Angela Lansbury as Mame "too common for words"

I've had a copy of UNCLE MAME, the biography of AUNTIE MAME author Patrick Dennis, for years and am only now getting around to reading it.

I was surprised at his assessment of Lansbury in MAME:

"Angela Lansbury was just too common for words, which is one thing Mame cannot be. Celeste Holm should at least be a bit classier."

All this time I thought her performance was universally beloved.

Guess not.

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I think of him every single time something on NPR is sponsored by the Joan B. Kroc Foundation.

Lately so have I.

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PJ, you might be on to something. Perhaps Patrick Dennis is muscle?

I've read things from the time that paint Mame as a bit beneath the New York Theater-goer. A tourist hit if you will.

But Patrick Dennis was a professional bitch.

He did create the character- he's certainly entitled to his opinions. Having read "Uncle Mame" and the other book that chronicled the piece from book to film, I got the impression that Dennis was very conflicted about his success. He seemed far fonder of the projects that didn't connect- a certain attitude of "If millions of people love it, how good can it be?"

AUNTIE MAME, the novel, is a complete work of fiction. It was never intended to be thought of otherwise. Mame Dennis is an original character created by the imagination of Edward Tanner. Hence, he IS the authority on the character.

The confusion comes from Edward Tanner using the pseudonym "Patrick Dennis" to write a fictitious "memoir" of his adventures with his Auntie Mame Dennis. There was no "real" Auntie Mame.

When the book was on the bestseller list it was under "fiction."

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Updated On: 3/18/11 at 05:23 PM