Rhinestone Cowboy: an Autobiography, Jack Nicholson: a Life, and Mia and Woody Charles F
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Bridgewater Review Volume 13 | Issue 2 Article 15 Dec-1994 Book Review: Rhinestone Cowboy: An Autobiography, Jack Nicholson: A Life, and Mia and Woody Charles F. Angell Bridgewater State College, [email protected] Recommended Citation Angell, Charles F. (1994). Book Review: Rhinestone Cowboy: An Autobiography, Jack Nicholson: A Life, and Mia and Woody. Bridgewater Review, 13(2), 28-30. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol13/iss2/15 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. ______________-----.J _ PARADISE LOST, boy wasn't really any kind of living. It PARADISE REGAINED, AND was merely existing.... On the survival THE HOTEL PARADISO scale, my family was just astep above the animals that we ate to stay alive" (5). The hough eclectic in my reading, bi reader needs no further explanation of ography as a genre doesn't really Campbell's ambition to leave Del ight and Tattract me. However, several lives never return. With the help of a sympa of show business celebrities have re thetic uncle, he teaches himself guitar. BOOK cently appeared and I decided to see what "Today, they would say I was a child I could learn about them. Do we read prodigy. That word was never used in REVIEW about famous people to see whether Billstown in 1940. They just said things they're just like us only lucky? Do we like, 'That boy can sure playa guitar.'" want confi rmation that they're really dif Campbell expresses some obligatory Charles Angell ferent from us? Do we take vicarious nostalgia for his upbringing, saying pleasure in seeing them corrupted by the things like "my dad and his country wis money and fame? There but for the grace dom comprise my fondest childhood Rhinestone Cowboy: An Autobiography of God and Michael Eisner go I? Would memories." Such fondness perhaps soft by Glen Campbell with Tom Carter celebrity convert me thus? ens his recollection of the frequent beat (Villard Books: New York, 1994) Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen Camp ings he endured from the paternal font Mia and Woody by Kristi Groteke bell's autobiography, qualifies as a con of country wisdom. Punishment in De [the Nanny] with Marjorie Rosen (Carroll version narrative. In it Campbell re light was physical, prolonged, and pain & Graf Publishers, Inc.: New York, 1994) counts his rise from impoverished Ar ful. Campbell only ceased fistfighting Jack Nicholson: A Life by kansas roots to magnificent Los Angeles when he realized damage to his hands Patrick McGilligan (W. w. Norton: fruition. In his rise was his fall, but never could end his musical career. New York, 1994) fear, Campbell tells us at the outset, God At age fifteen Campbell leaves school "never left me, even though I might have and departs for Wyoming with his Uncle left him for a time" (xiv). That "for a time" Eugene Campbell where they will play encompasses some serious wom roadhouses and honky-tonks until forced anizing and prolonged drug use to retire because the younger Campbell's and drinking. The country boy age bars his presence in such establish with his feet in L. A. finally re- ments. Campbell perseveres and gradu members that he knew Jesus ally makes his way to Los Angeles where (before he was a star) and be his talent and versatility gain him access comes a one woman man. to session musician work and ultimately "God has been merciful to me to television. He fills in with the Beach .... even when I've been mean to Boys and other noted acts of the 1950s ~ myself," Campbell says. "But and '60s. Monetary success attends his ~ of all He's given me, there efforts; he sets out to live the Hollywood ;;;"""j, '"~ is nothing for which I'm style to its fullest. He garnishes his nar -..:::.:::,;....-- more thankful than Kim." rative with anecdotes about life in Hol Campbell's beginnings were in lywood, adventures on the road, marital Billstown, Arkansas, a town so small that troubles, and personal indulgences that nobody knew where it was. Residents threaten to overwhelm him. "I'm not would tell people they came from De making excuses for what I did," he tells light, a larger (pop. 290) town some four us, "but my judgment and values were miles away. Though Campbell tries to tell distorted because of the alcohol and co us that as astar he never forgot his roots, caine" (143). he describes a childhood so impoverished Campbell finishes his autobiography no one would ever seek to return. "I'm as, in his words, "the new Glen like a lot of entertainers," Campbell Campbell." He appears regularly on the