In 1936, actress Mary Astor was embroiled in a nasty, headline-grabbing custody battle with her second husband, Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, over their young daughter. Thorpe stole two 200-page ledgers that Astor used as diaries to detail her amorous adventures in Hollywood and the numerous affairs she, Thorpe and many Hollywood's luminaries were conducting. Leaking pages from these diaries to the press, Thorpe threatened to ruin Astor's career by exposing her ongoing affair with married playwright George S. Kaufman. Many film studios also feared that revealed intimate details could tarnish the images of her friends and costars, including MGM head Irving Thalberg and his wife, Norma Shearer. Joseph Egan's meticulously researched and compulsively readable The Purple Diaries re-creates the two-month court hearing and simultaneous media frenzy through diary excerpts, vintage reporting, court transcripts and new interviews.
Astor emerges as a complex and fascinating person. "Brought up to be hard on herself, she was equally hard on those around her," writes Egan. While neither warm nor nurturing, she was willing to risk her livelihood to prevent her daughter from being raised the way that had stunted her own childhood. Egan does an outstanding job of revealing the emotional background behind each player's actions, never creating villains in this drama.
The Purple Diaries is a fascinating piece of Hollywood detective work, a character study of a forward-thinking and sexually liberated woman and an examination of the tabloid press. Egan takes an 80-year-old scandal and brings it to life with compassion and psychological insight. Film buffs will find The Purple Diaries irresistible. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant