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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 12 sepTember 2017
Book Review: Memoir is bittersweet farewell to Bette Davis

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL solace in activity, espe- “Remember that it is al- had its advantages for
Associated Press cially acting. “People ways the best food that a woman of her genera-
Bette Davis battled stu- will leave you,” she told the birds pick at.” tion. She also learned a
dio bosses, husbands Sermak more than once, Davis had her way of lot about the movie busi-
and rivals during her long “but your work will al- doing things. In a hotel ness.
acting career, establish- ways stand by you.” She room she would re-ar- Life on Davis’ terms in-
ing a tough persona in wrote another book and, range the furniture and cluded her trademark
real life to match her en- amazingly, appeared add personal photos cigarettes; it’s hard to
during Hollywood image. on camera a few more to the decor. She spent imagine her without a
She would need all that times, most notably for hours trimming shrubbery curl of smoke in the air.
strength when she faced “The Whales of August” around a rented house During a fire drill at a ho-
illness in her final years, in 1987. to make it just so. The tel she sent Sermak back
knowing that she could Sermak had come into mercurial Miss D also de- to their room for her
achieve a dark victory Davis’ life in 1979, a cided to play Pygmalion, cigarettes. They were
by meeting death on her 22-year-old ingenue grooming Sermak to be- bound to kill her one This cover image released by
terms. hired for the summer come a young lady with way or another. Davis Hachette Books shows “Miss
Her personal assistant who was to learn how an the poise and discretion continued smoking after D and Me: Life with the Invin-
during much of that time, aging movie star lived — befitting her position. her cancer surgery and cible Bette Davis” by Kathryn
Sermak and with Danelle Mor-
Kathryn Sermak, depicts this particular movie star, That meant learning stroke — and after she ton.
a lioness in winter in her anyway. Davis accom- how to dress appropri- suffered second-degree Associated Press
memoir, “Miss D & Me: modated her celebrity ately, project her voice, burns from a smoldering
Life With the Invincible by pleasing fans and choose the right fork at mattress.
Bette Davis.” The actress, shrugging off criticism. meals and even change Poignant with touches did it the hard way.” Yet
in her 70s, still showed When a tabloid featured the spelling of her first of humor, “Miss D & Me” Sermak’s book brings to
some bite in dealing with an unflattering photo- name to make it more is a fitting fade-out for mind a different Davis
family feuds and the de- graph with the headline distinctive. Miss D’s criti- an actress who made it reflection that her fans
mands of stardom even “Bette Davis doesn’t give cism hurt at times, yet look easy to stay tough. will find more perceptive
as she suffered from can- a damn how she looks!” Sermak realized that Davis chose the epitaph with each passing year:
cer and a stroke. the two-time Oscar win- graduating from the Bet- for her tomb at Forest “Old age ain’t no place
Davis (1908-89) found ner advised her assistant, te Davis finishing school Lawn Hollywood: “She for sissies.”q