Take it from the big mouth

"Take It from the Big Mouth, the first full-fledged biography of the multitalented performer, explores Raye's life and career with candor and insight. Her career began when she joined the family act at age three on the tough vaudeville circuit."--BOOK JACKET. "Raye got her big break when she caught the attention of a film director as she kidded with audience members Joe E. Lewis and Jimmy Durante during an engagement at the Trocadero in Hollywood."--Jacket. "In the late 1930s, Raye appeared in a number of films, and the press heralded her as a "stridently funny comedienne with a Mammoth Cave mouth." From there her career soared. She landed a role in Charlie Chaplin's film Monsieur Verdoux. By the 1950s she hosted her own highly rated television show, reaching millions with her clowning."--BOOK JACKET. "Behind the huge smile and raucous laugh, though, there was a darker side to Martha Raye. She found solace from her insecurities and a frenzied schedule in the use of drugs and alcohol. Her seven marriages, the last to a man 33 years her junior whom she had known less than two weeks, fueled headlines and gossip columns. Particularly painful was her turbulent relationship with her only daughter, Melodye."--Jacket. "Despite her personal instability, Raye's enduring love affair with the American military never wavered. She was passionately committed to entertaining troops abroad during World War II, and she worked tirelessly as both entertainer and nurse in the remote jungles of Vietnam."--Jacket.