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Title details for Rita Moreno by Rita Moreno - Available

Rita Moreno

A Memoir

by Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno
Audiobook
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In this luminous memoir, Rita Moreno shares her remarkable journey from a young girl with simple beginnings in Puerto Rico  to Hollywood legend—and one of the few performers, and the only Hispanic, to win an Oscar, Grammy, Tony and two Emmys.
Born Rosita Dolores Alverio in the idyll of Puerto Rico, Moreno, at age five, embarked on a harrowing sea voyage with her mother and wound up in the harsh barrios of the Bronx, where she discovered dancing, singing, and acting as ways to escape a tumultuous childhood. Making her Broadway debut  by age thirteen—and moving on to Hollywood in its Golden Age just a few years later—she worked alongside such stars as Gary Cooper,  Yul Brynner, and Ann Miller.
When discovered by Louis B. Mayer of MGM, the wizard himself declared: “She looks like a Spanish Elizabeth Taylor.”  Cast by Gene Kelly as Zelda Zanders in Singin’ in the Rain and then  on to her Oscar-winning performance in West Side Story, she catapulted to fame—yet found herself repeatedly typecast as the “utility ethnic,” a role she found almost impossible to elude.
Here, for the first time, Rita reflects on her struggles to break through Hollywood’s racial and sexual barriers. She explores the wounded little girl behind the glamorous façade—and what it took to find her place in the world. She talks candidly about her relationship with Elvis Presley, her encounters with  Howard Hughes, and the passionate romance with Marlon Brando that drove her to attempt suicide. And she shares the illusiveness of a  “perfect” marriage and the incomparable joys of motherhood.
Infused with Rita Moreno’s quick wit and deep insight, this memoir is the dazzling portrait of a stage and screen star who longed to become who she really is—and triumphed.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    March 5, 2013

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781101928103
      • File size: 271564 KB
      • Duration: 09:25:45

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 29, 2013
      Most famous as Anita in West Side Story, Moreno, now 81, shares her life story in this candid memoir spanning her unceremonious childhood arrival from Puerto Rico to her decades-long career in show business. Born Rosita Alverio in Juncos, Puerto Rico, Moreno gets a rude awakening when in 1936 her single mother moves her to New York City. She finds a passion for singing and dancing while her mother looks for a new husband. Soon, Hollywood knocks on her door. Moreno gives the "Old Hollywood" studio system a long, honest look: she receives her stage name from a studio executive, she is regularly sent out on arranged "dates" with young actors, is made to attend a "troll-and-starlet" mixer with studio funders, and romances several celebrities of her time. In an era when actresses were rampantly "pretending to be ethnicities they obviously not," Moreno is cast again and again as the "hot Latin spitfire" when she was a "reliable, hardworking actor always in search of a better part." There is no question that Moreno's career wound its way through an interesting era; the memoir is a capably composed, entertaining read for anyone with a pre-existing interest in Moreno or 1950s Hollywood.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from May 15, 2013

      One of a handful of performers to have achieved EGOT status (by having won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards), Moreno here presents a story that evolves from her hardships as a young Puerto Rican woman in New York in the 1930s to her struggle for fulfilling roles in the Hollywood of the 1950s and finally to success, as well as a happy marriage and motherhood. Moreno describes her frustrations with roles as a "general ethnic" early in her career, the sexism of Eisenhower's America, her sometimes tempestuous romances with Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Elvis Presley, and critic Kenneth Tynan, and brief but insightful portraits of many of the luminaries with whom she has worked, such as choreographer-director Jerome Robbins. Moreno provides a dramatic, heartfelt reading, underscoring the pathos and joys of her highs and lows. VERDICT Highly recommended for all collections, especially those concerned with immigrant experiences and women's studies. [The Celebra: Penguin hc was a New York Times best seller.--Ed.]--Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Lib.

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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