Review: Liz Smith's memoir a 'Natural'

"Natural Blonde"
By Liz Smith
Nonfiction/Memoir
Hyperion
464 pages

In this story: Worshiping the movies Breezy, ebullient -- but a few jabs, too RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Pam Perry
Special to CNN.com

(CNN) -- After I'd dipped into Liz Smith's enormously entertaining memoir, "Natural Blonde," I wondered why her publisher had released it in the fall. This is definitely a beach book. Then it hit me: Liz Smith's crowd can go to the beach anytime they want, taking private jets to their lavish estates. I picture a gaggle of them lounging around some glorious waterfront, madly scanning the index for their names, then giggling at or frowning over her anecdotes about them and their posh friends. For them, this is a beach book.

	AUDIO
Liz Smith sounds off on her book, sex and the future: Why she chose to write a book ... WAV sound The reception she received after publication ... WAV sound Thoughts on a follow-up book ... WAV sound

Those of us not in Smith's index or currently at the beach can enjoy "Natural Blonde," too. Written with style, modesty and warmth, this is the type of book you can dip into at leisure for juicy nuggets of Smith's personal history and dish about her rich and famous pals.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1923, Smith grew up worshiping the movies. Although her mother was a devout Southern Baptist, she never thought to censor what her children were exposed to at the Tivoli Theater. So Liz grew up besotted with Nick and Nora Charles, Fred and Ginger, Garbo, Cagney, the Marx Brothers and other stars of the time.

After a failed first marriage and a disastrous romantic relationship with a woman, Smith headed to New York in 1949 with $50 in her pocket. She was going to the big city to meet some Texas friends who were already there, and to land a job in the top echelons of journalism. Or so she thought.

Despite her initial poverty (at one time she held down three jobs just to make ends meet), Smith reveled in the city itself. Her descriptions of those early days evoke a touchingly wide-eyed, albeit bright and ambitious, young woman. After reading an item about Zachary Scott and his wife entertaining in their Manhattan apartment, Liz stepped into a phone booth and called the actor she'd interviewed for "The Texas Ranger" when she was at the University of Texas. Not only did he remember her, he sent her to meet his friend Chuck Saxon, editor of Modern Screen. And that's how Liz Smith got her first job in journalism.

From there, she moved on to numerous jobs, including stints with Mike Wallace on CBS Radio, Allen Funt on "Candid Camera," as a ghostwriter for the Hearst "Cholly Knickerbocker" column and as the entertainment editor for Cosmopolitan. Through it all, she kept making friends and having fun. In 1976, she started a gossip column for the New York Daily News, and she's been in print ever since.

"Natural Blonde" is rife with dish about stars ranging from Hepburn to Madonna. Yet Smith writes as compellingly about people we've never heard of as she does about mega-celebs.

Liz Smith, who dished the dirt on celebrities for years, now reveals her secrets in her autobiography "Natural Blonde"

Though her style is breezy and ebullient, Smith doesn't shy away from talking about hard times in her life. Nor does she gloss over episodes in which she made people angry or was herself maligned in the press. She seems particularly stung by Spy magazine's feature, the Liz Smith Tote Board, which counted how many times a month she'd mentioned special friends such as Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Walters. For all her charm and self-mocking good nature, the author delivers some "steel magnolia" jabs to those who've done her wrong. Although most of these putdowns are Southern-subtle, once or twice the almost audible sound of an ax grinding created a jarring counterpoint to the overall genial nature of this autobiography.

Reading her book, it's impossible not to like Liz Smith. What's not to like about a woman who calls herself a "natural blonde" while admitting she started life as a brunette? How can you fail to adore someone who makes her living writing gossip, yet tries never to resort to that desperate conversational gambit, "What do you do?"

"Natural Blonde" is a lot of fun. Maybe not as much fun as taking a private jet to a mansion at the beach, but at least it's nice to know Liz has been there.

Hanover avoids discussing mayor's alleged infidelity during Liz Smith interview
August 6, 1997

Page Six: Liz Smith
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