JULIE ANDREWS: A LIFE ON STAGE AND SCREEN.

Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane / Carol Publishing, 1997. 262 pp, large 8vo (9 1/4" H). B&w photographs. "Since her professional singing debut at the London Hippodrome in 1947 - at the age of twelve - Julie Andrews has been a star. In the half century since those last days of British vaudeville, through her smash Broadway comeback in 'Victor/Victoria', she has triumphed on stage, in the movies, and on television. At thirteen, Julie gave a command performance for the Queen of England, at nineteen she became a Broadway star in 'The Boy Friend', and she became a theatrical legend before she was twenty-one, as Eliza Doolittle in 'My Fair Lady'. By the time she was thirty-one, Julie was the best-paid and most beloved actress in the world, with an Academy Award for her first movie, 'Mary Poppins', and an international box-office championship with her third movie, 'The Sound of Music'. Her remarkable body of work up to this point stamped her with an indelible image she came to resent: wholesome, innocent, the nanny next door. Worse, at the peak of her enormous success, Andrews was unhappy enough to submit to daily psychotherapy. Her first marriage, to childhood sweetheart Tony Walton, broke down. After two flop movie musicals, 'Star!' and 'Darling Lili', the press and the public seemed to turn on her. Julie became box-office poison in Hollywood but even in her semi-exile starred in critically successful, Emmy-winning television variety series, wrote two children's books, and performed live. Here at last is the whole sixty-two-year life story of Julie Andrews - her meteoric rise, her devastating fall, and her incredible comeback, from the little English girl with the freak four-octave, crystalline voice to the surprising legend who has outlasted her critics. Robert Windeler's affectionate and insightful biography reveals the full-blooded woman behind the high and low notes." Small soft bump at top corner of pages 35 to 50, minor wrinkling at bottom of spine, small water mark and tiny stain on rear board. Dust jacket has minor edge wrinkling, minor rubbing, tiny stain on inside rear panel. . Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good+.