If This Was Happiness: Biography of Rita Hayworth

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Summary: The tragic life of Hollywood's "Love Goddess"
Review: Leaming takes a psychological approach to her film star subjects, backed up by key interviews and archival and print documentation. The story of Rita Hayworth, Hollywood's Love Goddess, is poignant and well told. Hayworth was identified with her screen role, Gilda, the fiery, redhaired temptress who drove men wild. In real life, though, as she was supposed to have said, "Men go to bed with Gilda and wake up with me," a sad and ironic commentary on movie-fed fantasy. None of her five marriages lasted long, and she was involved in countless lawsuits with husbands, her studio (Columbia), and ex-husbands. Leaming posits a possible reason for her failures as a lover, wife, and mother, that is, that she may have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Eduardo Cansino. Mature-looking beyond her years and a talented dancer, she was her father's dance partner at 12, working to support her family in gambling casinos and other dives south of the border. Leaming backs up her assertions by relating Hayworth's adult behavior to that of incest survivors. She makes a provocative case, but since Hayworth died prematurely of Alzheimer's disease and never spoke on the subject, it has to remain pure--but nonetheless tantalizing--speculation. A fascinating read, and a sad one.

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Summary: Wonderful biograhy of Rita Hayworth
Review: This is a wonderful biography of Rita Hayworth my favorite of all the biography's oh her. I think Mrs. Leaming did a wonderful job on the people she interviewed including rare informantion from Rita's second husband Orson Welles which she also wrote a biography on. I recommened this book to every Rita fan.

A great biography on one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the screen.