Featured Player: An Oral Autobiography of Mae Clarke

by James Curtis

Overview

To the American public, she will always be remembered as the woman who had a grapefruit ground into her face by James Cagney in the 1931 film classic Public Enemy. In fact, in an acting career that spanned nearly four decades, Mae Clarke appeared in nearly 100 feature films and logged in nearly as many television appearances.

During the two years before she died at the age of 82, Mae Clarke spent many hours reliving those years. In a series of candid and often poignant interviews, she talks about her years in Hollywood, her failed marriage, and her health problems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810830448
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/04/1996
Series:	The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series , #49
Pages:	334
Product dimensions:	5.78(w) x 8.72(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

James Curtis is the author of Between Flops, an acclaimed biography of Preston Sturges and A World of Gods and Monsters, the forthcoming biography of James Whale.

Editorial Reviews

...will give the reader a very good idea of what a sensible and intelligent young actress, with no nonsense about her and no exaggerated notion of her own importance, had to do to make her way in Hollywood.

Classic Images

...lively memoir that corrects our myopic vision of Clarke and her contribution to show business.

Past Times

Presents the result of conversations between writer James Curtis and Mae Clark (1910-1992), an actress who has the misfortune of being best known for a scene in which James Cagney grinds a grapefruit into her face, but whose talent and hard work in the acting business, in spite of personal misfortune, shine through. Includes an introduction by Curtis and b&w film stills. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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