54. The Girls in the Picture

54. The Girls in the Picture. Melanie Benjamin. 2018. 448 pages. [Source: Review copy] [5 stars, adult fiction, adult historical fiction, Golden Age Hollywood, silent films]

First sentence: Lately the line between real life and movies has begun to blur. 

Premise/plot: The Girls in the Picture is the story of a troubled friendship between Frances Marion (writer, scenarist, director) and Mary Pickford (silent film actress, celebrity, half of a power couple). These two met in the early-early days of silent films, even before films moved to Hollywood, before there was HOLLYWOOD. This one roughly covers the span of 1914 through 1932. Chapters alternate between these two narrators. Readers learn about famous directors, movie studios, actors and actresses, and details about how the movie making business got its start. These are real actors, actresses, directors, movies being mentioned. For example, Frances Marion wrote The Poor Little Rich Girl which was one of Mary Pickford's biggest hits. While it doesn't cover every movie in which either was involved, it does plenty of name dropping.

While there is romance in both their lives--Frances with Fred Thomson (silent cowboy movie star) and Mary Pickford with Douglas Fairbanks (silent film star)--the focus mainly is on the complexity of their decades long friendship.

My thoughts: I have been meaning to read this one for years. When I started deep diving into silent films earlier this year, I knew the time was finally right. My months watching silent films and my experiences watching several documentaries about silent films helped greatly bring this one to life. (For those that are curious--though no one is that curious--Buster Keaton gets one mention as a pall bearer to Fred Thomson.)

I definitely enjoyed this one. I thought it was well researched and definitely worth reading.

 

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