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Title: Mary Martin, Broadway Legend
ISBN: 0806139056
Author:
Ronald L. Davis
Publicate Date: 2008-04-30
Publish: 2008-04-30
List Price: $26.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $16.16
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $14.95
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1: Still Too Many Unanswered Questions
This is an okay book for someone who knows very little about Mary Martin.
It is not for anyone who knew Martin (as a friend or acquaintance) or even followed her career on Broadway or television. The author relies heavily on interviews with Martin herself and others, especially life-long friend Besse Mae Sue Ella Austin. Austin and her husband are primary sources and their many comments do fill in some of the blanks, especially about Martin's childhood and family.
However, I learned nothing new about the most important people in Martin's life: husband Richard Halliday, best friend Janet Gaynor or her children Larry Hagman & Heller Halliday. Did the author even try to search out people who could have talked opened about Halliday and Gaynor?
I assume the Austins did provide useful information. If so, Davis made the choice not to include it here. That is one of the problems. Davis has written other books and the narrative flows well. But, Davis wrote this book as a huge fan of Mary Martin, from the days of seeing her in "Annie Get Your Gun" in Texas. Martin, one of Broadway's biggest musical stars, deserves a well researched book by an objective author.
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2: Very disappointing. Not thorough or accurate.
I was very disappointed in this book. I was hoping for a major biographical treatment of the life of the legendary Mary Martin -- but this doesn't begin to fill the bill.
A first reading indicates lots of errors. To list only a few:
Mary Martin didn't study with Dino Borgioli in New York as the author claims, but in London.
Cinderella with Julie Andrews was 1957 and not 1958.
The Song "When You're Far Away From New York Town" was not taken from the character who originally sings it and given to Mary Martin to sing during "Jennie". The singer Jack DeLeon sings it on the OBC recording and sang it in the show.
The companion show for NBC that preceeded "Music with Mary Martin" was called "Magic with Mary Martin" and not "Three to Make Music" as the author claims.
One of the most important television shows she did, the "General Foods 25th Anniversary Show -- A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein" gets no mention in the list of "major television performances"
There was no "Jazz Version of 'Tit Willow'" in the tv special with Noel Coward.
The 1985 "Our Hearts Belong to Mary" special in which Miss Martin made her final New York Broadway stage appearance gets no mention at all. This was a great night of tribute to Mary Martin and there is nothing in the book about it.
It is Dolores Gray, not Delores Gray.
Additionally, some incidents in Mary Martin's life are told out of the chronological order in which they happened, making them appear to have happened at a different point in time.
With so many errors found in a first casual reading of the book, one has to worry about the accuracy of other information.
The author, Ronald Davis, relied very heavily on his oral interviews with close friends of Mary Martin and with the great star herself. Somehow the focus shifts too often to the interviews with these other individuals. Much of the author's research comes from materials at SMU where he was a professor. This is good material, however there is a wealth of other material out there that wasn't tapped for this book.
Basically there is still another fascinating story to be told about this great performer.
Better attribution for a lot of the source material would be welcome. There is so much material borrowed from other sources that the lack of footnotes is frustrating. Sources are discussed in the back of the book but it is difficult to cross-reference them, and the source material section is quite hard to follow. This is amazing considering the book was published by a university press.
The accompanying back matter, the list of her Broadway shows is very sketchy and incomplete. Only major performers are listed. There is only an incomplete list of television appearances, and there is no discography.
If you are waiting for a major and in-depth biography of this wonderful performer -- this book isn't it. There are some nice photographs which are rarely seen and they were enjoyable to look at.
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3: Think lovely thoughts-it's wonderful-it's Mary Martin!
First of all, let me tell you that I've loved Mary Martin since a child. I've avidly read everything I could get my hands on about her and this book is a gem I shall treasure,
I hope that younger people will read this book - that it will inspire them as I was to dream big, be big and not be afraid of anything and that if you believe this you can do it all.
It's a shame that there are few left on Broadway to inspire us, so I am even more grateful for this marvelous book. Thank you!
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4: Nicely Balanced Biography
I enjoyed reading this account of Mary Martin's life and career. I am a big fan of her son, Larry Hagman, and in the process of reading everything I could get my hands on about him, became familiar with much of the written source material used here. I was happy to find that there is much more to this book than a compilation of existing work. Davis' use of his interviews with Martin and many who knew her, including her childhood best friend Bessie Mae Sue Ella Yeager, which were part of his SMU Oral History Project, make this volume valuable. Information from personal letters are also used effectively throughout.
One item in particular intrigued me, that Mary had an older brother who died in childhood. I have never read anything of the sort, but if true it explains why Mary's mother, Juanita, became so attached to Larry Hagman. I had always assumed that her strong desire for a son was simple sexism. I'd love to know more - too bad the boy's name, age and cause of death were not included.
I have a few minor complaints. Larry Hagman was married in 1954, not 1955 as reported in this book. Some of the implied time-lines seemed wrong to me, even though specific dates were not given. For example, Mary and Larry made a record together, not "shortly before Larry went into the service," which was after Larry appeared in South Pacific in London with his mother, but over a year before that, while Mary was still in South Pacific in New York.
Overall, I found "Mary Martin, Broadway Legend" to be a fair and balanced account of Martin's life, well written, informative and entertaining. I recommend it to anyone interested in Mary Martin, her family and colleagues, theater history, or a good biography.
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