First published 1985
Shirley MacLaine opens her life to readers, starting with her childhood in Richmond, Virginia, where she danced her way through adolescence with dreams bigger than her surroundings. She moves to New York as a young woman, determined to make it on Broadway despite having little money and no connections. The theater world proves brutal, filled with rejections and small parts that barely pay rent. Her big break comes when she replaces an injured star in "The Pajama Game," launching her toward Hollywood and a film career that brings both success and personal upheaval. MacLaine navigates the studio system, difficult directors, and her own evolving sense of identity as she travels from Japan to Europe, searching for meaning beyond fame. She explores relationships that challenge her, spiritual questions that consume her, and the price of living authentically in an industry built on illusion. This memoir captures a woman refusing to settle for conventional paths.
Genres: drama, 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, self-discovery
Setting: Europe, Japan, Richmond, Virginia
Period: 20th Century
304 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Bantam