Book Review: The Merchant of Venus: The Life of Walter Thornton by Nancy Thornton Navarro & Adriana Thornton-Conejo

The Merchant of Venus: The Life of Walter Thornton by Nancy Thornton Navarro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fantastic biography, with the excitement of a treasure hunt!

The Merchant of Venus is a fantastic story, a biography of the authors’ father, initiated by the surprise discovery of an old photo of him in a feature film years after his death. Compelled to uncover the story behind the widely-used picture, the two sisters conduct extensive and impeccable research to reconstruct their dad’s early life, which occurred well before his marriage to their mother and their births and those of their four other siblings. With its intriguing impetus and accompanying photos, the sisters give readers a well-written, well-documented, true-life mystery and tribute to their remarkable father, a pioneer in modeling history, Pin Up King of WWII, and a leader in building and sustaining the morale of our servicemen and women during the war.

Walter Thornton’s life is revealed through alternating chapters by his daughters, Nancy Thornton Navarro and Adriana Thornton-Cornejo, of their years-long research project to uncover and understand their father’s early life. He had met and married the love of his life, Candelaria, who was 34 years his junior, in Mexico in 1960. Together, they had six children and were a devoted couple until his death in 1990 at the age of 87. It wasn’t until 2004 that his picture was spotted by his widow in a montage of photos during the screening of the film “Seabiscuit” at a holiday gathering at one of her daughters’ homes. The search for the story behind the iconic 1929 “bankrupt investor” photo led them to their father’s eye-opening, never-before-known past.

A lot of families have secrets, but few are on par with what Nancy and Adriana were to discover. Their father had been internationally famous throughout the early 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. Not only had he been a highly successful male model for artists and photographers in commercial advertising, but he had also redefined the modeling industry with his concepts for a modeling agency. He was well-known as a beauty expert and one who encouraged and supported women, emphasizing their natural assets to their best and healthiest advantage. Known as “The Merchant of Venus,” a play on “The Merchant of Venice” by Shakespeare, he discovered and helped launch the careers of a number of Hollywood movie stars during that era. During WWII, he launched a massive campaign to send pinup pictures to our servicemen and women anywhere in the world, using his own models and at his own expense, boosting the morale of thousands of men and women separated from their homes and families. But despite his good deeds, he was targeted by an unscrupulous Queens, NY, district attorney in a sensational and devastating attempt to divert the press and public attention away from his own misdeeds, leading to him eventually closing his agency to pursue a new business opportunity in Mexico.

The authors recount their research and findings as well as firsthand memories in riveting detail, much like the story of an exciting treasure hunt. The narratives are well-written, easy to read, and compelling storytelling. It was a fascinating story and one that I am so glad to have encountered.

I recommend THE MERCHANT OF VENUS to readers of biographies and memoirs, especially to those whose own families may have had some interesting secret pasts or are interested in the early days of advertising modeling and origin stories of movie stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy through WOW! Women On Writing Book Tours.

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