Girl Singer

An Autobiography

by Joan Barthel; Rosemary Clooney

The late Rosemary Clooney's career spanned both the music and film worlds: she also endured a rocky marriage to actor and director Jose Ferrer, and, after they divorced, a well-publicized mental breakdown, later diagnosed as bipolar disorder. In GIRL SINGER, she recounts being brought up in Ohio by her grandmother amidst her warring parents, her early days in show business singing with her sister, Betty, and her tentative first forays into movies. Though she was often unhappy with her material (songs like "Where Will the Dimple Be?" loom large in her catalogue), she had a remarkably successful three-decade singing career, which later included extensive forays into jazz. Throughout her autobiography, Clooney sounds as if she can't quite believe her luck--like many performers, she's insecure about her talent despite her success. Her down-to-earth style makes her straightforward depiction of her mid-1960s mental breakdown all the more harrowing, while the reactions of her show business colleagues are instructive--Bing Crosby ignores it completely, while Merv Griffin is comforting and supportive. Candid and revealing, GIRL SINGER is a compelling account of the career of one of the 20th century's most beloved all-round performers.

Editions of Girl Singer

ISBN 9780767905558	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Bantam Dell Pub Group	Date 2001	Price $1.00	Very Good
ISBN 9780375408588	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Ballantine Books	Date 1999	Price $1.00	Very Good
ISBN 9780385493345	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Bantam Dell Pub Group	Date 1999	Price $1.00	Used, Very Good

Publisher Notes

Rosemary Clooney made her first public appearance at the age of three, on the stage of the Russell Theater in her tiny hometown of Maysville, Kentucky, singing "When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver, " an odd but perhaps prophetic choice for one so young. Rosemary Clooney has been singing ever since: on local radio, with Tony Pastor's orchestra, in big-box-office Hollywood films, at the Hollywood Bowl, the London Palladium, Carnegie Hall, on her own television series, and at venues large and small across the country and around the world. The list of her friends and intimates reads like a who's who of show business royalty: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Tony Bennett, Janet Leigh, Humphrey Bogart, and Billie Holiday, to name just a few. She's experienced enormous professional triumphs and deep personal tragedies. At twenty-five she married the erudite and respected actor Jose Ferrer, sixteen years her senior and light-years more sophisticated. Trouble started almost immediately when, on her honeymoon, she discovered that he had already been unfaithful. Finally, after having five children while she virtually single-handedly supported the entire family, and his numerous, unrepentant infidelities, she filed for divorce. From there her life spiraled downward into depression, addiction to various perscription drugs, and then, in 1968, a breakdown and hospitalization. After years spent fighting her way back to the top, Clooney is married to one of her first and long-lost loves -- a true fairy tale with a happy ending. She's been nominated for four Grammys in six years and has had two albums at the top of the Billboard charts. In the words of one of Stephen Sondheim's Folliesshowgirls, she could well be singing triumphantly, "I'm still here!"

Media Reviews

"From her rise to stardom and her troubled marriage to actor Jose Ferrer to her live-on-stage breakdown in 1968 and her crawl back to sanity...Clooney's story is an eloquent tribute to the healing power of music."

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