Patricia Bosworth
Encyclopedia
Patricia Bosworth is an American journalist
and biographer. A former faculty member of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University
, she has also been an editor, actress and model.
, she is the daughter of writer Anna Gertrude Bosworth and attorney
Bartley Crum
, one of the six lawyers who defended the Hollywood Ten during the Red Scare
at the start of the Cold War
in 1947. Her younger brother, Bartley Crum Jr., and her father both committed suicide.
Bosworth attended Miss Burke's School and the Convent of the Sacred Heart. Aged 13, intending to become an actress, she adopted her mother's maiden name as her professional surname. In 1948, the family moved to New York City
, where Bosworth attended the Chapin School. She also attended the École International
in Geneva, Switzerland. Bosworth eloped in 1952 with an art student, ending the marriage after a year. After receiving her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College
in 1955, she became a member of the Actors Studio
in Manhattan
, and found work as a model and actress. Her first modeling job came from the John Robert Powers
agency. She was hired by Diane Arbus
and her husband Allan Arbus
to pose along with a male model for a magazine ad for the Greyhound bus company. Allan drove everyone, including his and Diane's assistant Tad Yamashiro, who many years later became a photographer whose work was exhibited in galleries, to the Ardsley Acres section of Ardsley, New York
for the photo shoot.
. She is currently employed as a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair
magazine. Her articles appear there often both in print and on their web site. She was married to photographer and theatre director Tom Palumbo
, who died in October 2008.
(1955), The Nun's Story
(1959), and Young Dr. Malone (1958). She understudied
Barbara Bel Geddes
in Mary, Mary from 1961-65. She can also be seen as a notably disgruntled redhead in the audience of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, in Bert Stern's Jazz on a Summer's Day
(1960).
has been murdered." At the time, Brannum, Bosworth and their other editor assumed Kilgallen was alive and regularly visible on television, but the caller hung up immediately without explaining the remark. He never phoned again, leaving them to puzzle over hearing the news of Kilgallen's death on the office radio later that day. Bosworth and Brannum, who told her what the man had said on the phone, consider this to be a "small mystery" because the man, not necessarily part of a conspiracy, could have heard an earlier news report that they had missed and decided to taunt them because Screen Stars was read by many women.
Later in the 1960s, Bosworth became an editor at Woman's Day
and from 1969 to 1972 was senior editor of McCall's
. Bosworth served as managing editor of Harper's Bazaar
from 1972 to 1974, and then as executive editor of the nightlife magazine Viva
from 1974 to 1976. She also freelanced for the arts section of The New York Times
, as well as for national magazines, and was a contributing editor of Vanity Fair
. She reviewed numerous books for The New York Times, and profiled film historian Lawrence J. Quirk
for the April 1998 issue of Vanity Fair and Penthouse
founder Bob Guccione
for the February 2005 issue of the same magazine.
(1978), Diane Arbus (1984) and Marlon Brando
(2000). Her book, Montgomery Clift: A Biography tells the story of the actor, whose introverted style of acting influenced James Dean
and many other performers. In researching her book, the author had total access to Clift's family and many persons who knew the actor and worked with him.
Bosworth's biography of Diane Arbus, a photographer known for her poetic approach to subjects eccentric, abnormal or extraordinary, proved to be extremely controversal, and did not get formal approvement from the Arbus Estate. Main criticism was pointed at the absolute lack of evidence in the author's account of Arbus' life, her sensationalistic focus on her alleged "freaky" sexual life and allegations on her artistic sensibility which did not rely on first hands documents.
According to Publishers Weekly
, Bosworth's biography on Marlon Brando "offers a vivid reminder of the personal and professional highlights of Brando's life ... [It is] an informative biography of Brando that, because of the limited format of the Penguin Lives series, hints at but cannot do justice to the great unruliness of Brando's career and life. She provides a fine, detailed sketch of his New York
days when he took acting classes with Harry Belafonte
, Elaine Stritch
, Gene Saks
, Shelley Winters
, Rod Steiger
and Kim Stanley
, and presents a great portrait of the craziness on the set of Last Tango in Paris
(co-star Maria Schneider
announced that they got along 'because we're both bisexual')", but in only 228 pages, the author "can't approach the complexity of her earlier work."
