00:00Shirley MacLaine is once again opening the book on her storied life, in her new memoir
00:05and photo album The Wall of Life Pictures and Stories from this marvelous lifetime out
00:09OCT.
00:1022 From Crown, the Oscar winner and out-on-a-limb author takes readers on a nine-decade journey
00:16from her childhood in Virginia with her baby brother Warren Beatty through her rat-pack
00:21run at the start of her movie career to her exalted status as one of Hollywood's most
00:25enduring stars.
00:27The idea to do a photo-driven book started at home.
00:31One day, I was looking at my wall of pictures and just taking everything into consideration
00:36specifically, and I thought I should write about this and that's what happened, MacLaine
00:39tells people.
00:41She was already a seasoned author who had written books on everything from 1972 Democratic
00:47presidential candidate George McGovern to her various past lives, so why was the time
00:52right to tell her story through previously unseen photos?
00:56Because I've had an enchanted life, she says.
00:59By looking at my wall that day, I realized the enchantment I really have, and I really
01:03mean it, I felt that way.
01:05So it's something that comes out of appreciation.
01:07Although she's looking back, she says she isn't stuck in memories of the past.
01:11I've always known I'd have a long life, so I was looking forward, she says.
01:16I'm an optimist anyway.
01:17I look forward to the next day, rather than, well, I must say, now I wonder how much longer.
01:23It would take several volumes to do her life story justice, but these exclusive photos
01:28are a good start.
01:31MacLaine's Canadian mother had acting dreams.
01:34She was an acting student in Nova Scotia, but she sacrificed furthering her career when
01:38she committed to motherhood and wife of MacLaine, writes in The Wall of Life.
01:43At 16, MacLaine went to New York City to pursue dancing and performing.
01:49When I went out auditioning, people thought I was older and was offered a job in the chorus
01:54of the subway circuit of Oklahoma, and got to do the show in all the boroughs of New
01:58York.
02:00She has no idea who captured this scene from an impromptu photo shoot.
02:06MacLaine doesn't remember who took this photo, which is one of a group of four in the book.
02:10They seem to reveal that I knew what I wanted to express different moods, different faces
02:16almost like I'm trying out acting to understand how it feels, she writes.
02:20Shirley MacLaine as Shirley MacLaine.
02:24This almost looks like a cheesecake shot, but I think I'm actually just being me here.
02:29All curled up, trying not to be noticed, watching other people, watching what they're doing.
02:35Her first love, George, was an intellectual and opened my world to thinking.
02:40I first met him when I was 17 and sitting on a blanket with friends in a park near Columbia
02:45University, where he was a student MacLaine, who was the only one in her family who didn't
02:49go to college, writes of George Huvos, but she turned down his marriage proposal.
02:56I did seriously consider it.
02:58I remember coming back on a long train ride from outside the city, mulling over the idea
03:02the whole way she writes, but in the end, my reason for not saying yes was about my
03:06career.
03:07I was already thinking that way then.
03:09I don't regret it.
03:12MacLaine and her husband, Steve Parker, shared a daughter, Saatchi.
03:17I had Saatchi when I was 22, so when we were younger.
03:20It almost felt more like we were sisters.
03:23Now that we've both got some years behind us, it really is that way.
03:26We talk together on the phone like two old ladies and are closer than we've ever been.
03:31MacLaine and Saatchi's dad had an open marriage and divorced in 1982 after 28 years.
03:39The star has met 13 U.S. presidents, including Jimmy Carter.
03:44Of President Carter, MacLaine writes that she was fascinated by his intelligence, adding,
03:49he was a Southerner and proud of it, but also a dependable liberal.
03:53I was thrilled when he was elected in 1976.
03:58MacLaine's wall of life includes nice moments with rising stars.
04:02Robert Downey Jr. and Sarah Jessica Parker, when they were together, she writes, of this
04:07blast from the past photograph.
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