Tippi: A Memoir by Tippi Hedren

Alfred Hitchcock is known mainly for his impressive catalog of films (including Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, and my personal favorite, Shadow of a Doubt), but anyone with even a mild interest in the director is likely familiar with the term "Hitchcock Blonde"...and just how questionable (often-times indecent) his behavior really was behind the scenes.

Tippi Hedren was, of course, one of those "Hitchcock blondes" and as I am a big fan of her and her work both as an actress and as a wildlife advocate, I knew I wanted to read her story in her own words.

Tippi: A Memoir was published in November 2016 by William Morrow and Company. The book begins with Hedren's childhood experiences growing up in Minnesota in the 30's and early 40's and how those experiences helped to shape her.

Her modeling career began in 1945 when, after school one day during her sophomore year of high school, she was approached by a woman from Donaldson's Department Store who expressed an interest in hiring Tippi to model in their Saturday fashion shows.

Her stint with Donaldson's came to an abrupt end when her father announced the entire family would be moving to Southern California (with the hope that the milder weather would improve his poor health). Teenaged Tippi was understandably devastated, but as she had no choice in the matter, she and the family headed out west to Los Angeles.

Two years later in 1947, Tippi graduated from Huntington Park High School. A few years later, after a brief stint at college, she found she still had the modeling bug, so she sent her portfolio to Ford Modeling Agency and shortly after, in 1950, the agency sent their new model out to New York.

During the next ten years, she married (then later divorced) Peter Griffith, gave birth to their daughter, Melanie, and moved back to L.A. in the wake of her broken marriage. Upon her return to Los Angeles, she took the odd modeling job, including an appearance in a television commercial advertising a meal replacement shake named Sego. This commercial was seen by Alfred Hitchcock and thus began her meteoric rise to fame...

At 355 pages (with large font size) Tippi: A Memoir is not a lengthy book, but it is an interesting read. She details some of the ups and downs of her three marriages (nearly four), as well as her relationship with her daughter, which clearly is the most important relationship of her entire life. She describes Melanie as the greatest love of her life and the best thing that ever happened to her. 

The book does mention Hedren's complicated (and often horrible) dealings with Hitchcock, but she does not go into great detail (obviously thinking about that time of her life could not have been a pleasant experience). She mentions that there were many positive moments and experiences with filming The Birds and Marnie and I think the chapters pertaining to those films would have been more detailed had Hitchcock's obsession with her not cast such a pall over it all.

A large portion of the book is dedicated to the events leading up to and including the making of the film Roar. In 1969, Hedren traveled to South Africa to film a movie and there she had her first experience with lions. From then on she and her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, became absolutely obsessed with big cats and the idea of making a film about them, which took them nearly eleven years to complete. 

I really enjoyed this section of the book (even though I haven't seen Roar) and I was amazed at Tippi Hedren's dedication, passion and resolve throughout this time of her life. The film was not easy to make, with injuries, money troubles and a failing marriage, but she never gave up. She seemed most driven by her desire to use the film to raise awareness for the preservation of wildlife and to ensure that she'd be able to keep and care for the big cats (and a variety of other animals) that she'd adopted during those eleven years. (I was more tickled than I probably should have been to read that I share a name with a tigon cub named Noelle and I learned that a tigon is different from a liger. A tigon is the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion, and a liger is the offspring of a female tiger and a male lion.)

As an animal lover myself, I was touched by the respect and love she developed for big cats (all animals, really) and that those feelings led her to become an advocate for animal rights. She formed a non-profit organization called The Roar Foundation, which supports Shambala Preserve, her wildlife sanctuary (which was initially the "set" for the film). Shambala, located in Acton, California, is open to the public one weekend each month (by reservation) and I would love to visit someday.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and Hedren's way with words. She tells her story in a succinct, friendly and humorous way. Even with everything she went through over the years, she strikes me as a generous and kind person and after reading her memoir I have even greater respect for her. I think my only complaint is that I wish the book had included more photos of the animals!