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Running Time (Midnight Classics) by Gavin Lambert
Jewel Kay compares her own recollections with entries in her deceased mother's diary to get the real story of how Elva, in 1918, made her daughter Jewel into one of the first child stars in Hollywood
- GenresFiction
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
2 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Gavin Lambert
46 books24 followersGavin Lambert was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood. His writing was mainly fiction and nonfiction about the film industry.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 15, 2024
I am not sure this book deserves 4 stars on an objective scale. However, because it feels like it was literally written for me, I am swooning.
Baby Jewel is a ridiculous amalgamation of Shirley Temple and Judy Garland and Natalie Wood with a little Deanna Durbin, Murder She Wrote-era Angela Lansbury and perhaps a prescient dash of Macaulay Culkin thrown in for spice. And her mother is sort of an Auntie Mame cum Mama Rose.
The constant references to relatively obscure silent film stars was so impressive to me in that Lambert wrote this book decades before Wikipedia (and wiki was my consonant companion as I read, to figure out who was who).
The Mickey Rooney character was really an asshole. I love how kind Lambert was to Joan Crawford. He didn't have to be and he was. I suspect the Howard Hawk section was based in a lot of reality, and boy is he a loon! The William Desmond Taylor murder inclusion was amazing.
It got really weird toward the end, and Elva's real estate holdings required giant suspension of disbelief but it was worth it.
The inc
Baby Jewel is a ridiculous amalgamation of Shirley Temple and Judy Garland and Natalie Wood with a little Deanna Durbin, Murder She Wrote-era Angela Lansbury and perhaps a prescient dash of Macaulay Culkin thrown in for spice. And her mother is sort of an Auntie Mame cum Mama Rose.
The constant references to relatively obscure silent film stars was so impressive to me in that Lambert wrote this book decades before Wikipedia (and wiki was my consonant companion as I read, to figure out who was who).
The Mickey Rooney character was really an asshole. I love how kind Lambert was to Joan Crawford. He didn't have to be and he was. I suspect the Howard Hawk section was based in a lot of reality, and boy is he a loon! The William Desmond Taylor murder inclusion was amazing.
It got really weird toward the end, and Elva's real estate holdings required giant suspension of disbelief but it was worth it.
The inc
May 2, 2023
His attempt at fiction was readable but I liked Lambert's 2 Bios, and his book on GWTW much, much better.
February 25, 2021
Elva Kay may just be the greatest stage mother of all time. Like Gertrude Temple, mother of the amazing Shirley, she starts exposing her daughter to art while she's still a fetus: "I carried it around the Art Institute, on a Votes for Women float where I paraded in costume as the Liberty Belle, took it to a concert by Caruso, a matinee of the classic motion picture 'Quo Vadis?' and an exhibition of magic by Houdini under which he escaped from a sealed chest underwater."
It pays off. Baby Jewel arrives in Hollywood in the year 1919 and almost immediately takes the town by storm with her series of shorts. Lambert, who also wrote the definitive child-star novel "Inside Daisy Clover", takes Baby and her mother from 1919-1982, and includes such characters as Theda Bara, William Desmond Taylor (with a new take on THAT mystery), Lillian Gish, D.W. Griffith, Howard Hughes, Louis B. Mayer and more.
Elva and Jewel have an intense relationship, truly love each other, and keep secrets from each other like mad. It's a realistic, engaging, maddening relationship that rings true.
Lambert is, of course, extremely knowledgable about Hollywood history, and this book is an insider's look at the rise of the film industry in L.A. as well as simply a fun, fast-moving, character-driven story. If you love movies, Hollywood, and strong female characters, get yourself a copy of this book and prepare to enjoy yourself.
It pays off. Baby Jewel arrives in Hollywood in the year 1919 and almost immediately takes the town by storm with her series of shorts. Lambert, who also wrote the definitive child-star novel "Inside Daisy Clover", takes Baby and her mother from 1919-1982, and includes such characters as Theda Bara, William Desmond Taylor (with a new take on THAT mystery), Lillian Gish, D.W. Griffith, Howard Hughes, Louis B. Mayer and more.
Elva and Jewel have an intense relationship, truly love each other, and keep secrets from each other like mad. It's a realistic, engaging, maddening relationship that rings true.
Lambert is, of course, extremely knowledgable about Hollywood history, and this book is an insider's look at the rise of the film industry in L.A. as well as simply a fun, fast-moving, character-driven story. If you love movies, Hollywood, and strong female characters, get yourself a copy of this book and prepare to enjoy yourself.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews