CHAPTER 1
Little House on the Prairie is a book series written by Laura Ingalls Wilder about life growing up on the plains in the late 1800s.
The child mortality rate in Saskatchewan in the 1920s was indeed 10%.
Kenny Baker was the first to sing Love is Here to Stay in 1938.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson and died of a drug overdose in 1962.
Elysian Heights is a neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles. Elysia is what the Romans called paradise or the afterlife.
Dakin’s Solution was an antiseptic treatment used in the 1940s.
“Sea of Tranquility” is a geographical feature on the Moon.
CHAPTER 2
Niçoise is a salad made with raw or lightly seared tuna.
Sydney Guilaroff was one of the leading hairdressers during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Chateau Marmont is a swanky hotel in West Hollywood popular with movie stars, even today. The restaurant closed in 2020.
The Hotel Bel-Air is another high-end hotel located in the up-scale residential community of Bel-Air. It is still visited frequently by movie stars.
Before becoming an actor, Robert Wagner worked as a pool attendant at the Hotel Bel-Air.
Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan is a small town near Prairie River and the closest one of any reasonable size.
Tyrone Power was a popular actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Fame and Fortune contests were widely featured in magazines and other media across the U.S. and Canada. Girls who submitted a photo of themselves won the chance to be cast in a Hollywood movie and often went on to larger success.
Svengali and Trilby are the names of the two main characters in the 1894 novel, Trilby, about a man (Svengali) who manipulates and controls a young girl (Trilby), and makes her into a famous singer. Today, the words take on the broader definition of anyone who malevolently manipulates and controls another.
CHAPTER 3
Ciro’s was a restaurant and nightclub popular with Hollywood stars. It closed in 1957, and The Comedy Store is now located in the original building.
Humphrey Bogart was one of the top stars during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Green Dolphin Street is a 1947 film starring Lana Turner. In it, she has an updo with barrel curls.
Nancy Drew mysteries, written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, are popular children’s novels.
Rudolph Valentino was arguably the most popular male star of Hollywood’s Silent Era and was known for his good looks. He died of appendicitis in 1926 at the age of 31. An estimated 100,000 people, many of them young women, lined the streets of Manhattan on the day of his funeral. He was so adored by his fans that a riot even broke out. Some despondent fans even committed suicide.
CHAPTER 4
The poodle skirt was first created in late 1947 by Juli Lynne Charlot. Juli Lynn started as a singer on Broadway before being cast in the 1946 movie Night in Paradise. Her Hollywood career was short-lived, and she went on to be a successful clothing designer. Before it was the “poodle skirt” it was actually a dress with three applique dachshunds as described here.
Nancy Drew titles often begin with “The Secret of the. . . .”
The Poconos are a rural mountainous area in Northeastern Pennsylvania, still popular with New Englanders, especially those in high society.
Bohemian smile is somewhat of an invented phrase so I leave it to the reader to decide what it really means, but one might look to the painting Lise the Bohemian by French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir or reflect on the more mid-twentieth-century meaning of bohemianism as it relates to the struggling artists movement of that time.
Wassily Kandinsky was an early-twentieth-century Russian-French abstractionist painter known for his colorful, geometric artwork.
The Castle bob, a short-to-medium length hairstyle with fringe at the front, was popularized in the 1920s and remains so today. It was named after ballroom dancer and silent film star Irene Castle.
Vaudeville is a popular form of entertainment from the 1880s to 1930s. It featured unrelated acts of music, dancing, magic, and comedy.
Ziegfeld Girl is a 1941 film starring Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and James Stewart. It tells the story of three women who were part of the Ziegfeld Follies, a popular Broadway show based on Vaudeville performances.
CHAPTER 5
Katherine Hepburn was a leading actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was famous for her mid-Atlantic accent. A mid-Atlantic accent was popular in the early- to mid-twentieth century and taught to the upper class of New England and those in Hollywood. It is a blend of British Received Pronunciation or Queen’s English and American English.
Spencer Tracy was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He had his start on Broadway and also worked for a time in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Harvey Girls were hired by the Fred Harvey Company, which ran a chain of restaurants, hotels, and train dining cars. They were selected for their “good character, attractiveness, and intelligence” and were subject to curfews and other behavioral restrictions.
John Steinbeck was a prolific literary novelist in the early- to mid-twentieth century. One of his most popular novels is The Grapes of Wrath, which was later turned into a movie starring Henry Fonda.
Noah’s Ark, released in 1928, is a part-talkie, a film that was mostly silent but had some dialogue. The production used 600,000 gallons of water during the climactic flood scene. It was so overwhelming it cost three extras their lives and caused serious injury, including broken limbs, to many more.
CHAPTER 6
Located in Los Angeles’s Hancock Park, the La Brea Tar Pits are a collection of pools where oil bubbles up to the surface. In prehistoric times, animals would go to drink from the pools and become stuck in the tar, only to be devoured by predators, who would also become trapped.
California, Here I Come is a popular song by singer Al Jolson, released in 1924.
Figs are a common symbol of fertility and sensuality in literature.
Cleopatra is a film about the first-century BC Queen of Egypt, starring popular, early Golden Age Hollywood actress Claudette Colbert. It was released in 1934 by Paramount. Later versions were made, including a 1963 version starring Elizabeth Taylor.
CHAPTER 7
Charles Mingus was a popular jazz bassist known for his eclectic style and volatile personality. He was born in Nogales, Arizona and raised in the Watts area of Los Angeles. He was inspired by fellow jazz musician and band leader Duke Ellington, who was known for his more conventional big band jazz style.
Clio is one of the nine muses, daughters of Zeus, in Greek mythology. She is regarded as the inspiration for poets and artists. Her name is derived from the Greek word meaning “to make famous.”
Bogie is a popular nickname for Humphrey Bogart. He was married to actress Lauren Bacall. Rita Hayworth and couple Ronald “Ronnie” Reagan and Jane Wyman were also popular actors during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Maritta Wolff was an author who lived in Los Angeles during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Two of her novels, Whistle Stop and Night Shift, were made into movies.
When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple is a poem written in 1961 by Jenny Joseph. It is about an older woman who eschews convention and doesn’t care what others think of her.
Alice in Wonderland is a novel by English author Lewis Carroll published in 1865. It’s about a young girl, Alice, who descends down a rabbit hole into a frightfully wonderful fantasy world. It features the characters the eccentric Mad Hatter, the wily Cheshire Cat, and the evil Queen of Hearts.
The Comic Strips of Television is an animated series co-created by Alex Anderson, the nephew of acclaimed Hollywood cartoonist and producer Paul Terry. It later became The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, which is still in syndication today. Bullwinkle is the moose. In 1948, television was still in its early years and few people owned one.
The Frolic Room is a popular bar located on Hollywood Boulevard not far from Grauman’s Chinese Theater that was frequented by Hollywood actors. It is still there today.
The Screwdriver, a drink made from vodka and orange juice, is thought to have originated in an East Coast bar in the 1940s. An Old Fashioned is a cocktail made from bourbon, bitters, and simple syrup and typically garnished with an orange slice and maraschino cherry.
CHAPTER 8
The Wolff Who Cried Boy is a play on the popular fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
Errol Flynn was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He was known for his frequent womanizing and carefree debauchery.
The infinite monkey theorem states that if you put enough monkeys in front of enough typewriters and give them enough time, they’ll eventually write the works of Shakespeare.
Plato’s Republic is an influential Classical Greek philosophical text on the establishment of justice and the city-state.
The King of Siam (current day Thailand) was known for his opulent court.
CHAPTER 9
Pablo Picasso and Camille Pissarro were painters. Other than the similarity in their last names, they have little in common. Pissarro was an early-nineteenth-century French Impressionist. Picasso was a Spaniard who invented Cubism in the early twentieth century.
Helen Gahagan Douglas was an actress whose most prominent role was as She (Who Must Be Obeyed) in the eponymous 1935 RKO movie (produced by Merian Cooper). Before Hollywood, she acted on Broadway and then pursued opera, traveling to Europe to pursue her dream of singing at the Vienna Opera House. While in Vienna, she witnessed the rise of the Nazi Party and immediately gave up her dream of singing to return to the United States and publicly fight against the rise of fascism in Europe. At the urging of her husband, Melvyn, she became politically involved, befriending Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and eventually winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1944. She served for six years before being defeated in a bid for the U.S. Senate against future president Richard Nixon in 1950.
Tommy’s (now Original Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers) is a hamburger stand in Los Angeles opened in 1946.
In Roman mythology, Bacchus is the god of wine and festivals.
The Last Supper was Jesus’ final meal with the twelve disciples before he was betrayed by one of them, Judas, for thirty pieces of silver and sent to be crucified.
Mrs. Emily Post was an early-twentieth-century author famous for writing about etiquette.
Salvador Dali and Max Ernst were early-twentieth-century surrealist painters famous for their eerie, nightmarish artwork.
CHAPTER 10
Shangri-La is a fictional paradise supposedly located in the high mountains of Tibet.
Agatha Christie was an English writer known for her mystery novels.
Vivien Leigh was a leading British-American actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age known for her overly dramatic roles, including her most famous, Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.
Raymond Chandler was a mid-twentieth-century novelist famous for his hard-boiled crime novels, several of which were made into movies.
CHAPTER 11
Lady Macbeth is the protagonist in the Shakespeare play Macbeth. Set in medieval Scotland, it is about a powerful and manipulative queen who convinces her husband, the king, to commit murder.
Cleopatra was Queen of Egypt in first century, BC.
Mounties, or Royal Canadian Mounted Police, of Canada are known for their signature red coats and wide-brimmed campaign hats. The first woman was sworn in as a Mountie in 1974.
Get Fresh! and Gingervating were popular advertising slogans of Canada Dry Ginger Ale in the 1940s.
CHAPTER 12
The Yellow Brick Road was the path taken to the city of Oz in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, which is about a young Kansas girl who wakes up in a fantasy land after a tornado ravages her home. It was one of the first films shot in vibrant Technicolor and was produced by MGM.
Drama-something is a play on the name of the one-humped camel, the dromedary. Bactrians are the two-humped kind.
A Thousand and One Nights is an ancient collection of Middle Eastern folk tales as told through the framing story of Scheherazade, one of the wives of the ruler. It’s been adapted into several films since 1905 through the present day.
Vincente Minnelli was a leading director during Hollywood’s Golden Age, although he never directed any adaptations of A Thousand and One Nights.
The Retake Room was a bar located near the MGM lot that was popular with movie stars.
There’s No Business Like Show Business is a song written by popular composer and lyricist Irving Berlin in 1946.
Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch are characters in The Wizard of Oz.
The Wicked Witch has an army of flying monkeys to do her bidding.
CHAPTER 13
Tucker was an automobile company that produced only 51 cars before being forced into bankruptcy. The Tucker 48, also known as the Tucker Torpedo, was known for its innovative safety features including seat belts, shatterproof glass, tubeless tires, padded dashboard, and a center headlamp that turned with the car.
Dashiell Hammett was a mid-twentieth-century writer who, like Raymond Chandler, wrote hard-boiled detective novels, his most famous being The Maltese Falcon.
CHAPTER 14
Kenny was the name of a main gate guard who worked at MGM for several years during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Montgomery “Monty” Clift was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
CHAPTER 15
Dorothea (stage name Dorothy) Patrick was a Canadian-American actress who starred in several films during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She originally worked for MGM in small roles and later went on to be known as “Queen of the Bs” (B-movies).
