Audio books

 

Helen Hayes: My Life in Three Acts

Author : Helen Hayes with Katherine Hatch

Performed By : James MacArthur

Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc

Runtime : 8 hours 30 minutes

Categories : Arts & Drama

Our Price : $32.95 $16.95

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Helen Hayes, acclaimed First Lady of the American Theatre, has been on stage, screen
and television for more than fifty years. In that time she moved among the worlds most famous and
talented: actors, film stars, writers, businessmen. She speaks with wit, wisdom, and candor on topics
both public and private. She offers deft behind-the-sceens portraits of such personalities as Joan Crawford,
William Randolph Hearst, Charlie Chaplin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Burton, Lillian Gish, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, and Gloria Swanson. She tells of the advice older actors gave her and of how she in turn gave
advice, continuing the tradition. She treats us to delightful anecdotes about Ethel Barrymore, John Ford,
Al Capone. At the same time she reflects more seriouslyand with great honestyon the painful parts of
her life: the alcoholism of those close to her; the guilt of having not spent more time with her young children;
the remorse about the fact that her success overshadowed her playwright-screenwriter husband, Charles
MacArthur; the difficulty of being alone after the deaths of her daughter and husband. She tells about the
pleasures and discomforts that go with being a celebrity, about her retirement in Mexico, about her sense
of responsibility to support causes, to help others. And, finally, she expresses her strong views on what
is wrong with the American theatre today and what has always been wrong with Hollywood. An engrossing
account of a rich and productive life.

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Alexander's Bridge

Author : Willa Cather

Performed By : Marguerite Gavin

Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc

Runtime : 2 hours 30 minutes

Categories : Classic Literature

Our Price : $25.95 $9.95

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There is a pleasure in listening to the imagery of Alexander's Bridge that is similar to
viewing a beautiful watercolor, as in the following description of a Boston street in late afternoon: "The sun
sank rapidly; the silvery light had faded from the bare boughs and the watery twilight was setting in when
Wilson at last walked down the hill, descending into cooler and cooler depths of grayish shadow."

Against this delicate imagery, Willa Cather renders the tough inner terrain of a man in mid-life crisis. Bartley
Alexander is a master bridge engineer. At forty-three he is at the height of his power, comfortable with success
and all it brings. Yet he yearns for the lost vibrancy of his youth. He leads a double life, veering between his
beautiful, accomplished wife and his mistress, an actress he knew as a student in Paris. This conflict creates
a crack in the structure of his life which ultimately undermines him.