Call Me Anna

Call Me Anna is actress Patty Duke's autobiography, chronicling her rise to fame as a child star in 1950s and 60s Hollywood. Duke recounts her early career, including her Academy Award-winning role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker and her starring role in The Patty Duke Show. The narrative follows Duke's experiences with mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder, which went undiagnosed for many years. She details her relationships with her managers, who controlled her career and personal life from a young age, and her journey through multiple marriages. The book traces Duke's path from child actress to advocate for mental health awareness, documenting her work with various organizations and her efforts to reduce stigma. Duke writes with directness about both her struggles and triumphs in the entertainment industry and her personal life. This autobiography examines themes of identity, resilience, and the impact of childhood fame on mental health. The author's decision to write under both her stage name and birth name (Anna) reflects her complex relationship with fame and her search for authenticity.

Readers found Duke's memoir honest and raw in depicting her struggles with bipolar disorder and childhood exploitation in Hollywood. Many appreciated the detailed accounts of her work on The Patty Duke Show and The Miracle Worker. Readers liked: - Clear explanations of bipolar disorder symptoms and treatment - Behind-the-scenes stories from Hollywood's Golden Age - Candid discussion of her relationships and parenting - The writing style's conversational tone Readers disliked: - Some repetitive sections - Lack of depth about certain career periods - Occasional timeline jumps that created confusion "She doesn't hold back or try to paint herself as a victim," noted one Amazon reviewer. Another reader on Goodreads said "the mental health sections helped me understand my own family member's struggles." Ratings: Goodreads: 3.9/5 (2,800+ ratings) Amazon: 4.6/5 (390+ ratings) LibraryThing: 3.8/5 (150+ ratings)

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🎭 Though Patty Duke won an Oscar at age 16 for her role as Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker," she reveals in the book that she was struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder throughout her early success. 👥 The book's title references Duke's birth name, Anna Marie Duke, which was taken from her when managers John and Ethel Ross changed it to "Patty" - symbolizing how they stripped away her identity. 📺 Duke was the youngest person at the time to have a TV show named after her ("The Patty Duke Show"), where she played identical cousins - a feat made more remarkable by her mental health challenges during filming. 🗣️ After the book's publication in 1987, Duke became one of the first celebrities to speak openly about mental illness, testifying before Congress and becoming an influential mental health advocate. 👊 The memoir exposes the dark side of child stardom in the 1960s, including how Duke's managers controlled her life, stole her earnings, and even prescribed her combination of pills and alcohol from an early age.