Frances Farmer: Shadowland

Rating:
Summary: A search for the real truth behind a forgotten actress.
Review: From the late 1930's to the early 40's, Frances Farmer was the most promising young Hollywood star and a gifted performer on the New York stage. Blessed with a sharp intellect, exceptional acting talent, and stunning beauty, she shot to the top of stardom in what seemed a Cinderella story and fascinated millions of fans. However, Frances Farmer was a strong-willed, independent thinker at a time when such behavior, especially by a woman, was not generally accepted. She quickly clashed with her studio, the Broadway community, and the public over her associations with socialist and human rights causes. In both high school and college, her controversial religious perspective and politcal leanings had made powerful enemies in her hometown of Seattle, Washington with the political right and anti- communist vigilantes. After becoming disallusioned with both Hollywood and Broadway, she encountered legal troubles with convictions for drunk driving and assault, though never allowed legal defense or advice. That this violatiion of basic rights could occur in the United States is almost unbelieveable. Yet, no evidence of intoxication was ever presented, and the assault on a female co-worker may very well have been caused by abuse of amphetamines, ironically recommended by a doctor to control her weight and available over the counter at a time when no one knew of the potential side effects. Instead of serving her jail sentence, she mysteriously found herself forced into a public mental institution in her hometown known as Steilacoom - a place so brutal that it should go down in history as the equivalent of any Nazi concentration camp. The life of Frances Farmer is inseparable from the issues of psychiatric abuse of mental patients, freedom of religion and politics, and freedom of speech because it was her opinions and words that were used as a basis for her alleged insanity. In essence, she was punished for her views and her outspokeness with six years of institutionalization in a hellhole incredibly understaffed, where the "worst" cases (those considered too anti-social, violent, psychotic, criminals, senile, and retarded children) were housed in a huge, grossly crowded room with a dirt floor and left to fend for themselves. Nude patients screamed, cried, and fought with each other and the rats for the food that was routinely thrown on the floor for them - the same floor covered in urine and excrement. Patients took sexual liberties with each other, the strong terrorizing the weak, and many patients suffered from malnutrition and near starvation. The few interns who worked this dungeon were prison inmates on a work program, who supplemented their incomes by prostituting female patients, mostly to the soldiers at the local army base. (Some of the same soldiers glorified as heroes for WWII when their crimes made them unworthy of even being spit on). In fact, the institution was commonly referred to as Seattle's whorehouse, where women were systematically raped by drunken soldiers while orderlies held them down. Being a former movie star and still beautiful, Frances was subjected to hundreds of such rapes - with the full knowledge of most, if not all the institution's staff, who kept quiet about these crimes for decades, making them virtual accomplices. With no one to help her, and a publicity seeking mother who wanted to vicariously enjoy her daughter's star status or keep her put away as punishment, Frances was at the mercy of sexist and arrogant psychiatrists who used endless rounds of severe shock treatment and massive doses of experimental drugs to break her will - all illegally administered due to a lack of consent from even her bizarre mother. In spite of her father's threats to sue if these medical egomaniacs performed a lobotomy, there is ample evidence that one was done anyway, leaving Frances a pathetic and confused shell of her former self, almost completely unable to memorize lines for acting, drinking regularly, and unresisting to the sexual advances of any man. In short, she became a human robot, while her doctors paraded their "success" with her for their own professional advancement. This biography is really a true story of what happens when the heads of the "concentration camp" get away with it all and die highly regarded men, while the lives of countless inmates are destroyed. As the Washington State population sat by in spite of newspaper stories revealing some of the appalling conditions at Steilacoom, the horrors unfolded without most of these "patriotic" Americans doing a damned thing to stop them. After reading this book, you won't ever again have to wonder how so many people were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered in Nazi Germany with the apathy or ignorance of the public - because what happened to Frances Farmer (and tens of thousands of Americans thrown into abusive institutions for real illness or on the whim of a relative or psychiatrist) is proof that we as Americans are no better and no less guilty than the Germans of the same period.

Rating:
Summary: Shadowlands
Review: I found my copy in a used bookstore. I can't believe anyone would want to give it up. What an amazing story. It should still be in print, as people still talk about Frances Farmer. I liked this even better than "Will There Really Be A Morning" because it went deeper into her life, and more accurately, since the "autobiography" was in fact written by Frances's friend after her death. I had some trouble believing some of the incidents actually happened, or if they were exaggerated. "Shadowlands" talks about her life before and after Hollywood (as well as the Steilicomb years). However, the author writes about the "This Is Your Life" episode: "seeing it was a truly devestating experience", and says Frances barely uttered a word and was zoned out. We must have seen different shows. I saw that episode too and she looked perfectly fine to me, and she DID speak a lot. Anyway, good book.

Rating:
Summary: Shadowlands
Review: I read this book having first read the powerful book (please read this book), "Will There Really Be A Morning?". A lot of the questions I was left with following my completion of that book were answered by reading "Shadowland" and I think it is a well-written book that is worth the time to find and read. Frances Farmer's story is tragic and thought-provoking and Arnold's book gives a comprehensive look at Frances triumphs and tragedies. I would recommend reading "Will There Really Be A Morning?" by Frances Farmer (partially) (both books are easy to find on Ebay) before reading this book. It will make the story more interesting and easier to follow.

Rating:
Summary: Frances Farmer: Shadowland by William Arnold
Review: This book should be on the MUST READ list of all students in any branch of the human service field. Although blunt at times it remains factual through-out. The author was good about letting fact speak for itself and not falling prey to the "want" to embellish in order to make a great drama. You start out thinking that the events of Frances Farmer's life could never happen - at least not with the ease at which they did. And they centainly could not continue. The book answers many questions. But they may not be what you expect.
I am not one who reads often but I had a hard time staying away from this one. If you are one who has a hard time concentrating for long periods of time you can stop anywhere and pick up the book again; you do not need to wait until the end of a chapter. I have not seen the move that was made from the book called "Frances", which I understand is quite good also, and I am not sure I would want to take the chance on spoiling an excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: Superior story of psychiatric rape
Review: This is an exceptional biography in several respects.

The author is thoughtful and perceptive, visiting his subject with exemplary sensitivity, care, and objectivity. He can also write with clarity and nuance.

Most importantly, Arnold was the rare person not blinded by the self-serving claims of psychiatrists. He puts his finger squarely on psychiatry as the agent of conformity that slapped the cuffs and the gag on Farmer, and eventually stripped her of her humanity. The psychiatrists were the agents of the state assigned to make sure that the actress didn't embarass her family or disturb the peace. The most respected mental health professionals of the time turned her into a vacant remnant.

It isn't as though Farmer wasn't really disturbing. She thumbed her nose at her parents, polite society, and legal authorities. But the price she paid was monstrously disproportionate. And what was done to Farmer in the name of "mental health" and conformity has been and continues to be done to millions of other Americans. What makes her case unique is that she wasn't poor, invisible, and utterly powerless. At least at first. By the time the psychiatrists were done with here she was harmless vapor, her spirit shredded.

The epilogue to this fine book is a cautionary tour de force.

Don't hesitate to buy Shadowland. If tells an important story about the "therapeutic state" that is now America. It easily transcends the genre of celebrity biography.