Reviews

This was a fun read featuring fascinating anecdotes about erstwhile stars we have forgotten, from Sarah Bernhardt's coffin bed, Cloe de Merode's disappointing US dance tour, child star Master Betty's failed adult acting return, to actor Edmund Kean's near murder by the city of Boston (yes, you read that right). I spent a lot of time doing image-searches for dozens of these personages on my phone, watching Victorian bodybuilder Eugen Sandow flex, and listening to the world's last castrato perform in 1903 (see YouTube for those last two). Needless to say, I fell down more than a few Wikipedia rabbit holes. Looking up Rudolfo Valentino led me to his Hollywood house The Falcon's Lair, which led me to later resident Doris Duke, her officious butler and suspicious death...but I digress. This book's fractured structure around themes could make it challenging to keep the names straight, and I found it fizzled out near the end in attempting to draw connections with the online influencers of today. Must we philosophize so grandly? I'm just here for the Byronmania and the history of celebrity-endorsed underwear.