A Vintage Nerd Book Club: Old Hollywood Mother's Day Edition

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Mother's Day has us all thinking about our mothers or those who were like mothers to us. It has us reflecting about them, missing them, spending time with them, or wondering more about them. Mother's Day was a tough day for me for many years. The first year after my mother passed I was in 3rd grade and they had us make flowers for our mothers out of paper. They encouraged us to put perfume on it and give it to them. I don't know why they had me participate knowing in detail of what I went through less than a year before. All I can say is that it was the eighties and they didn't do what they could have but I am sure they did their best. Still, I can remember holding onto that paper flower for years. It made me sad and confused to hold it. Having a gift for someone who will never receive it or hold it was still confusing and bewildering to me. But now Mother's Day is one my favorite days of the year. What was once a sad and confusing day is now a day that I get to celebrate my own experience with motherhood.

For those who have lost a parent it is often helpful to either talk about them or write about them. Its a healing thing to do but also something that needs to be done. My husband mentioned to me the other day that I talk about my mother everyday in some way. Now I see that I do I know its my way to make her present to make her real. Because even though I know she was real, it has been so long that she often feels almost like a dream.

Quite a few children of Old Hollywood stars have found their way through their feelings about their famous mothers by writing about them. Many of you are aware of the biographies written by the daughters of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. They are both quite scandalous and infamous but I wanted to share with you some books you may not have heard of. These sons and daughters wrote about Debbie Reynolds, Natalie Wood, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, and Loretta Young openly and full of compassion.

If you find biographies and autobiographies as fascinating as I do, click on the titles below. Are there other biographies of Old Hollywood Stars written by their children that you have read and know about? I would love to hear about them.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher






Uncommon Knowledge by Judy Lewis

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