Betty Lee

Well done bio of 1930's film star Marie Dressler. The book relies not only on some autobiographies for which Dressler supplied information but also on an unpublished memoir of one of her companions. The book goes through the ups and downs of Dressler's life on the stage and then her transition to films. She was sharing a room in the servant's quarters of a hotel with a friend when her amazing film career was re-invigorated by her role in 1930's Anna Christie. She belonged to the MGM stable of stars including the glamorous Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and others and certainly didn't fit the MGM mold but ended up being one of their top money makers for the few years she had left. The book provides a complete filmography.… (mere)