Book Review: Gone But Not Forgotten by Patricia Fox-Sheinwold

The 1970s and 1980s were great decades for movie-related books. Some of the best books on cinema history, the stars, and Hollywood in general were released during this time. Perhaps it was because so many actors from Hollywood's "Golden Era" of the 1930s and 1940s were still alive and freely talked about the past to any writer willing to interview them. It certainly seems like freelance writer Patricia Fox-Sheinwold had no trouble at all digging up tidbits of juicy information because she filled Gone But Not Forgotten with lots of behind-the-scenes info on the great stars of Hollywood....not to mention some great rare photos. 

I came across this book last week at a flea market in Litchfield and almost passed it by because, at first glance, the content looked like short magazine articles on the same stars you find in most old Hollywood books: Grouch Marx, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Mae West, etc. Instead, I bought it because the pictures intrigued me. But then I brought it home and couldn't stop reading it. Patricia Fox-Sheinwold has a laid-back style of writing that is reminiscent of radio interviewers of the 1950s. She covers a lot of territory in a short amount of space and manages to include some fascinating bits of trivia I never knew. For example, did you know that John Barrymore climbed Mount Blanc? That Spencer Tracy refused to wear makeup, that Humphrey Bogart named his son Stephen after the character he played in "To Have and Have Not", and that Betty Grable kept her figure for years by playing bowling and golf?

Gone But Not Forgotten includes 22 biographies, not only of comedians, actors, and actresses but musicians like Duke Ellington and Guy Lombardo and two "originals" ( Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney ). If you happen to find it at an antique shop or a second-hand book shop, the book is well worth adding to your film library. 

Gone But Not Forgotten was published by Bell Publishing in 1981 and later republished by Random House in 1988, so there are two editions available to find.