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Tara Hanks

~ Author of 'The Mmm Girl' and 'Wicked Baby'

Tara Hanks

Category Archives: Non-Fiction

The Ladies of Rockhaven

20 Sunday Jan 2019

Posted by marina72 in Books, History, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction

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Agnes Richards, California, Crescenta Valley, Elisa Jordan, Feminism, Gladys Monroe, Glendale, Marilyn Monroe, Rockhaven Sanitarium

Nestled among the hills and mountain ranges just beyond Los Angeles, Crescenta Valley was home to the indigenous Tongva people for thousands of years. During the Spanish colonial period it became part of the San Gabriel Mission. By the late 1800s, its warm, dry climate was attracting both tourists and health seekers, and after his wife’s death from tuberculosis, Dr. Benjamin Briggs moved there to build a sanitarium for those suffering from lung ailments. His success encouraged others to follow suit, including Merritt Kimball who founded a sanitarium for psychiatric patients. Perhaps the most unique of these pioneering establishments was Rockhaven, a sanctuary for vulnerable women opened by Agnes Richards in the 1920s.  Continue reading →

2018: A Year In Books

18 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by marina72 in Art and Photography, Books, Fiction, Film, Music, Non-Fiction

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#Bronte200, A View of the Empire at Sunset, Anna Maria Ortese, Aunt Branwell and the Bronte Legacy, Bettie Page, Bettie Page: The Lost Years, Billie Holiday, Black Dahlia, Black Dahlia Red Rose, Brandon Hobson, Brass, Brontё, Camille Laurens, Caryl Phillips, Cesare Pavese, David Lynch, Devil's Advocates, Don't Skip Out On Me, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Edgar Degas, Evening Descends Upon the Hills, Evening in Paradise, Freak Kingdom, Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, Hunter S. Thompson, Jean Rhys, Lindsay Hallam, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, Lucia Berlin, Maura McHugh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Native American Literature, Nick Holland, Olga Tokarcsuk, Ottessa Moshfegh, Piu Eatwell, Rachel Kushner, Religion Around Billie Holiday, Sarah Weinman, Taylor Brown, The Beautiful Summer, The Blacker the Berry..., The Gods of Howl Mountain, The Mars Room, The Real Lolita, Timothy Denevi, Tori Rodriguez, Tracey Fessenden, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Vladimir Nabokov, Wallace Thurman, Welcome Home, Where the Dead Sit Talking, Willy Vlautin, Xhenet Aliu, You Are Always With Me: Letters to Mama

With her third novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh confirms herself as a major writer of our time. This darkly comic tale follows the sleepy adventures of a young, beautiful and rich but miserable New Yorker who embarks on a drug-fuelled sabbatical at the dawn of the 21st century. Moshfegh’s mischievous delight in the squalid details of everyday life powers her absurd yet visionary narrative.  Continue reading →

2018: A Year in Film and TV

18 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by marina72 in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction, Television

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Amanda Seyfried, Amy Adams, Andrew Norman, BlackKKlansman, Carnival of Souls, Carnivale, Charles Casillo, Charlize Theron, Claire Trevor, Diana Dors, Elisa Jordan, Elizabeth Debicki, First Reformed, Frances McDormand, Greta Gerwig, Harry Dean Stanton, Howard Hughes, I Am Not A Witch, Joaquin Phoenix, Julia Garner, Karina Longworth, Lady Bird, Lean On Pete, Leave No Trace, Louise Brooks, Lucky, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Morgan, Netflix, Ozark, Peterloo, Private Life, River's Edge, Saoirse Ronan, Sharp Objects, Shoplifters, Spike Lee, Sweet Country, Tamara Jenkins, The Florida Project, The Rape of Recy Taylor, The Rider, The Ruth Ellis Files, Thomas Gladysz, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Tommy Redolfi, Tully, Widows, You Were Never Really Here

