Virginia O'Brien: MGM's Deadpan Diva (hardback)

Virginia O'Brien was all over the place at MGM during the WW II years, then essentially disappeared. They seemed to be grooming her, and she gave every indication that she had the chops to graduate to lead parts, but it was not to be. Likely as not, she simply did not have the proactive support of a director or producer or role to catapult her. Her greatest opportunity was likely The Harvey Girls, in which she was outstanding, but her participation got curtailed due to pregnancy and Judy Garland's increasing absences dragging filming to point where O'Brien could not hide her pregnancy. Maybe MGM never forgave her, who knows.Regardless, she was lucky enough to appear in MGM films that wound up widely seen and never out of circulation. This book covers all the facts, gets her story straight, and she emerges as warm, lively, and lovely, with a sense of humor about herself and her career. The problem with the book is the editing- the author jumps all over the place, where a more chronological approach would have been better. It is as if the author kept finding new information and kept appending it, rather than folding it into story.The author did some fantastic research, however, and you learn a lot about this singular actress and singer. And the photos are a treat.

I was very excited to get this book since I loved the performances of Virginia in so many of the classic MGM musicals. I've often wished more bios were done on some of the lesser know celebs of the Golden Age like Virginia. At minimum I figure with all the fan magazines and news coverage of hollywood in the era, someone could at least compile an adequate bio. That is exactly what you get here, an itinerary of all things O'Brien that were in print over the years. Near the end the author does manage to get a few tidbits of actual interview memories, but very little of any real depth. It is unfortunate since he did have access to at least one of her daughters. The book also suffers from poor editing with a bunch of minor typos, but nothing too bad. Does have a nice set of pictures throughout and any devoted fan of Virginia will still appreciate having what is here, but it is not as well done as some other reviewers would have you believe.

I once met Virginia O'Brien when she appeared in person at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles around 1982. She was very down to Earth and didn't seem to mind that only about twenty people showed up for a screening of The Harvey Girls. When I arrived, the theater had not yet opened and Virginia and her husband were standing outside with me. She talked about how she enjoyed working with Judy Garland and was in awe of her talent. She was wearing an old leopard skin coat and her husband was wearing a bright red leisure suit from the 70s with white loafers. Before the movie, she talked about how she got her start (which is recounted at least twice in this biography) -- being afraid of the audience and delivering her song in a monotone. Never forgetting that day, obviously, I was curious about reading more about her, but I didn't find much of it here. There's a lot of paraphrased newspaper articles but very little in the way of interviews. This surprised me.

I don’t know if it was only my copy or the editing but there were many misspelled words. It also contained photographs with wrong captions and several paragraphs that were repeated. It made the book slightly confusing at times.

Robert has written yet another great book. I really enjoyed learning about Virginia and how she became so famous. Very well done!