Shirley Jones, who is best known as the mother on The Partridge Family and starring in classic Hollywood musicals like Oklahoma!, is releasing her memoir this week and it goes in some unexpected directions.
According to The Associated Press, in Shirley Jones: A Memoir, the Oscar winner goes far to prove that the squeaky-clean image she portrayed in many of her famous roles was really just an act. “So bring out the smelling salts, hang onto your hats, and get ready for the surprise of your lives!” the 79-year-old wrote in the introduction and she isn’t kidding.
She goes into unexpected detail on her sex life during her marriage to the late actor Jack Cassidy, who she refers to as a “sexual Svengali.” He had a “highly sexed” nature and the two tried a threesome with another woman. Her response was “yuck.” She also covers an apparent tolerance for Cassidy’s affairs and Cassidy’s pre-marriage encounter with Cole Porter.
Jones is now married to Marty Ingels, her husband of 35 years. She told the AP that she is hoping to end the idea that friskiness ends at a certain age. “Luckily, Marty thinks I've still got a beautiful body, even though it is old, and every now and again I take all of my clothes off in front of him and shake my (breasts) at him, and he loves it,” she writes in the book.
Jones also covers some of the moments you may expect from someone who grew up in the Hollywood system, including recollections of working with Marlon Brando and James Stewart. She won her Oscar for playing a very unique role in 1960’s Elmer Gantry with Burt Lancaster. “I got letters up the kazoo: `Why would you ever take a part like this?’” she remembered.
Jones still acts occasionally, recently making guest appearances on Hot in Cleveland and Raising Hope.
image: Wikimedia Commons
