Last week, Marcia's "The Sewing Circle" went up and we're talking to her about the book, Michael Madsen's THE SEWING CIRCLE. So what did you think?
Marcia:
I just didn't know what to think. There were so many errors. And I
was so eager to read the book. I'd heard about it for years. And I
wanted to love it. But then they'd say someone who died of a suicide
and I'd look it up and he died of a heart attack -- brought on by a
tennis game. Or the author would tell me George Cukor and William
Haines were arrested together and they were named in news accounts so it
destroyed William Haines career and I'd read up and find that George
Cukor was not reported on -- if he was there. It was very
disappointing.
Do you recommend the book?
Marcia:
I didn't find any errors regarding the women and the women are the
focus of the book -- THE SEWING CIRCLE is about Hollywood lesbians from
the golden age.
And you weren't trying to fact check?
Marcia:
No. The author said X died from suicide and it was because his voice
didn't transfer to sound. I thought, "How sad." I wanted to learn
about him and what sort of success he had in silent films. So I go to
WIKIPEDIA and find out that he did make the transfer to sound and that
he didn't take his own life. This book was published in 1995, you would
have thought corrections would have been made to it. And it's a rather
infamous book.
William
J. Mann's BEHIND THE SCREEN: HOW GAYS AND LESBIANS SHAPED HOLLYWOOD.
It's not going to have the star power that THE SEWING CIRCLE does, but
it is a riveting account.
Marcia: I'm going to have to look that one up.
Star power. Talk about some of the women covered in THE SEWING CIRCLE.
Marcia: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Nazimova --
Nancy Reagan's godmother.
Marcia:
Yes, she was. I get your point. We need to make it clear that despite
the work of the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the LGBTQ community was part
of society even to the point of being the godmother of former First Lady
Nancy Reagan. Anyway, I keep coming back to the question of do I
recommend the book? Yeah. If only to satisfy curiosity because it's a
book that comes up in a lot of conversations. It might be more talked
about than read but people should give it a read.