New blog address…

Hi all!

I’ve upgraded my WordPress account to a self-hosted combo webpage and blog. Find me there for my most recent posts:

http://lainigiles.com/

“The Perils of Pauline” (1947 Blogathon)

Aah, 1947. A year of returning servicemen, major advances in television, the invention of the microwave, Kon-Tiki, the proposal of the Marshall Plan, and Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. Two years after the war, and life was looking rosy. The U.S hadn’t yet made their ill-advised foray into Korea, and you could still get a cuppa joe for a nickel.

On the not-so-nice side, the friendly folks at HUAC gave us the infamous Black List, setting out to destroy Hollywood careers, and gangster Bugsy Siegel took a mess of lead to his handsome face.

In the midst of all the current events, Paramount decided to give everyone a taste of history (with the full Hollywood technicolor musical treatment, of course). Directed by William Marshall, with fun songs by Frank Loesser, The Perils of Pauline wasn’t going to win any academy awards, but it is a fun time waster, and an entertaining way to pass a lazy weekend afternoon.

When I began searching for a film to cover for the 1947 blogathon, most of the jewels I thought about were already taken, but then I remembered this one and squealed. How else to tie my love of silent film to a relatively more modern time period?

Yay! Flickers!

The Perils of Pauline, like most reputedly “biographical” films of the era, gives only a passing nod to the truth, instead favoring a more glamorized version. But Betty Hutton makes it a fun ride. In addition to Betty, the film is chock full of former silent film stars playing cameos: Chester Conklin, William Farnum, Paul Panzer (the original villain from Pauline), Snub Pollard, Creighton Hale, Heinine Conklin, Jean Acker, Ethel Clayton, and Julia Faye. Keep an eye out if you’re a silent movie buff.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the film (or its subject), let me take you back a few years. In the early days of film, producers discovered that they could rake in the simoleons by having a whiz bang of a movie with lots of action, an evildoer or two, and of course, the damsel in distress. At the end of each film episode (called a short), they’d have a cliffhanger of an ending (where do you think we got the word?). To find out what happened, you had to tune in the next week. And the next week, and the week after that…

There were several serials that gained fame in the mid teens– Million Dollar Mystery with Florence LaBadie forThanhouser and The Hazards of Helen with Helen Holmes for Kalem (she was later replaced by Helen Gibson). But arguably the most famous was The Perils of Pauline, starring Pearl White, brought to us by Pathe’.

An original poster for the serial

Although pegged as a damsel in distress, Pearl was actually one of the more resourceful of these ladies, and didn’t need as much help from the dashing hero. Between her athleticism and her smarts, she could usually find a way out of her scrapes.

Pearl White was born March 4, 1889 in Green Ridge, Missouri. She began acting when she was young, doing the requisite Little Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She later went on the stock circuit. When her voice began to crack from the strain, she turned to silent films, going to work for the Powers Company in the Bronx. She was athletic, so she polished her skills in very physical comedies and by doing stunts. She worked with Pathe-Freres, Lubin, and several other companies until Pathe’ director Louis Gasnier offered her the role in Pauline.

The real Pearl White, from the October 1914 issue of Motion Picture Magazine

In the movie version, we first meet Pearl (Betty Hutton) at the Metropolitan Garment Company where she works. She and the other girls try to find a way to make the hours seem less drab, so when the friendly organ grinder comes around with his monkey, she tosses him a coin to keep the music coming, raising the ire of boss Joe Gurt (Frank Faylen). “Whaddya think I’m runnin’ here, a kaffeeklatsch?” he says sarcastically.

“I got a boss, he looks like a hoss, his name’s Joe Gurt; I’m willin ta bet, the wages I get, that face of his must hurt”

Annoyed, Pearl sings her homage to the sewing machine to entertain the girls (“The Sewing Machine”). [True fact: I saw this scene when I was a little girl…could have sworn it was “That’s Entertainment” but I could be wrong. Might have just caught my mom watching this and loved it, just never knew what film it was. It wasn’t until years later that I found out].

But of course, boss Joe Gurt is none-too-pleased with Betty’s impressions of him, or of her further goofing around and says he’s going to dock everyone a half day’s pay. She tries to apologize, but he gets fresh, and she decks him, to the approval of Julia Gibbs (Constance Collier), an older theatre actress there to pick up a costume she’s ordered.

Pauline tells her how much she loves her (and theatre people in general). “If I could be in the theatre…why even thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach!” she says.

Miss Gibbs promises her an audition if she’ll come with her to the theatre. Joe tells her not to come back without the $98.00 for the costume. The “audition” turns out to be theatre manager Michael Farrington (John Lund) pushing her out on stage, where she is promptly pelted with tomatoes from an impatient audience, who’ve been waiting for the delayed Julia Gibbs.

A completely crummy image of Pearl being pelted by tomatoes

She makes a deal with them. “This is mighty important,” she says, after tossing a couple tomatoes back. Just let her sing her song. If they like it, they can give her a little hand. If they hate it, they can throw more tomatoes and she’ll toss em back. Deal? OK. She settles herself on the piano, and instead of doing something beautiful and sentimental (more fitting for Romeo and Juliet, the play they’re doing), she goes for a hefty, raucous dose of vaudeville (“Rumble, Rumble, Rumble”). She gets the job, but Farrington tells her he’s going to take the $98.00 out of her salary.

While on the train to their next destination, she’s introduced to Timmy Timmons (Billy DeWolfe). He’s Farrington’s second-in-command, and nearly ended up having to play Juliet in Julia’s absence. He teaches her something about acting– controlling her voice (projecting!). “Never enunciate like a lemon or a grape.” Only an orange.

When Farrington comes through the train car, he tells her that no job can be too big or too small for her, then promptly dumps the mending in her lap. Next scene, we see her working on the ironing for the cast as she preps for her role as a maid. She’s expected to simply say, “Milord, your carriage awaits.” Instead, she knocks over a lamp, and proceeds to destroy half the set before exiting ungracefully. She gets an earful from Farrington. Then, it’s into blackface to play a house slave in a Civil War melodrama.

She and Farrington attempt to polish a scene together where she has to kiss him, but she freezes up, then freaks out and runs out of the theatre. He can’t figure out what’s wrong. Julia calls him an idiot. It’s obvious to everyone but him that Pearl’s in love with him.

Thus ensues a comical scene intended to take place in the South Seas, where she wears a Dorothy Lamour type getup, but because she’s doused ahead of time, and they point fans put at her, she can barely talk during the scene, she catches a cold, and nearly freezes to death onstage. When Farrington gives her what for, she tells him off and heads out. Julia leaves the cast too in protest.

