Go Slow

Book excerpt: It has been said that the records of singer and actress Julie London were purchased for their provocative, full-color cover photographs as frequently as they were for the music contained in their grooves. During the 1950s and 1960s, her piercing blue eyes, strawberry-blonde hair, and shapely figure were used to sell the world an image of cool sexuality that stoked the fevered dreams of many men. The contrast between that image and reality, the public and the private, is at the heart of Julie London's story. Through years of research, extensive interviews with family, friends, and musical associates, and access to rarely seen or heard archival material, author Michael Owen reveals the impact that her image had on the direction of her career and how it influenced the choices she made, including the decision to walk away from performing. Go Slow follows Julie London's life and career through its many stages: her transformation from 1940s movie starlet to the coolly defiant singer of the classic torch ballad "Cry Me a River" of the 1950s, and her journey from Las Vegas hotel entertainer during the rock and roll revolution of the 1960s to the no-nonsense nurse of the 1970s hit television series Emergency!