i am not a big fan of the author's especially after the book on grace kelly but her book on ava gardner was very engaging...she tells of some very interesting stories, especially the one of the time in africa when they were making mogambo and she lifted the natives cloth

Gable's Women is a wonderful book! It gives a real insight to the man. A must read for any fan!

Robert Taylor: The Man With the Perfect Face is a book that tells of Taylor's life, and it does a decent job. It published just four years after his death in 1969, and the author, Ms. Wayne, was able to meet him, so that lends credibility to her biography of this Hollywood heartthrob.

But the book doesn't go deep enough. It reads like a compilation of data, with little life added in. It paints Robert Taylor as almost a "goody two shoes."

Yet there was more to him, & I for one hope to read a book that uncovers and tells the truth about many other factions of his life. He WAS a good, solid family man. He had no shocking secrets. Yet he DID harbor demons, and this is the story Ms. Wayne should've told.

THE MAN WITH THE PERFECT FACE is the third release of the biography that Jane Ellen Wayne first released in 1973. The introduction is different and some of the pictures are different but it is the same book. Ms. Wayne showed a lot of respect and admiration for Mr. Taylor. Her book is very funny and at times very poignant. She quotes Mr. Taylor so often that at times it seems more like an autobiography. The book is never trashy or sleazy like some biographies. She doesn't waste time on rumor or heresay but only presents documented facts. She answers most of the questions that people have had about Mr. Taylor through the years and makes a point of showing his flaws and weaknesses as well as ALL of his well known assets. After reading the book one thinks of Mr. Taylor like a family member instead of a matinee idol. One gets a real insight into old Hollywood. I do not agree with Ms. Wayne's opinions of some of his films but other than that I applaud her for a job well done. The book is written with class and style.

I enjoyed Golden Girls of MGM very, very much. I consider it a Hollywood reference book. Although Jane Ellen Wayne has a humorous writing style at times, she gets her facts straight and documents the iives of Hollywood legends accurately. So much has been written about Lana Turner, Greta Garbo. Liz Taylor, etc., but Wayne comes up with facts that weren't previously known. For those who are not acquainted with the Golden Era, this book is an excellent chance to read about it. There's much to learn about MGM and the great LOuis B. Mayer and the star system. It's a very good read. I recommend it highly.

I am very impressed with this book. I am learning things in every chapter. I have read it several times - and haven't done this in ages - so I have decided to read every page. I was going to skip some chapters of stars I wasn't fond of, but found I was learning things about others in those chapters. I have read most of Jane Ellen Wayne's books and love her style. I think The Golden Girls of MGM is her best.

I am an avid fan of old films so I was delighted to find The Golden Girls of MGM in my book store. Though I knew a lot about MGM, I discovered a great deal more in Wayne's thick and delicious book. These beautfiful and talented actresses are a great study. Wayne dishes the dirt, but she sticks to the basics as well.The book is written in a breathless style. I will read it again and agin over the years so that I can relive those Golden years that were magical, but not forgotten, thanks to this book,

I didn't really like the book and the author seems to reiterate information from her different books into others. I had just borrowed the book from the library as well as the book on Grace Kelly and neither this or the book on Grace had any pictures to speak of and any author who cannot be resourceful enough to get pictures to include in the biography is lazy or did not try hard enough...others have been able to so why can't she? So you definitely can't say I am her biggest fan.

This biography is saddled with many flaws. It often reads like one of those silly romance novels one sees at the literature sections of such famous bookshops as Walmart, K-Mart, Walgreens and B.Daltons. It is filled with irrelevant gossip, much of it more suitable for a luncheon of late-middle aged hens rather than a serious biography. The author's interviews with Joan Crawford(one of Gable's many lovers) dominate too many sections of the bio; much of what Miss Crawford says is taken at face value with little to counter-balance her assertions. Most undefensible is the author's portrayal of intimate conversations as if she were there with a microphone and tape recorder. Many of the precise "conversations" alleged by the author were between two people long since dead. How would Jane Ellen Wayne know precise conversations between Louis B. Mayer and Clark Gable? Both have been dead for over thirty years. Did the author interview either man from beyond the grave? This technique of the author is most dishonest. However, this biography has some very good points. Gable's early life and rise are covered in great detail. The author's desriptions of the big studio milleu of pre-TV Hollywood are interesting. The author paints a thorough personality portrait of Gable- his calculated decisions, his high sex drive, his alcoholism, his love of the outdoors, his tight wallet. Gable's marriage to Carole Lombard is handled rather well. Oddly, the Gable-Lombard marriage reminds one of the marriage of the current First Couple in the White House, only Carole Lombard is better looking and much, much better humoured than Hillary R. Clinton and Clark Gable is much more manly than Bill Clinton. Clark Gable is worthy of a fine biography; Jane Ellen Wayne's is not it, however.

In reading this diatribe, I learned two things. First, Jane Ellen Wayne is in love with the memory of Robert Taylor. Secondly, Jane Ellen Wayne hates everything about Barbara Stanwyck. That's about all that this little book has to offer. I don't think I've ever read a more one-sided characature about anyone. I hope Miss Stanwyck never read this tripe. We'll probably never know what exactly happed between Stanwyck and Taylor in their marriage and maybe that's as it should be. To quote Miss Stanwyck, "The more you kick something that's dead, the more it stinks." Rest in peace Stany. I hope her ghost doesn't haunt me because I bought this book!

To evaluate this book, one must first know the one that preceeded it. Soon after Robert Taylor's death in 1969, Jane Ellen Wayne began writing an admiring biography of the actor. Her heart was obviously in her work. Her anti-Stanwyck bias was equally obvious. During the book's early chapters Wayne presents Stanwyck favorably, as befits the woman that Taylor was to fall in love with. But later on, as their marriage begins to crumble, Wayne attempts to justify Taylor's wandering eye by turning Barbara into the kind of woman with whom the reader can't sympathize.

Fourteen years later, on the heels Stanwyck's resurgence (an Honorary Oscar, and an Emmy for "The Thornbirds"), Wayne reached into her trunk and turned her Taylor biography into a STANWYCK biography ---- but in doing so (her animus now more profound than ever) she omitted whatlittle of value the first book contained. Furthermore, when drawing on material from other books, Wayne's tactics are stunning in their audacity. Here are just two examples: Wayne takes Frank Capra's affectionate story about meeting, working with, and falling in love with the young Stanwyck (as told in his autobiography "The Name Above the Title") and systematically deletes everything except his first NEGATIVE impression. Then there's the story (from Ella Smith's excellent "Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck") told by a witness to Barbara's first screen-test (which was sabotaged by a vindictive cameraman whose advances she had rejected). Here, Wayne has STANWYCK appear to be telling the story, which not only makes it sound self-serving but also allows Wayne to omit the gentleman's other admiring remarks. This is the kind of book for which the term "hatchet-job" was invented.

IN SHORT: THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF VALUE IN THIS BOOK.

A definitive biography of Lana Turner has yet to be written. Wayne has read Turner's memoirs and those of her daughter Cheryl Crane and Turner's ex-secretary to produce this trifle. The book is not sourced, there is no original research, and the result is a rehash of old info. Wayne even relies on supermarket tabloids for details she includes about Turner's final illness. A few pages of grainy snapshots of Turner round out this meager effort. Save your money.

There are many wonderful and interesting books on Marilyn Monroe out there,including in ( ),so why pick this one?It is not particularly good at all.It talks about Marilyn's many relationships,affairs,marriages and stripping in a bar for 20 dollars.There is not much of interest and even the writing is not particularly fantastic.I read it because I like marilyn,but really this one is just pages of uninteresting drivel.