I'll Cry Tomorrow

1954, possibly first edition from Frederick Fell, Inc.
Lillian Roth
I'll Cry Tomorrow
Original and purchase price unknown
Worn and stained hardcover
C+

This is another of my depressing books from 1954, although it does have a happier ending than the two novels.  (And much of MAD and Pogo now that I think of it.)  Roth tells of her descent from fame to poverty, due to alcoholism, low self-esteem, and a gift for marrying a series of Mr. Wrongs.  The book is sometimes horrifying, especially during her abusive third marriage.  Eventually, Lillian joined the AA and married her sponsor.  Her life improved and she at last made a successful comeback as a singer, after long years of struggle.  Her autobiography was immediately made into a Susan Hayward movie, which I've never seen.

And then in 1963 that last husband left her, withdrawing all the money from their joint bank account.  She fell off the wagon the following year, and died in relative obscurity in 1980.  Sad, but at least she helped to make the AA better known and more accepted.

I originally got this book because I found her adorable as the cheeky ingenue in Animal Crackers (1930).  She does write about working with the Marx Brothers, including how hard it was not to laugh at Groucho's delivery, but most of her stories are less enjoyable, although even in her darkest hours she kept her puckish sense of humor.  I also liked how for her time she was fairly tolerant of homosexuals, and I smiled at her description of women in tweed as "chorus boys in reverse."

I'll let her have the last word, from her gravestone marker: "As bad as it was it was good."