notes, "especially the ones who sing Christian Broadcast Network and Pat country music or the blues: I grew up Robertson's 700 Club. He claims to pos poor. ... The kind of poverty I knew as a sess a ministry in his music which he 28 ------------------"---------------- performs for God. Given his origins, and thing was sufficiently wrong to require court, misunderstood her, believing that the beginning chapters are the most changing the houselocks and phone she had referred to the violence done the powerful in Campbell's story, who would number. "Whatever secret dramas were women in the tragedy. Quite otherwise, deny him the right to stand before audi being played out that winter, Woody still Ms. Farrow explained; she had been ences in Branson, Missouri's "Glen came by to see Mia and the kids regu thinking of Hecuba's "struggle to main Campbell Goodtime Theatre" and end his larly, so Ifigured they were trying to work tain her moral roots and I felt during this show as he says he always does singing their problems through" (76). But with period of time that that was an issue for 'Amazing Grace.' Ms. Farrow's accusation, made on Au me.... I explained to Dr. Schultz what "Someday Kristi," Mia Farrow gust4, 1992, that Mr. Allen had molested the moral dilemma was, and that Hecuba tells her college student nanny, another daughter, the had been unsuccessful "(205). Ms. Far "you can write your own book eight year old Dylan, any row casts herself as the desolated Queen about all this" (11). Agraceful of . further attempts to work crying" 0 children hear me; it is your fer not to be resisted, Kristi ~• throu·gh the problems mother who calls." Groteke tells what her book's : ceased. In fact, since the Mr. Allen can hardly be cast as atragic dust jacket hypes as "the first molestation occurred on a figure. Ms. Groteke presents Mr. Allen true insider's story" of Ms. day when Ms. Groteke had as a case of life imitating art, and the art Farrow's legal battle with film charge of the younger chil standing as a record of his life. She yields maker Woody Allen, her lover dren, she, to her dismay, Mr. Allen no sympathy, and truth to tell, for thirteen years, for the cus §found herself a player in the he probably deserves none. For Mr. Allen, tody of their biological and ~ drama. Ms. Farrow's children, at Frog Hollow with Ms. Farrow and the adopted children. The facts of 14 Dylan and Satchel, unwilling children, everything's coming up neu "all this" concern Mr. Allen's liaison with performers, decide sometime in roses. He tries to depict himself as Soon-yi, Ms. Farrow's adopted daughter, 1993 to change their names. Dylan wrongly and spitefully accused of molest and Ms. Farrow's subsequent allegation chooses Eliza "because she was so ing Dylan. But Mr. Allen's affair with that Mr. Allen had molested another charmed by Audrey Hepburn's perfor Soon-yi is fact and places him in a role daughter, Dylan, in August 1992. On mance as Eliza Doolittle in the movieMy quite other than the nerdy, neurotic per June 7, 1993 a court did in fact award Fair Lady" (216). Satchel, Allen and sona so familiar to us from his films. Mr. Ms. Farrow custody, much to Mr. Allen's Farrow's only biological son, selects Allen's liaison with Soon-yi, rather than bitter and continuing dismay.(He has Harmon, a name he found in his recalling any of his film characters, just recently announced that should he mother's Filofax list of names for new brings to mind his short story, "The not receive legal vindication, he will pro adoptions. Ms. Groteke tells us that Mr. Klugelmass Episode," where the narra duce a film offering his side of the story.) Allen was furious about the name tor is invited by Klugelmass to enter a Ms. Groteke enters Ms. Farrow's changes, though the childrens' thera futuristic contraption that can place him Bridgewater, Connecticut household as pists "felt that these changes might help in the scene of any book he chooses. The a player in Summer Vacation and finds them put the bad times behind them" narrator chooses Madame Bovary, has herselfAlice in Wonderland chronicling (216). Tellingly, Dylan hits upon the an affair with Emma, brings her to Man the Brady Bunch. The penumbra of these name of our modern Pygmalion, the hattan, takes her back to Youville, and facts as Ms. Groteke relates them casts woman molded and trained by an older promises to return and liberate her from two self-absorbed celebrities, personally man whom she loves but who can not the boring, provincial town forever. Un and professionally united, who attempt and will not marry her. Small wonder fortunately, the machine malfunctions to ruin one another. Mr. Allen was furious at her choice.