Afbeelding van de auteur.

Marion Davies (1) (1897–1961)

Auteur van The Times We Had: Life with William Randolph Hearst

Voor andere auteurs genaamd Marion Davies, zie de verduidelijkingspagina.

1+ werk(en) 223 Leden 4 Besprekingen

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Fotografie: Marion Davies (1897-1961)
Portrait by Hamilton King for the
June 1920 cover of "Theatre Magazine"
(Randy Bryan Bigham Collection)

Werken van Marion Davies

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How much you like Marion Davies will probably determine the level of appeal this untypical autobiography will have on you. I’m a big fan of Marion, so it appealed to me a lot.

I didn’t rate it five stars because, at times, we hear so much about other people that Marion’s takes a back seat in her own autobiography. I hoped to read more about her acting career as opposed to Hearst’s newspapers and what he spends his money on.

This might be through her lack of self-belief. She frequently belittles her acting ability, her beauty, and so on, so maybe she felt her story would benefit if she concentrated on her travels and the people around her.

The pre-fame years are interesting. Shame she didn’t go more in-depth here, but then her memory was her only form of research. This is an important point. This isn’t a typical life story where facts are checked, people are interviewed, etc. Nor does it feature a strict chronology and exact dates are scarce. In fact, the first line is false – Marion states she was born in 1905 when she was really born on 3 January 1897! So, we have us an unreliable narrator.

Thankfully, whenever Marion states something that's not true (intentionally or unintentionally), the editor interjects and explains the correct circumstances. Likewise, he adds details whenever Marion is vague about an event or mentions a name without expanding on who the person is/was. Sometimes the editor includes too much detail, though, such as adding an extensive history about someone or some event that isn't vital to that person's/event's impact on Marion's life story.

The narrative reads like someone sitting at their home telling friends about what they’ve done during different phases of their life. It’s taken from recordings Marion made, making this the most conversational autobiography I’ve ever read. As someone who loves Marion Davies, this gives a great insight to what it would have been like to meet and talk with this beautiful classic actress.

Reading other reviews, I see some people have low opinions of Marion after reading this book. I can see where they’re coming from with some of Marion’s comments, like wishing she’d met Hitler, but this hardly means she approved of the man’s evil doings. Some people are fascinated by “sinners”, but it doesn’t make them one too. She did a lot of good in her life, such as donating to animal charities, plus she was kind-hearted and approachable.

Although this is not constructed like a regular autobiography or biography, other writers have covered Marion’s life story the “proper” way. I’ve yet to sample any, but they’re on my to-read list. So, if you want to read a standard history about Marion, try one of those. Only tackle this if you don’t mind something unconventional or if, like me, you’re a big fan of Marion.

I admit, normally I wouldn’t read a non-linear life story with insufficient research and an unreliable narrator, but “The Times We Had” felt like Marion was talking to me, which was great.

I couple of quotes I liked:

On Marion’s dying dog Gandhi, which she alone believed would recover:

“Gandhi had crapped again, and they saw it. I wish they hadn’t. Everybody gets diarrhea, and it doesn’t mean you’re going to die. If it did, I’d have been dead ten years ago.”

On why Charlie Chaplin never attended anyone’s parties:

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him, except that he’s a little cracked.”

Another quote, which I forgot to note down, regards Marion being late to one of Mary Pickford's (another of my favourite classic actresses) parties, held in honour of the King of Siam (I think it was Siam). On arriving, Marion is greeted at the door by Mary and a butler. She apologises to Mary for being late, hands the butler her coat, then dashes inside. Going in, she notices a disapproving look on Mary's face and assumes this was owing to her late arrival; however, she later finds out Mary's black look was because the man Marion assumed to be a butler was really the King of Siam.

The cover states that book includes “outrageous photos”. Can’t agree that any of them are outrageous, but many black and white photos are included throughout the book. On the downside, almost every shot is of poor quality, and none are of good quality. This might not be the case if you have the physical book – I borrowed this for free on the Internet Archive’s Open Library and read it online.

Therefore, the photos are scans from a book that may have been an original edition. In short, the black areas are too dark whilst the white areas are too bright. Only a few are relatively clear. As someone who admires Marion for her beauty as well as her acting skills (despite her self-criticism of both attributes!), this was disappointing.

Overall, though, “The Times We Had” is a pleasant and interesting read, and for me fascinating to “hear” Marion’s voice calling from across the years.
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PhilSyphe | 3 andere besprekingen | Jul 19, 2023 |
The subtitle is an accurate summation of Marion Davies's autobiography. The focus of the book is on her relationship and extravagant life with William Randolph Hearst, who she was clearly devoted to and ardently defending when she dictated what would become this book after her own death.

I read this hoping for more insights on her roles and life during the silent era; I was disappointed in that regard. Davies is largely dismissive of her own career. She is blunt in how she repeatedly describes herself as without talent or brains... and on the latter point, I have to say, she does come across as a complete ditz who was a cossetted mistress from her teens. During the Depression years, she jet-setted to Europe to engage in months in travel. She takes pride in that she enjoys washing dishes, and also makes snide remarks about Japanese people who tried to escape from a camp, saying she had seen their food menu for the camp and that they had nothing to complain about. (Excuse me?) But then, she also expresses how she desperately wanted to meet Hitler and felt snubbed when her plan went through; she wanted to meet him purely for bragging cred back in Hollywood. Really, Marion Davies comes across as a woman who would have excelled in our current influencer/selfie era.

While her personality was grating to read about, the book does provide interesting insights into the lives of the wealthy from the 1920s through the 1940s. W.R and Marion truly lived it up. There are entire chapters describing the various parties they took part in abroad and the ones they hosted at San Simeon, Wyntoon, and other estates. For my research needs, those might be useful insights.

My edition of the book is from the 1970s. It had pictures throughout, but of dismal quality. They printed as so dark it is hard to discern details in many of them.
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ladycato | 3 andere besprekingen | Sep 25, 2019 |
There are a great many biographies of William Randolph Hearst out there, but this volume is unusual, in that it's written by someone that intimately knew him, in more than one sense of the word. The memoirs by Marion Davies were quite obviously dictated, and dictated off the top of the head (there are a number of factual glitches that are corrected by the editors), but for all that, it gives the memoirs a sense of raw immediacy. Davies is surprisingly hard on herself, in terms of the assessment of her talent; she was by no means as lacking in talent as she makes herself out to be, and in some ways, the honesty of the memoirs (including tales that don't show her in the best light) does her credit. You actually get a sense of why Hearst loved her. Interestingly, my copy appears to have originally come from the Hearst Castle gift shop. One curious thing is that late in the book, Davies talks about another chapter naming villains -- which isn't there. Censored?… (meer)
 
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EricCostello | 3 andere besprekingen | Aug 30, 2019 |
Surprisingly engaging and candid life of a film starlet who was a companion to William Randolph Hearst. There's nothing scandalous about this and Marion Davies comes across as being really nice to know. It's a lovely little book. I don't know where the 160 outlandish photos were though. The ones in the book are rather ordinary.
 
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wrichard | 3 andere besprekingen | Apr 22, 2013 |

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Statistieken

Werken
1
Ook door
3
Leden
223
Populariteit
#100,550
Waardering
½ 3.6
Besprekingen
4
ISBNs
12

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