Beatrice Williams-Rude Releases Mirthful New Memoir
By: Matt Smith Aug. 31, 2014
NEW YORK - Beatrice Williams-Rude's mostly merry memoir chronicles her experiences as an innocent who arrives in Manhattan during the golden age of Broadway and TV in quest of a career in theater-or, dream number one, opera. "Misadventures of a Would-Be Muse" (published by Xlibris) details episodes in her life including the people with whom she crossed paths: famous and celebrated, powerful but infamous, financiers and frauds, lechers and protectors. She names those who helped and those who hindered.
Williams-Rude's roller-coaster life is seen through varied vignettes. The book features more than 40 pages of photos that include, among others, the familiar faces of Ingrid Bergman; Jackie Gleason; Martin Landau; Perry Como; Ed Sullivan; Ralph Meeker; Dina Merrill; John Forsythe; the playwright Dale ("Man of La Mancha") Wasserman, Mike Wallace caught smiling, as few "60 Minutes" viewers have seen him, as well as "the agent," Don Taft.
A chorus kid, actress, singer and model, Williams-Rude was a contest-winning child pianist, having started to perform at age four in her native Philadelphia. She appeared on Broadway, off Broadway in summer stock doing both musical comedy and straight plays as well as on TV. After receiving three unpalatable stage offers -it was not the nudity, but rather the crudity, the grossness that turned her off - she returned to college, then entered the world of journalism as a copy editor and, later, researcher, reviewer and writer. In the winding course of her career and relationships, she has had "more names than a con-man," as Mike Wallace laughingly noted.
"Misadventures of a Would-Be Muse" shows Beatrice Williams-Rude emerging from being "the droop of the third grade," to seeking to be a supporting player-a muse-in other people's movies, to the self acceptance to become a star in her own.
"Misadventures of a Would-Be Muse"
By Beatrice Williams-Rude
Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 232 pages | ISBN 9781465356055
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 232 pages | ISBN 9781465356048
E-Book | 232 pages | ISBN 9781465356062
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
About the Author
Philadelphia born and bred Beatrice Williams-Rude now lives in Manhattan with her husband, Alan Rude. She is an active campaigner for humane treatment of animals, the abolition of torture of man and beast, and for world peace. The former actress and singer is an editor and writer whose most recent essays have been on behalf of the "big three" whistleblowers: Edward J. Snowden, Pvt. Bradley/ Chelsea Manning, and John Kiriakou.
Xlibris Publishing, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider created in 1997 by authors, for authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles. For more information, visit xlibris.com or call 1-888-795-4274 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisPub on Twitter for the latest news.
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