Very exciting news: as of today, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed is finally available to order! I am proud to be co-author (with Eric Woodard) of the first full-length biography of this legendary actress to be published in 85 years.
From the publisher’s website, in paperback ($24.95) or hardcover ($34.95)
I’m delighted to announce that Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed– the first full-length biography of the legendary 1920s actress in 85 years, co-authored with Eric Woodard – will be published by Bearmanor Media in June. More news to come, but until then, here’s a brief synopsis:
The true story is finally told about Jeanne Eagels, legendary Broadway star as Sadie Thompson in Somerset Maugham’s Rain, celebrated silent movie actress, and Academy Award-nominated superstar in The Letter. She lived a life of renown, yet her rise to fame, her romances, her triumphs, her relentless perfectionism, and her fragile health propelled her into increasingly erratic behavior and a shocking climax that stunned the entire world. Illustrated with nearly 150 rare and unseen photographs.
Marilyn Monroe fans may recognise my writing partner as the author of Hometown Girl and Travilla Film Fashions. Eric has also created a book trailer for Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed.
Fans of trad jazz will notice that the music accompanying this video is, of course, ‘Wabash Blues’. Sadie Thompson, the loose-living heroine of W. Somerset Maugham’s Rain, played this record incessantly while entertaining her sailor friends during a sojourn on the South Seas – much to the annoyance of her priggish neighbours.
In 1922, Sadie became Jeanne Eagels’ most famous stage role, and while Rain has since been filmed several times, those who saw it first on Broadway insisted that her incendiary performance was never equalled.
My review of Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, Sheana Ochoa‘s compelling new biography of Stella Adler – the actress, director and teacher who lived through extraordinary times, and after a revelatory meeting with Stanislavsky, made it her mission to challenge the dominance of Lee Strasberg’s Method – is posted today at For Books’ Sake.
Lord Denning’s report on the Profumo Affair was published fifty years this week. Though dismissed as a government whitewash, its steamy topic made this official enquiry an unlikely bestseller. At the same time, a very different version was unfolding in the pages of a new satirical magazine, Private Eye. This is the subject of Colin Shindler’s radio play, Rumours. Continue reading →
Beatrice Colin lives in Glasgow, and is the author of one of my favourite novels in recent years: The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite(2008), which tells the fantastic tale of how a young waif endures the hardships of World War I and later becomes a movie siren in the decadent milieu of 1920s Berlin.
When I read in The Mirrorlast Saturday that Dr Colin had written an episodic radio play about the notorious Barrow Gang’s crime spree during America’s Great Depression, I knew I had to listen in. Continue reading →
Very exciting news: as of today, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed is finally available to order! I am proud to be co-author (with Eric Woodard) of the first full-length biography of this legendary actress to be published in 85 years.
Tara Hanks 
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