WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here.
PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.
1. What are you currently reading? Competing with Idiots by Nick Davis. This dual biography of Herman and Joseph Mankiewicz was written by Herman's grandson, and his being a Mankiewicz adds dimension to the story.
Herman wrote Pride of the Yankees (see below) and another little movie you've likely heard of: Citizen Kane. His kid brother Joe won four Oscars. Herman's son Frank was Sen. Robert Kennedy's press aide and is the one who told the world of the second Kennedy assassination. Two of Nick's cousins – Ben and Josh – went on to have TV careers. Ben is the main host of TCM and a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. Josh is a regular on Dateline. So the Mankiewicz clan is an interesting group of over achievers, and I like hearing about them from the inside.
2. What did you recently finish reading? The Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathan Eig. I've seen Pride of the Yankees, the classic film about Lou Gehrig, many times. His wife, played by Teresa Wright, is portrayed as loyal, steadfast, true and oh-so wholesome. The truth is less wholesome but far more interesting.
Eleanor Twitchell had been a flapper. She drank, smoked and partied. She was "a lady with a past." When Lou married her, he was 30 and likely America's most eligible bachelor. He was also painfully shy around women and had lived at home with his overbearing mother his entire life. Eleanor rocked his world. Yes, she enjoyed going to Yankee Stadium wearing stylish hats and fur stoles. But she gave her husband the confidence to finally enjoy his fame and wealth, too. Before Eleanor, he simply signed every contract the Yankees gave him, even though he was an All Star and a World Series Champion. After her, he negotiated. He got over his shyness, appearing on Wheaties boxes and radio shows and even a Hollywood movie. While fishing alone on a boat remained his favorite past time, with Eleanor he traveled, dined out and took up ice skating.
Lou was always stoic about everything, but it was Eleanor who first suspected something was amiss. During the offseason, she insisted he see a doctor. (A personal physician, not one of the Yankees doctors.) Lou was misdiagnosed – ALS was not well known at the time – but it showed how well she knew and cared for her man.
Theirs was a marriage of opposites, she was his perfect partner. Hers was the last face he saw before he slipped into a coma. The real Eleanor was too flashy a wench for MGM when they made Pride of the Yankees, but I thought their romance was the best part of this book. PS I liked all the baseball, too!
3. What will you read next? I don't know.
