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With Love, Mommie Dearest
The Making of an Unintentional Camp Classic
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Narrated by:
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Kim Niemi
About this listen
When she died in 1977, Joan Crawford was remembered as an icon of Hollywood's Golden Age—until publication the following year of her daughter's memoir, Mommie Dearest.
Christina Crawford's book was an immediate bestseller, addressing the infrequently discussed topic of child abuse.
When Paramount Pictures released the film, starring Faye Dunaway as Crawford, it was critically panned, and remains one of the most legendary critical bombs in film history. The lavish, big-screen adaptation drew unexpected laughter in the scenes depicting life in the Crawford household. Rarely have such good intentions been met with such ridicule.
Despite this, the movie was a commercial success and remains, four decades later, immensely popular. With Love, Mommie Dearest details the writing and selling of Christina's book and the aftermath of its publication, as well as the filming of the motion picture, whose backstage drama almost surpassed what was viewed onscreen in the film.
Based on new interviews with people connected to the book and the film, Hollywood historian A. Ashley Hoff explores the phenomenon, the camp, and the very real social issues addressed by the book and film.
©2024 A. Ashley Hoff; Foreword copyright 2024 by Bruce Vilanch (P)2024 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Dynamic traveling preacher Purlie Victorious Judson returns to his small Georgia town hoping to save Big Bethel, the community’s church, and emancipate the cotton pickers who work on oppressive Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee’s plantation. With the assistance of Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, in a Tony Award-winning performance by Kara Young, Purlie hopes to pry loose an inheritance due his long-lost cousin and use the money to restore his beloved church.
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What an Amazingly Powerful Portrayal of Black Southern Life - and Funny Too!
- By JStafford on 02-18-25
By: Ossie Davis
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The Story of Grunge
- By: Michael Stewart Foley, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Michael Stewart Foley
- Length: 3 hrs
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You can’t truly understand the last decade of the 20th century without a look at the muddy, electrifying rock music that would come to define it: grunge. For such a short-lived genre—at least in the mainstream—grunge had a lasting impact on American music and culture. It also provides a unique lens through which to examine the post-Reagan, pre-internet America of the 1990s. In the six lectures of The Story of Grunge, you’ll explore the rise and evolution of the genre, tracing it from Seattle subculture to MTV and the Billboard charts, all the way to its decline and evolution into new forms.
By: Michael Stewart Foley, and others
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A Streetcar Named Desire
- By: Tennessee Williams
- Narrated by: Carla Gugino, Audra McDonald
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
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With Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald as Blanche DuBois alongside Carla Gugino as Stella, O’Hara takes a fresh and visceral look at the emotionally charged relationship between these two iconic sisters. Haunted by her past, Blanche seeks refuge with Stella and Stanley (Ariel Shafir) in New Orleans, where she wrestles with the nature of her sister’s husband, her sister’s denial, and her own unraveling mind.
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Classic With Fresh Insight
- By Talia Shafir on 12-04-20
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Song of the Northwoods
- By: Jessica Huang
- Narrated by: Michele Selene Ang, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Emma Kikue, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
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After a betrayal at work costs Song Kuan her job, she retreats to her friend Lucy’s idyllic family cabin on a lake in Minnesota to lick her wounds. She devotes herself to recording Ice Cold Cases, a true-crime podcast that she and Lucy cohost with the gleeful energy of obsessed fans—until an anonymous tip about a missing-person case disrupts their equilibrium. Then Lucy disappears, leaving Song alone in an unfriendly and unfamiliar town where locals don’t take kindly to strangers asking questions.
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Asians in MN! I loved it. The vivid sounds of Northern Minnesota totally took me there, and I was hooked into the mystery.
- By Sheila Morris on 04-26-22
By: Jessica Huang
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Petty: The Biography
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise.
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Tom Petty gets some bio love
- By tru britty on 12-15-15
By: Warren Zanes
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Sorry for Your Loss
- By: Michael Cruz Kayne
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
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A sidesplitting, heartrending look at life—and death. This powerfully personal production, recorded live from the Minetta Lane Theatre, cuts through the platitudes, directly reaching out to anyone who has ever experienced loss—or will. So...everyone.
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A Must Listen for the Grieving
- By Chris on 09-25-23
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ABRIDGED VERSION BADLY NEEDED!
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On the eve the 20th century, in Thomas Edison’s laboratory, one of the earliest attempts at a sound film depicted two men dancing together as a third plays the violin. It’s only a few minutes long, but this cornerstone of early cinema captures a queer moment on film. It would not be the last. Hollywood Pride is a tale spanning from “pansy craze” of the 1930s to the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, all the way up to today.
