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| Dancing at Ciro's: A Family's Love, Loss, and Scandal on the Sunset Strip | 
 enlarge | Author: Sheila Weller
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $4.78
You Save: $10.17 (68%)
New (7) Used (17) Collectible (1) from $1.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 637318
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0312283016
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780312283018
ASIN: 0312283016
Publication Date: March 12, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Veteran journalist Sheila Weller's childhood memoir is as starkly compelling as it is emotionally and historically complex, lifting the veil on a life of rarified privilege. Weller's father was a pioneering Los Angeles neurosurgeon, her mother the acclaimed Hollywood gossip columnist Helen Hover, and uncle Herman Hover owned Tinseltown's most famous nightspot, Ciro's. Nonetheless, Weller reveals a childhood haunted by dysfunction and denial, a hidden familial drama played out in the idyllic village that was Beverly Hills in the '40s and '50s, and one that segues to dark tragedy as it wends inexorably toward a final act scarred by scandal and life-shattering violence. Weller's richly detailed, emphatic prose skillfully interweaves ruminations on the phenomenon of American Jewish reinvention that drove her family of overachievers, with observations on the Old Hollywood movers and shakers who were her neighbors, friends, and casual acquaintances--reminiscences that are all the more poignant filtered through the wondrous eyes of a child. No mere star-studded autobiography, Weller's work here is framed by an almost palpable sense of personal exorcism and, crucially, a quest for ultimate familial redemption. It's an enlightening personal journey, one whose troubling tales of domestic disconnection may seem all-too-empathetic to many, yet one that ultimately finds a place of warm, if bittersweet, understanding. --Jerry McCulley
Product Description
In 1958, young Sheila Weller was living a charmed life with her family in Beverly Hills. Her father was a brilliant brain surgeon. Her mother was a movie-magazine writer whose brother owned Hollywood's most dazzling nightclub, Ciro's. Then her world exploded after she witnessed her uncle's brutal attempt to kill her father.
Weller has written a deeply felt memoir of her family's life contrasted with those most glamorous days of Hollywood's forties and fifties. While vividly describing Lana Turner's, Frank Sinatra's, and Sammy Davis Jr.'s evenings--and breakdowns--at Ciro's, Weller casts a keen eye on her own family's turmoil and loss.
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| Customer Reviews:
Just a wonderful book, on many levels May 9, 2004
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
How difficult it is to write honestly about one's own family, yet on this level--and several others--Sheila Weller triumphs. Her neurosurgeon father, her show-biz-journalist mother, and her uncle Herman, owner of a once-famous nightclub all had careers that had a profound influence on Sheila and her sister Liz.The author's careful, meticulous documentation of those three livelihoods, plus a "you are there" look at her childhood in Beverly Hills (a decade before my childhood fifteen miles away) paint a many-faceted portrait of her family and the times, with joy and pain and glamour. The untimely deaths, the splits in the family bonds, all are described unflinchingly. Weller even gives a less-than-flattering description of her own girlhood, and how hard she tried to please a reserved father who reluctantly gave her a pet name, Brooksie. She was delighted until he added, "Because you babble." An admirable effort from Sheila Weller. And bless her and her sister, for coming out whole!
A wonderful surprise! April 3, 2003
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
When I ordered this book I thought I was buying an expose about life at Ciro's in it's heyday, with emphasis on celebrities. Light summer reading, you know.. But this book is not about that and I could not have been more surprised or pleased. Sheila Weller's experiences as an adolescent trying to fit in with the Popular Girls rings so true that I felt like I was in Junior High again, only with her. The painful stories she relates about her family, especially about her father, made me think she must be a wonderfully strong woman to be able to write with such honesty. And with a wry sense of humor threaded throughout, even in the painful parts of her story. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.
kept me on my toes March 23, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
this book was so interesting because it took you back in time to a whole different era, very glamorous, even if superficial. her gossip on the stars was really nothing compared to the drama her family played out. she's a strong person and rather than feeling disgusted and sorry for her you really cheer her on for her good sense and survival instinct.
 Fascinating February 10, 2003
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Sheila Weller has told the story of her family lovingly and without self-pity. Although she describes many supremely painful moments - her rejection by her father is foremost - I never had the feeling she was wallowing in the past. She did her homework and the history of her parents and grandparents was more interesting than descriptions of the celebrities who visited Ciro's. We hear enough about celebrities these days. Weller maintains good tension throughout the book. Once I began reading I didn't want to put it down.
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