Pearl ends up auditioning for a theatrical agent (“I Wish I Didn’t Love You So”), with the help if Julia on the piano. They tell her they can maybe find her something in the flickers. Even though Julia denigrates them, Pearl is game, so they show up at a studio, with multiple productions underway at once. Julia gets the vapors. They meet director Mac McGuire (William Demarest, famous for playing “Uncle Charley” on My Three Sons), and he puts them to work. In her first scene, Julia gets pelted by three pies at once.

Julia gets three pies in the puss

Pearl is not amused. She guides Julia off the set (Julia has whipped cream in her eyes) and they proceed to destroy several other productions in progress as they try to leave.  Pearl makes such an impression (telling off a lion), that Mac hires her on the spot. (“I thought it was a dog!” she says) When Julia hears how much, she accepts for Pearl.

“Poor Pauline”

When we hear that Pauline is going to be the biggest thing in pictures, we see workmen putting up a billboard for The Perils of Pauline, over the cute song “Poor Pauline”, and see the various predicaments she finds herself in (blowing desperately on the fuse for dynamite, tied to the tracks, going over Niagara Falls, etc).

Penelope Pitstop cliche’, anyone?

When she’s filming a scene where she has to jump onto a moving train from a horse, she runs into Timmy Timmons, who’s camped out in a cattle car, riding the rails. Farrington’s group disbanded, and they’re all getting by however they can. She and Timmy get reacquainted and she asks him where Mike is. Turns out he’s working as the barker for a hoochie coochie show at a seaside carnival. They have an encounter, and she tells him there’s so much he could help her do. At first he denigrates her choosing of flickers over live theatre, but when she tells him it pays 100 bucks a week, he says he’ll do it. They bring along Timmy too. He makes a good villain.

In their first episode together, The Fatal Idol, Farrington (like Lund himself ed: Oops! Did I say that out loud?) is wooden, and Mac gives him hell for not emoting enough. He gets it right on the next take.

In “Murder in the Clouds, she and Mike are tied together in a hot air balloon as Timmy cuts the rope down below.

“Whose idea was this?” “Mac’s.” “Well, he’s already full of hot air.”

“Are you sure we’re tied down?” Pearl says. “You’re safe as in your mother’s arms!” Mac says. After Mac and Timmy go around and around on the differences between gnashing his teeth and chewing, everything goes wrong.

“For the love of Pete, willya gnash?”

The rope is cut, and there is nothing else tethering the balloon to the ground. The pilot never got a chance to get in the basket before they took off. They’re floating up up and up, with no signs of stopping!

Mike and Pearl cuddle up for warmth, through rain and cold and storms, and Pearl finally admits her feelings. Mike promises to marry her.

Mike gets disgusted at a party and tells Pearl that he had taken the job to try to build her up, but that she’s “dragged him down to where she is.” She calls him a snob and tells him to leave.

World War I breaks out, and Pearl attends a Liberty Bond rally, climbing to the very top of a tall ladder, and being caught in a net. On an ocean liner on their way to Europe, Mike and Timmy catch a viewing of The Fatal Idol. Mike leaves in annoyance. Timmy soaks up the adoration of the crowd when they figure out who he is.

Mike heads for Broadway, and Pearl catches a performance of “Kiss the Tears From My Eyes” one night, right about the time serials begin fading. Mac talks to his backers, and tries to keep things going, but they’re not interested. While he’s talking to them, his secretary comes in with a telegram Pearl has sent him. She’s on her way to Paris, and thanks him for everything. He knuckles under to the backers.

Farrington arrives just then, and threatens to punch Mac in the nose of he doesn’t tell him where she is. So he hands him the telegram. Pearl is working at the Casino de Paris, accompanied by Julia. We see her perform (“Poppa don’t preach to me”).

Mike sends her a message to meet him at the depot, and she says she feels like she has wings. While Timmy is performing, she climbs into the rafters, grabs a long tassel, and swings back and forth across the stage. When she grabs a tassel hanging from the stage ceiling, it breaks loose and Pearl is injured.

To tell you any more would give too much away!

But suffice to say that through Pearl did injure herself, it was during the making of one of the serials, and not afterward. Pearl’s real finale’ was much different than the one in the movie, and much sadder. She was married twice, but never had children. She prepared for the end she knew was coming, and willed her sizable estate to family and friends. She died of “a liver ailment” (most likely cirrhosis) in Paris in 1938, and was buried at Passy Cemetery.

This post is dedicated to a groundbreaker of silent film, Miss Pearl White.

This post is part of the 1947 Blogathon, sponsored by Speakeasy and Shadows and Satin. You can find the other participants here.

The Forgotten Flapper Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tour…

Hi all–

So excited to announce my first blog tour and book blast for The Forgotten Flapper, brought to you by those awesome folks at Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours.

More info on the reviewers as they become available, but here’s my homepage for the tour. Join us, won’t you?

The anticipation is building!

Well, around here anyway….

It’s only a few weeks until I release The Forgotten Flapper, and as you may have guessed, things have been a little nutty, what with all the edits, and then more edits, and yet still more edits, trying to make it as completely perfect as I can before the final shipping of books!

My proof arrived the other day, looking completely, utterly PERFECT. Except for those few last minute items I caught inside, exclaiming “WTF?” in dismay, and then having to go through another round of edits, to make sure I caught lots of still mistakes that still made it past my editor, my beta readers, my early reviewers AND me. It’s just so easy to catch them when they’re presented so beautifully in their final format.

I’ve set up a couple of events through Facebook for my signings in Edmonton and Calgary, and the responses are coming in at a good clip (mostly positive!). I’m pretty excited, I have to tell you.

The magical day is approaching, and when it arrives, I’m going to be over the moon. Won’t you join me?

Jeanne Eagels was robbed. Why the stage’s most recognized Sadie Thompson didn’t appear in the film (Classic Movie History Blogathon)

In 1922, a play opened in Philadelphia that underwhelmed the population so much that it closed within weeks. Producer and promoter Sam H. Harris, his client Jeanne Eagels, and the rest of the cast and crew had to decide whether they would fold it up and lick their wounds or try another tack with it. Rain was not the success they had hoped it would be. Jeanne vociferously defended Sadie Thompson, the main character, whom she’d fallen in love with. She refused to let the show die. So with a little reworking, they reopened at the Maxine Elliott Theatre in Manhattan. And American theater has never been the same since.

A young and beautiful Jeanne Eagels.

Sadie Thompson is a woman of dubious morals, on the run from illegal activities in San Francisco. She happens to be on a ship that docks in Pago Pago, Samoa in the South Seas. Also included in this equation are Trader Horn, who manages the general store with his native wife, a battalion of Marines headed for Subic Bay in the Philippines, and a holier-than-thou priest and his wife (the Reverend and Mrs. Davidson).

