Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir

Writer and producer Riskin presents an affectionate, absorbing dual biography of her parents, Fay Wray and Robert Riskin. Although Wray (1907–2004) made more than 100 films, she will always be remembered as King Kong's love interest. The author describes her mother's formative years, growing up poor in a Mormon community in Utah, and her rise to fame after leaving home at 14 to break into the film industry. Screenwriter Robert Riskin (1897–1955) was raised on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the son of Jewish immigrants. Acquiring an early love of language, he moved West, forming a fruitful partnership with director Frank Capra and penning classics such as It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Living the life of a footloose playboy into his 40s, he fell hard for Wray, then emerging from a troubled marriage. Although Riskin and Ray's marriage was a happy one, they endured long separations, and, sadly, their time together was cut short by Riskin's devastating stroke and death at age 58. This is both a poignant love story and a telling look at studio politics, screwball comedies, the postwar blacklist, and an era of hopeful cinematic escapism.