Author | Shana Alexander |
---|---|
Genre | Autobiography |
Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 1995 |
Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister & Me is an autobiography by American journalist, Shana Alexander, published by Doubleday in 1995.
Although the book deals frankly with her often difficult relationship with her parents, Tin Pan Alley composer Milton Ager and his wife, columnist Cecelia Ager, in interviews author Alexander maintained she wanted to avoid writing a lurid, tell-all Mommie Dearest -type of celebrity confessional but rather “to tell this difficult story and to make a memorial to them. They were a remarkable couple, spanning a rich history of show business. And by the end they really did become my best friends.” [1]
“When you write about your parents you have to find a balance and be truthful without sacrificing any dignity,” she said. “I feel I described my parents in a careful refinement of words.” [2]
Although used to writing about difficult subjects and complicated, tough people (her previous books had included Anyone's Daughter , about Patty Hearst; Very Much a Lady about Jean Harris, the headmistress convicted of murdering Scarsdale diet author Dr. Herman Tarnower; and The Pizza Connection about Mafia drug dealing), in interviews, Alexander maintained that the look at herself and her own family, especially the complex, sometimes baffling relationship between her parents and her relationship with them was a daunting task. Alexander researched the book for five years and found difficult the fact that her parents, the primary subjects, refused to reveal key facts. "We were an allegedly open family, but our parents never told us anything," Ms. Alexander said. "I had to do a lot of detective work to uncover the truth about my parents' lives. I knew almost nothing about them as people." [1]
In the book, Alexander reveals a perplexing contrast between her parents public and private lives. On the surface, her parents lead glamorous lives and were the toast of the town. Her father Milton was a noted and highly successful composer whose songs included "Happy Days Are Here Again", "Ain't She Sweet", and "I'm Nobody’s Baby"; her mother Cecelia wrote columns in Variety, was a Hollywood screenwriter, and Manhattan movie critic. Friends like George and Ira Gershwin, the Marx Brothers, Sophie Tucker, and Dorothy Parker were some of the frequent visitors to their homes in New York and Hollywood. Yet, in their private lives, the couple, who often lived in hotels, were temperamentally opposites, slept in separate rooms, and essentially led separate lives. Alexander describes her mother as cold and unattached and writes of her inability to express love to either her daughters or her husband. However, the marriage lasted 57 years.
The book’s title, "Happy Days", taken from one of her father’s most famous songs, "Happy Days Are Here Again" is ironic “because my childhood was anything but,” Alexander said. [1]
The book was praised for its craftsmanship and its intriguing subject matter, particularly around the unanswered questions concerning Alexander’s parents’ lives [3] and as a “moving autobiography of a life damaged by the chilly Cecilia’s inability to love her and her sister Laurel, and her beloved father’s inability to help.” [4] While noting the glittery atmosphere created by appearances of the many celebrities who were the Ager’s friends, Publishers Weekly summed up the book’s main achievement: “But ultimately what will stay with readers the most is Alexander's moving account of her parents, her relationships with them, and their relationship with each other.” [5]
Mark Berry, better known as Bez, is an English percussionist, dancer, DJ and media personality. He is best known as a member of the rock bands Happy Mondays and Black Grape.
Vera Christiane Felscherinow is a German actress and musician who is best known for her contribution to the 1978 autobiographical book Christiane F., and the film and television miniseries based on the book, in which her teenage drug use is documented.
Thomas Duane Arnold is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Arnie Thomas on Roseanne, which starred his ex-wife Roseanne Barr.
Milton Ager was an American composer, regarded as one of the top songwriters of the 1920s and 1930s. His most lasting compositions include "Ain't She Sweet” and “Happy Days Are Here Again”.
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin, sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century. One of his narratives was "lyrical evocations of and nostalgia for the village life of his childhood – no idyll, presented in all its rawness, with an implied curse on urbanisation and industrialisation".
Marsha Hunt is an American actress, novelist, singer and former model, who has lived mostly in Britain and Ireland. She achieved national fame when she appeared in London as Dionne in the long-running rock musical Hair. She enjoyed close relationships with Marc Bolan and Mick Jagger, who is the father of her only child, Karis Jagger.
Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia was the only daughter and eldest child of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. She was the first grandchild of Tsar Alexander III and the only biological niece of Tsar Nicholas II. Irina was married to the wealthiest man in Imperial Russia, Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov. Her husband was one of the men who in 1916 murdered Grigori Rasputin, "holy healer" to Irina's hemophiliac cousin, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich.
Dominic Savio was an Italian student of John Bosco who became a Catholic saint. He was studying to be a priest when he became ill and died at the age of 14, possibly from pleurisy. He was noted for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith, and was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954.
Shana Alexander was an American journalist. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for Life magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate segments of 60 Minutes in the late 1970s with conservative James J. Kilpatrick.
Antonia White was a British writer and translator, known primarily for Frost in May, a semi-autobiographical novel set in a convent school. It was the first book reissued by Virago Press in 1978, as part of their Modern Classics series of books by previously neglected women authors.
Kidada Ann Jones is an American actress, model, and fashion designer. She works as a designer for The Walt Disney Company, and has a line there known as Kidada for Disney Couture. Jones is a daughter of record producer Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton.
Isabella of Bourbon-Parma was a princess of Parma and infanta of Spain from the House of Bourbon-Parma as the daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma and Louise-Élisabeth of France. She became an archduchess of Austria and crown princess of Bohemia and Hungary in 1760 by her marriage to Archduke Joseph of Austria, the future Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.
The Ben Franklin effect is a psychological phenomenon in which people like someone more after doing a favor for them. An explanation for this is cognitive dissonance. People reason that they help others because they like them, even if they do not, because their minds struggle to maintain logical consistency between their actions and perceptions.
This Is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American series. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, and then from 1969 until his death in 1987. Michael Aspel then took up the role of host until the show ended in 2003. It briefly returned in 2007 as a one-off special presented by Trevor McDonald.
Beatniks: An English Road Movie (1997) is a novel by British author Toby Litt. Set in Bedford in 1995, the novel concerns the adventures of a group of young people who admire the Beat Writers and Musicians of the 1950s and 1960s America. It was initially published by Secker & Warburg in 1997.
Lettin' It All Hang Out is the autobiography of drag performer RuPaul. The book was originally released in 1995 in hardback, and then in paperback a year later. Although the book is classed as an autobiography, it is self described as "Part auto-biography, part how-to manual". Aside from RuPaul's life story, the book also contains a chapter on beauty tips, as well as many black and white photographs of him both in and out of drag, and lists of his favorite things, songs, quotes or people, e.g. 'Rupaul's Favorite Drag Queen Movies' and 'Rupaul's Favorite Actresses.'
"Hard Hearted Hannah, the Vamp of Savannah" is a popular song with words by Jack Yellen, Bob Bigelow, and Charles Bates, and music by Milton Ager. The song was published in June 1924 by Ager, Yellen & Bornstein, Inc., New York. "Hard Hearted Hannah" tells in humorous fashion the story of a sadistic "vamp" or femme fatale from Savannah, Georgia.
The personal relationships of Michael Jackson have been the subject of public and media attention for several decades. He was introduced to the topic of sexual activity at the age of nine while a member of the Jackson 5. He and his brothers would perform at strip clubs, sharing the bill with female strippers and drag queens, and the sexual adventures of his brothers with groupies further affected Jackson's early life. It was reported that his first girlfriend was actress Tatum O'Neal, when he was a teenager in the 1970s. However, Tatum O'Neal had stated that their relationship was strictly platonic. In recent years, singer and actress Stephanie Mills had revealed herself to be Jackson’s first girlfriend, their relationship starting when they first met at the production of the The Wiz. Jackson was then rumoured to have entered a platonic relationship with actress and model Brooke Shields in 1984. Shields later stated that they both held an equal admiration for each other, but that he started to become more asexual and distant towards her.
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist best remembered for creating the original Star Trek television series. While at Los Angeles City College, he entered into a relationship with Eileen-Anita Rexroat, whom he went on to marry on June 20, 1942, before his deployment in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. The couple had two daughters together, Darleen Anita and Dawn Allison. He joined the Los Angeles Police Department, and during this time he was known to have had affairs with secretarial staff, thus endangering his marriage.