Barbra Streisand

 Divas: Barbra Streisand

No entertainer on this planet could have more discovered the Grammy Legend Award presented to Barbra Streisand in 1992. In a career spanning forty years she has sold over 120 million albums and her sixteen films have grossed $1.5 billion. She has figured ten times in the Top Ten Box Office Stars list. She has won two Oscars, a Tony, the London Drama Critics Award (for Funny Girl) in 1966, ten Golden Globes (more than any other star), six People's Choice awards, four Georgies, the New York Times Drama Critics' Poll (her first award) for I Can Get It For You Wholsale, four Emmys, and eight Grammys...to name but a few!

On and off the stage and screen, in or out of the studio, Barbra Streisand's musical achievements have been legendary. As an ambassadress and tireless campaigner for political and social issues, she reigns supreme. This is her story.

Dorothy Squires

 

Dorothy Squires Tortured Diva: An Intimate Portrait By Her Friend & Confidant

This is the first ever biography of Dorothy Squires, for a half a decade one of Britain’s most feted singers, by her friend and confidant, David Bret. They met at the height of the BBC Payola scandal, and remained close for 26 years. In this book, much of which is told in Dorothy’s own words and confidences, we learn of her triumphs and tragedies, her love affairs—the tempestuous ones with bandleader-composer Billy Reid and the actor Roger Moore, whom she married—and those she kept secret from all but her most intimate circle. Bret and Dorothy Squires never hold back when discussing the ups and downs of her life. Her refusal to grant Moore his freedom after their marriage failed. Her ferocious spats with “the establishment” which saw her banned on television and radio, and resulted in impresarios turning their backs on her until she affected one of the most spectacular comebacks in show business history. The fight to clear her name when she was arrested and accused of corruption. Her name being included on entertainment blacklists in France and America. Her sad and untimely fall from grace, brought about by the many frivolous lawsuits which left her virtually penniless and resulted in her being declared a vexatious litigant, and which saw her evicted from her home and taken in by friends. And finally, her lonely demise, and the fights over her estate. Dorothy Squires’ life was a veritable rollercoaster ride of intense, frequently almost unbearable emotion, but as Bret reveals in this fascinating and alternatively moving and sardonically humorous book, it was a wonderful life. Dorothy Squires: Troubled Diva contains over forty photographs and a complete UK and international discography. David Bret is one of Britain’s leading show business biographers. He has also published novels, two factual books about The Wars of the Roses, appeared in around thirty films and television documentaries, and made over 700 radio broadcasts.

Quotes from the book: Dorothy Squires: "What drives me is the applause. Once it's there in the bloodstream, you can't get it out. It's not the pay-cheque, it's the feeling that an audience loves you." Roger Moore, former husband: "I don't think you can develop a charisma. Either you have it or you don't have it, and she had it."

Clark Gable

Clark Gable: Tormented Star

Clark Gable was the archetypal Hollywood supermensch, the kind of man red-blooded women lusted after, and whom their envious husbands yearned to be. Yet, as David Bret reveals, Gable was also bisexual, a facet of his complex persona that was airbrushed out of the picture in an age when such men were invariably mocked as effete and lily-livered.

Bret recounts Gable's two failed marriages to women who turned a blind eye towards his affairs with men, including actors Earl Larimore, Johnny Mack Brown, William Haines and Rod LaRoque - men whom Gable outed to the press to prevent himself from being outed. Bret also reveals exclusively that Gable's wartime "heroics", which saw him promoted through the ranks from private to major in less than a year, were no more than an elaborate publicity stunt which subsequenty embarrassed the US government. Like an earlier paternity suit, also revealed here in full detail, it was an exercise dreamed up by studio chief Lous B. Mayer to prove that Gable was a "regular guy" in an age when many thought that gay or bisexual men were physically incapable of fathering children or fighting in a war.

In the perfect companion to Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr, Bret draws on a wealth of unpublished material to examine every aspect of Clark Gable's career and personal life, telling his story as it has never been told before - wholly uncensored, with accuracy and passion.

Mistinguett

 The Mistinguett Legend

Rebelling against the harsh dictates of a conventional Catholic upbringing, Jeanne Bourgeois nurtured a burning ambition to appear on the French stage from an early age. At eighteen she was engaged by the Eldorado as an "added attraction"...less than a decade later, as Mistinguett, she had become the toast of Paris. Even the acid-tongued writer Colette was forced to admit, "Mistinguett is more than just a monument, she is national property!"

During a career which spanned some sixty years, her temper and meanness became almost as famous as her panache of plumes and exotic costumes, her fabulous million-dollar legs, and the handful of songs she delivered quaintly but sincerely in her own inimitable way.

Her countless love affairs with the famous made her infamous. One such with Maurice Chevalier made them 'the most famous couple in Paris', and added spice to headlines around the world. Colleagues and lovers alike admitted to being terrified of her, yet her public - for whom she would have done absolutely anything - only adored her, flocking to see her in droves.

In this frank and colourful biography, David Bret brings us the true story of this exciting and formidable woman in all her decadent glory.

Maria Callas

 Maria Callas: The Tigress and The Lamb

Hers was the archetypal tale of the ugly duckling who with sheer willpower and courage of conviction transformed herself into the most beautiful of swans. Maria Calogeropoulos, the shy awkward daughter of Greek immigrants, rose like a shooting star to become the greatest operatic dica of the 20th century.

By applying the experiences and emotions of her own troubled life, Callas was able to climb inside the skin of each of her heroines and bring these often wretched women to life in a unique way.

Yet Callas's greatest role was herself, the temperamental diva whose tantrums and walk-outs were almost as sensational as her entrances, the condummate professional who had no patience with time-wasters or second-raters, the voluptuous siren whose ability to seduce brought her a series of relationships which were destined to be doomed. Oscar, the enemy soldier so cruelly wrenched from her. Ross-Lemeni and Mangliveras, the opera stars who used her, only to find the tables turned on themselves. Meneghini, the man who fashioned her career and married her, only to discover he could not tame the tigress. Visconti, Bernstein and Pasolini, homosexuals she attempted to 'cure'...and the greatest love of her life, Aristotle Onassis, whose death set her on a rapid downward spiral.

Off and on the stage, Maria Callas was the Sacred Goddess. This is her story.