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REluctant Witness: Robert Taylor, Hollywood & Communism
Category:
Biography
Publisher: BearManor Media
ISBN-10: 159393968X
Pages: 444
Copyright: Jul 23, 2016
ISBN-13: 9781593939687
The Man With the Perfect Profile, Hollywood's Longest Lasting Contract Actor
Robert Taylor was a reluctant, yet active, witness to history—Hollywood’s, the country’s, his own. He was dubbed “The Man With the Perfect Profile.” Reluctant Witness: Robert Taylor, Hollywood & Communism goes inside the personality to find the flesh-and-blood man underneath. The actor’s meteoric rise was credited to his “pretty boy” looks, an image encouraged by MGM when studios owned their actors and created public personas. This, coupled with the sheltered, almost emasculating childhood he had endured, created in him a survivor who rose above family, the studio system, Barbara Stanwyck, and, as what he considered to be a curse, one of the most beautiful male faces in Hollywood history.
This book delves into his marriage to Barbara Stanwyck, as well as usually discreet, but intense, love affairs. Beauties such as Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, and Yvonne DeCarlo fell under his spell. Attention is paid to his second marriage to Ursula Thiess, which brought about his roles as father and husband. Robert Taylor finally found happiness.
A reluctant witness to the Second World War and what led up to it, Robert Taylor was a staunch Conservative, subpoenaed before the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee hearings on Communism in American Films. He enlisted in the Navy. Afterward, he returned to civilian life, Hollywood, and Barbara. He and his wife had changed. He became a reluctant witness to their relationship’s deterioration.
He watched Hollywood evolve, ultimately becoming the longest-running contract actor in film history. He was a reluctant witness to the dawn of television; initially he wanted none of it. When he realized he had to go along or by the wayside, he gave in.
In later years, he was a reluctant witness again to ever-changing winds of politics. Friends and compatriots who shared his ultra-Conservative views wanted him to stand publicly for shared values. They saw him as the right leader to move their state forward. Yet he was reluctant. Robert Taylor’s career spanned nearly the entire history of Hollywood, from early days to beyond the fall of the strict studio system.
His life was the American dream, from naïve, small-town Nebraska boy to a celluloid heartthrob known around the world. Reluctant Witness: Robert Taylor, Hollywood, & Communism tells it all.
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I don't know how you are able to write the stories of so many Hollywood people. Hopefully you have first-hand contact with them if they're still alive and with their children and associates, if they are not. Biography is very important for history and I'm glad you are doing it for such notable people as Robert Taylor. Unfortunately, if you ask people on the street who Robert Taylor is/was you will probably get a blank look or be told, "Honestly, I don't know," from anyone other than movie buffs and those over 60. We easily forget or never learn.
Ron