Jim Manago: "Sometimes The Best Things In Life Seem To Come By ACCIDENT..."

Hazel says...

In episode #110 of Hazel, "A Lesson in Diplomacy," Hazel ventilates her disgust by telling off a Soviet Commissar (Oskar Homolka). Hazel says: "You come to this country looking for a fight....knocking Thanksgiving, slamming democracy and sneering at America...fair is fair - I just couldn't take it anymore."

*****

For those readers who are just discovering this blog devoted to the amazing Shirley Booth, here is reprinted the Introduction to my first book, Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story, by Jim Manago, published by BearManor Media, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

I offer the following correction to the published manuscript: reruns of Hazel were not broadcast on New York's WPIX-TV Channel 11, but rather they were shown on WNEW-TV Channel 5.

Sometimes the best things in life seem to come by accident. However, as I’ve seen many times in my life, there are few accidents.

It seems I discovered the impressive diversity and acting skill of Shirley Booth quite by accident. My familiarity with Booth came from viewing reruns of Hazel in the late 1960s on a New York local television station (perhaps it was WPIX Channel 11). Along with The Munsters, I Love Lucy, The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Laurel & Hardy, and a dozen or so other television programs, my after school viewing habits included watching a funny maid named Hazel.

Hazel stood out from every other show I watched. She amused me as that smart, sassy take-charge woman that seemed to always get her way. By comparison, Lucy always compromised somehow or got her comeuppance for trying to upstage or outsmart Ricky. Things did not always work out for Lucy. However, Hazel stood her ground and won out. I admired her unique common sense wisdom. Hazel’s way of doing something may have seemed quirky to Mr. Baxter or Missy, but she had common-sense wisdom that changed things for the better. In short, I quickly came to love the self-assured character of Hazel.

What seemed to be an accident one day, perhaps when I was about fourteen years old, I saw a television listing for a Shirley Booth movie called Come Back, Little Sheba. I watched it - expecting the Hazel character and realizing quickly how different the character of Lola was. Lola opened up to me another aspect to Shirley Booth that I was completely unaware of. To my amazement, I learned from one of my film books that this Sheba actually celebrated on film Booth’s first love and real home; namely, the theater. This other side to Shirley Booth captivated me. I wanted to see more of her non-Hazel roles.

After viewing Booth playing Lola, I learned of the incredible range of this gifted actress. Unfortunately, to my dismay, Booth’s Broadway or stock theater performances were not filmed as far as I could determine. So the closest I could ever come to understanding the critics’ considerable esteem for her is the audio from a few cast albums that were made.

Just a sample of Booth’s delightful singing on the cast album for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is enough to wish there was a time machine so that I could have been there in the audience of that and so many of her other Broadway shows.

Although I completed a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies, and had written dozens of articles and columns on movies, and studied the careers of many in the business, the thought that someday I would be Shirley Booth’s biographer never came to mind. That too seemed to come by accident.

At the 2004 Friends of Old Time Radio Convention in Newark, New Jersey, I met up with publisher Ben Ohmart. A conversation developed as Ben showed me a list of upcoming books his company intended to publish. I responded to the name of Shirley Booth on his list by asking, "Who’s writing that? He replied, "Why, are you interested?" From that moment on, my involvement quickly grew . . . Inevitably, I agreed to do Shirley’s biography..

While working on this project with me, my darling wife Donna came to one very important realization: "Shirley Booth did not allow her personal sorrows to overshadow her performances." How true that is! I thank Donna for her research assistance and love throughout this project.

And last but not least, my thanks to my mother Marie and to my late father Joseph for cultivating my interest in the movies at a very young age.

When asked to define herself, Booth responded, "Well, I would say that I was an enigma." This book is a fervent attempt to unravel some of Booth’s enigma. However, many of those that knew her personally or who worked with her are deceased. Some of the few survivors, perhaps due to their advanced age, poor health, and/or disinterest, have not been willing to participate at all in this biography. Thus, I quickly learned the immense difficulty and problems inherent in trying to fairly capture and summarize 94 years of living into the confines of a 200-page book, especially with the limitations of obtaining, verifying, and selecting information. Nonetheless, whatever life this book takes on, my intention has always been to be as accurate as humanly possible and stay true to the essence of Shirley Booth’s impressive life. I have never been a fan of tell-all scandal sheet biographies, which actively seek out sensational anecdotes and rumors to shock readers as well as to taint, wreck or destroy a person’s good name. Much of the time, such biographies are geared to increasing the sale of books. I have sought a higher ground by balancing the need and right for the public to know the truth with a reasonable scale of verification to substantiate information and be fair to the deceased. As a result, I believe I have honored and respected Shirley Booth.

Anyone with further information regarding Shirley Booth is welcome to contact me in care of the publisher for future publications. The ultimate tribute will be when Shirley Booth’s story is depicted on Broadway where she devoted so much of her time and energy. Until then, it is hoped this biography will serve her memory well.

Shirley Booth once said, "I feel sorry for people that don’t have the pleasure of acting because I think it’s a great release." I experienced that pleasure whenever my cousin Joseph Nizzari would visit my family in Richmond Hill, New York. He encouraged and indulged my interest in acting and cinematography by recreating Abbott & Costello routines, gangster movie skits, and so forth. I wish he could have lived to see this book in print. With much sadness, I dedicate this book in memory of him.

I learned many things while researching this book, one message in particular: Despite the numerous difficulties engendered on the bumpy road of life, there is always the possibility that success and good results from a life lived with passion and love. Shirley Booth’s life is such a story. . . .

May this book inspire both young and old. May this book reawaken warm and joyful memories for some that lived during her heyday. Finally, may this book significantly memorialize the ever-popular and always charming Shirley Booth - a real trouper with her own unique contribution to the world of entertainment.

Jim Manago

*****

THANKS FOR VISITING!

JOIN ME AGAIN TOMORROW!

*****
For purchasing any of my books, you can visit Amazon.com
You can also check www.bookfinder.com
which offers the best prices on new & used copies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com

*****

Now available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076ZCBM2

Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com