Shirley Jones reveals her memoirs in new autobiography

Shirley Jones in the 1962 film "The Music Man" (1962) directed by Morton DaCosta

Shirley Jones reveals shocking details about her sex life in new autobiography: "Shirley Jones opens the door to her house and appears every inch the ladylike Marian the librarian or sweet farm girl Laurey or cheerfully steady Mrs. Partridge, offering a warm smile and handshake. Jones' living room has the sort of traditional furniture and knickknacks (exception: a prominent Academy Award) that would fit any suburban house. Then there's "Shirley Jones," her new autobiography (written with Wendy Leigh and published by Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books imprint) that turns the 79-year-old actress' image on its head in startling — even shocking — ways.

There's a recounting of her early life and dazzling career that included working with two musical theater masters, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, as well as many of Hollywood's top actors, including Marlon Brando (king of the retakes to exhaustion, Jones said), Jimmy Stewart (charmingly ditsy) and Richard Widmark (the only co-star she fell in love with).

But a substantial part of the book is spent on her troubled marriage to the late Jack Cassidy, the glossily handsome actor and singer whom she describes in a passage as her first lover and "sexual Svengali," and whose lessons she shares candidly That includes — X-rated spoiler alert — Cassidy's impressive endowment, Jones' own "highly sexed" nature that made orgasms a breeze, their threesome with another woman ("yuck," she says, when asked about the onetime experiment), Cassidy's pre-marital sexual encounter with Cole Porter that Jones says left her unfazed, and her apparent tolerance for his infidelities.

The character of Marian, the spinsterish librarian in 1962's "The Music Man," another smash hit for Jones, "wasn't me," she said firmly. And her autobiography makes that abundantly clear, although she says it took the passing of years for to bring such candor. I never would have written this book if I weren't the age I am now," she said. Source: www.foxnews.com

Shirley Jones and Kim Novak arrive for the Academy Awards presentations on March 26, 1958 in Hollywood.