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Eric Woodard, Gloria Swanson, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Stephen Michael Shearer
It’s hard to believe that two years have passed since Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed was published. I feel immensely proud to have been part of bringing her unjustly neglected legacy back to the spotlight, and will be eternally grateful to my writing partner, Eric M. Woodard, for giving me that opportunity. Last night I was thrilled to find an Amazon review from author Stephen Michael Shearer, who has produced acclaimed biographies of Hedy Lamarr and Patricia Neal, as well as silent movie superstar Gloria Swanson, who as readers may recall also played a scene-stealing role in Jeanne’s story (starring as Sadie Thompson in the first big-screen Rain.) Belated thanks to Stephen for a fair and generous assessment of our book – and if you’ve read it, please consider doing likewise and sharing a review on Amazon, Goodreads and the blogosphere.
Why this book is important is because no other biography has been written about this gifted, yet tragically doomed actress, except a quickly pieced together tome, THE RAIN GIRL, in 1930. And it is huge disappointment. In JEANNE EAGELS: A LIFE REVEALED (BearManor Media, 2016) the two authors have sifted through innumerable articles, newspaper and magazine pieces, interviews, etc. to at least logically chronicle Eagels’ life and career. Their research, to this reader, sparkles and shines….the kind of meat one likes with this rich meal of a book.
This book is needed for its rich theatre context. Who wants to read about a long-forgotten, beautiful stage actress, tragically dead before her time (due to booze, drugs, sinus infection, broken heart, or whatever) who was a dramatic sensation in the annals of theatre history known for one truly defining stage role….a remarkable, mesmerizing actress who in her first talking picture earned the highest of cinema recognition? Well, I for one DO want to know more about JEANNE EAGELS. This book gives us the facts.
These rare stills are taken from amateur footage filmed in July 1960 by Frieda Hull, one of the fabled ‘Monroe Six’, as Marilyn arrived in New York to make test shots for The Misfits. Miss Hull’s vast archive of candid images went under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions last November, alongside never-seen items from the Lee Strasberg estate and movie costumes collected by David Gainsborough Roberts, in the largest dedicated sale since the Christie’s auction of 1999. This one-off event – raising $11 million in total bids – was the subject of a recent Channel 4 documentary, Marilyn Monroe: Auction of a Lifetime, which I’ve reviewed at 
