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Speedbumps - Flooring it Through Hollywood
by Teri Garr with Henriette Mantel
Hudson Street Press
ISBN 1-594-63007-0
Published November 2005 - Hardcover - 244 pages - $23.95

One of my favorite movies is "Young Frankenstein", and that was the first time I'd seen Teri Garr in a film.  I loved her in "Tootsie" and "Mr. Mom" and loved her comedic timing.  Always glamorous and always funny, but there wasn't much published about her (at least where I come from), making her elusive and enigmatic.  I was delighted to discover her book at my local library and I dived in head first.  I was immediately struck by her humor - self-effacing and dry.  Of course by now, I was aware she was suffering from MS (multiple sclerosis), and had been for some time, which would account for her absence in our lives.  Ms. Garr tells of her life as a trained dancer, a wannabe actress from a young age, her alcoholic-Vaudevillian father, her Rockettes and costume maker mother, and her two brothers.  Hardly a sentence goes by where she hasn't infused her own brand of humor - lighthearted and funny.  She has a naughty-but-alluring smile which she hasn't lost and which I again saw as I watched her recently in a "Friends" rerun, interacting with "Phoebe".  Ms. Garr relates her struggles as a actress in Hollywood trying to land roles, and what roles she landed!  Perhaps not lead roles but the likes of "Tootsie", for which she was nominated for an Oscar for Supporting Actress, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", of course "Young Frankenstein", "The Black Stallion", "The Conversation", and a stint on the "Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" among others.  Working her way into the world of movies, she met and in some instances, befriended many top names in the business.  She doesn't give her age but Dustin Hoffman and Harrison Ford she mentions as being in some classes she took or had the same agent.  Dealing with "clues" she was wasn't well turned out to be a couple of decades before she learned MS was the cause.  She travels the country talking about this disease.
Conclusion - Very funny and infinitely insightful about the movie and entertainment industry, and about MS.