Fay Wray and Robert Riskin

A Hollywood Memoir

By: Victoria Riskin

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography)

A Hollywood love story, a Hollywood memoir, a dual biography of two of Hollywood’s most famous figures, whose golden lives were lived at the center of Hollywood’s golden age, written by their daughter, an acclaimed writer and producer.

Fay Wray was most famous as the woman - the blonde in a diaphanous gown - who captured the heart of the mighty King Kong, the 25-foot, 60-ton gorilla, as he placed her, nestled in his eight-foot hand, on the ledge of the 102-story Empire State Building, putting Wray at the height of New York’s skyline and cinematic immortality.

Wray starred in more than 120 pictures opposite Hollywood's biggest stars - Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper (The Legion of the Condemned, The First Kiss, The Texan, One Sunday Afternoon), Clark Gable, William Powell, and Charles Boyer; from cowboy stars Hoot Gibson and Art Accord to Ronald Colman (The Unholy Garden), Claude Rains, Ralph Richardson, and Melvyn Douglas. She was directed by the masters of the age, from Fred Niblo, Erich von Stroheim (The Wedding March), and Mauritz Stiller (The Street of Sin) to Leo McCarey, William Wyler, Gregory La Cava, “Wild Bill” William Wellman, Merian C. Cooper (The Four Feathers, King Kong), Josef von Sternberg (Thunderbolt), Dorothy Arzner (Behind the Make-Up), Frank Capra (Dirigible), Michael Curtiz (Doctor X), Raoul Walsh (The Bowery), and Vincente Minnelli.

The book’s - and Wray’s - counterpart: Robert Riskin, considered one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. Academy Award-winning writer (nominated for five), producer, 10-year-long collaborator with Frank Capra on such pictures as American Madness, It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, and Meet John Doe, hailed by many, among them F. Scott Fitzgerald, as “among the best screenwriters in the business.” Riskin wrote women characters who were smart, ornery, sexy, always resilient, as he perfected what took full shape in It Happened One Night, the Riskin character, male or female - breezy, self-made, streetwise, optimistic, with a sense of humor that is subtle and sure.

Fay Wray and Robert Riskin lived large lives, finding each other after establishing their artistic selves and after each had had many romantic attachments - Wray, an 11-year-long difficult marriage and a fraught affair with Clifford Odets, and Riskin, a series of romances with, among others, Carole Lombard, Glenda Farrell, and Loretta Young.

Here are Wray’s and Riskin’s lives, their work, their fairy-tale marriage that ended so tragically. Here are their dual, quintessential American lives, ultimately and blissfully intertwined.

©2019 Victoria Riskin (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A fascinating dual biography of one of Hollywood's most acclaimed screenwriters... and one of its most famous actresses... a deeply personal story, informed by the author's affection for her parents... Revealing... refreshing.” (Booklist)

“A vibrant account by a loving and thoughtful daughter of two decent people who were prominent Hollywood figures during the industry's studio era. Victoria Riskin interweaves the biographies of her parents, Fay Wray and Robert Riskin, and places their lives against the unfolding histories of Hollywood and the nation. Riskin alternates between closeups and long shots, writing with the intimacy of a daughter but also with the reportorial detachment of a historian who has done her homework. Wise, penetrating, smoothly written; a skillful juggling act and, first to last, a pleasure to read.” (Foster Hirsch, author of Otto Preminger, The Man Who Would Be King)

“Riskin gives a heartfelt account of the lives of her mother, actress Fay Wray, and her father, screenwriter Robert Riskin... [a] nostalgic and reverent remembrance of Riskin’s famous parents and their Golden Age Hollywood milieu.” (Publishers Weekly)

A beautiful book, movingly narrated

A wonderful homage to the author’s parents, and a window onto their love story and the professional (Hollywood), political and historical circumstances against which it played out. Even if you are not particularly interested in Hollywood (I’m not) you will be touched by the story of these two lives.

I have never heard Victoria Riskin’s voice, but I cannot imagine this book narrated any more poignantly and authentically than it is by Julia Whelan. Somewhere in heaven, the author’s parents are giving a shout-out to casting.

A book we all need to hear or read.

How beautifully this is written. It is tender and absorbing. How lucky we are that Victoria has shared the story of her family with us. Thank you for doing that.