The Seesaw Girl and Me: A Memoir

Fans know him best as Darrin Stephens, husband of the gifted Samantha on Bewitched. And from 1964 to 1969, York, who died in 1992, was a TV star. But long before he hit Hollywood, he had a career as a child actor in local radio shows in Chicago, getting his big break in 1943 at age 15 in The Brewster Boy. Looking to expand his career, he headed to New York. Elia Kazan cast him in Tea and Sympathy, and after several Broadway runs, he entered a new medium: TV. York was featured in the Philco Playhouse and Kraft Theatre, among others, until he got the movie call. And that's when, as he notes in this memoir, things turned sour. A back injury endured during the 1959 film They Came to Cordura caused lifetime pain and a decades-long addition to pills. He soldiered on until a seizure on Bewitched sealed his fate. He left, citing health reasons, and life went swiftly downhill. The proud father of five, married to his teen sweetheart Joey, the""seesaw girl,"" York traded success for hardship and financial ruin. The bittersweet story of a poor Midwestern kid who makes good will earn readers' respect and sympathy. Sadly, it's rendered in a rambling, incoherent fashion. York crafts one-act plays within his memoir, veering between memory and fiction. The effect is a kind of verbally induced hallucination, albeit one that tragically reminds us how life can turn on a dime. 41 b&w photos not seen by PW.