice to leave her non-verbal child with this woman. i was in shock. her daughter, lynn, has no formal diagnosis given in the book, but due to the time is referred to as r*tarded. she mentally and developmentally could never grow past the age of 7. it was incredibly hard to read about dorothy feeling like a failure about her daughter and her disgusting husband at the time made the experience no better.
dorothy was a major pioneer in moving black creatives and performers forward in america. she was allowed in buildings poc weren’t allowed in. she was performing in a style more familiar to white audiences. she was nominated for major awards that black women had never been nominated for. she loved to push the envelope of race relations and, more importantly, show a different side to black women that america wasn’t used to seeing.
“In our country there is a great deal of fretting over imagined differences between white men and women and Negro men and women. All of this stems from the simple fact that much normal contact between the two groups is illegal, has been illegal for centuries. This lack of knowledge of each other has bred ignorance, fear, fantasy, and a cultivated genre of lies and untruths. If you hold people apart by force and law, it is inevitable that they invent fallacies about each other. I was in some position to lean this simple truth.”
so much of this book was about dorothy’s personal stories- mostly about love and career. very little about family, her daughter, or much else. even her personal antidotes about acting were quite somber and far and few between. it’s clear that she was a beautiful woman with a tragic story and a woman who suffered tremendously with self esteem issues. so much of her worth came from public perception and her ability to be marriage worthy. dorothy fiercely thought that being hell bent on marrying a white man was perhaps a losing battle, but that she needed the respectability that came with that marriage.
“In the last analysis what this society denied me was what it denies most women of color, perhaps all: simple respectability. If my story means anything, it means that the white millions still have to grant that simple and cost-less right to black women.”
apparently, dorothy died shortly after writing this book which makes the final chapter especially heart breaking to read. i believe she knew what was to come. her body was giving up on her, she was drinking more, dependency to painkillers and mood stabilizers was near, her money was gone, her child was gone. it was all quite devastating to read.
“Finally when friends, physicians, and lawyers managed to convey to them that I was sick and broke beyond repair, they put my case in the dead file. Dead file. How true.”
reading about dorothy dandrige was a beautiful experience. this was a woman so highly intelligent, but cursed with a naivety that was her downfall. she couldn’t stand herself despite being so well loved. reading the inner musings of a woman so talented and beautiful just to read that she was an ordinary woman going through hardships was humbling, but powerful. i think it’s apt to end this review with the final paragraph of dorothy’s autoiography:
I am weary now as any river that ever flowed: the disasters, the mistakes, the fortune made and misplaced, the lovers held and lost. What do you do when you are still young, and, so they say, still beautiful, and nothing much has meaning except to stay, to last, to hold on, to carry on regardless each day, wondering sometimes what for. Then what do you do? Why, of course, you pray. As Dunbar put it in his stanzas called "A Prayer":
O Lord, the hard-won miles Have worn my stumbling feet;
O soothe me with Thy smiles, And make my life complete.
The thorns were thick and keen
Where'er I trembling trod;
The way was long between
My wounded feet and God.
Where healing waters flow
Do Thou my footsteps lead.
My heart is aching so
Thy gracious balm I need.
tw/cw: abandonment, ableism, addiction, anxiety, cheating, child abuse, depression, gaslighting, racism, sexual assault of a child (dorothy's aunt checked for dorothy's virginity by inserting fingers into her vagina), suicidal thoughts
January 4, 2025
I first heard about Dorothy Dandridge back in the 1980’s and I finally saw the movie Carmen Jones. I was instantly impressed by her performance and was always curious about her. Reading this book gives such great insight into her life and struggles. If you are a fan, I highly recommend me reading this book. If you are simply a history buff, once again this is a great read.
November 26, 2020
Not a literary masterpiece but Dorothy Dandridge was a fantastic woman, so . . .
March 3, 2021
Emotionally drained.
August 28, 2022
I just know I read this sometime in June and I didn’t read the whole thing because I was only out to read a bit and quite frankly it started to bore me but it was an interesting read nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews