My Mother Was Nuts

A Memoir

By: Penny Marshall

Narrated by: Penny Marshall

Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Most people know Penny Marshall as the director of Big and A League of Their Own. What they don’t know is her trailblazing career was a happy accident. In this funny and intimate memoir, Penny takes us from the stage of The Jackie Gleason Show in 1955 to Hollywood’s star-studded sets, offering up some hilarious detours along the way.

My Mother Was Nuts is an intimate backstage pass to Penny’s personal life, her breakout role on The Odd Couple, her exploits with Cindy Williams and John Belushi, and her travels across Europe with Art Garfunkel on the back of a motorcycle. We see Penny get married. And divorced. And married again (the second time to Rob Reiner). We meet a young Carrie Fisher, whose close friendship with Penny has spanned decades. And we see Penny at work with Tom Hanks, Mark Wahlberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert De Niro, and Whitney Houston.

Throughout it all, from her childhood spent tap dancing in the Bronx, to her rise as the star of Laverne & Shirley, Penny lived by simple rules: “try hard, help your friends, don’t get too crazy, and have fun.” With humor and heart, My Mother Was Nuts reveals there’s no one else quite like Penny Marshall.

©2012 Penny Marshall (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“There's as much practical, hard-won advice here as there is Hollywood gossip, and Marshall's boundless energy and no-nonsense attitude make for a fun read.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Hollywood aficionados will get a kick out of Marshall’s anecdotes about her circle of friends, including Albert Brooks, John Belushi, and Carrie Fisher, all told in a funny, down-to-earth manner.” (Booklist)

“Penny Marshall is a fascinating woman who has lived a life few of us could survive. Did you know she gave me two of the best jobs I’ve ever had? Of course not, because when she talks she is barely comprehensible. Read her memoir and you’ll come to love her as much as I do.” (Tom Hanks)

Laverne and a whole lot more

This memoir touched on a lot of the pop culture that I grew up watching. Penny has had an interesting life and this book tells it with honesty and entertainingly. I grew up watching Laverne and Shirley but had no idea of the goings on around Penny and all of the people she knows. From her family and marriages, to all the TV people, movie people, musicians, sports figures, drugs and wild times, Penny gets her story out. Usually I prefer that authors don't read their own material, but listening to Penny's story, it was clear that this time it was the right thing to do. I enjoyed the listen

Makes loosing a parent funny

Wonderful anyone who has lost a parent will laugh!!! Made loosing my mother and having her cremated funny!

I wish she was still around.......

I always enjoyed Penny Marshall, but after this, she's one of my favorites! Amazing! Very open & honest about everything. I laughed so much throughout the book. Penny lived a phenomenal life!

It Penney Marshall how can it be less than five stars

Listening to this was like she was in the room. From the Bronx myself it was nice to be reminded of home. Amazing life Penney had.

Great story

I think Penny Marshall was an entertaining individual. Her life was pretty straightforward. I enjoyed listening to her talk about the shows she was in and all the great movies she directed for which I'm a big fan.
My only caveat was the "f" word.
For most of the book I could deal with the language - it's Penny I guess-but toward the end it was getting harder to listen with every other word the "f" word.
I'm not a prude by any means, but really it gets really old really fast.
Penny was a very colorful personality and will be missed.

She had an interesting life! so successful/funny

It was a great story and I love listening to Bronx New Yorkers. Seems a pretty honest assessment of her life .

Hollywood royalty

I love the fact that Penny read this herself. I loved this book. Plenty of people just remember “Laverne” but clearly she was so much more.

Hilarious autobiography

I always love a book read by the author and this is just SOOO Penny Marshall. Down to the accent, tempo, slur, and even not being able to read her own words clearly. What a story!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Schlemiel! Schlimazel!

Tuesday nights were a really big deal when I was a kid growing up in the Midwest. We just HAD to be home at 7 pm - prime time starts early there - to watch Happy Days on ABC, one of only five channels. The kid that missed the show had to swallow pride and risk ostracism by those in the know to find out what The Fonz was up to. Laverne & Shirley, a spin-off, aired at 7:30 pm. I liked that even better. I can still do the arm and arm "schlemiel, schlimazel, Hasssnpeffer, Incorporated" song and dance.

Penny Marshall (Laverne) went on to produce and direct films, including "A League of their Own" (1992), a favorite of mine. I sometimes wondered how one family produced her and her brother, Garry Marshall, an actor, director, writer, and producer; how she ended up married to Rob Reiner, and then divorced; why she is such famous friends with Hollywood scion Carrie Fisher, a really funny writer who has acted in a film or two . . .

"My Mother was Nuts"(2012) answers these questions, and so many more. It's a fun romp through post WWII New York, and Hollywood from the 1970's to the present. Marshall seems to know everyone, and she likes them. If there's a falling out, she makes the first move to patch things up. She actually got (Paul) Simon & (Art) Garfunkel back on singing terms for a while. The only 'dirt' she dished in this book was on herself.

There is something missing, though: there's a complete lack of introspection about herself, and speculation about why other people do things. I don't know if that is just the way Marshall is, or if that was the way she wrote the memoir. Since a memoir is not an autobiography, that lack of analysis may have been intentional.

This is a new genre for me - I don't think I've ever read or listened to a Hollywood memoir. The closest I've come is Richard Rhodes "Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World" (2011). Lamarr was an actress who happened to invent and patent the technology cell phones rely on today. I got a great Audible deal on ""My Mother was Nuts", and I knew I could return it if I didn't like it, so I gave it a whirl. It was an enjoyable way to make the weekend chores bearable.

As to the narration - well, a Bronx accent can be grating, but there's no one else I would have rather listened to narrate "My Mother was Nuts".

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She tells it like it is

Really enjoyed this as an audiobook. At the start, feels as though Penny is reading her story rather hurriedly which takes away from what she is sharing. But, this fades a few chapters in and her delivery becomes a comfortable chat. While not a chronological telling of her life, it feels connected and works well. Her narrative, humor, candor, irreverence, lifetime of professional and personal experiences and connections -- make for a great "read." As with her brother, Garry Marshall's memoir, I feel that I could listen to them again -- for the frankness and humor in the delivery of their stories.