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Century
Girl is a stunning visual presentation of the life of
Doris Eaton Travis. Author Lauren Redniss uses historical
context, collage, and personal anecdotes from Travis herself
to tell the century-long story of child actress turned chorus
girl turned dance instructor turned horse rancher Doris Eaton
Travis.
Doris
Eaton was born to Charles H.S. and Mary Saunders Eaton in
1904 in Norfolk, Virginia. Mary Saunders lived with unfulfilled
dreams of fame and instilled in her six children a love of
show business and performing. Mary's torch was taken up by
the eldest Eaton girl, Evelyn, and after some limited success,
the family was moved to New York, where the children could
further pursue work on the stage. Redniss's work attempts
to follow Doris as she grows into success and into adulthood,
through the stock market crash and the Great Depression, wars
and the quiet times between them, the desperation and death
of her siblings, and the creation and loss of her own marriage,
all up to current day.
Undeniably,
the most stimulating component of Redniss's work is the collage.
Every page is full-color collage art, comprised of cut-outs
from archive photos of Travis—as well as her friends,
colleagues, and her family—and drawings done by Redniss.
Chorus girls and smoky-eyed sirens with finger waves and red
lipstick stare out from every page. The glamour and elegance
of the past mesmerize readers.
The pages
that Redniss has laid out are interesting to the eye; the
pictures, media clippings, and photographs work with the text
to present biography in an innovative way. Though there are
many elements present in each page of the text, the flow of
text is never impeded—only changed. Redniss has played
with the way text should be presented, creating a timeline
as the table of contents and forcing the text to work as a
visual, rather than literary, component of her work.
One complaint,
however, is that it sometimes seems as though Redniss should
have titled the work Century: 100 Years of Show Business.
At times, Redniss's main subject-matter—Doris—gets
lost in all the historical context contained therein: the
stories of other performers, her family, the rise and fall
of entertainment and stories and information. It's almost
as though Doris's biography itself is sprinkled among historical
factoids and names like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and
Rita Hayworth. It's because of this that the biography loses
some of its cohesion.
At the
same time, Redniss's readiness to present historical context
for this biography guides readers, allowing a reasonable sense
of what time has passed and, ultimately, how current events
have affected the life of Doris and her family.
Perhaps
the best parts of the text itself are Doris's anecdotes, which
are sprinkled throughout. Redniss presents both hilarious
and introspective parts of Doris. Says Doris, "You see, right
now everybody thinks of me as getting old. First thing everyone
says is 'How do you feel?' Meaning, 'You still walking around?'"
Redniss works with Doris's words, creating textual emphasis
where due by changing the visual presentation of the words
and letters themselves, by making them bigger, bolder, and
changing shape.
Though
the focus of this biography sometimes suffers, Redniss's dedication
as an artist makes up for it. The book survives on its artistic
qualities alone, offering the biographical tales of Doris
almost as a bonus. Redniss presents a quote, "They all saved
everything," followed later by lists "every mailing, every
advertisement…every TV Guide since the beginning…old
trinkets, fancy bottles, precious things." In the same spirit,
Redniss has recorded all the history contained in the century
of Doris Eaton Travis's life, not just her personal history.
(March,
2008)
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