Marie Dressler

Billed as ""the only biography of the most popular actress in the world,"" this meticulously researched life story of ""Queen Marie"" Dressler (1868-1934) by Toronto Globe writer Lee manages to walk that near impossible line between gossip and scholarship. On the one hand, we follow the satisfying minutia of Dressler's remarkable career: she left home in Canada at 14, rose to superstar status as a burlesque actress on Broadway and peaked professionally for a second time in Hollywood movies such as Anna Christie and Dinner at Eight when she was in her 50s and 60s. On the other hand, we learn a good deal about the Hollywood milieu in the early days of cinema and about social norms for the well-to-do in New York City and Los Angeles. Described at various points in her life as an ""elephant,"" a ""clown,"" a ""man-repellent ugly-duckling"" and a ""monstrosity"" but also, somewhat paradoxically, as a ""grand dame,"" Dressler, who weighed 300 pounds when she died of cancer and heart failure, is shown in her full complexity, from her patriotic zeal for the war effort in 1917 (she sold more war bonds than anyone else in the country) and her support of and leadership in Actors' Equity and women's groups to her eccentric reliance upon her astrologer and, later in life, upon a quack who administered a twice-weekly serum to combat what he claimed were ""cancer germs."" With skillful subtlety, Lee allows readers to draw their own conclusions about Dressler's moral character (her sexuality, quick temper, materialism and egotism) from the ample raw material that she presents so objectively. Particularly rich is the testimony of Dressler's close companion Claire Dubrey, who, at age 100, provided Lee with reams of unpublished journal entries regarding Dressler, both flattering and not. Lee's notes describing her trail of research are engaging in and of themselves, and a filmography, a bibliography and 36 b&w photos round out the book. (Aug.)