Marie Wallace's Memoir is Out!

[Nancy]

Marie Wallace is a good storyteller -  In person and in this wonderful memoir about her life and career.  For those who love theater and television and reading behind the scenes stories, Marie's memoir ON STAGE AND IN SHADOWS: a career memoir is a fascinating read.  It provides an insight into the life of an actor and the many paths one can take to find work in the field.  Marie started off as a model and later found acting work in some of the most heralded stage productions of all time such as Sweet Charity just to name one of many.

One interesting aspect of this book is that Marie Wallace unintentionally counters the common public perception that if an actor is not visible on television or film, that actor isn't successful at finding work.   Marie's recollections of her roles with touring companies, summer stock productions and many other stage productions all over the country is how most actors make their living - not always visible to a wide TV or film audience but gainfully employed anyway.  Along the way, Marie met many curious and inspiring directors, theater legends and performers and she shares her stories freely in this memoir [actor Ruth Buzzi wrote the preface for this book].

Dark Shadows fans will particularly enjoy the chapter that Marie devotes to the series and another chapter devoted to working with Jonathan Frid as director in a stage project.  Jonathan Frid wrote the foreward for Marie's book.

Fans of the theater and TV world will love this book.  Fans of Marie Wallace will learn quite a bit about what makes her tick as an actor and a person.

Here is a link that allows you to browse for purchasing the book.
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-35877-2

The book is also available at Barnes and Noble.

Nancy

[Miss_Winthrop]

Thanks for brininging this information to the board.  I'm definitely interested in purchasing it.  I suppose that Marie will have it available at this year's Fest.

I have to mention that I just got a dvd from the libary called Boardway: The Golden Age.  I've heard that there is mention of John Karlen and a short interview of Donna McKechnie in it.  I'm hoping that there will also be something about Marie in it too.

[Raineypark]

I have to mention that I just got a dvd from the libary called Boardway: The Golden Age.

Is that the Ken Burns "Broadway" series?

I didn't see all of it and I would be VERY interested to know if John Karlen is mentioned in it at all. 

[Miss_Winthrop]

First of all, Broadway: The Golden Age is not produced by Ken Burns.  The person who produced and filmed it is Rick McKay. Apparently he put up his own money and I get the impression that it took about 5 years to complete it. It's very good. I'm glad he got the interviews when he did because Ann Miller, Jerry Orbach and John Raitt and Faye Wray to name a few have since passed away. It has some original film with Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon doing 'Whatever Lola Wants' that is to die for! There was Elaine Stritch, Julie Harris, Ben Gazarra, Gena Rowlands, Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur to name a few of the many great names of Broadway. They even had Tommy Tune! Stephen Sondheim and Frank Langella.  Many, many familiar names that I can see why this took 5 years to produce. There was even a piece on the original audition of Robert Goulet for Camelot that included Richard Burton and Julie Andrews and Moss Hart.

I never did find anything on John Karlen or Marie Wallace.  However there was a short piece with Donna McKechnie.

I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the Broadway of the 40's through the 60's.  It's terrific.

[Philippe Cordier]

Nancy and Miss Winthrop, you have sold me on both the Marie Wallace book and the Broadway DVD (though I may not be able to scrounge up the money for either one immediately).

[Nancy]

Yes, Miss Winthrop, Marie will be at the fest and have copies of her memoir with her for sale and to autograph as well if you wish.

I encourage anyone who reads the book and likes it to post a review at amazon.com and bn.com (barnes and noble) for Marie's book as that will be helpful in its promotion.  Thanks.

Nancy

Thanks for brininging this information to the board.  I'm definitely interested in purchasing it.  I suppose that Marie will have it available at this year's Fest.

I have to mention that I just got a dvd from the libary called Boardway: The Golden Age.  I've heard that there is mention of John Karlen and a short interview of Donna McKechnie in it.  I'm hoping that there will also be something about Marie in it too.

[Miss_Winthrop]

Nancy and Miss Winthrop, you have sold me on both the Marie Wallace book and the Broadway DVD (though I may not be able to scrounge up the money for either one immediately).

Hi Vlad:
I borrowered the DVD from our local library.  It's definitely not to be missed.

As a side note I also viewed American Weddings(?) from the ABC soaps.  Low and behold there is Louis Edmonds from All My Children!  Great wedding scene between him and Phoebe.  Of course they showed quite a few of Erica's many, many weddings.  It was cute especially seeing all the wedding styles from back then.

I recently talked to Comcast about getting SoapNet on our cable.  They told me they are getting quite a few requests for it but nothing concrete.  Wouldn't it be great to see Marie Wallace, Joel Carruthers(Sp) and Anthony George to name a few of the DS alumni in different roles? I have a daytime magazine from the 70's that has a story on Marie Wallace when she was in the Somerset series.