Shirley Jones: A Memoir

Shirley Jones · Wendy Leigh

Jul 2013 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

From golden-voiced ingénue to bus-driving mother of a pop band, Shirley Jones sets aside her wholesome, squeaky clean image in a memoir as shockingly candid, deliciously juicy, and delightfully frank as the star herself.

“You are going to meet the real flesh-and-blood Shirley Jones, not just the movie star or Mrs. Partridge,” says the beloved film, television, and stage actress and singer of her long-awaited memoir, an account as shockingly direct, deliciously juicy, and delightfully frank as the performer herself.

Sharing the “candid” (Los Angeles Times) and “revealing” (Associated Press) details of her life in Hollywood’s inner circle and beyond, Shirley Jones blows past the wholesome, squeaky-clean image that first brought fame, and gives us a woman who only gets hotter with time.

If the story of a rebellious, gifted small-town girl being discovered by Rodgers and Hammerstein isn’t thrilling enough, go deeper behind the scenes, where Shirley Jones portrays her tumultuous marriage to Jack Cassidy, the dashing and charismatic but deeply troubled actor who unlocked her highly charged sexuality and captured her heart forever. She talks openly about their passion-fueled relationship; the infidelities, the costar crushes, and sexual experimentation. She reflects on her relationship with stepson David Cassidy; her cult status as coolest-ever TV mom Shirley Partridge; her second marriage to wacky TV comedian and producer Marty Ingels; and much more in this “saucy” (Entertainment Weekly) self-portrait.

Ratings and reviews

Highly interesting. I would have Iked to hear more about the making of Oklahoma! I wasn't impressed with hearing about her sex life, but it is popular with many and she has lived a very bold life.

I couldn't stop reading this book! I was lost in all the details of Shirley's experiences. It was interesting from the Hollywood perspective and extremely vulnerable from her own personal life.

Somethings should of been left out. They didn't make the book any better.

About the author

Shirley Jones is an American singer and actress of stage, film, and television. In her six decades of show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), and The Music Man (1962). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry (1960). She played Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children in the situation comedy television series The Partridge Family (1970–1974), co-starring her real-life stepson David Cassidy.