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Stone Wallace

Autor(a) de Black Ransom

14 Works 58 Membros 3 Reviews

Obras de Stone Wallace

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Conhecimento Comum

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male

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Resenhas

 
Marcado
BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
Having posted a review for the earlier Yablonsky bio of Raft, of whom I’m a fan, it occurred to me that I should post nearly an identical review for Stone Wallace’s bio, which I read and rated five stars long ago. Both these bios are marvelous, and both are recommended by me.

I didn’t go into minute detail about incidents and aspects of Raft’s life in my review of the terrific Yablonsky bio, so I won’t here either. Though there are different stories and incidents dealt with in each, both are excellent, and the cover of Stone Wallace’s book is tops. Raft was a man of contradictions because he lived by his own code. He was certainly the real deal, unlike a ton of other Hollywood stars. Cagney knew that, and said so publicly. Raft was kind, a gentlemen, yet he also had a volatile temper, a genuine tough guy off the screen when need be. He was also at a moment’s notice, ready to give you the shirt off his back if you were down on your luck. Lucille Ball could have told you. Raft lived lavishly, yes, and he loved the opposite sex. It’s not a crime. Yes, he had a lot of shady friends, though he himself had only skirted around the business coming up. How much he skirted around it is still a bit fuzzy, but he definitely wasn’t a gangster. He had the same status though, and he knew a lot of those guys. He was, in essence, a “made” guy without being a part of it. Like Allen Iverson in basketball, Raft refused to ignore the good qualities and friendships of old pals once he was a star — a much bigger star than most people today realize. Those associations, the perception of them, cost him dearly in the end.

Being such a good guy and living by his own code rather than that of others while in the public eye cost Raft dearly. Yet Raft looked back on the 1930s and 1940s as the best time of his life. I love Raft films and I love Raft, and this second and later warts and all examination of his life and career did no more to dissuade me of that opinion than the older one. In real time, Raft was adored by fans, the man and woman on the street. They could identify with Raft because they felt he was not only genuine, but one of their own — a talented guy who’d got lucky and made the most of it. And they were right. Raft lived the good life, and he was willing to share it with others, even to his detriment.

Raft’s tale is not without tragedy, especially of the romantic kind. He had a wife who refused to divorce him so that he could make a new life with — anyone. Those anyones included Virginia Hill, Norma Shearer, and Betty Grable, who as another reviewer noted, said in all seriousness she fell in love instantly and would have married Raft after the first date. So much for modern readers who scoff at romantic love happening quick for some, as though it never happens, yet embrace all manner of insta-sex, which also sometimes happens. It perhaps says something sad about society that the deeper and more sentimental connection, such as Grable felt, is the one modern readers reject in fiction…

Raft reached a point where his heart where his heart had become so frustrated, missing out time and again at marital bliss due to an ex sticking it to him, that he threw up his hands and gave up. He decided instead to enjoy the opposite sex without the prospect of attachment, if you get my drift. Raft’s endeavors are legendary, more than one trustworthy female confirming that Raft put Flynn and Barrymore to shame. Yet the defeat in that choice — which is what it was — is also sad. It was never what Raft wanted or preferred, but as Raft basically said, he had to give up on the dream. He cared deeply for Hill, Shearer, and Grable. Raft would have loved to remarry, but he couldn’t, so he lost out on love and happiness.

Some would call certain career choices by Raft misguided and foolish, but Raft had his insecurities, and his code. He wanted to be remembered a certain way. Sadly, he is often dismissed by critics and remembered as a gangster, which he wasn’t, or, in today’s climate of feminist double standards and misandry, a lout, which he also wasn’t. Both Stone Wallace’s bio and that of Yablonsky, which I also recommend, paint a picture of a flawed man whose good qualities far outweighed the suspect ones. Raft was no Olivier, but he’s also underrated, an intuitive actor who relied on the character becoming George Raft, rather than the other way around. It worked, because the public loved and adored him in real time, despite how he’s viewed today. How beloved he was is evident from the list of people who came to his aid — he never would have asked, he was too proud — when a lot of things began to go south for him later in life.

If you don’t like Raft and have a better understanding of him as an individual, and as a star personality after reading this bio and/or Yablonsky’s, well, that’s on you. Bios are more often than not salacious nonsense, gossip and half-truths. None more so than bios of Hollywood stars from the 1930s and 1940s. The bigger the star, the worse the bio, generally. Yet here is a huge star who has not one, but two very excellent bios. That alone should tell you about the kind of guy George Raft was…
… (mais)
 
Marcado
Matt_Ransom | 1 outra resenha | Oct 6, 2023 |
Too much plots of films and not enough about George himself.
½
 
Marcado
knahs | 1 outra resenha | Mar 30, 2010 |

Estatísticas

Obras
14
Membros
58
Popularidade
#284,346
Avaliação
3.9
Resenhas
3
ISBNs
31

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