Another Movie Star Childhood Of Greed And Tears!
Written: Apr 15 '08 (Updated Apr 15 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fans get the inside scoop
Cons: It was read without emotion by Natalie's sister.
The Bottom Line: I wouldn't waste money on this audio. I have read the book and the book is better.
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| Lark729_89's Full Review: Suzanne Finstad - Natasha: The Biography of Natali... |
This 7 CD (Library edition) biography of the late Natalie Wood is read by Natalie's sister, Lana and written by Suzanne Finstad. It is a haunting story about a mysterious movie star who lived a very difficult life and died in a way she always feared...water.
The story starts with CD one on the history of Natalie's ancestors. Natalie's Russian mother, Marie, Maria, Moosia, Marusia or "Mud" as Natalie called her was a woman of many disguises...a deeply troubled woman who literally tore apart her second child.
The story tells about Mud being a 10-year-old in Siberia who fled with her family because the communists were coming to kill the "aristrocats." (She always said she came from a family of wealth.) Unable to find her favorite brother they left him behind only to return later to find him hanging from their front door. This devastated Maria and perhaps was part of the cause of her deep obsessions alongside the fact that her mother always pampered her for being a tiny child.
Natalie's mother was a small mysterious woman who spoke in whispers using hand expressions. As small as she was, she was a domineering woman and lived through Natalie pushing her daughter to the limits. A Chinese gypsy once told her that her second child was going to be a beauty and to beware of dark waters. Maria never forget the prophesy that was given to her.
When she was married she used the family food money to take her children to the theater where she would whisper in Natalie's ear what the fortune teller told her. So it's no wonder when her second child was born, Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (Natalie), she saw fit to take over the child's life pushing her into stardom.
"Mud" as Natalie called her mother, spoke of being related to the Romanovs, Russia's royal family. She told so many stories about her heritage that it was hard to believe that any of it was the truth.
Mud had Natalie quietly sit through many shows by the time she was 2 years old. Her fear of water the gypsy foretold was passed on to her daughter, Natalie. Mud forced piano lessons on her at the age of 3 against the music teacher's warning that a 3-year-old's fingers are not fully developed to play the piano. She placed Natalie in Ballet lessons.
How far would this woman go to advance her own selfish wishes to the determent of her daughter? God created her, but I invented her." she often said. While reading a newspaper, she noticed a little girl on the front page, Edna May Wonacott who Alfred Hitchcock noticed and gave Edna a part in "Shadow of a Doubt."
Mud then bought a home to be near where the producers were filming "Tomorrow is Forever." The producer, Mitchell did not want to see Natalie ruin her life. Natasha is too nice a little girl to be anything but a normal little girl. he said.
But Mud was pushy and insisted Natalie try for the part of Margaret O'Brien in the film. When Natalie failed the part, Mud used her ruthlessness by threatening Natalie with extra piano lesons if she ever slipped up on her parts in the filming. Natalie in blonde braids got the part as an Austrian refugee. There were 2 segments where she must cry. One part was where a toy gun makes a snapping noise and is supposed to remind the child of the time her parents were killed and she cries. Natalie could not cry.
Mud took care of that problem fast. She reminded Natalie of her puppy she had who was run over by a truck. Natalie cried. At one point she even went as far as getting a live butterfly and pulling off the wings in front of her daughter to make her cry. Then she yells out "She's ready.!"
Natalie was emotionally scarred from that moment on. At 6 years old she had her identity taken away. Natalie got the part and won a Blue Ribbon Award. This is where her name was changed from Natasha to Natalie Wood.
If a formula works, steal it. Mud often said. By age 7 her daughter was supporting the family. She used Natalie for her ticket to fame and fortune. Afterwards, Mud fabricated stories about how Mitchell forced Natalie into the movies.
This shameful woman formed and chiseled her daughter taking away her childhood. I neglected Lana so Natalie could be a star she admitted to a movie magazine. Lana is Mud's 3rd child and the person reading this story.
No matter what they ask you, always say yes. You can always learn later. Mud told Natalie. It is stressed many mnay times in this story how much Mud dominated Natalie. You must remember that Lana is only reading the story, she did not write it.
