MARY ASTOR ON MARY ASTOR

 

            Maven has two autobiographies in her library by Mary Astor.

          One that she quotes in these pages of her website is A Life on Film by Mary Astor; Delacourte Press; 1967, 1968, 1971; New York.  This is a must-read for her fans and fans of movie  history, The Maltese Falcon, Clark Gable and Red Dust, John Barrymore and the affair she had with him. . . .  You get the idea.

          The other one is My Story:  An Autobiography; Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1959.  She included a “thank you” for “Frank Carothers for his labors on [her] behalf in organizing and editing the original manuscript of this autobiographical analysis.”  It was the product of her time with the Reverend Peter Ciklic, Ph.D., as part of her therapy.

           As Astor quotes him[1]: 

“Mary,” he said, “you would help me very much, and it would save a great deal of time, if you would sit down and write the story of your life. Write every day for a few hours, just as you remember it.  Write fully.  No one is looking over your shoulder.”

Astor continues:

“It was hard to do.  I clubbed my memory, and sometimes during an entire afternoon of sitting at my desk I would have only a couple of pages.  Then things seemed to clamor to be remembered, odd things, forgotten things.  And I lived through them all over again.  There was much that was beautiful, pleasant, amusing.  But sometimes I put my head down on the keys and cried, lost in bitterness and pain.”

It’s a fascinating story and an incredible look into the soul of a Hollywood actor.

It's also available for free online at http://www.archive.org/details/mystoryanautobio001183mbp.