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On a Thursday morning in May 1961, a well-mannered twenty-one-year-old named Marlene enters the Fifth Avenue apartment of Lee Radziwill to interview for the position of housekeeper and cook. The stylish wife of London-based Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, Princess Lee is intelligent and creative, with ambitions beyond simply jet-setting. But to the public, she is always First Lady Jackie Kennedy's little sister. As Marlene becomes a trusted presence in the Radziwill household, she observes the dazzling array of famous figures who flit in and out of Lee’s intimate circle
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Too Much Servant, Not Enough Truman and Lee
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From the outside, Hollywood starlet Lana Turner seemed to have it all—a thriving film career, a beautiful daughter, and the kind of fame and fortune that most people could only dream of. But when the famous femme fatale began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, thug for the infamous west coast mob boss Mickey Cohen, her personal life became violent and unpredictable. Lana's teenage daughter, Cheryl, watched her beloved mother's life deteriorate as Stompanato's intense jealousy took over.
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Not what you think…
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The Wall of Life
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With more than seventy years on the silver screen, Shirley MacLaine has, as she says, seen it all, done it all, been everywhere, and met everyone. Since making her Hollywood debut in 1955, her popularity has only grown as she’s amassed a stunning collection of awards and written multiple bestselling memoirs. Now, at ninety years old, MacLaine has more stories to tell and the pictures to bring them to life.
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Interesting but too short.
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By: Shirley Maclaine
What listeners say about With Love, Mommie Dearest
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A. Diozzi
- 06-16-24
AMAZING narrator for a wonderful book!
I have such a problem finding good stuff to listen to on my long commute. It's it's too "thinky", I can't follow it, but if it's too "lite" I get bored. This gem is everything you want on your commute, or when walking the dog, or when just relaxing at home with a tasty story. First, the narration. For me, it matters. With some books and podcasts, if the narrator is not skilled, I literally can't continue listening. Kim Niemi knocks it out the park with this delicious material, I mean, imagine having to say "No wire hangers.....EVER!" and "Tina, bring me the axe!" but not exactly try to imitate Faye imitating Joan. Ms. Niemi has figured it all out, and delivers the iconic lines with just a touch of Faye/Joan like the perfect amount of salt on your chips. Not too much, not too little, just right. Kim's voice is expressive without being over the top, and she uses inflection and a touch of an accent here and there so you're always sure who is being quoted. No easy feat, and something that I really need in the car so that I can follow what's going on. I'm in awe of the talent here.
But to the book. I'm at the perfect age to hear ALLLLL about the backstory of Mommy Dearest. One of the wackiest movies ever made, compelling, disturbing, hilarious, a guilty pleasure, a mixed bag of emotions and reactions, you won't be surprised that the backstory is juicy and jaw dropping. It also exposes all of us; what it means when we react to (what they hoped would be) serious material with gales of shocked laughter. This movie that had hoped to be some kind of serious exposé of the dark side of Hollywood, addiction, and child abuse became a camp classic with a Rocky Horror Picture Show vibe. If you want to know how that happened, what the intentions were, how Paramount changed their messaging to just roll with it, you've got to purchase this book immediately. If divas, backstage drama, Hollywood history and gossip, greed, ego, good intentions, and misguided direction are your thing, then you will never want this book to end.
A big BRAVA to Ms. Niemi and A. Ashley Hoff, Bruce Vilanch. Loved it!!
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- Richard Lopez
- 06-04-24
I am "wired' to this book!
This book is just plain fun. I grew up watching Mommie Dearest...and it is still one of my favorite movies. A true cult classic...camp at its best. This book is the perfect companion to the movie. Great inside stories, behind the scenes details and cutting room action. Each chapter is fun and fantastic. I loved hearing more about Mara Hobel and Diana Scarwid too.
If you love the movie...you will love this book. But...be warned...the book will give you the itch to watch the movie again.
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- Russ and fam
- 05-13-24
amazing storytelling
the book is so well written that I listened to the entire book all at one time. I've always loved behind closed doors Hollywood stories and this delivers. highly recommend to all
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- HSW
- 09-06-24
Narration is awful
I’m about halfway into this book and find I cringe more and more often at the narration style. We don’t need her to tell us Bette Davis is quoted as saying something…and then launch into a really poor and almost condescending imitation of Ms Davis. And using voice styling when mentioning what people have said in a manner other than own voice is distracting. Just speak the words. You’re not going to get an Oscar for this. I may not get through this book.
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- charlie tuna III
- 05-31-24
Starts out slow
Started out slow, increasing got better. Had some interesting thoughts and stories
Could definitely go much more in-depth.
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