PRIMA DONNA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 390, 13 December 1946, Page 17

PRIMA DONNA

YOU’RE ONLY HUMAN ONCE. By Grace Moore, Invincible Press, Wellington. HE foreword to this\book tells us that Grace Moore takes down her hair, not only about herself, but about the friends she made on«the road to success, It is true that she lets a few curls escape, but she scarcely seems to bear out her publishers’ threat or promise. A prima donna more often than not waits till she stops singing before taking. up authorship, or gets somebody else to write the story of her life for her. But Grace Moore’s book has the stamp of being a first-hand account; its interest lies in the fact that it has been written while her name is still great, and because it is the story of artists who are still very much in circulation; And so it lacks the pathos with which reminiscences of a faded star are often coloured. To the budding singer the pages devoted to Miss Moore’s start in life, her training, and how she regained her voice after losing it completely, will appeal; to the New Zealand cinema-goer who wants to delve into the privacy of the big people of the entertainment world the book will be revealing up to a point. And the fans of Grace Moore herself will like, especially, the last paragraph in which she says: "It has been a good life-so far. I’ve liked living it, and look forward to more of the same,"