I’m lucky enough to live just around the corner from the Duke of York’s, England’s oldest independent cinema; and so this year I made the most of my Picturehouse membership. I like movies that blend a touch of realism with a sense of style: Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo and Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Shoplifters satisfied those needs.  Continue reading →

2018: A Year in Music

17 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by marina72 in Amy Winehouse, Books, Film, Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Music, Non-Fiction

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All Nerve, Amy Winehouse, Back to Amy, Back to Black, Beautiful Game, Blake Wood, Bobbie Gentry, Cat Power, Charles Moriarty, Chris Wade, Comeback Kid, David Bowie, Fado, Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey, Lissie, Madonna, Madonna in the Eighties, Mariners Apartment Complex, Matthew Rettenmund, Mazzy Star, Mercury Rev, MLVC60, My Wild West, Nico, Nico 1988, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Piano & A Microphone 1983, Portugal, Prince, Quentin Harrison, Record Redux: Madonna, Record Store Day, Sharon Van Etten, The Breeders, The Girl From Chickasaw County, Wanderer, Woman

She may have left the stage decades ago, but 2018 was a vintage year for die-hard fans of the mysterious Bobbie Gentry, with a rare vinyl release on Record Store Day followed in September by a career-spanning CD box-set, The Girl From Chickasaw County.  Continue reading →

Marilyn: A Public Icon, in Private

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by marina72 in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction

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Charles Casillo, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon

Charles Casillo is a multi-talented author, actor and screenwriter. His books include the novel, The Marilyn Diaries – a reimagining of Monroe’s final years – and a biography of the novelist and gay icon, John Rechy. Casillo was also a consultant and researcher for J. Randy Taraborrelli’s The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. In an appendix, Taraborrelli acknowledged Casillo as one of the “true experts” on Marilyn’s life, an “’ultimate’ Marilyn Monroe fan who understands her character and personality so well.” Now almost a decade later, with Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon finally published, Taraborrelli hails it as “the book he was always meant to write.” Continue reading →

Turning a New Page With Jeanne

10 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by marina72 in Books, Film, History, Jeanne Eagels, Non-Fiction, Theatre, Updates, Writing

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Eric Woodard, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Tara Hanks

I’m glad to tell you all that Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed (Revised and Updated) is now available in hardcover and paperback. A full 90 pages longer than the first edition, and with new photos, it will be our last word on Jeanne’s remarkable life and career. So if you’re looking for a meaty biography to read this Christmas, make sure to buy this new edition as the older version will soon be unavailable. I’ve updated all the links to order from Amazon and other stores here.

 

For Jeanne, An End … And a Beginning

03 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by marina72 in Anniversaries, Books, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Non-Fiction, Theatre, Updates

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1929, Eric Woodard, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Tara Hanks

As autumn leaves began to fall in the New York of 1929, Jeanne Eagels was recovering at home after eye surgery and seeking treatment from her physician at his Park Avenue hospital for a ‘nervous disorder’. After seeing him on October 3, she decided that an evening out might lift her spirits. She slipped into an evening gown complemented by several strands of pearls, and finally put on a fur coat to warm herself in the chilly night air.

However, her condition quickly worsened. A little before 7 pm, she left with her maid, and was driven some 60 blocks to Park Avenue, where her doctor was called from his downstairs residence, and she was escorted into a 5th floor examination room by a nurse. Jeanne removed her coat and was sitting on the bed when she suddenly went into convulsions. The nurse ran into the hall calling for the doctor’s assistant, but by the time they returned, it was too late.

Jeanne Eagels was dead at thirty-nine.

Exactly 89 years later, I am proud to announce that a revised and updated edition of Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, the 2015 biography co-authored by myself and Eric M. Woodard, will shortly be published by Bearmanor Media. We retrace the life and career of the woman who rose from the streets of Kansas City to become a Broadway sensation, and lit up the silver screen: with new material on her loving, if troubled family background; her acting triumphs, including Rain and The Letter; her ill-starred marriage to athlete Ted Coy, and much more.

“Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed offers a startling look at the actress and her times … packed with detail and drama, and does bring Jeanne Eagels into 21st century focus as an ambitious, driven woman who often fought the system, but could not defeat her own demons.” – Liz Smith, New York Social Diary

“Their research, to this reader, sparkles and shines . . . the kind of meat one likes with this rich meal of a book.” – Stephen Michael Shearer, author of Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star 

“What you are about to read is nothing short of remarkable.” – Michelle Morgan, author of The Ice Cream Blonde and Carole Lombard: Twentieth Century Star

Murder Orthodoxies: Sex, Lies and Marilyn

29 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by marina72 in Books, History, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction

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Conspiracy Theories, Donald McGovern, Immortal Marilyn, Marilyn Monroe, Murder Orthodoxies

This article can also be read at Immortal Marilyn.

Murder Orthodoxies: Sex, Lies and Marilyn

Among the thousand or more books about Marilyn Monroe, there are certain strands – from coffee-table monographs to cultural criticism. One theme is so persistent, however, that it has become a sub-genre in its own right. Armed with dubious confessions and conspiracy theories, their authors argue that Marilyn’s untimely death was the result of foul play in high (and low) places, and these allegations have been seized upon by readers, as well as journalists and documentarians. Continue reading →

Marilyn: An Unlikely Feminist

01 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by marina72 in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction

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Feminism, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Morgan, The Girl, The Seven Year Itch

In the wake of last fall’s revelations about sexual harassment in Hollywood, some were quick to point out that this was not a new phenomenon. Actress Joan Collins claimed that Marilyn Monroe had warned her about the ‘wolves’ who preyed on young starlets. Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd, who played dual roles in a TV movie about the legendary star, revealed that they were later blackballed for resisting unwanted advances. And a producer on the 2011 biopic, My Week With Marilyn, recalled how disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein loitered on the set while Michelle Williams filmed a nude swimming scene.

Just as Monroe’s glamorous image has come to symbolise Hollywood’s golden age, she has also been linked to its darker side in a way that risks over-simplification. For not only was she one of the first to speak out about sexual abuse, she also battled for equal rights and fair pay, which women are still fighting today in Tinseltown and beyond. Michelle Morgan, author of Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed, paints a fuller picture in her new book, The Girl: Marilyn Monroe, The Seven Year Itch and the Birth of an Unlikely Feminist. Continue reading →

Art Decades 13: Marilyn in Manhattan, The Punished and More

26 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by marina72 in Books, Fiction, Magazines, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction

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Art Decades, Cy Forrest, Elizabeth Winder, Marilyn in Manhattan, Marilyn Monroe, Tara Hanks, The Punished

The latest edition of Art Decades quarterly is now available from Amazon stores worldwide (and for £11.14 in the UK.) At the heart of this issue is a tribute to cult cinema, with a profile of ‘sexploitation’ king Joe Sarno; an unpublished interview with Jess Franco, the Spanish filmmaker famed for his erotic horror flicks; and a roundtable discussion with the authors of a new book, It Came From the Video Aisle, including a special focus on director Charles Band, best-known for his horror comedies.

Elsewhere, there’s a short story from Les Bohem, set in the post-hippie California of the 1970s; a spotlight on Denver’s ‘totally rad’ nostalgia shop, Fifty-Two 80s; and extracts from Singin’ In French, a new anthology co-edited by Marcelline Block. For me, the highlight was ‘Suzie’s Zoo’, a very moving piece from Kelley Richey in which she explores childhood memories through film. She also contributes three photo-stories which celebrate nature, beauty and the coming of spring.

And finally from me, a review of Elizabeth Winder’s Marilyn in Manhattan, one of my favourite books of 2017; and an interview with Cy Forrest, author of The Punished, a ‘dystopian noir’ which alternates between the inhabitants of a ghost village during World War II and the corporate sexism of the 1980s.

 

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