Stan Kenton's daughter opens door to their dark past
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Leslie Kenton -- Dedicates memoir to her father.
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You won't learn how badly damaged at birth Leslie Kenton's sister was from her sensational account of her incest with her father, jazz bandleader Stan Kenton.
For those details, visit www.lesliekenton.com, the website where she hawks beauty products and weight-loss advice.
She's a diversified talent credited with inventing the Origins cosmetics line. She's written many books.
I read her new one out of curiosity about Kenton, a jazz figure best known for orchestral jazz and arrangers including Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo and Bob Brookmeyer.
I came away with insight into a Hollywood marked by narcissism, extravagance and addiction to trend, a Hollywood familiar from the vantage point of the film industry. Getting a jazz-based slant is refreshing, if saddening.
In this fulsome memoir, we learn of the horrendously indulgent and perverted upbringing the talented, tortured Kenton and his wife, the lovely Violet, imposed on their lonely, super-sensitive daughter.
Leslie tells a harrowing story, couched in prose that often careens into purple. It is at its stormiest when she describes the affair her father forced on her when she was 10. The incest didn't end until she was 13.
That Leslie forgave her father is touching. It doesn't mean we should. That she dedicates this to him is startling.
"Love Affair" is creepy, as might be expected. It's a New Age soap opera with detours into Dianetics, Freudianism, psychedelics and serial marriage -- and with a happy ending.
That Leslie survived to not only tell the tale but also thrive as a wellness entrepreneur, spiritual adviser and journalist attests to her perseverance and her talents. She can write. She can analyze. She can forgive. But why publish this now?
First Published February 20, 2011 12:00 am
