This book is a competent run through of the sleepy-eyed film star's career--heavy on anecdotes about his brawling, boozing, rebellious ways. Raised by his determined, plucky widowed mother Ann, Bob was later sent--with sister Julie--to his grandfather's farm in Delaware, while his mother worked and remarried. Some of his family and friends feel these traumas produced a feeling of abandonment and loneliness that has haunted him all his life. Mitchum...

"Ethel Merman, a living legend who was long Broadway's undisputed queen of musical comedy, tells about her fascinating life in this fast-moving autobiography packed with surprising anecdotes and brimming with humor. 'If you are interested in hearing about me, my career, my ups, my downs and some of my mistakes, ' she says early on in the book, 'I think you'll get it straight from the shoulder because that's the kind of woman I am.' Born Ethel Zimmermann...