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9781493074457

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"""Gorgeously written and meticulously researched, Starring Joan Crawford is a delicious melange of biographical details, cultural criticism, and fanboy fantasia that brings the most vivacious actress of the twentieth century screamingly to life. Freed by the author's sharp eye from the wire-hanger-wielding monstrosity she has become in the collective mind of popular American culture, Miss Crawford becomes flesh and blood once more. In Samuel Garza Bernstein's unputdownable book, her meaning and import are illuminated in the most up-to-date Britney-Xtina-Gaga terms. The superstar is young again, and so is Hollywood, and maybe even the reader, too.""--Frank DeCaro, author of Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business. ""Samuel Garza Bernstein brilliantly titles his new book Starring Joan Crawford, but in keeping with the religious thrust, it could just as aptly be called Joan: The Bible. Because it IS the Bible on Joan Crawford. Garza Bernstein brings the real Joan to vivid life, in a style that's both dishy and intimate, but also as erudite and thoroughly researched as a PhD thesis. The men, the movies, the moxie, it's all here.""―Kim Powers, author of Rules for Being Dead and The History of Swimming ""Samuel Garza Bernstein writes about a woman we all wish we knew because she sounds like a f―king hoot! And he does a great job of telling you why we should all wish she was in our circle of friends if we got to dip back in time.""―Karen McCullah, screenwriter, Legally Blonde and author, The Bachelorette Party ""Samuel Garza Bernstein's book Starring Joan Crawford is a bold and complex amalgam of biography, critical analysis, Hollywood gossip, and fantasy. Garza Bernstein successfully balances the apocryphal with scholarly truth, camp with sober insight. It's a satisfying, hearty stew spiced with wit and a genuine love and respect for its eternally fascinating subject.""--Charles Busch, American actor, playwright, screenwriter"

"""A spirited portrait of a Hollywood legend."" -- ""Publisher's Weekly"" ""Gorgeously written and meticulously researched, Starring Joan Crawford is a delicious melange of biographical details, cultural criticism, and fanboy fantasia that brings the most vivacious actress of the twentieth century screamingly to life. Freed by the author's sharp eye from the wire-hanger-wielding monstrosity she has become in the collective mind of popular American culture, Miss Crawford becomes flesh and blood once more. In Samuel Garza Bernstein's unputdownable book, her meaning and import are illuminated in the most up-to-date Britney-Xtina-Gaga terms. The superstar is young again, and so is Hollywood, and maybe even the reader, too.""--Frank DeCaro, author of Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business. ""Samuel Garza Bernstein brilliantly titles his new book Starring Joan Crawford, but in keeping with the religious thrust, it could just as aptly be called Joan: The Bible. Because it IS the Bible on Joan Crawford. Garza Bernstein brings the real Joan to vivid life, in a style that's both dishy and intimate, but also as erudite and thoroughly researched as a PhD thesis. The men, the movies, the moxie, it's all here.""―Kim Powers, author of Rules for Being Dead and The History of Swimming ""Samuel Garza Bernstein writes about a woman we all wish we knew because she sounds like a f―king hoot! And he does a great job of telling you why we should all wish she was in our circle of friends if we got to dip back in time.""―Karen McCullah, screenwriter, Legally Blonde and author, The Bachelorette Party ""Samuel Garza Bernstein's book Starring Joan Crawford is a bold and complex amalgam of biography, critical analysis, Hollywood gossip, and fantasy. Garza Bernstein successfully balances the apocryphal with scholarly truth, camp with sober insight. It's a satisfying, hearty stew spiced with wit and a genuine love and respect for its eternally fascinating subject.""--Charles Busch, American actor, playwright, screenwriter"

Author Information

Stonewall Book Award-winning writer Samuel Garza Bernstein is an author, screenwriter, and playwright whose work often reflects the wild intersections of modern life. He was born to an undocumented Mexican mother who passed as white (using a fake name) and a Jewish father who passionately defended the Palestinians when they lived in Cairo while Israel and Egypt were still at war. In his own telling, Garza Bernstein was a gay, Jewish six-year-old, living in his head, and spinning stories. His family was nomadic and he grew up all over the world. He, husband Ronald Shore, and their pack of incorrigible dachshunds split their time between Porto, Portugal and Los Angeles, California.

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