Mary's Book
"Both of Me"
Her husband of more than 20 years, Wolfgang Neumann, designed this bookcover.
"From the beginning, Joanne and I have lived strangely parellel lives..." Mary Stuart
For the past thirty years, Mary Stuart, the reigning queen of soap opera, had led a double life. On September 3, 1951, she stepped before the cameras and created the role of Joanne in CBS's Search for Tomorrow and became the star of a show that has made television history. BOTH OF ME is the story of both of these women. It is a fascinating account of the inside of network broadcasting from the days of its infancy in the fifties to the present. (1980). It is a funny story full of the goofs and mishaps of live television. It is a candid picture of a multimillion-dollar business where careers are in constant jeopardy. It is a moving story of a woman who tried to live a public life and a private one at the same time, of her sadness when she failed, and her joy when she succeeded. It is a love story about a girl, born during the depression in Oklahoma, who believed in fantasies and tried to live them all - in Hollywood as a starlet, in her Ivy League marriage, and finally as a single parent in her long search for true love and romance. It is the story of a show that spawned the careers of a dozen Hollywood stars and held the interest of the American public longer than any other. It is the story of survival through three decades of changing values and life-styles, of two women in the seventies enjoying their work and in control of their destinies, and what it cost them both to get there. BOTH OF ME looks inside the record business, behind the scenes of the concert stage, at the other side of a television camera and inside the mind of a woman millions of people think they already know.
In the Author's note, Mary writes:
"There is no real reason, I can think of, to record the events of a life that has included no major accomplishments unless there is truth between the pages that is recognizable and useful to someone else. I have been as truthful as I am able, but I have discovered that truth is not always an absolute. There is the truth of the words spoken, or the actions taken. There is also the effect of the words or the actions, and that seems to vary widely. Circumstances and experience change or color the meaning, sometimes distorting it completely. I have been looking back down the corridors of my own life for quite a while, shining a light into long-forgotten corners. The dust I have accumulated is certainly mind to examine if I choose, and now it is yours to keep or sweep away, but the light has also caught glimpses of other lives forever tangled with my own and to them I owe a debt of gratitude or apology. The imperfect truth of the moments did not always show them to advantage, and most certainly does not even attempt to show the whole person. It is the effect of each moment passing that tells the story. it is what I felt that was real, and therefore the truth as I see it."
You can still order this book by doing a search on the internet. There are still a few bookstores on the internet that have this in stock, as well as ebay has a couple of them for sale. It's well worth getting! This book is one you can read over and over again, and still learn something new and different each time you read it. Beautifully written by Mary Stuart.