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Article: The Hero and Lover With a Crooked Smile
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 27, 1988
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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THE SALAD DAYS By Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Doubleday. 412 pp. $19.95
A FATHER who ignores you, a mother who stifles you and no address
more permanent than New York's Algonquin hotel, doesn't make for an
easy childhood. Add on the burden of carrying the name of the most
visible and adored silent movie idol of his day, Douglas Fairbanks,
and the odds are stacked pretty heavily against Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
from the beginning.
Many of the endless crop of books about the lives of movie stars
off camera have been less than edifying-Mommie Dearest being the best
known hate memoir-but Joan Fontaine's attack on Olivia de Havilland,
No Bed of Roses, could just as well have been called "Sister ...