The Passionate Life of Bette Davis

Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Passionate Life of Bette Davis by Lawrence J. Quirk

More Than a Woman: An Intimate Biography of Bette Davis by James Spada

Bette Davis was a bad, bad girl.

Bette was soo bad the while she was married she used to sleep with more than one person at a time to create extra conflict.  Bette was soo bad Joan Collins claimed she was the inspiration for Alexis Carrington on Dynasty. Bette was sooooo Bad that she is was rumored to be the the precipitating cause of husband number two’s death.

Yes. Off screen bad, bad Bette Davis created far more feuds, turmoil, and histrionics than she displayed on the silver screen. I believe your favorite shrink might call her a Histrionic or Narcissistic Personality Disorder Supreme.  But Yankee Bette, go to a shrink? Ne-vahhhh!!!

Bette Davis: More Than a Woman

Married at twenty-four to a teen-age sweetheart, Bette was a virgin. But, within a few months, Bette was an adultress. Over the years Bette went through so many men it appears she was competing with Errol Flynn for the notches award.  Like Flynn, the older she got, the younger the men. Her time at the Hollywood Canteen was spent ladling soup and sexual favors to the servicemen. Even into her sixties she was still bringing these young-uns home to meet her grown-up children and grandchildren at family gatherings. Family reunions must have been Rockwellian.

The last twenty years of Bette’s life filled with more melodrama than any of her movies. All the honors of the world for one of the true greats, but one by one all the friends and family disappeare. All by her own hand. You can’t help but feel that with some serious mood stabilizers this woman would have had a happier life.

Condition:

Both books have been read, but the dust jackets are spotless.