Only Make Believe: My Life in Show Business

Completed shortly before his death last year at age 85, this autobiography traces Keel's journey from Illinois poverty to international stardom as a sort of Clark Gable of movie musicals. His singing could, as he puts it, "peel the paint off the walls." Employed as a WWII Douglas Aircraft supervisor, he took vocal training in Los Angeles, sang concert arias and arrived on Broadway in 1945, wowing audiences as Curly in Oklahoma! . Wider acclaim came with MGM musicals (including 1954's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ), followed by touring productions, a club act, dinner theater and TV's Dallas . Keel has an arsenal of amusing anecdotes, but neither he nor mystery writer Spizer were able to bring verve to his prose. Kathryn Grayson and others Keel was close to are only lightly sketched and rarely spring to life. Why so few paragraphs about his lengthy affair with Marilyn Monroe? Even so, fans will be satisfied with this diary-like chronicle, despite its first-draft feel and narrative gaps. 16-page b&w photo insert not seen by PW . (Sept. 25)