Tallulah!: The Life and Times of a Leading Lady

In the golden age of American theater, no celestial body shone more dazzlingly than Tallulah Bankhead. Outrageous, outspoken, and totally uninhibited, she was an actress known as much for her offstage vices as for her onstage roles—the cocaine and alcohol, the blistering tirades, and her scandalous affairs with both men and women.

In Tallulah!, author Joel Lobenthal has captured the private essence of this most public of Broadway stars, the irrepressible diva who enjoyed intimate relationshi...