Shirley Jones: A Memoir
2013, Gallery Books. 291 pages. $27.00
Shirley Jones, with Wendy Leigh.
Singer and actress Shirley Jones has written, in collaboration with Wendy Leigh, a candid memoir regarding her life and career. It is, by turns, enlightening, funny, maddening, harrowing and even embarrassing. Shirley Jones refuses to hold back the most intimate details of her marriage to Jack Cassidy — but at the same time neglects to discuss many of the movies for which she was admired. She covers the main titles, of course, but is more concerned with her personal experiences than her professional ones. I guess that’s as it should be, but I still would have liked to hear how she got along with the lion while making Fluffy.
Shirley Jones came to public prominence in musicals like Oklahoma!, Carousel and The Music Man. She won an Oscar for Elmer Gantry and then found even greater fame on television as the matriarch of “The Partridge Family.” All of this is covered in decent depth that will reward the casual fan, but which may disappoint film buffs looking for more. She doesn’t even allude to the trouble caused by Gloria Grahame on the set of Oklahoma!, for example, and she refrains from speaking ill of anyone with whom she worked. On the other hand, she doesn’t mind naming the costars who made advances toward her, or those circumstances.
It is the sexual stuff which makes this memoir somewhat notorious. Shirley is more candid than need be about her sexual experiences, especially involving first husband Jack Cassidy. She talks about his many infidelities, which she rarely protested, and even admits to an affair of her own. She describes an early abortion, a menage-a-trois with Jack and a chorus girl, and how Jack provided amyl nitrate to make their sex even more powerful. All of this is compelling, yet somewhat voyeuristic because of her candor.
With Cassidy, her recollections move from eye-opening to genuinely harrowing, as he battles manic-depression in psychotic episodes that eventually threaten the safety of Shirley and their boys. Shirley’s frank discussion of Cassidy’s mental illness and its tragic conclusion is easily the most powerful and poignant section of the book.
Shirley loved Jack Cassidy to his death and beyond, but she married comic Marty Ingels soon after Cassidy’s passing. Shirley seems defensive about their marriage, if only because Ingels seems like such a goofball next to her. But he makes her laugh, and women love that. The last part of the book describes how she and Ingels work through problems to keep their love alive, and her technique for masturbation. That’s just how the book reads; it’s a mix of pop culture history, moving sentiment and TMI.
The book has its share of hyperbole: Shirley refers to stepson David Cassidy as “the rock star of the century”, — more than once — and no one in the family ever seems to be bad at anything. Between Jack’s madness and one son’s drug ordeal there is plenty of tribulation, yet professional humility on anyone’s part isn’t really part of the program. Yet through it all Shirley Jones discusses her love of music, animals, sex and family with clarity and candor. It’s a very readable, compelling, fascinating book — even the parts that made me blush. My rating: Good. 18 June 2014.