Upper Cut: Highlights of My Hollywood LifeShampoo meets You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again in a rollicking and riveting memoir from the woman who for decades styled Hollywood's most celebrated players. I was living a hairdresser’s dream. I was making my mark in this all-male field. My appointment book was filled with more and more celebrities. And I was becoming competition for my heroes . . . Behind the scenes of every Hollywood photo shoot, TV appearance, and party in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, there was Carrie White. As the “First Lady of Hairdressing,” Carrie collaborated with Richard Avedon on shoots for Vogue, partied with Jim Morrison, gave Sharon Tate her California signature style, and got high with Jimi Hendrix. She has counted Jennifer Jones, Betsy Bloomingdale, Elizabeth Taylor, Goldie Hawn, and Camille Cosby among her favorite clients. But behind the glamorous facade, Carrie’s world was in perpetual disarray and always had been. After her father abandoned the family when she was still a child, she was sexually abused by her domineering stepfather, and her alcoholic mother was unstable and unreliable. Carrie was sipping cocktails before her tenth birthday, and had had five children and three husbands before her twenty-eighth. She fueled the frenetic pace of her professional life with a steady diet of champagne and vodka, diet pills, cocaine, and heroin, until she eventually lost her home, her car, her career—and nearly her children. But she battled her way back, getting sober, rebuilding her relationships and her reputation as a hairdresser, and today, the name Carrie White is once again on the door of one of Beverly Hills’s most respected salons. An unflinching portrayal of addiction and recovery, Upper Cut proves that even in Hollywood, sometimes you have to fight for a happy ending. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - NovelChatter - LibraryThingWOW! Carrie's young years were surely tough, Carrie details her abuse by her stepfather and mistreatment by her alcoholic mother in some detail, and leads us into the not-so-glamorous backside of ... Read full review
Upper Cut: Highlights of My Hollywood Life
User Review - Lani Smith - Book VerdictIn the swing of 1960s Hollywood, White opened a hair salon amid what was then a mostly male-dominated field. She here presents not a gossip book but the story of a life of styling and getting to know ... Read full review
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 4 |
Section 3 | 7 |
Section 4 | 11 |
Section 5 | 14 |
Section 6 | 19 |
Section 7 | 23 |
Section 8 | 24 |
Section 24 | 149 |
Section 25 | 155 |
Section 26 | 160 |
Section 27 | 168 |
Section 28 | 181 |
Section 29 | 194 |
Section 30 | 198 |
Section 31 | 211 |
Section 9 | 31 |
Section 10 | 34 |
Section 11 | 45 |
Section 12 | 53 |
Section 13 | 65 |
Section 14 | 71 |
Section 15 | 72 |
Section 16 | 85 |
Section 17 | 93 |
Section 18 | 101 |
Section 19 | 111 |
Section 20 | 115 |
Section 21 | 119 |
Section 22 | 128 |
Section 23 | 133 |
Section 32 | 216 |
Section 33 | 243 |
Section 34 | 263 |
Section 35 | 273 |
Section 36 | 280 |
Section 37 | 281 |
Section 38 | 297 |
Section 39 | 315 |
Section 40 | 331 |
Section 41 | 338 |
Section 42 | 375 |
Section 43 | 379 |
Section 44 | 381 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aloma Ann-Margret arms asked baby Barbara Parkins bathroom beauty beer Benedict Canyon Betsy Bloomingdale Beverly Hills Billy Billy’s Bucky called Carol Carrie White champagne Charlotte Charlotte’s cigarette clients cocaine couldn’t dance Danny Delta door dress drink driveway drove eyes felt front fucking gave girls glass going grabbed hair haircut hairdresser hand head heard Hollywood Jean Shrimpton Jennifer Jones Johnny kids kissed kitchen knew lady laughed living room looked makeup Melvin Melvin Sokolsky Mollie mother never night Okay Pacoima paint Peggy picked pills Pitita pulled Richard Alcala Rita salon skates smiled smoke Sokolskys stay Stefanie Powers Steve stood stopped street sure talking tell There’s thought told took turned Vidal Sassoon vodka waiting walked wasn’t watched week What’s window Yeah you’re
Bibliographic information
| Title | Upper Cut: Highlights of My Hollywood Life |
| Author | Carrie White |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, 2011 |
| ISBN | 1439199094, 9781439199091 |
| Length | 386 pages |
| Subjects | › Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs Biography & Autobiography / Rich & Famous Biography & Autobiography / Women |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |