Speedbumps: Flooring It through Hollywood by Teri Garr, Henriette Mantel, Henriette Mantel (With)

From Barnes & Noble

Teri Garr's acting career boasts enough high points to satisfy any reader of Hollywood memoirs: Her 40-year run includes roles in Tootsie, Young Frankenstein, Mr. Mom, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and no fewer than nine Elvis Presley films; and TV credits spanning eras from The Sonny and Cher Show to Friends. But the professional career of this Oscar-nominated actress is only half the story. In October 2002, Garr announced on national television that she had multiple sclerosis. This heartfelt memoir of her life before and since MS will appeal to readers of Michael J. Fox, Christopher Reeve, and Peggy Lipton.

From the Publisher

At once laugh-out-loud funny and remarkably down-to-earth, the popular Oscar-nominated actress muses about movies, men, motherhood, and MS in a book that is both Hollywood hilarious and personally moving

From Speedbumps:

I was originally up for the principal female role in Young Frankenstein. Mel Brooks was directing. He had just finished Blazing Saddles, and was at the top of the comedy world.

Mel had picked me out of five hundred girls, but admitted that he was still trying to convince Madeline Kahn to take the lead role. After I auditioned three times, Madeline finally did decide to take the part of the fiancée.

I was crushed. I’d never come so close to getting a major part in a major movie. But then Mel told me that if I came back the next day with a German accent I could read for the part of Inga, Gene Wilder’s buxom lab assistant.

A German accent in twenty-four hours? Luckily, I was still on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, and, as fate would have it, Cher’s wig stylist was German. So, I sat in on Cher’s hairstyling session (that gave me hours of study!) and emerged with a perfect German accent when saying, “Mein Gott, zis vig veighs forty pounds.” That would translate to the script!

There was one last thing I needed for Inga. Or two, actually. I realized Inga’s part was really all about the boobs, so the next day I went in to the audition wearing a bra stuffed with socks. People pay over five thousand dollars for a boob job today. Mine cost under five dollars at Woolworth’s, and got me the part, my biggest to date.

I was thrilled. I’d been chosen by one of the best. My career was finally in motion.

I got to thinking that I should have stuffed my bra with socks for every audition.

Author Bio: Teri Garr is a leading advocate in raising awareness for multiple sclerosis and one of Hollywood’s most beloved comic actresses, starring in such classic films as Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Mr. Mom, and Tootsie, for which she received an Academy Award nomination.

Publishers Weekly

This dishy memoir may be about "speedbumps"-obstacles that slow a person's journey in life-but Garr's delivery is smooth as glass, with no jarring notes. Garr's performance highlights her wonderfully edgy sarcasm and self-deprecating humor. This audio version is often better than the print book, particularly when Garr launches into funny digressions or catty parenthetical comments about people in Hollywood. She seems to have a marvelous time poking fun at herself, from her drama-queen tendencies to the ways she used to pad her resume. Her behind-the-scenes commentaries about some of her more famous roles, such as the buxom German nurse in Young Frankenstein, are delicious. The last third of Garr's book is devoted to multiple sclerosis, which she was definitively diagnosed as having in 1999, after 20 years of strange, on-again, off-again symptoms. But even here, her humor is in full sway, as she describes her new role as a celebrity spokesperson for the disease. Listeners will cheer her on as she invites us along for an exciting ride, speed bumps and all. Simultaneous release with the Hudson Street hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 22). (Dec.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0641829140
  
• ISBN-13: 9780641829147
• Format: Hardcover, 256pp
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Pub. Date: November 2005
• Edition Description: Bargain
• Sales Rank: 8,834