Jeanne as Sadie with the Marines

“I don’t want to be a prostitute,” Jeanne told Sam Harris. “The play doesn’t call me one. I can’t feel myself a prostitute. I don’t want to be cheap, sordid and vulgar.” When Harris told her that she wasn’t a prostitute– that she was a common streetwalker, he told her that she had no morals, but no malice either. “All right, I’ll be a common harlot then, but not a cheap one.” What she did do was to make the part her own. She shopped carefully for the look she wanted, scouring New York shops for the perfect type of dress and hat and shoes. According to biographer Edward Doherty, “she found the shoes at a dingy East Side bargain counter, after weeks of searching for them. She paid $2.00. They were on sale.” Supposedly. she ordered a dozen more pairs just like them. The famous hat with the sad droopy plume she found at a shop in the Bronx. And a secondhand store in The Bowery was the source for her white lace coat with peach sateen lining. She found the bedraggled parasol at a fire sale, and the multitude of bangles from a five and ten cent store. From her first sashay onstage, she took over the character, getting inside her head and exploring her personality and motivations. “Sadie wouldn’t do that,” she was known to say. And she defended her fiercely. When someone once asked her if she’d like to visit the Barbary Coast, “where Sadie was from,” Jeanne lost it. “How do YOU know she was ever there?” she said crossly. Nothing in the play indicated it. She wanted to get the most out of life, that was all. “Does anybody actually KNOW Sadie is a harlot?” No one could tell her. Two years after her lover, Thomas Chadbourne, deserted her and married Mrs. Chadbourne, the couple attended the opening night of Rain. According to Doherty, she ignored Chadbourne until the second act, where she turned all her vitriol at Reverend Davidson. But she was not speaking to Davidson, she was accusing Chadbourne. That last word of her tantrum, “sonofabitch,” was covered in fury.

  Jeanne in costume as Sadie

Her persona became ingrained in the American consciousness. In All About Eve, George Sanders mentioned Jeanne as one of the greats he’d worked with over twenty years after her death.

So, in 1927 when Hollywood inevitably decided to film its own version of Rain, Jeanne would have been the obvious choice for the part. Why then, was Gloria Swanson selected instead?

In a word, clout.

Gloria Swanson was one of the biggest female stars at the time, all due to her work with director Cecil B. DeMille on pictures like Male and Female, The Affairs of Anatole, and Why Change Your Wife. She had recently married an impoverished French nobleman named Henri de la Falaise de la Coudray. She was a marquise.

Obstacle #1 – Rain was on the Motion Picture Production Code’s list of theatrical works that could not be filmed, due to Sadie’s line of work.

However, cagey Gloria Swanson worked with some writers to finagle important details (Sadie’s profession became fuzzier, and the reverend became a reformer). And most importantly, they changed the movie’s name to Sadie Thompson so that it wasn’t associated with the scandalous Broadway play of the same name. Because of her wealth and pull in Hollywood, Swanson pulled a fast one on the censors.

Obstacle #2 – Jeanne’s dislike of films.

At the time, the gulf between theater people and “movies” was much wider. Although stage plays did provide fodder for the newer medium, for years theater people had looked down on film people as upstarts. No one wanted to actually admit they made flickers. Until the money began rolling in, and in, and in… and then the talkies arrived. Directors needed trained stage voices. That was when things really changed.

Jeanne had done her time in films in the early part of her career, working for the independent Thanhouser, which was based in New Rochelle, New York. During 1916 and 1917, she made several films, including The World and the Woman, The Fires of Youth, and Under False Colors.

She loved California– loved the sun and the warmth and the people. It was the industry she couldn’t stand. As Doherty says, “Movies, she believed, were made by stupid people, of stupid people, and for stupid people.” And she didn’t feel like films had progressed much past where they’d been a decade earlier when she’d been in them to pay the bills.

When Rain‘s run was complete, Jeanne and her husband, Ted Coy, had traveled to California, and the next thing anyone knew, she was making Man, Woman, and Sin with John Gilbert. She’d been convinced to join by Monta Bell, the director, but supposedly she hated everyone on the lot. Except Bell and Gilbert.

Jeanne and John Gilbert, with whom it was rumored she had an affair

It was the routine she hated– having to get there so early, getting made up, and then waiting around– sometimes for hours, sometimes for days– for technical issues to get ironed out. The lights, the cameras, the director, the editing…she had no patience for it. Finally, she walked off set. For three days.

Obstacle #3 – Jeanne herself.

The furor over Her Cardboard Lover cemented Jeanne’s reputation as difficult and unstable. Erratic behavior, missed performances, and rumors of drunken binges followed the show. Due to the fallout, Jeanne was fined two weeks’ pay and banned from the live stage for eighteen months by Actors Equity. She was casual about the whole affair, and did a stint on vaudeville in the meantime. She knew it would pay more than legitimate theater, and movies would pay even more than that.

But her descent had begun. Alcoholism slowly and surely began to claim her. Rumors of drug abuse surfaced after her death as her behavior became more and more unstable. Supposedly, she had a broken heart when Swanson played Sadie, but Swanson had done the legwork to earn the part for herself. And Jeanne couldn’t be bothered to work in Hollywood voluntarily. Plus, in addition to the alcohol, she had a myriad of health problems with sinuses etc that inhibited her work at times.

Jeanne as the murderous Leslie Crosbie in The Letter

Only after her suspension did Jeanne find Hollywood a legitimate enough source of income to complete the two films we know her for today. The first was the brilliant W. Somerset Maugham work The Letter, where she played the murderous adultress Leslie Crosbie, and the second was Jealousy. Since both are talkies, we can fully get a sense of her acting skill and ability to full inhabit a character.

 It’s a true loss that we never got to enjoy Jeanne on film playing the role she was known for, but Swanson comported herself admirably in the role. If only Jeanne had had the foresight to ensure that her Rain legacy included film as well as live theater.

This has been my entry in the Classic Movie History Blogathon, hosted by Silver Screenings. Check out these other great entries! A wealth of amazing film history lore. Check it out, y’all! I’ll be reading for days.

THE SILENT ERA (1880-1929)

1880-1895: Eadweard Muybridge and the Black Maria: The birth of the movies

Silent-ology	Early History of Film
The Movie Rat	The Muybridge Experiment

1896-1900: From novelty to art: The movies increase in popularity

Silent Volume	The Best Pre-Feature Movies
Christy’s Inkwells	How I Learned to Love Silent Movies

1901-1907: The first hits: Melies, Edison and the blockbuster

Big V Riot Squad

Life of an American Director: Edwin S Porter in 1903

1908-1913: Nickelodeon! The movies in the mainstream

365 Days 365 Classics	India’s Silent Era Movies
Silver Screenings	Early Trick Photography The Thieving Hand (1908)
Now Voyaging	The early career of Lois Weber

1914-1918: The War and the feature film: The move away from shorts

Now Voyaging	Movie audience perceptions of the war
Century Film Project	Regeneration (1915)
Once Upon a Screen	Birth of Fox Studio – a centennial tribute
Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy	Tom Sawyer, the 1917 Film
The Cinematic Packrat	A Brief History of MGM
Sir Arthur Conan Doy’s Lost World	William Selig’s Lost World

1919-1923: Hollywood triumphs: Post-war dominance

A Small Press Life	Anita Loos: Females in Early Hollywood
Movies, Silently	Home Theatres of the Silent Era
vivandlarry.com	James Abbe: Capturing the silent screen

1924-1927: The high art of pantomime: The silent film reaches artistic heights

Sepia Stories	Jeanne Eagels was Robbed. Why the stage’s most recognized Sadie Thompson didn’t appear in the film.
In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood	John Barrymore in Don Juan & the introduction to Vitaphone

1928-1929: The last of the silents: The talkie revolution

film, fashion & frivolity	Garbo’s Last Silents
Critica Retro	1928 Around the World
CineMaven’s Essays from the Couch	The Crowd (1928)

THE GOLDEN AGE (1930-1952)

1930-1931: All Singing! All Dancing! All Talking! The end of the sound transition.

A Person in the Dark	Early Musicals
Classic Reel Girl	Early portrayal of taxi dancers: Ten Cents a Dance (1931) and Two Seconds (1932)
Cinephilia	Lubitsch Films: 1930-1943
Silver Screen Modes	How Fashions Sold the Movies: 1930-1940
regularpop	Loretta Young’s career

1932-1934: Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? The wild world of pre-Code.

Carole & Co.	Of Carole and Pre-Code
Girls Do Film	Barbara Stanwyck’s Pre-Code Bad Girls
The Stop Button	Son of Kong
Wolffian Classic Movies Digest	Bette Davis, dame of the screen
stevielounicks	Dinner at Eight
In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood	Ethel Barrymore’s transition from stage to screen
Second Sight Cinema	Development of newsreels, real life influencing Hollywood and vice versa, and presidential politics and policy in 1932-’33.
Outspoken & Freckled	Feminism in the Pre-Code Era
CineMaven’s Essays from the Couch	Heat Lightning (1934)
stars and letters	Correspondence from Joseph Breen from 1934 and 1935 regarding the Production Code

1935-1938: Let’s misbeha— I mean, lovely day, isn’t it? The Code enforced and the rise of Technicolor.

Nitrate Glow	Disney’s Early Features
Silver Scenes	1936-A Grand Year in Film
CineMaven’s Essays from the Couch	(Guest Post) The Flame Within

1939: The Big Year. Selections from the biggest year in classic cinema.

Movie Movie Blog Blog	The Flying Deuces (Laurel and Hardy)
Smitten Kitten Vintage	1939: The Big Year (Selections from the biggest year in classic cinema)
MovieFanFare	The Worst of 1939

1940-1945: We’ll murdelize that paper hanger! Wartime Cinema.

The Vintage Cameo	Wartime Musicals
Speakeasy	1943 at RKO
The Motion Pictures	For Me and My Gal
Way too damn lazy to write a blog	Christmas in Connecticut
Phyllis Loves Classic Movies	What the Stars Did to Help Win the War
Shadows and Satin	Barbara Stanwyck in Film Noir

1946-1949: Homecoming

B Noir Detour	Wartime Cinema: Gentleman’s Agree’t, Crossfire, A Double Life
Queerly Different	The Rise and Fall of the Biblical Epic Part 1
Pure Golden Classics	Gilda (1946)
regularpop	Lizabeth Scott’s career

1950-1952: Realism and the Method: New directions

Sister Celluloid	Stage Fright: Hitchcock Goes Home
Old Hollywood Films	Hollywood Expose Pictures (Sunset Blvd, Bad the Beautiful)
Hitchcock’s World	Destination Moon (1950)
Caftan Woman	Adult Westerns
Criterion Blues	The Collapse of the Studio System Parts 1,2,3

SWINGING INTO MODERN TIMES (1953-1975)

1953-1957: Rebels with and without causes: The birth of cool

Back to Golden Days	Juvenile Deliquency: The Wild One, Blackboard Jungle, Rebel Without a Cause
Movies Silently	After the Silents: A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Movie Mania Madness	It’s Always Fair Weather – The Musical Gets Cynical
Voyages Extraordinaires	Scientific Romances in the Atomic Age
Silver Scenes	3-D Films of the 1950s
Culural Civilian	Revisiting It Should Happen to You (1954) in a Reality-TV World
Queerly Different	The Rise and Fall of the Biblical Epic Part 2
Let’s Go to the Movies	Love as portrayed in key films released during this time period
Totally Filmi	The Apu Trilogy
Silver Screenings	3D Film Shorts

1958-1962: A little song, a little dance, a lot of people with no pants: Musicals, biblical epics and the shimmy-shimmy shakes.

A Shroud of Thoughts	British New Wave
Cary Grant Won’t Eat You	Single Roommates in the City: The Best of Everything (1959)
Queerly Different	The Rise and Fall of the Biblical Epic Part 3
Jim Fanning’s Tulgey Wood	The Widescreen Splendor of Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Paula’s Cinema Club	Roger Corman (guest post by Jack Deth)

1963-1967: Mod’s the word: And then things started to swing

The Last Drive In	The Bold & The Beautiful Strong Women of 1960s Film
The Wonderful World of Cinema	1967: An Important Turning Point in Films
Reel and Rock	The Girl-Getters aka The System (1964)
That Other Critic	Batman (1966)
Classic Becky’s Brain Food	3 Big Films 1969: Midnight Cowboy, Sterile Cuckoo, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?
No Nonsense with Nuwan Sen	1966: The Year dubbed as Nineteen Sexty Sex
The Joy & Agony of Movies	Movies: 1963-67 (Topic TBA)

1968-1972: Hays is dead: The end of the Code

Portraits by Jenni	Airport (1970)
The Joy and Agony of Movies	Films about politics and civil unrest
Girls Do Film	The American Road Movie (Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, Badlands)
Moon in Gemini	Paranoia in Movies
Le Mot du Cinephiliaque	The year 1968 in France’s Cinema

1972-1975: The Godfather and Jaws: Auteur films and the modern blockbuster

Once Upon a Screen	Mel Brooks’ Take on Classic Movie Genres
Crimson Kimono	The Surveillance Sleuth of “The Conversation”
The Joy & Agony of Movies	Movies: 1972-75 (Topic TBA)

Clara Bow Getting Ready for Dinner “with the boss” scene from It – And…Scene! Blogathon

In 1926, Clara Bow was already becoming a solid commodity in motion pictures. The irrepressible redhead had showed her range in a few dramas early on, but after her roles as naughty but nice Cynthia in The Plastic Age or the gold-digging manicurist Alvira in Mantrap, she had found her niche. She was the sexy, devil-may-care flapper who was the envy of every woman and the dream girl of every man.

When the writer Elinor Glyn (infamous for penning a tryst on a tiger-skin rug in Three Weeks) came to Hollywood, and Clara was selected as the lead for It, her career would never be the same.

The Divine Ms. Glyn

Upon meeting Clara for the first time, Glyn supposedly took Clara’s face in her hands and said, “You are my muse!” And crazy as it sounds, maybe she was. But it also may have been the other way around.

After It, Clara, who’d previously been billed as the Brooklyn Bonfire,  became The It Girl. And the 1920s ignited.

Audiences probably responded so positively because, other than the fun story and appealing cast, Clara was playing herself– salt of the earth, poor Brooklyn girl Betty Lou Spence. Not only that, but she was helping out her friend and co-worker, Molly (Priscilla Bonner) after the birth of Molly’s baby. She’s letting them stay with her until Molly can go back to work.

Now, I’m the least maternal person I know. I honestly don’t like kids– the crying and whining and carrying on sets my teeth on edge. But this baby (who Clara affectionately calls Toodles) is utterly adorable. They don’t make babies any cuter. Blonde, plump, and cherubic, and she bounces up and down, happy to see Clara.

Okay, how freaking CUTE is this kid?

I saw Wings years ago, and I enjoyed it, but this was the movie that cemented my love for Clara. Because she’s the main attraction here. And this scene is why.

You see, Betty Lou has a crush on her department store owner boss, Cyrus Waltham (Antonio Moreno). Actually, he’s the real boss’s son, left in charge while Waltham, Senior is out of town. Betty thinks Cyrus is the cat’s pajamas. “Sweet Santa Claus, give me him!” she says, upon first seeing him.

She tries to get Cyrus’ attention, but is unsuccessful at first. However, Cyrus’s pal Monty (William Austin) is currently reading It, and he’s convinced Betty has it. He invites Clara to dinner, but she says “only if we go to the Ritz.” She overheard Cyrus telling Monty that he was going there.

Excitedly, she heads into her little flat, out of breath, and full of starry-eyed dreams of Cyrus.

Her interaction with Toodles the baby here is completely natural and so perfectly Clara. She makes faces, picks up the little nipper and holds her while Molly warms a bottle. Her eyes and eyebrows are a perfect concertina of expressions that are completely believable and expressive.

“Crap! What can I wear to the Ritz?“

Realizing she’ll have to have a better frock than what she has, she decides to perform major surgery on the dress she wore to work, enlisting Molly’s help.

“A stitch in time saves nine, right?”

Ensuring her scissors are nice and sharp, she slices it right through the center of the bodice, then has Molly keep going with it, completely removing the massive lace collar. In her inimitable Clara way, she goofs around, wearing the lace collar as a hat, and wincing in pain when Molly accidentally jabs her with the scissors.

“Hey Molly, a little to the right”

After a look away at Clara’s competition, snooty Adela Van Norman (Jacqueline Gadsden), we’re back just in time for an application of talc (in a black dress? Shah, right…), and the Betty Lou pulls the (presumably now basted) frock back over her head.

“Hand me that Shower to Shower, willya?”

She gives us a glimpse of well turned ankle, then drapes a sheer scarf over her head, adding instant glamour. then, she attaches some flowers to the waist of her dress (they did that back then. In my granny Smith’s wedding picture from 1919, they did the same thing).

“Vera Wang, eat your heart out! “

With the addition of the sheer scarf over her already state-of-the-art bob, Betty Lou comes off like a carefree millionairess, and purrs at the camera, lowering those eyelids and convincing anyone and everyone that she really does have It. Monty is already convinced, but Cyrus takes a bit longer to see. After a misunderstanding involving Molly’s baby, things are finally resolved at a yacht party. We see Clara play a ukulele, Clara frolic, and Clara be Clara basically.

Of course she gets the guy (and leaves poor Adela in the dust), but we all knew that would happen anyway. She has It.

“Hey, Cyrus, let me impress you with my mad ukulele skillz”

Wanna watch for yourself? NeilAvon at youtube has kindly posted the scene for your enjoyment: Watch the Dressing for Dinner scene…

And go check out the other And…Scene!” Blogathon entries (read more here at Sister Celluloid’s blog). Good stuff…

The Movie Rat     The repeated scene in Persona

Cinephilia     The scene after Harry’s wedding in It’s a Wonderful Life

Le Mot du Cinephiliaque     The first scene where Jeff snoops on his neighbors in Rear Window

Cary Grant Won’t Eat You     The courtroom scene in I’m No Angel

MovieFanFare     The Maharaja scene from Three Little Pirates

Another Old Movie Blog     Favorite scene in Katie Did It

Vienna’s Classic Hollywood     The “Maida revealed” scene in In Name Only

Old Hollywood Films     The filibuster scene in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Nitrate Glow     The “descent into the lair” scene in the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera

Girls Do Film     The “bumpy night” scene in All About Eve

Movies Silently     The fight scene in Tol’able David

Movie Movie Blog Blog     The Looking for Trouble scene in The French Line

Second Sight Cinema     The stoop scene in The More the Merrier

Caftan Woman     Favorite scene in The Searchers

BNoirDetour     The Put the Blame on Mame scene in Gilda

Gina Dalfonzo     The drunk scene in The Philadelphia Story

Phyllis Loves Classic Movies     The “house plan” scene in Blandings Builds His Dream House

Vivien Leigh Legend     The opening scene in Gone With the Wind

Critica Retro     The funhouse scene in The Lady from Shanghai

Wolffian Classic Movies Digest     The shower scene in Psycho

Back to Golden Days     The gin rummy scene in Born Yesterday

Writer’s Rest     The porch scene in It’s a Gift

Wide Screen World     The “Barton gets suspicious” scene in Double Indemnity

The Wonderful World of Cinema     The opening scene in To Be or Not to Be

Back to the Viewer     The grapefruit scene in Public Enemy

Defiant Success     The party scene in Seconds

The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood     The final scene in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Sister Celluloid     The love scene in D.O.A. (yes, there is one!)

Everywhere…there is Evil Under the Sun… (part of the Beach Party Blogathon)

Hey all! Today I’m participating in the Beach Party Blogathon, hosted by Speakeasy and Silver Screenings. Kowabunga! Here’s my entry…a little gem that is completely underrated.

You know those art deco travel posters that are all the rage? The ones advertising trips to Juan les Pins or Biarritz featuring stylized, tanned 1930s rick folk in belted maillots and swim caps? Imagine one of those come to life. That is Evil Under the Sun.

From its lovely watercolor sketch titles to its breezy Cole Porter soundtrack and its exotic Mallorca locales (standing in for an island off Albania somewhere), this movie has always ranked among my favorites.

Not singing to you yet? Then throw in who I consider to be the best Hercule Poirot of all time– Peter Ustinov, who reprised him in several films in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Appointment with Death, Death on the Nile, and Thirteen at Dinner. I found Albert Finney monumentally stiff and boring in Murder on the Orient Express, and I never warmed to Suchet. I know– the British TV purists will tut-tut at me, but it’s true. To me, Ustinov really wears those little grey cells. He comes across as a cuddly teddy bear of a man innately proud of his abilities, but also supremely amused at not only others’ foibles, but also his own. When the agent at the London Trojan Insurance Company laments having to pay out, Poirot tells him this is one of those times he must “laugh and lump eet.” Then chuckles at his own humor.

If that’s not enough to bring you onboard, imagine (for you youngins) a cage match between Lady Olenna Tyrell of Game of Thrones (Diana Rigg) and Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham from Downtown Abbey (Maggie Smith). Yep, you heard me. Intriguing you a bit now?

If you know your Christie, you know the plot will be convoluted and inexplicable, and it doesn’t disappoint here. The movie locale has been transferred from the book’s original island off the coast of Wales, but the snappy dialogue and costumes carry you along on a wave of 1930s bliss. It’s the perfect beach movie (with a little mean-spiritedness thrown in for good measure).

The story begins when the insurance company asks Poirot to speak to Sir Horace Blatt, a millionaire industrialist who has recently tried to insure a diamond with them that is a cheap knock-off. Since Sir Horace is not in London, Poirot must travel to the South of France to visit Sir Horace on his yacht, the Jolly Roger.

Sir Horace explains that he recently met a showgirl whom he bought the diamond for, but she’s evidently had the diamond copied. He wants to confront the woman, Arlena Marshall, and he knows that she’ll be at “Daphne’s Place,” a fancy inn on an island paradise for society folk. Daphne herself is the former mistress of the King of Tirrhenia, who bought her the inn to keep her quiet when he married the Queen. However, since Poirot cannot handle boats (le mal de mer, unfortunately), he must take the train, and says he’ll meet Sir Horace there. But Sir Horace is delayed sue to his “piffle valve.”

When the guests arrive, Poirot doesn’t endear himself to Daphne, what with his unusual demands for “a good valet, a tisane de Montpoivret at 8:00 every morning, and beeswax for his shoes. That’s all.” Oh, and don’t forget his requests for creme de cassis or sirop de banane instead of the Sidecars and Between the Sheets cocktails she favors.

His hilarious “swim” involves him walking shin-deep in the cove, waving his arms in a swim-like motion, but barely getting wet.

“Great day for a swim, Poirot!”

“You saw me?”

Of course, with a name like Evil Under the Sun, someone has to die. This time, it is Arlena. She’s  a bitchy, gold-digging chorus girl who has recently given up the boards for marriage and stepmother-hood. She is found strangled on the beach in one of the island’s cove. And coincidentally enough, as it goes with Dame Agatha, everyone on the island had a reason to do her in.

This time, the suspects include:

Sir Horace (Colin Blakely) – Thrown over for Kenneth Marshall, and now made to look like a fool since Arlena kept the real diamond and gave him a forgery. He’s plenty mad.

Rex Brewster (Roddy MacDowell) – Fey theatre maven and worshiper of Arlena, who dug a little too deep for his recent biography, and can’t get it published because she doesn’t like what it reveals (her real birthdate, and how she got her role in Flames of Eternity). Oh, and he’s already spent the advance.

Kenneth Marshall (Denis Quilley) – Arlena’s new husband, who discovers she not only hasn’t given up her single-girl lifestyle, but booked her lover into the inn.

Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay) – A married, but extremely attractive lothario who romances Arlena, but leaves his wife mopey and miserable.

Christine Redfern (Jane Birkin) – A bit of an unmade bed in the looks department, and a bundle of neuroses as well (she has vertigo, skin that burns easily, and loves pity parties).

O’Dell and Myra Gardner (James Mason and Sylvia Miles) – Husband and wife Broadway producers who sank a mint into their last show, Hail and Farewell, starring Arlena, only to have her quit and leave them holding the bag.

Linda Marshall (Emily Hone) – Arlen’a stepdaughter. At about fourteen or so, she’s at the age when any cruel word can do extra damage to a psyche, and Arlena provides a battery of them.

Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith) – The proprietress of the inn. She and Arlena performed together years ago, and their dislike for each other is palpable. Besides, Daphne’s sweet on Kenneth (and he likes her too).

Poirot has to put two and two together as usual, this time taking into account the following clues: a watch, a bathing cap, a mid-day bath, a bottle of suntan oil, and the noonday gun (fired every day at noon to commemorate the victory of the Tirrhenian Army against an opposing force of Bosnians in 1183).

Guy Hamilton (who also directed Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d from 1980) helms the catfight expertly. Hamilton was also the mastermind behind several Bond films (Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, Diamonds are Forever, and Man With the Golden Gun). And in addition to Ustinov, several of the others here are Christie regulars. Jane Birkin and Maggie Smith both appeared in 1978’s Death on the Nile. Denis Quilley and Colin Blakely were both in Murder on the Orient Express.

Anthony Powell outdoes himself with the costume design here. Mostly Arlena’s. A silver lame’ number with turban the first night is not-to-be-believed. And another of stretchy, body hugging red lame.’ Then there are the bathing costumes– one white with huge multicolor dots, matching turban, bangles, necklace and cape. And another with a diaphanous Asian print coverup and a pointed Chinese red hat. In addition, there are Myra’s elaborate hats and Rex’s sailor suits.

Silvery!

Dots versus nautical deathmatch…

Red and slinky…

The Gardners are not amused…

The Chinese hat (fashion accessory or murder prop? You decide…)

The dialogue is side-splitting in certain places. “She runs like a dromedary with dropsy!” Arlena cruelly says of her stepdaughter.  Or “Linda, don’t just stand there like a cough drop, say hello to Monsieur Poirot.” And Daphne throws out expressions like “diggity boo” with no irony whatsoever.

If you haven’t seen this movie, you’re missing out. Pour yourself a sirop de banane, rub on some Coppertone, and prepare to have some fun.

Here are the other Beach Party Blogathon entries. Enjoy!

Blue Hawaii (1961)	Speakeasy	hqofk.wordpress.com/
Beach Party (1963)	Silver Screenings	silverscreenings.org
Hula (1927)	Movies Silently	moviessilently.com
Lord Love a Duck (1966)	Font and Frock	fontandfrock.com
Great White (1981)	Mike’s Take on the Movies	mikestakeonthemovies.com
Point Break (1991)	Brian Doan	http://bubblegum-cinephile.blogspot.com/
The Black Camel	Caftan Woman	http://www.caftanwoman.com/
To Catch a Thief	Old Hollywood Films	www.oldhollywoodfilms.com
Horror of Party Beach	Sister Celluloid	www.sistercelluoid.com
Beach Blanket Bingo	A Shroud of Thoughts	http://mercurie.blogspot.com/
The Fat Spy	Forgotten Films	https://forgottenfilmcast.wordpress.com/
Jaws 2	Cinematic Catharsis	http://cinematiccatharsis.blogspot.com/
Jaws / Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper	Tales of the Easily Distracted	http://doriantb.blogspot.com/
Road to Singapore	Now Voyaging	nowvoyaging.wordpress.com
Flipper (1963) and Flipper’s New Adventure (1964)	The Movie Rat	themovierat.com
Clambake	Once Upon a Screen	aurorasginjoint.com
Drive a Crooked Road	Shadows & Satin	https://shadowsandsatin.wordpress.com/
Some Like It Hot	The Filmatelist	filmatelist.blogspot.com/
The Palm Beach Story	Critica Retro	http://www.criticaretro.blogspot.com
Piranha	Prowler Needs a Jump	https://prowlerneedsajump.wordpress.com/
On an Island with You (1948)	The Stars are Ageless	http://stars-are-ageless.blogspot.com.au/
The Talented Mr. Ripley	BarryBradford.com	Www.BarryBradford.com
Local Hero	Moon in Gemini	https://debravega.wordpress.com/
Open Water (2004)	Movie Movie Blog Blog	http://moviemovieblogblog.wordpress.com
Malibu Beach (1978)	Cinema Monolith	https://cinemamonolith.wordpress.com/
Creature From the Black Lagoon	The last drive in	Http//:www.thelastdrivein.com
The Endless Summer	Wide Screen World	http://widescreenworld.blogspot.com
Orca (1977)	Film Grimoire	http://www.filmgrimoire.com
Such a Pretty Little Beach	Make Mine Criterion!	https://makeminecriterion.wordpress.com/
The Palm Beach Story	The Stop Button	http://www.thestopbutton.com
Gidget (1959)	Phyllis Loves Classic Movies	http://phyllislovesclassicmovies.blogspot.com/
The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)	A Classic Movie Blog	aclassicmovieblog.com
Holiday Camp (1947)	British Film Classics	britishfilmclassics.wordpress.com
Girl Happy (1965)	Old Movies Nostalgia	http://oldmoviesnostalgia.com
The Seventh Seal	CriterionBlues	http://www.criterionblues.com
Tarzan’s New York Adventure.	Wolffianclassicmoviesdigest	https://wolffianclassicmoviesdigest.wordpress.com/
Stromboli (1950)	The Wonderful World of Cinema	https://thewonderfulworldofcinema.wordpress.com
All is Lost	Hitchcock’s World	hitchcocksworld.blogspot.ca
And God Created Woman	GirlsDoFilm	https://girlsdofilm.wordpress.com/
A Summer Place	Pop Culture Reverie	https://popculturereverie.wordpress.com/
The Ghost And Mrs Muir	In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood	https://crystalkalyana.wordpress.com/
Bikini Beach	Smitten Kitten Vintage	http://smittenkittenvintage.wordpress.com
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini	Classic Film & TV Cafe	www.classicfilmtvcafe.com
Lord of the Flies	Part Time Monster	http://parttimemonster.wordpress.com
Captain Blood	Sourcerer	http://sourcererblog.wordpress.com
Gidget	Chasing Destino	http://chasingdestino.com/
Open Water	Herheadache	http://www.kkherheadache.wordpress.com
Teen Beach Movie	Victim To Charm	http://victimtocharm.com
Plein Soleil	Ramblings of a Cinephile	http://ramblingsofacinephile.com/
Dr. No (1962)	The Doglady’s Den	http://thedogladysden.com
Die Hard With A Vengeance	Le Mot du Cinephiliaque	http://cinephiliaque.blogspot.ca/
Night Tide	The Last Drive In	http://www.thelastdrivein
La Mer (1895)	Century Film Project	https://centuryfilmproject.wordpress.com/
Point Break	Everything Noir	everythingnoir.com
Key Largo (1948)	B Noir Detour	bnoirdetour.wordpress.com
The Significance of ‘The Beach’ in Hitchcock’s REBECCA (1940)	No Nonsense with Nuwan Sen	https://nononsensewithnuwansen.wordpress.com/
Italian Film ‘Il Compleanno’, in English – ‘David’s Birthday’ (2009)	No Nonsense with Nuwan Sen	https://nononsensewithnuwansen.wordpress.com/
Jaws	The Cinematic Frontier	https://cinematicfrontier.wordpress.com/
Back to the Beach	Silver Scenes	silverscenesblog.blogspot.com
Bikini Beach	The Hannibal 8	https://thehannibal8.wordpress.com/
Mr. Hulot’s Holiday	The Stop Button	http://thestopbutton.com/
Whale Rider	portraitsbyjenni	https://portraitsbyjenni.wordpress.com
Summertime. 1955	In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood	https://crystalkalyana.wordpress.com/
Humanoids From The Deep	Destroy All Fanboys!	http://fanboydestroy.com
Miranda (1948)	Mildred’s Fatburgers	www.mildredsfatburgers.com
The Beach	Back to the Viewer	https://backtotheviewer.wordpress.com/
Cabin Fever: Patient Zero	It Came From The Man Cave!	http://www.mda4life.blogspot.com/
Female on the Beach	Movie Fanfare	http://www.moviefanfare.com/
Beach Blanket Bingo	Thrift Shop Commando	http://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/
Dangerous When Wet	Love Letters to Old Hollywood	loveletterstooldhollywood.blogspot.com
Beaches	Plucking Of My Heartstrings	http://pluckingofmyheartstrings.com
Evil Under the Sun	Sepia Stories	https://sepiastories.wordpress.com/
Evil Under the Sun	Vivien Leigh	http://vivienleighlegend.blogspot.com/
The Old Man & the Sea	365 Days 365 Classics	https://365days365classiccinemareview.wordpress.com/
“The Raft” in Creepshow 2 (1987)	Reel Distracted	www.reeldistracted.com
Beneath the 12 Mile Reef (1953)	The Stalking Moon	thestalkingmoon.weebly.com
Beach Party	Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings	http://www.laurasmiscmusings.blogspot.com/
The Blue Lagoon (1980)	confessions of a broccoli addict	https://broccoliaddict.wordpress.com/
Lonesome (1928)	Nitrate Diva	nitratediva.wordpress.com
Mosayile Kuthira Meenukal	Totally Filmi	totallyfilmi.com
Girls on the Beach	SixtiesCinema	sixtiescinema.com
beach movie influence on fashion/pop culture	Outspoken & Freckled	http://kelleepratt.com/
Creature from the Haunted Sea	U.P. Schlock: The Good, The Bad, And The Retro	http://upschlock.blogspot.com/

Get into the groove…

I love it when the writing is going well. Most of us do.

For me, I love getting past the first draft drudge and moving into the fun part– once the pieces are basically in place, and I can begin to customize the language and let my writing flower, beefing up descriptions and polishing my slang.

It sounds strange, but I NEED my day job to be productive. When I’m at home, I’m terrible about finding excuses– I need to clean the house, I want to work in my garden, I have home improvement projects I need to finish… but when I’m at work, I have around an hour in the morning and an hour at noon that FORCE me to be productive. Bit by bit, the novel expands, and the detail gets polished.

I’m looking forward to visiting Los Angeles again in September, where I can do more research to tweak certain scenes.

How is everyone’s writing going? What are you working on? And are you liking what’s happening with it?

Choosing a cover…

Aah, fall and winter. When my day job keeps me so busy that all I’m capable of doing is chowing down a quick dinner before falling into bed at night. Fortunately, spring is around the corner, and I can see some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel!

The last week or two, I’ve been entering the truly fun portion of the book release process– picking my cover!

I used The Book Designers, and they did an AMAZING job. I fell in love with the covers on their webpage the minute I saw them, so it was a no-brainer for me. Yes, they were a bit pricey, but whether you believe the old adage or not, people WILL judge your book by its cover. I might have bought more self-published books myself the last few years, but some of the covers I’ve seen have been downright awful.

Since this is my first self-publishing venture (but not my first PUBLISHING venture), I didn’t want to be treated like a red-headed stepchild. I wanted my book to be indistinguishable from that coming out of the major houses– in terms of my writing, and in terms of the cover. Considering roughly half my rejections were for stuff like “I don’t know who this person is and I’m not sure why I’m supposed to care” (even though she really existed and lived an amazing short life), I decided to concentrate my marketing efforts toward the Classic Hollywood fandom community. It’s an entire subculture, and I knew that was there my audience lay.

I was allowed three iterations of the cover, but I had a definite vision. I was to email them my most recent manuscript, my most recent synopsis, covers I like, covers of books that fall in the same family as mine, and my vision for it.

Some of my qualifications were:

• Sepia sepia sepia (you couldn’t guess that from my blog title, could you?) – There’s just something about those hazy black/white/gray/dull brown scenes on covers that takes me to my happy place. The Alienist? Devil in the White City? Yup. Keep em comin!
• An actual photo of Olive in that sepia tone. Whichever one I could get licensing for.
• Some possible background images of old-time New York, the Ziegfeld Theatre, etc.
• An image of an old ocean liner, signifying her trip to Paris.
• An old-fashioned silent movie camera.
• A decorative graphic frame type element.
• A design that can be easily duplicated and modified for future books on the actresses I’m planning. Think of how readily identifiable the books by Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaasen, or Philippa Gregory are.

Then, I let them go to work. Here are some of the ideas, and how I came up with the final product. There were two that arrived with these that I discounted right off the bat. They had some strange rose designs over the top of the whole thing that didn’t work for me at all. Didn’t want them to keep working that angle. But these others were possibles:

1.

I like the graphic elements, but they’re a bit more 30s than teens, and I’m not fond of the font at all. Next!

2.

I like the film strips down the side, but #1, the woman in the picture isn’t Olive. #2, I’m still not fond of that font. But I think the film effect would look great on a back cover.

3.

I like the colours, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald-y font, but it’s just lacking something for me.

4.

This was generally the second favorite among friends and co-workers. But being a period purist, I was bothered by #1, the Hollywoodland sign went up in 1923 (3 years after Olive’s death), and #2 the picture of Hollywood with the searchlights and palm trees would be more suited to the late 1920s and after. Not the dusty, orange-grove filled place it was when Ollie knew it. Plus, her face is upside down! Why?

5.

The favorite among just about everyone. I wasn’t crazy about the purple and blue, and the camera in the bottom left looks like someone dripped water on the cover, but I knew this one had potential for multiple designs in the future– especially the top graphic element portion. And I ADORE this font. It also looks good in thumbnails, which are your selling point on Amazon.

So another tweak, and I had this:

I had suggested the warm colours from the other designs, but figured there would be a gold along with the green and orange. To me, the green and orange by themselves were a bit too fluorescent marker-ish. And the fact that Ollie got the green and orange filter too was a drawback.

I asked them to PLEASE make Ollie sepia-toned again, beef up the contrast, and make the frilly parts off-white again. I thought the green and orange on them was a bit much.

So one LAST tweak, and we arrived here:

It’s so gorgeous, I can’t stop gazing at it! The reception so far has been overwhelmingly positive. I posted it in one of my Facebook groups, and have already had a PM from a complete stranger squeeeing over its release, asking how they can get a copy, and wondering how they can spread the word. I’d call that successful.

How have everyone elses’ cover designs gone? Stories to share? Funny tales of designs gone wrong? Or perfectly nailed? Share them with us!

The first few steps up the self-publishing ladder…

So it’s been a few weeks since I made my decision. I’ve already found a cover designer I ADORE. It might cost a bit more than some of the others that are out there, but I think it will be totally worth it.

I got some recommendations from a friend on editors who might be good with my genre. It was hard choosing between the two, but I made my decision this past week, and will be getting edited in January. So excited! Also beginning to build my email list.

After studying the ecopy, I ordered a hard copy of Catherine Ryan Howard’s Self Printed, so have been tabbing pages and underlining important content.

I’ve been setting up my marketing plan ever since I made my decision, hoping I’ll be able to get everything I want done. One of my ideas is to try to set up a table at Cinecon, but I have to see if they find my book suitable (since it’s fiction based on fact). If I can’t, I’ll have to network and print off a bunch of advertising postcards and/or bookmarks about it and just attend the festival.

The folks at the Hollywood Heritage Museum have already expressed interest in having me host a launch party there (so that’s the biggie!).

Yesterday,  I stumbled across my friend, Kim Grabas’  post on her blog, “71 Ways to Promote and Market Your Book.” Thanks, Kim! There are a few more ideas here I need to put into effect.

Is your book underway? Mostly finished? Complete? Have you thought about your marketing plan yet? Your editor? Your cover designer?

Then what are you waiting for?