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and biographer. A former faculty member of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, she has also been an editor, actress and model.
Early life and career
Born as Patricia Crum in Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, she is the daughter of writer Anna Gertrude Bosworth and attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
Bartley Crum
Bartley Crum
Bartley Cavanaugh Crum was a prominent American lawyer.Bartley Crum was a confidant of William Randolph Hearst and the 1940 U.S. Presidential candidate Wendel Willkie...
, one of the six lawyers who defended the Hollywood Ten during the Red Scare
Red Scare
Durrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...
at the start of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
in 1947. Her younger brother, Bartley Crum Jr., and her father both committed suicide.
Bosworth attended Miss Burke's School and the Convent of the Sacred Heart. Aged 13, intending to become an actress, she adopted her mother's maiden name as her professional surname. In 1948, the family moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where Bosworth attended the Chapin School. She also attended the École International
International school
An International school is loosely defined as a school that promotes international education, in an international environment, either by adopting an international curriculum such as that of the International Baccalaureate or Cambridge International Examinations, or by following a national...
in Geneva, Switzerland. Bosworth eloped in 1952 with an art student, ending the marriage after a year. After receiving her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
in 1955, she became a member of the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, and found work as a model and actress. Her first modeling job came from the John Robert Powers
John Robert Powers
John Robert Powers was an American actor and founder of a prominent New York City modeling agency.In 1923, John Robert Powers founded a modeling agency. The John Robert Powers Agency represented many models who went on to success in the Hollywood film industry, and even Betty Bloomer who became...
agency. She was hired by Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid.....
and her husband Allan Arbus
Allan Arbus
Allan Arbus is an American actor notable for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman on the television series M*A*S*H.-Early life:...
to pose along with a male model for a magazine ad for the Greyhound bus company. Allan drove everyone, including his and Diane's assistant Tad Yamashiro, who many years later became a photographer whose work was exhibited in galleries, to the Ardsley Acres section of Ardsley, New York
Ardsley, New York
Ardsley is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is part of the town of Greenburgh. The village's population was 4,452 at the 2010 census. The current mayor of Ardsley is Jay Leon....
for the photo shoot.
Present day
Bosworth's book on Diane Arbus was turned into a film called FUR (2006), directed by Steven ShainbergSteven Shainberg
Steven Shainberg is an American film director and producer.He is the nephew of author Lawrence Shainberg. Both are part of the Shainberg family of Memphis, Tennessee, founder of the Shainberg's chain of stores, which is now part of Dollar General.Shainberg received his BA from Yale University in...
. She is currently employed as a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
magazine. Her articles appear there often both in print and on their web site. She was married to photographer and theatre director Tom Palumbo
Tom Palumbo
Tom Palumbo was an American photographer and theatre director. He was born in Molfetta, Italy, in 1921. His family moved when he was about 12 years old to New York City. As a young man Palumbo was employed first building scale models for ships in an engineering company. Later he was employed as an...
, who died in October 2008.
As actress
Her stage roles included appearances in Inherit the WindInherit the Wind (play)
Inherit the Wind is a play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. The play, which debuted in 1955, is a parable that fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial as a means to discuss the then-contemporary McCarthy trials.-Background:...
(1955), The Nun's Story
The Nun's Story (film)
The Nun's Story is a 1959 Warner Brothers film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Audrey Hepburn. Based upon the 1956 novel of the same title by Kathryn Hulme, the story tells of the life of Sister Luke , a young Belgian woman who decides to enter a convent and make the many sacrifices...
(1959), and Young Dr. Malone (1958). She understudied
Understudy
In theater, an understudy is a performer who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a regular actor or actress in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or emergencies, the understudy takes over the part...
Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...
in Mary, Mary from 1961-65. She can also be seen as a notably disgruntled redhead in the audience of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, in Bert Stern's Jazz on a Summer's Day
Jazz on a Summer's Day
Jazz on a Summer's Day is a documentary film set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, and filmed and directed by noted commercial and fashion photographer Bert Stern and the film director Aram Avakian , who also edited the movie...
