I am an old movie fan and a novelist who has been writing historical fiction about show business since 2010. As a stickler for detail, I use oodles of old Hollywood biographies and other research sources to learn everything I can about my subjects and weave as accurate a tale as I can. My Forgotten Actresses series is up to four books, with plenty more under construction.
Olive Thomas is a poor girl from Pennsylvania coal country who flees a youthful marriage for the bright lights of Broadway, the Ziegfeld Follies, and then the silent screen. Her marriage to Jack Pickford, Mary’s brother, and her mysterious death in Paris in 1920 only adds to her legend.
My book is a work of biographical fiction (very heavily researched) about Olive Thomas, narrated by her ghost, which still haunts the New Amsterdam Theatre.
I love Martin Turnbull’s writing. He truly knows how to conjure up Hollywood’s Golden Period. He’s gained popularity for his Garden on Sunset series, about the Garden of Allah apartment complex on Sunset Boulevard. However, he has begun to branch out with other series and also with standalone books.
This book was his second standalone, about producer/boy wonder Irving Thalberg, and it is a remarkable achievement. The characters really hop off the page, including Thalberg, Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, and others.
The best part for me was how Turnbull really brought Charles Laughton to life, making him incredibly human and letting us glimpse the tortured homosexual behind the portly actor.
Lose yourself in the Golden Age of Hollywood—and discover the story of the man who helped create it.
Hollywood in the 1920s: the motion picture industry is booming, and Irving Thalberg knows it takes more than guts and gumption to create screen magic that will live forever. He’s climbed all the way to head of production at newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is determined to transform Leo the Lion into an icon of the most successful studio in town.
The harder he works, the higher he soars. But at what cost? The more he achieves, the closer he risks flying into…
I love all aspects of Los Angeles from approximately 1911 to around 1950. This doesn’t just include the actors, directors, and studios but also those working behind the scenes who made the movies come to life. This book involves the writers who composed the scenarios (the early name for screenplays) that ended up becoming the films made by the studios.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was most famous for his novels in the 1920s, but his personal problems (a wife committed to an expensive mental hospital and a daughter to raise) caused him to have to look for work as a writer for MGM, but he was not successful due to his drinking.
O’Nan delves masterfully into Fitzgerald’s complicated relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham and his alcoholism, and it addresses his multiple terrifying heart attacks.
This book truly belongs among the top picks for Hollywood literature.
In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long behind him. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruin, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood.
The last three years of Fitzgerald's life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O'Nan's heartfelt new novel. With flashbacks to key moments from Fitzgerald's past, the story follows him as he arrives on the MGM lot, falls in love with brassy gossip columnist Sheilah Graham,…
Los Angeles, 1937. Lillian Frost has traded dreams of stardom for security as a department store salesgirl . . . until she discovers she's a suspect in the murder of her former roommate, Ruby Carroll. Party girl Ruby died wearing a gown she stole from the wardrobe department at Paramount Pictures, domain of Edith Head.
Edith has yet to win the first of her eight Academy Awards; right now she's barely hanging on to her job, and a scandal is the last thing she needs. To clear Lillian's name and save Edith's career, the two women join forces.
This is the oldest book on the list, from 1979, but it is such a worthwhile read.
Garson Kanin wrote Born Yesterday, and was married to Ruth Gordon, of Harold and Maude fame. His story of BJ Farber, a Forrest Gump type of character in early Hollywood, is chock full of juicy details.
The dialog is wonderful and addresses the Scarlett O’Hara War, Gilbert and Garbo, and Marilyn Monroe (although I personally think Monroe has been covered to death at this point).
My favorite scene is the catfight between southern actresses Tallulah Bankhead and Miriam Hopkins during a dinner party scene as the search for Scarlett continues: “I declare your little brother is cute as paint.”
As someone who adores all things Pickford (and has written about Mary’s sister-in-law, Olive Thomas), there’s no way I couldn’t include this book, which covers the association between silent star Mary Pickford and her scenarist Frances Marion.
I love the dynamic between these two powerful women, and Benjamin does a good job of establishing their relationship. There is a lot to love about this book: the writing, the dialog, and the detail. I love this book!
My only quibble is the picture they used for the front cover. I’d have picked it up long before I did if they’d actually used a picture of Mary and Frances because I would have recognized instantly who it was about.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviator’s Wife, a “rich exploration of two Hollywood friends who shaped the movies” (USA Today)—screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford
“Full of Old Hollywood glamour and true details about the pair’s historic careers . . . a captivating ode to a legendary bond.”—Real Simple
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE
It is 1914, and twenty-five-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles, where she is determined to…
I think of myself as a listener and life in progress. As a poet and author, I’m always listening to the words that move through my heart. I’m also a spiritual seeker, always looking for the Divine in the world around me and almost always surprised by the ways it shows up when I’m paying attention. Yet, there’s another part of me that is a Jersey girl through and through, looking for humor or irreverence in the face of life’s challenges. All these aspects come together in an unusual harmony, creating an openness to being changed by the things that come into my life. Hence, a list of life-changing books.
Mood swings and insomnia are one thing, hot flash-induced psychic visions are quite another. When Olivia Wilde realizes the visions she’s experiencing in the midst of hot flashes are actually premonitions, she must learn to understand and trust what she sees in order to help a friend, preserve a piece of history, and save a life.
When Liv’s friend’s antique store in Fredericksburg, Virginia is robbed, she finds herself in the midst of a quest to find a secret cache of priceless letters written by President James Monroe and his wife Elizabeth. With the encouragement of her "Monthly" dinner party girlfriends, Liv begins to learn how to harness her newfound abilities, along with her smarts, to help catch the thief.
Mood swings and insomnia are one thing, hot flash-induced psychic visions are quite another. When Olivia Wilde realizes the visions she's been experiencing in the midst of hot flashes are actually premonitions, she has to learn to understand and trust what she sees in order to help a friend, preserve a piece of history, and save a life.
Deftly weaving together elements of history, mystery, menopause, humor, some Jersey girl attitude, a bit of salty language, and a healthy dose of female friendship, Flashes of Insight marks the start of a new "Jersey Cozy"* series sure to deliver laughter, intelligence,…
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