TIME/STEPS

by Charlotte Vale Allen ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1986

Allen pulls out all the stops in novel #24 and lets the soap suds slosh, serving up a mostly entertaining picture of a mega-star's life from her teen-age turn on the Broadway stage in the 30's, through the heyday of the Hollywood musical, past straight roles in blockbuster movies in the 50's, right up to the present. The novel is-long-winded, mushy with emotion, sketchy on relationships, but packed with a plethora of show-biz trivia and characters who closely resemble comfortably familiar, real-life stars. Bea Crane gets top billing, a Canadian-born hoofer who knew from the day she affixed bottle caps to her Mary Janes that she was one of those people who's simply ""gotta dance."" At 14, she runs off to the Big Apple with her friend Lucy, lands a show (as Lucy puts it, ""You sure got a lotta moxie for a little kid""), then gets wooed away to sunny California by studio tycoon Ludovic Meyers. He teams her up with another young dancer, Bobby Bradley, and the two of them make beautiful music together, on and offstage, until they also make a baby, which the studio forces Bea to abort. She marries her director, Hank Donovan, a homosexual who loves Ilea nevertheless, and allows her to carry on with Bobby. After being raped by one of her ex-dancing partners, Bea loses her ability to dance and so Hank makes her into a dramatic actress. And everything keeps going great guns, until Bea's daughter, Melinda, writes a lurid exposÉ of Bea's private life, which is, of course, a best seller. Bea goes on 60 Minutes to answer all charges and comes out smelling, unaccountably, like a rose. Allen's done her homework for this novel--there's even a suggested reading list at the back--and her 30's and 40's stage and screen milieus ring true. Bea even grows credibly from naive Shirley Temple to Bette Davis-y grande dame. Not the great American backstage novel, but it does de. liver the bumps and grinds of a star's career with, well. . .moxie.

Pub Date: June 1, 1986

ISBN: 1892738309

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION