Cultural Writing. Memoir. Dorinda Clifton grew up in an old-time Hollywood family. Her father, Elmer Clifton, was a star in D.W. Griffith's epic films, Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Dorinda had featured roles in musical theatre--The Three Musketeers, The Song of Norway, The Waltz King--and in films, working with Fred Astaire, Busby Berkeley, Gene Loring, Doris Day, and Charles Chaplin. Dorinda tells her sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic story with insight and wit--the ups and downs of her father's career, her mother's obliviousness, the whirlwind of the 60s and 70s: a fascinating life--a Hollywood life, a countercultural life. But more than that, it's a very well-written book, with great vividness of image, sharpness of language, and subtlety of structure.