
Miss May Does Not Exist
The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood's Hidden Genius
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $27.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Erin Bennett
-
By:
-
Carrie Courogen
As part of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, May revolutionized sketch comedy before striking out on her own to make history as the third woman to be admitted into the Directors Guild of America when she wrote, directed, and starred in 1971’s A New Leaf.
Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, May was one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters and script doctors and one of the only women directing within the studio system. After a box-office bomb, May never directed a feature again, though she continued to write films.
In 2018, she returned to Broadway, where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play for The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness, often working behind the scenes without credit. In the liner notes for her first comedy LP with Mike Nichols in 1958, her bio is a single terse sentence: “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of a creative powerhouse, a lost era of Hollywood, and the way women were mistreated and held back within it.
Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love, and frequently punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.
©2024 Carrie Courogen (P)2024 Dreamscape MediaListeners also enjoyed...




















People who viewed this also viewed...


















Very good
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
And therein lies the problem with this book. It takes no critical eye. Worse, the author cannot get the stars out of her eyes. Everything Elaine May does is great. If it isn't great--Ishtar, for example--the author raises a rousing defense that the cost of a movie and/or its commercial success should not be barometer of a film's value or success. That precious few of the movies--if any--that Elaine May directed enjoyed either needs to be looked at objectively, not pollyanna-ish as the author does here. By failing any semblence of objectivity (apparently May can do no wrong), she undercuts the creative force May was in so many other areas.
Even May's well-known and maybe well deserved reputation as a script doctor needs more scrutiny. Many of her script-doctored scripts were movies directed by Mike Nichols. It does May no disservice that she worked better as a team with Nichols than she did independently (which is blatently obvious to even the most casual observer), but the author doesn't touch that. If she had, it would mean conceding that May wasn't flawlessly brilliant constantly.
In retrospect, the influence Elaine May had on entertainment, television, the theater, and Hollywood is unquestionable. Maybe another book will be written with a more cooler assessment--which will give Elaine May the true credit she richly deserves.
It would sure make this book better.
A Rose-Colored Apologia for Elaine May
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Miss May indeed exists
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The sadness of genius
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great Talent With Author's Agenda Interfering Some
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Since I like to listen to the audiobook as I read along, I was even more excited when @erinbennettnarrates’s voice came across my laptop/phone again. She’s my favorite narrator and her voice feels like a dear old friend. It felt good to sip some tea and catch up!!🥰 THANK YOU, Carrie & Erin for this marvelous work… and Thank you to Elaine May, Hollywood’s hidden genius and one of my Sheroes! ✨🎬✍🏼
P.S: This book NEEDS to be adapted into a documentary film! HBO better be calling you soon, Carrie!!! (I’m serious) let’s get this made! 🫶🏼
THE DEFINITIVE!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Genius missing in action.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My inspiration since I was 8 years old
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.