Audible Spinstering: Shirley Jones is #NSFW
On the way home from work one day, I heard the tail end of an interview with Shirley Jones about her recently-published memoir. I'll admit that I didn't remember who Shirley Jones was at first, but when they mentioned The Partridge Family, I figured it out. However, I didn't realize she was the same woman who played Marian the librarian in the movie version of The Music Man. I think it was the hair that threw me off. So, curious, I purchased the audiobook.
Now 81, Jones narrates her own memoir, and some of the things she says will definitely surprise you. The book starts out with sort of an explanation of who Jones is and how she got her start on Broadway and then in Hollywood. That story is pretty insane. Some people have all the luck. The story of her career in TV, movies, and on the stage is not the crazy part, though. The crazy part is Jones's private life.
I won't spoil anything for you, but she does describe her first husband, Jack Cassidy (father of both David and Shaun Cassidy), as her "sexual Svengali" more than once. There are...details. Perhaps they're not the kind of details you'll expect, but they're details nonetheless. And this woman is eighty-one years old, ok? But I take full responsibility for having purchased and listened to the book. The end, though, is really something...special. She talks about her current, shall we say, preferences.
So, I'm not sure I can fully recommend this one. However, if you're interested in the life of Marian the Librarian or perhaps want to hear the same story of David Cassidy's first impressions of Jones twice (same story twice in the book...), then go for it! I will say it is amazing because the book shows how different from her roles on the stage and screen are from her life. So, I suppose I'm saying she's an excellent actress and a freaky senior citizen.
