Barbara Leaming's Marilyn Monroe is a complex, sympathetic portrait that will totally change the way we view the most enduring icon of American sexuality. To those who think they have heard all there is to hear about Marilyn Monroe, think again. Leaming's book tells a brand-new tale of sexual, psychological, and political intrigue of the highest order. Told for the first time in all its complexity, this is a compelling portrait of a woman at the center...

The award-winning actress documents her rise from an everyday girl to an acclaimed performer while exploring her defining relationship with her mother and how their shared and separate dreams influenced their experiences.

Hattie McDaniel was the first black to ever win an Oscar. She was also the first black woman to ever sing on American radio. In this fresh assessment of her life and career, Carlton Jackson tells the inside story of her working relationships, her personal life, and the many obstacles she faced as a black performer in the white world of show business during the first half of the twentieth century.

The legendary “Love Goddess” was a huge box-office star, and her sultry beauty and sensational figure turned her into the ultimate sex-symbol. Yet behind the smoldering image lay a tragic secret that wrecked her private life. Extremely shy as a child, Rita Hayworth was forced by her vaudevillian father to be his dancing partner—and he abused her as well. Her need for protection led her into five disastrous marriages. If This Was Happiness...