Mud made Natalie think she was frail and could never carry a child later in life and stressed her fear of water to her. It got so that Natalie was even frightened to have her hair washed.
Natalie's father who she referred to as "Fhad" was a kind gentle man who loved music, singing and dancing but when he was drinking he was out of his mind. When the family later moved to Burbank, Natalie was placed in public school. She said of it, I didn't like it at all. I didn't like children. I didn't think of myself as a child. Studio school had been so far advanced. I was way ahead of the kids in public school. I was bored.
Natalie got the part of Susan Walker in what started out as a low budget "B-Movie" called "The Big Heart." Just before the movie, she was already being filmed for the part of Anna Muir in the "Ghost and Mrs. Muir." Natalie was rushing back and forth from New York to California filming for both parts. It wasn't easy and from going to a British accent to an English accent must have been hard on her also.
George Seton incorporated the actual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade into "The Big Heart" and got permission to have access into the store. Later the movie was called "Miracle on 34th Street...a movie that's still seen today by millions some 60 years later.
I could tell you bits and bits of each piece of these 7 CD's but it would just take too long so I'm skipping now to the part where Natalie overdosed in 1966. I really don't know how to be except acting she often said. Her life was so messed up and it's no surprise to many people with the forceful domineering mother who stole her daughter's childhood. By age 28, Natalie had made 40 movies and 30 TV productions. It's the only life she knew.
Since age 11 she had a crush on Robert Wagner (RJ she called him.) She eventually married Wagner only to divorce him some years later. RJ represented a dream to her always pulling her towards him. Later she would marry someone else and then meet up again with Wagner and marry him again in 1972.
She married a guy named Gregg after her divorce form RJ and had a baby girl naming her Natasha, a virtual replica of herself but without intentions of taking away her baby's childhood as her mother did to her. She was quoted as saying This is the happiest moment of my life. I never knew motherhood could be so gratifying. Baby Natasha brought Natalie back from the dark side.
Natalie didn't like her mother being around her baby so she tried to keep her as far away as possible from Mud. This baby was her "lost self" and she would have the childhood Natalie never was able to have.
After divorcing Gregg she married Wagner on July 19, 1972 and had another daughter named Courtney. She created a homelife for both her daughters. She got them many pets, got involved in the PTA and thoroughly enjoyed her children. Motherhood certainly became her.
With her newfound life as a mother she even became more understanding of her mother as to the fact that she would have never been a movie star without her. Sitting on a deck with baby Courtney, she told a friend There's no movie in the world worth this little thing.
There's a controversy on the last CD of this story on the circumstances of Natalie's death by drowning. I don't think the truth will ever be revealed because the person who has it took with her in the dark waters on Catalina Island. The dark waters...how many times in Natalie's life had she heard those words?
My opinion of this audio book is that Lana Wood told the story much too fast and without emotion. It was as if her voiced just dragged on and on. It was very hard to follow what she was saying so I had to listen to the story 4 times before I even skimmed the surface of her words. The story is very long and contains many many details of the life of Mud and Natalie's life.
I believe if it was anyone else who narrated the story other than Natalie's sister then perhaps it would have been read with more emotion. Lana probably raced through the story in a monotonous tone to hide her emotions. After all, she was part of this tragic drama.
I would never listen to this story again. Some people say that the book is better where it provides many photos and has even more details, things that Lana Wood left out of her reading. I believe this is true in this case.
This was a very depressing story and really made me feel awful, not because I had to listen to it many times because It was depressing the first time I read it. I feel so sad to know the inside life of the little girl I watch every year on "Miracle on 34th Street" was a brainwashed one.
This 7 cassette version story Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood written by Suzanne Finstad would have cost $29.95 2 years ago at Waldenbooks if I had purchased it. I got it out of the local library on CD and renewed it several times.
If anyone reads the book or read it, please leave me a comment and let me know how you felt about it. Even the cassettes or CD's...I'd like to know other's opinions of Lana reading this story. Did you think it was read too fast and without emotion as I did?
Thank you for reading my review.
Recommended:
No
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