In 29 days, on February 24th, my fourth book hits the shelves.
Lana Turner: A Silver Valley Childhood, explores her early years in the towns of Burke & Wallace, Idaho, where she was born and raised up until around the age of 6 years old.
Because so many over the years have spread misinformation about Lana's parents, their origins, and their lives together my book also includes this information, giving a peek into the backgrounds of those who were the most important in her early formation years.
Much has been claimed about the murder of her father, and most of that information has been anywhere from mostly wrong to wildly inaccurate. So, I also write about Lana's first years in California, up until she was discovered in Hollywood as a 16 year old high school girl.
Misconceptions about her mother have also become part of the myth that for many years has surrounded Lana Turner, some of which she herself either made up, embellished or twisted to fit a narrative that she was trying to make people believe. For many years it has been easy for people to paint Lana's father as the villain and her mother as the long-suffering traditional wife and mother. The facts tell a different story, and bring forth truths that in an earlier era would have held Lana's mother up to societal judgment, but in our modern time would cause hardly an eye to blink.
What is not included is Lana's life after being discovered and rocketing to stardom. You will not find all the lurid scandals, rumors or details about her failed marriages, or the murder of her mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato by her 14 year old daughter. These subjects have been done to death.
I want to show the young, innocent Lana to the world, before Hollywood turned her into a sex symbol. I want the forgotten years to come out to play for a while in the sunshine, instead of sitting hidden in the shadows.
Most of all I want the world to remember that before she belonged to the public eye she was someone's child.