(1960).
As journalist
Changing careers to journalism afterward, she became an editor at Screen Stars magazine. One of her two fellow staff members there, Mary Brannum, received a strange phone call at their Manhattan office on November 8, 1965 in which a man said, "Mary, Dorothy KilgallenDorothy Kilgallen
Dorothy Mae Kilgallen was an American journalist and television game show panelist. She started her career early as a reporter for the Hearst Corporation's New York Evening Journal after spending only two semesters at The College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, New York...
has been murdered." At the time, Brannum, Bosworth and their other editor assumed Kilgallen was alive and regularly visible on television, but the caller hung up immediately without explaining the remark. He never phoned again, leaving them to puzzle over hearing the news of Kilgallen's death on the office radio later that day. Bosworth and Brannum, who told her what the man had said on the phone, consider this to be a "small mystery" because the man, not necessarily part of a conspiracy, could have heard an earlier news report that they had missed and decided to taunt them because Screen Stars was read by many women.
Later in the 1960s, Bosworth became an editor at Woman's Day
Woman's Day
Woman's Day is aimed at a female readership, covering such subjects as food, nutrition, fitness, beauty and fashion. The magazine edition is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines....
and from 1969 to 1972 was senior editor of McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...
. Bosworth served as managing editor of Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
from 1972 to 1974, and then as executive editor of the nightlife magazine Viva
Viva (magazine)
Viva was an adult woman's magazine that premiered in 1973 and ceased publication in 1980. Its full title was Viva, The International Magazine For Women, and it was published by Bob Guccione and his wife, Kathy Keeton. Guccione was the editor of Penthouse, an adult men's magazine, and he wanted to...
from 1974 to 1976. She also freelanced for the arts section of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, as well as for national magazines, and was a contributing editor of Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
. She reviewed numerous books for The New York Times, and profiled film historian Lawrence J. Quirk
Lawrence J. Quirk
Lawrence J. Quirk is an American writer, Hollywood reporter and film historian.-Career:Lawrence J. Quirk is the nephew of James R. Quirk, former editor and publisher of the now-defunct Photoplay magazine. He was an Army sergeant in Korea, a reporter for the Hearst papers, and a film magazine...
for the April 1998 issue of Vanity Fair and Penthouse
Penthouse (magazine)
Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
founder Bob Guccione
Bob Guccione
Bob Guccione was the founder and publisher of the adult magazine Penthouse. He resigned from his publisher position in November 2003.-Early life:...
for the February 2005 issue of the same magazine.
As biographer
Bosworth is the author of biographies on Montgomery CliftMontgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men"....
(1978), Diane Arbus (1984) and Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
(2000). Her book, Montgomery Clift: A Biography tells the story of the actor, whose introverted style of acting influenced James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
and many other performers. In researching her book, the author had total access to Clift's family and many persons who knew the actor and worked with him.
Bosworth's biography of Diane Arbus, a photographer known for her poetic approach to subjects eccentric, abnormal or extraordinary, proved to be extremely controversal, and did not get formal approvement from the Arbus Estate. Main criticism was pointed at the absolute lack of evidence in the author's account of Arbus' life, her sensationalistic focus on her alleged "freaky" sexual life and allegations on her artistic sensibility which did not rely on first hands documents.
According to Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
, Bosworth's biography on Marlon Brando "offers a vivid reminder of the personal and professional highlights of Brando's life ... [It is] an informative biography of Brando that, because of the limited format of the Penguin Lives series, hints at but cannot do justice to the great unruliness of Brando's career and life. She provides a fine, detailed sketch of his New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
days when he took acting classes with Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
, Gene Saks
Gene Saks
Gene Saks is an American stage and film director.-Life and career:Saks was born in New York City, the son of Beatrix and Morris J. Saks...
, Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006...
, Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
and Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances....
, and presents a great portrait of the craziness on the set of Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a recent American widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman...
(co-star Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider (actress)
Maria Schneider was a French actress. She was best known for playing Jeanne, opposite Marlon Brando, in the 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.-Career:...
announced that they got along 'because we're both bisexual')", but in only 228 pages, the author "can't approach the complexity of her earlier work."