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lady_curmudgeon) wrote2011-01-11 06:01 pm
lady_curmudgeon) wrote2011-01-11 06:01 pm
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Book 1 of the year!
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated, Alison Arngrim 4 out of 5 stars.
From amazon.com
"For seven years, Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming, selfish, lying, manipulative brat on one of TV history's most beloved series. Though millions of Little House on the Prairie viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love her character—and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her.
In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood with her eccentric parents: Thor Arngrim, a talent manager to Liberace and others, whose appetite for publicity was insatiable, and legendary voice actress Norma MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost. She recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the scenes of Little House: Michael Landon's "unsaintly" habit of not wearing underwear; how she and Melissa Gilbert (who played her TV nemesis, Laura Ingalls) became best friends and accidentally got drunk on rum cakes at 7-Eleven; and the only time she and Katherine MacGregor (who played Nellie's mom) appeared in public in costume, provoking a posse of elementary schoolgirls to attack them.
Arngrim relays all this and more with biting wit, but she also bravely recounts her life's challenges: her struggle to survive a history of traumatic abuse, depression, and paralyzing shyness; the "secret" her father kept from her for twenty years; and the devastating loss of her "Little House husband" and best friend, Steve Tracy, to AIDS, which inspired her second career in social and political activism. Arngrim describes how Nellie Oleson taught her to be bold, daring, and determined, and how she is eternally grateful to have had the biggest little bitch on the prairie to show her the way."
~~~~~~~~
I loved to hate Alison's character Nellie on "Little House" when I was growing up! Many years later I learned of her adult exploits on a TV documentary on child stars as adults and I was intrigued--stand-up comedy and a politicial activist for AIDS and child abuse? When I found out she wrote a book it went to the tippy top of my Christmas wish list...
The book did not disappoint. Well written. Lots of stories of her "Little House" days that were dishy but not too gossipy, at least not to me. She's had a helluva life, but somehow managed to come out pretty damned well. An excellent child star all grown up memoir, especially if you're a "Little House" show fan.
From amazon.com
"For seven years, Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming, selfish, lying, manipulative brat on one of TV history's most beloved series. Though millions of Little House on the Prairie viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love her character—and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her.
In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood with her eccentric parents: Thor Arngrim, a talent manager to Liberace and others, whose appetite for publicity was insatiable, and legendary voice actress Norma MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost. She recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the scenes of Little House: Michael Landon's "unsaintly" habit of not wearing underwear; how she and Melissa Gilbert (who played her TV nemesis, Laura Ingalls) became best friends and accidentally got drunk on rum cakes at 7-Eleven; and the only time she and Katherine MacGregor (who played Nellie's mom) appeared in public in costume, provoking a posse of elementary schoolgirls to attack them.
Arngrim relays all this and more with biting wit, but she also bravely recounts her life's challenges: her struggle to survive a history of traumatic abuse, depression, and paralyzing shyness; the "secret" her father kept from her for twenty years; and the devastating loss of her "Little House husband" and best friend, Steve Tracy, to AIDS, which inspired her second career in social and political activism. Arngrim describes how Nellie Oleson taught her to be bold, daring, and determined, and how she is eternally grateful to have had the biggest little bitch on the prairie to show her the way."
~~~~~~~~
I loved to hate Alison's character Nellie on "Little House" when I was growing up! Many years later I learned of her adult exploits on a TV documentary on child stars as adults and I was intrigued--stand-up comedy and a politicial activist for AIDS and child abuse? When I found out she wrote a book it went to the tippy top of my Christmas wish list...
The book did not disappoint. Well written. Lots of stories of her "Little House" days that were dishy but not too gossipy, at least not to me. She's had a helluva life, but somehow managed to come out pretty damned well. An excellent child star all grown up memoir, especially if you're a "Little House" show fan.