Playing the Field: Sex, Stardom, Love, and Life in Hollywood

This Special Collector's Edition of Mamie Van Doren’s autobiography, Playing the Field, is a no-holds-barred story by an iconic beauty and a true survivor of the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood. Mamie Van Doren, along with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, dominated the Hollywood landscape in the 1950s and 1960s as the three blonde bombshells of movies. Their love lives and careers became the stuff of legend. In this utterly frank and candid memoir, Mamie reveals the infighting in the highly competitive world of the Hollywood studio system. She tells what it was like to balance the demands of being a sex symbol on the screen and a caring mother and wife at home; she recounts her stormy affairs with leading men and international celebrities--affairs that inevitably spilled into the pages of national gossip columns; and she gives insights into her attempts to find meaning in her life and career as the era of the studio system and the blonde bombshells began to fade, and as Marilyn, Jayne, and the other glamour girls succumbed to early and violent deaths. Mamie's refusal to be swallowed up by Hollywood's often ruthless movie-making machine makes for a riveting story. Mamie writes movingly about her experiences entertaining troops in Vietnam. Her solo tour with only a musical conductor and small band reached some of the most remote and dangerous fire stations in Vietnam--from the MeKong Delta in the south, to the demilitarized zone in the north--places where small arms and artillery fire competed with her singing. Often irreverent, and by turns funny and sad--but always entertaining--this Special Collector’s Edition of Playing the Field, published under Mamie’s own imprint, contains all new pictures and a stunning new cover--endorsed by Hugh Hefner himself. Read more