[VNQ]∎ PDF Free The Girls in the Picture A Novel Melanie Benjamin Books

The Girls in the Picture A Novel Melanie Benjamin Books

Download As PDF : The Girls in the Picture A Novel Melanie Benjamin Books

The Girls in the Picture A Novel Melanie Benjamin Books

I love historical fiction. I knew a little about Mary Pickford before reading this book, and I had only heard of Frances Marion, so I learned a lot about these two film pioneers from this novel. Melanie Benjamin's research on the lives of these two women was far more exhaustive than what she used for the story, but her choices of what periods and events to include seemed ideal. Also, she could have made Mary's story more maudlin, and Frances' perfunctory, but both women's stories are fascinating and thoroughly believable.

The chapters focus on Mary or Frances alternately; Mary's are narrated in the third-person, and Frances' chapters are written in the first person. Frances, who was both educated and relatively confident for an early 20th century woman, tells her own story, and reflects on her friendship with Mary throughout the years. Early in their relationship, Frances is dazzled by Mary's fame, and grateful to be in the same circle. They are each others' confidants, best friends; Charlotte, Mary's mother, is almost a mother to Frances, as well. As Mary's career continues to soar, Frances goes from a gal-Friday-type assistant to a respected screenwriter.

We read about Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.) and his relationship with Mary, and the other marriages of the two women. In fact, when we first meet Frances, at the age of 26, she already has two marriages (and divorces) under her belt.

Ms. Benjamin does an excellent job of conveying the power of Mary's fame in early Hollywood, as most readers today will have grown up never having seen a Mary Pickford film. She was the first movie star, and so famous that she couldn't travel without people swarming around her to touch her. Frances was the highest paid screenwriter for quite some time, so both women were at the top of their fields. This book follows the arc of their fame and friendship, then leaves out the middle years until the two are older, in the 1970s.

As I read this book, I kept going to IMDB.com (Internet Movie Data Base) to see photos of the people mentioned. I knew what Mary Pickford looked like, and I even knew Douglas Fairbanks Sr.'s swashbuckling handsomeness, but I hadn't known what Frances Marion looked like, or Fred Thomson, Buddy Rogers, Owen Moore, and others. Both Mary and Doug were friends and colleagues of Charlie Chaplin's, as well.

This book was a delicious Hollywood treat!


Tags : Amazon.com: The Girls in the Picture: A Novel (9781101886823): Melanie Benjamin: Books,Melanie Benjamin,The Girls in the Picture: A Novel,Bantam,110188682X,1920s;saga;historical novel;historical;film;historical novels;romance;actress;Lillian Gish;Rudolph Valentino;Frances Marion;Mary Pickford;Hollywood;historical fiction;biographical fiction;historical biographical fiction;literary fiction;historical literary fiction;friendship;20th century setting;female protagonists;Los Angeles;movie stars;female friendship;Hollywood legends;screenwriter;superstar;flickers;silent movie picture;America's sweetheart;Douglas Fairbanks;Charlie Chaplin;Louis B. Mayer,AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION,California,FICTION Biographical,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction-Historical,FictionBiographical,FictionLiterary,GENERAL,General Adult,1920s; saga; historical novel; historical; film; historical novels; romance; actress; Lillian Gish; Rudolph Valentino; Frances Marion; Mary Pickford; Hollywood; historical fiction; biographical fiction; historical biographical fiction; literary fiction; historical literary fiction; friendship; 20th century setting; female protagonists; Los Angeles; movie stars; female friendship; Hollywood legends; screenwriter; superstar; flickers; silent movie picture; America's sweetheart; Douglas Fairbanks; Charlie Chaplin; Louis B. Mayer

The Girls in the Picture A Novel Melanie Benjamin Books Reviews

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres and to come across this gem was like a gift. A few years back I watched a documentary about Mary Pickford and Frances Marion, their personal lives and their contributions to the motion picture industry. Even though this book is fiction, I feel like I learned a great deal. Like the fact that Mary was the first woman to own her own studio and Frances was instrumental in starting the Screen Writer's Guild. Along with various tidbits from the glittering birth of Hollywood. This book was easy to read as well as very enjoyable. Highly recommend. After I read it I bought several copies to give to others I knew would love it and recommended it to several others.
Hard working, talented women breaking into an industry that is not even fully established and one where women are certainly not invited to the table are portrayed with full force in Melanie Benjamin’s historical novel THE GIRLS IN THE PICTURE. Mary Pickford, also known as Little Mary, is beloved by her fans as she stars in silent films and then transitions to talkies. She takes the gifted scenarist Frances Marion under her wing as the two become best friends. Fran blossoms into a sought after screenwriter and director in Hollywood.  

The two women, while they come from different backgrounds, they share a common struggle and are both determined to attain big dreams, while making a vow to stand by each other. But fame can be a funny thing. Getting in the way.

Pickford is not just an actress but a pioneer in the industry, a producer, founder, along with her husband actor Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, of United Artists, and a founder of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, you know, that organization that puts on the Oscars.

Benjamin exposes an intimate look at the evolution of Hollywood and what women were up against in order to succeed. Not only a dramatic look at friendship and the lengths people will go to achieve stardom, but the men who thought women’s only place was on the screen itself. It makes you wonder if things have changed all that much since the 1920s.

I found the book fascinating. Not just because I was interested in the relationship between Mary and Fran, but to imagine this life, wide open with opportunity, for women, to learn a new art form, and how so many took chances, sacrificed so much, to embark on a career.
Fascinating look at life in the movie industry prior to the arrival of “talkies”. Interesting friendship between reclusive Mary Pickford and budding screenwriter, Frances Marion. Marion went on to write screenplays for some of the most famous silent films, and win some of the first Oscars. Mary Pickford’s image as a beautiful “child” with golden curls stifled her rise in stardom, as her audience demanded that little girl, and wouldn’t accept her as the grown woman she became. So, we have one friend on the way up and the other struggling to maintain her popularity. The totally different backgrounds of these two women, makes this solid friendship especially curious.

Frances Marion, through many years, was Mary Pickford’s only friend - and the “picture” becomes one of Mary taking advantage of Frances - using her - and Frances trying to maintain a friendship which demanded that she take a subservient role most of the time. Through rises and falls of success and failures, and the men in their lives, the friendship struggles to endure. It is interesting to see Frances attaining the lofty “stardom” that her friend had in the beginning.

A true story embellished with the author’s research and imagination, this is an engrossing tale of two women’s lives in early Hollywood. You may find yourself rooting for Frances Marion most of the time, as I did! And, you may find the book almost impossible to put down, as I did! The book arrived on January 16th, and I completed it the next day, with time out to eat and sleep! Another winner from Melanie Benjamin!
I love historical fiction. I knew a little about Mary Pickford before reading this book, and I had only heard of Frances Marion, so I learned a lot about these two film pioneers from this novel. Melanie Benjamin's research on the lives of these two women was far more exhaustive than what she used for the story, but her choices of what periods and events to include seemed ideal. Also, she could have made Mary's story more maudlin, and Frances' perfunctory, but both women's stories are fascinating and thoroughly believable.

The chapters focus on Mary or Frances alternately; Mary's are narrated in the third-person, and Frances' chapters are written in the first person. Frances, who was both educated and relatively confident for an early 20th century woman, tells her own story, and reflects on her friendship with Mary throughout the years. Early in their relationship, Frances is dazzled by Mary's fame, and grateful to be in the same circle. They are each others' confidants, best friends; Charlotte, Mary's mother, is almost a mother to Frances, as well. As Mary's career continues to soar, Frances goes from a gal-Friday-type assistant to a respected screenwriter.

We read about Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.) and his relationship with Mary, and the other marriages of the two women. In fact, when we first meet Frances, at the age of 26, she already has two marriages (and divorces) under her belt.

Ms. Benjamin does an excellent job of conveying the power of Mary's fame in early Hollywood, as most readers today will have grown up never having seen a Mary Pickford film. She was the first movie star, and so famous that she couldn't travel without people swarming around her to touch her. Frances was the highest paid screenwriter for quite some time, so both women were at the top of their fields. This book follows the arc of their fame and friendship, then leaves out the middle years until the two are older, in the 1970s.

As I read this book, I kept going to IMDB.com (Internet Movie Data Base) to see photos of the people mentioned. I knew what Mary Pickford looked like, and I even knew Douglas Fairbanks Sr.'s swashbuckling handsomeness, but I hadn't known what Frances Marion looked like, or Fred Thomson, Buddy Rogers, Owen Moore, and others. Both Mary and Doug were friends and colleagues of Charlie Chaplin's, as well.

This book was a delicious Hollywood treat!