HOLLYWOOD -- Marlon Brando at age 70 remains a figure of controversy, currently the subject of two very different biographies: 'Brando: The Biography,' a 1,021-page tome by Peter Manso. 'Songs My Mother Taught Me,' by Brando with writer Robert Lindsey, 468 pages. It's as if the books dealt with two different men. Brando's is a careful, self-serving, not very revealing examination of his own life. Manso's is explosively revelatory, based on eight years of exhaustive research, almost 1,000 interviews with friends, colleagues and members of Brando's family. Both are in the stalls right now. Manso, a New Yorker and author of a biography of novelist Norman Mailer, visited Hollywood this month to promote his book. Poolside at a Sunset Strip hotel, Manso charged that Brando's book was hastily written to diminish his own work. 'What absolutely astounds me is that no one has ever written an in- depth biography about Brando telling the truth,' Manso said. 'Didn't anybody in this town have the guts? Is Brando so powerful? Are writers afraid of him? What's the reason? 'Brando wrote his biography to make a fast $6 million. The publishers say they paid him $3.5 million, but it was more. 'Brando wrote with three objectives in mind: to raise quick scratch to pay (son) Christian's legal bills and (daughter) Cheyenne's medical bills and to stop me. 'But he doesn't care; he's laughing all the way to the bank. 'I read Marlon's book. It's not only filled with omissions, he doesn't talk about his wives except for alimony payments, about the killing of Dag Drollet (by son Christian), his children or his work.
'Caesar' gets but one line. 'He invents names for the various women in his life, after admitting the very core of his life has been (sexual intercourse). He permits himself to invent reality out of whole cloth. 'There's no way anyone can check on him. But after working on my book eight years, I identify the women. No one could possibly keep count of the women he slept with. 'Brando tells us his life has been shaped largely by women, by his mother, his girlfriends, his wives. He wrote, 'I've had far too many affairs to think of myself as a normal, rational man.'' Manso, who clearly is furious with Brando now, says he began the book with a clear and objective eye. He recalls a phone conversation with Brando's agent, Jay Kanter, saying, 'I regard Marlon not only as the consummate actor of our day but as one of those rare artists who has had a real impact on the culture.' He told Kanter to ask Brando not to interfere with his interviews and to have Brando review his manuscript for factual accuracy before it was published. 'I also said I didn't want to interview Marlon until I completed the draft,' Manso said. 'I understand he is a consummate charmer and I wanted to do an objective job. 'I never heard back from Brando. But I spent a week with his sister Jocelyn, 12 hours a day. I spent months in Nebraska, Illinois and Wisconsin researching the Brando family. 'Jocelyn spoke to me because she said, 'They are my parents just as much as they are Marlon's.' Brando didn't speak to her for five months afterwards. 'I am a literary guy. I have a doctorate in English literature. I did this book because I write about artists and people not associated with show business. I'm a cultural historian. Going in did I know Brando was this nuts? No way!' Because he is an outsider who lives on Cape Cod and has no ties to Hollywood, Manso says he isn't intimidated by Brando as are other writers and most members of the movie colony, including power brokers and studio heads who quail in the face of Brando's power. Manso investigates the dark, hidden corners of his subject's life through interviews with Brando's ex-lovers, intimates, pals and enemies. Brando's book reveals his sexual relationship with Marilyn Monroe, one of the few celebrities Brando names. Manso identifies many, many others. 'I really got inside this man,' Manso said. 'He's a monster, a very sad man.' In the course of his research, Manso amassed 70,000 pages of interview transcript. He made three trips to Brando's island, Tetiaroa in Tahiti, and four or five trips to Europe. 'I checked my facts by triangulating them in interviews with different people involved in the same circumstances or meetings or films,' he said. 'I used all the secondary material I could find to support the facts. 'It took me two years to gain the trust of the Indians Marlon associated with. I spent three days with (American Indian Movement activists) Dennis Banks, two days with Russell Means. The Indians have given up on him. 'Look, I set out to write an honorable, responsible, objective book. Marlon wrote his book to snuff me. 'No doubt, Marlon has read my book. He's obsessive in the area of what's going on with his enemies.' Of Brando's book, Manso says, 'His recollections are so haphazard, so self-mythologizing, so intent on settling old scores that he only traps himself. 'Songs My Mother Taught Me' is not a candid self- examination but the work of neurosis.' (
