ED WYNN'S SON

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Not disdaining help from Mr. Brough in the writing of his autobiography, Keenan Wynn has nevertheless seen to it that a patently, painfully honest book bears his name on it. As the title implies, Keenan Wynn's life has been very much one with father. Mr. Wynn gives extensive background on his father, who turned his back on his solid, bourgeois Jewish family to make an astonishingly early success in vaudeville, and on his mother, who was a legitimate actress, the daughter of Frank Keenan, himself a distinguished actor in the early days of the century. The conflict in Hilda Keenan Wynn between her strong Catholic faith and her husband's race, compounded by jealousy of his career, carried over into the son and was intensified by his mother's mental breakdown and early death. The rest of the book recounts Keenan's efforts to step out from under his father's shadow and make an independent name for himself. As Keenan's reputation has grown, Ed's has declined somewhat, and understanding has ripened between the two men with age. The gulf between father and son is at last bridged by decent love and respect, but a hallmark of Keenan Wynn's honesty is found in his assertion that the conflict between them has not yet completely subsided. The reader finishes the book with considerable admiration for the whole Wynn family.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1959

Categories: NONFICTION