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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.
Anthony Arnatt Bushell was born in Westerham, Kent on May 19, 1904. He was educated at Magdalen College School, and later Hertford College in Oxford. He was a champion boxer, rower, and member of the Hypocrites Club, infamous for its wild parties. After graduating, Bushell trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made his theatrical debut in Diplomacy (1924), opposite Gerald Du Maurier. 
Frances Margaret Anderson was born in the Australian city of Adelaide on February 10, 1897. From an early age she was drawn to the theatre. At seventeen, she made her stage debut at Sydney’s Theatre Royal. 
Samuel Henry Harris was born in New York City on February 3, 1872. His early jobs ranged from selling cough drops to keeping the Irish storyteller and vaudevillian, John W. Kelly, out of saloon bars during a troubled stint at Miner’s Bowery Theatre. He also worked as a boxing promoter, managing prize-fighter Terry McGovern. By the age of twenty-two, Harris owned six racehorses. 
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was born in Huntsville, Alabama on January 31, 1902. Her mother, Adelaide, died of blood poisoning three weeks after Tallulah’s birth. Her father William, a prominent Democrat, suffered bouts of alcoholism and depression, and Tallulah was largely raised by her grandmother. 