Myrna Loy – Being and Becoming

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A risk of reading the autobiography of a person whose work or life you’ve appreciated and admired is that you sometimes discover you don’t really like them after all.  Fortunately, that’s not the case with Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming. 

Life of the Rich and Famous

Loy makes it clear she loved being rich and famous, she loved hobnobbing with the rich and famous, and she loved being admired by the rich and famous (such as President Franklin Roosevelt).  As arrogant as that sounds, somehow it doesn’t come across that way.

She presents many “backroom” anecdotes about the people with whom she hangs.  Her text is interspersed with dozens of photographs taken throughout her life.  It would be hard to read the text and see the pictures, and not like what you see.

Too Many Facts

However, the book still isn’t great.  Loy provides many facts about her life, so you get a lot of “what”, but not much “how” or “why”.  For instance, she says she hated The Song of the Thin Man—the last of the six-film series—but she doesn’t say why. She mentions she had an abortion just prior to her first marriage—a common procedure today, of course, but illegal in 1935.  Despite the legal and personal significance, the discussion is limited to three or four short sentences.   

A large portion of the book deals with Loy’s politics and activism.  That’s an interesting and commendable side to her.  But you’d like to hear more about those great movies in the 1930s and 1940s, and perhaps a bit less about the politics.

In the final analysis, if you must choose how to invest your time, my suggestion is to watch her remarkable movies and save Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming for later.

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