Marshall Memoir

Having read Garry Marshall's memoir, I figured it was only fair to check out his sister Penny's, My Mother Was Nuts.  It's a bit over 300 pages and told in numerous short chapters.

Her life story, as she tells is, is essentially three separate sections.  First her childhood in the Bronx, with a demanding mother and missing father in a loveless marriage.  Her older brother Garry told Penny and other sister Ronny that they needed to stick together because they couldn't count on their parents.

Young Penny loved camp, playing on the streets, eating, hanging out with friends and complaining.  She wasn't much for studying, though she had to learn how to dance in her mothers dancing school.  Her brother went into comedy writing and by the time she grew up, she drifted into show business.

Which brings us to the second section.  She'd met a guy, got pregnant, had her child, Tracy, and in a few years got divorced.  She eventually moved out to Los Angeles where she lived at her brother's place.  He was willing to help her out, but she had to prove herself.  She got occasional acting jobs and her first big break was as Oscar Madison's nasal secretary Myrna Turner in her brother's sitcom The Odd Couple. (Her brother got her to ask Jack Klugman, who played Oscar, if he wanted the role, when they were on a movie set together.  She was always willing to talk to anyone.)

During this period she married Rob Reiner, who'd lived across the street as a kid, even though they never met in those days.  Reiner could be dark and depressed--especially living in the shadow of his famous father Carl--but he also turned into a big star as one of the leads in the #1 show on TV, All In The Family.  Penny, who wasn't famous yet, got to know quite a few celebrities, and a lot of the book is her talking about them. It's not dropping names, exactly, since people like Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss, Albert Brooks, John Belushi, Lorne Michaels, Jerry Belson, Louise Lasser, James L. Brooks, Steven Spielberg and so many others were simply the people she hung out with.

Then she and friend Cindy Williams did an episode of Happy Days (another show created by her brother) as two loose girls Laverne and Shirley.  Soon after, brother Garry sold the idea of a show around those two characters and suddenly TV had a new #1 show.  It was not a happy set, however, as Penny and Cindy were tough on the producer and on each other, but the show lasted eight years and made Penny rich and famous.

After Reiner left All In The Family he was going through another rough period, and he and Penny, though still friends, divorced.  She started dating Art Garfunkel (which was interesting since best friend Carrie Fisher was with Paul Simon) and they traveled together.  At a party she got Artie and Paul, who barely acknowledged each other most of the time, to sing some songs.

With Laverne & Shirley behind her, she drifted into directing, which is the third part of the book. She had a knack for it, and had a couple of big hits--Big and A League Of Their Own (which featured daughter Tracy as ballplayer Betty Spaghetti)--not to mention Awakenings, which was nominated for Best Picture.

She's been taking it fairly easy in the past decade, and also went through a cancer scare.  I guess she's spent a fair amount of time recently working on this book.  I never thought too much of Laverne & Shirley, but I always liked her, and some of her movies.  Hearing the stories of how it all came about is pretty entertaining.  Amusing enough, I'd say, that I don't think you have to be a fan to like this book.