i was initially planning to read
Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee
by Peter Richmond, but when I picked it up from my to-read pile, I found it of course referenced this earlier autobiography, and since I owned it, too, I made the swap. I'll save the other book for another day.
If you're under 50 and you know or remember Peggy Lee at all, you might think of her as the weird old lady in the sequinned caftans, severe white hairdo, and giant sunglasses. She always seemed to be on Entertainm
i was initially planning to read
Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee
by Peter Richmond, but when I picked it up from my to-read pile, I found it of course referenced this earlier autobiography, and since I owned it, too, I made the swap. I'll save the other book for another day.
If you're under 50 and you know or remember Peggy Lee at all, you might think of her as the weird old lady in the sequinned caftans, severe white hairdo, and giant sunglasses. She always seemed to be on Entertainment Tonight, suffering from some health problem or another. If you're over 50, you know the song "Is That All There Is" or "Fever" or the music from
Lady and the Tramp
, maybe more. I can't even remember why I became a fan of Miss Peggy Lee, but I'm mad about her, and since uploading her 4-cd compilation onto my new ipod, I love her even more. She was a talented songwriter, and a brilliant singer and interpreter of music.
This autobiography, written (and supposedly NOT ghost-written) in the late 1980s, is more of an episodic recap than a strict autobiography, especially when it moves beyond Miss Lee's horrible childhood. Young Norma Egstrom's father was an alcoholic railroad worker; her mother died when Norma was a young child. Her stepmother was something out of a fairy tale. The worst came when ten year-old Peggy/Norma, after spending 10 days in the hospital with appendicitis and peritonitis, comes home to stepmother Min, who demands Peggy scrub the kitchen floor. After hauling her bucket of water to the kitchen and getting down on her hands and knees, Peggy is kicked by Min until her sutures pop open, and she must tape herself back up until the next doctor visit.
Things move along speedily after Peggy leaves home, sings with Benny Goodman's orchestra, and becomes a star. This book never delves too deeply into Miss Lee's recording sessions, film career, or four marriages. Her first husband, David Barbour, was also a debilitated alcoholic who eventually divorced her rather than make the both of them miserable. Miss Lee's myriad illnesses are also mostly left to the imagination; she often mentions surgery, fevers, or general sickness, but rarely goes into detail as to the nature of the complaint. The picture inserts are in no seeming order, and in one, Frank Morgan is miscredited as having portrayed the Cowardly Lion, and not the Wizard himself.
All this being said, I still enjoyed this book, and came away from it still loving Peggy Lee, eccentricities and all.
...more
This autobiography is a fun read. Peggy Lee was very bright and sexy, and knew how to deliver a song. I enjoyed learning about her childhood, her confidence, and how she broke into the music business.