The Cocoanut Grove was a famous nightclub frequented by stars. It existed from 1921 to 1989 and was located inside the Ambassador Hotel, which was eventually demolished in 2006.
CHAPTER 17
Alida Valli also known as simply Valli was an Italian actress who starred in several Hollywood films in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Nazis were a minor fixture in Los Angeles in the thirties and forties.
Studio heads Louis Mayer and Jack Warner, like many prominent figures in Hollywood’s studio system, were Jewish.
Edward VIII, known to his friends as David, was King of England during most of 1936. There is compelling evidence that he was a Nazi sympathizer.
Adolf Hitler was known to disdain alcohol.
After World War II, many Nazis fled to Argentina.
Fernando Lamas was a leading Argentine actor who moved to America in the late 1940’s and signed with MGM.
Fernet is an Italian liqueur that is very popular in Argentina.
Stan Freberg was a voice actor and advertising executive known for his comedy albums and witty advertising campaigns. He grew up in the Los Angeles area where his father was a Baptist preacher. He lived a rather temperate life in comparison to other Hollywood stars.
Clark Gable was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
President Calvin Coolidge, often referred to as Silent Cal, gave a speech to the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1926 in which he stated that advertising’s role in society is basically that of education.
Poverty Row was the name given to several movie studios that specialized in turning out a steady stream of low-budget movies.
The Belmont Stakes is one of the biggest races in American horse racing.
CHAPTER 18
Du-par’s is a restaurant in Los Angeles that opened in 1938 and is famous for its pancakes. It is still in business.
CHAPTER 19
Henry Fonda was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The Mink and Manure Club was the sobriquet given to a group of Hollywood stars, including William Holden, Don Ameche, Olivia de Havilland, Robert Taylor, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, and others. As the name denotes, the stars often dressed in fancy gowns and dinner jackets and held elaborate parties in Palm Springs. Several of the locals, including working cowboys, often joined in as well since, in those days, Palm Springs was still a fairly small town.
CHAPTER 20
Pepsodent was a popular brand of toothpaste in the 1940s and is still sold today.
Hurray for Hollywood was a popular song featured in the 1937 film Hotel Hollywood.
Vincente Minnelli was fairly open about his bisexuality. He was married four times throughout his life, including to his first wife, actress Judy Garland.
The logo for MGM Studios is a roaring lion.
Tie-ups are what the advertising industry originally called product placements.
Adrian, Ltd. was a high-end clothing boutique owned by former MGM costumer designer, Adrian.
Narcissus is a character in Greek mythology who fell in love with his reflection.
Susan Hayward was a leading actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Some wealthy people and Hollywood stars often lived for long periods of time at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Some of the rooms are private bungalows, including Bungalow Number Five, which has its own private pool.
Konstantin Stanislavski was a Russian actor, director, and acting coach who is famous for his System, also known as Method acting, that encouraged the actor to be fully immersed in the part, literally feeling the same emotions as the character would. If done by the unprepared, it can lead to emotional episodes.
CHAPTER 21
Vyssan Lull (Hushaby) is a Swedish lullaby of unknown origin. There are several different versions.
CHAPTER 22
This scene is an adaptation of a scene from the Vincente Minnelli film, The Bad and The Beautiful, starring Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner. The part of Linda (Lila in the actual movie) was played by actress Elaine Stewart.
CHAPTER 23
The Sunset Ranch boards horses for nearby residents of the Hollywood Hills and offers trail rides. It has been in operation since 1921. (When I visited, my guide was named Benito and my horse was named Leo.)
Gene Autry was a Hollywood star and singer famous for his cowboy ballads and roles in western movies.
The Desert Riders are a group of Palm Springs residents and regular visitors who ride the trails around Palm Springs. Many are also part of the Mink and Manure Club. It’s not a group for the faint of heart or beginning equestrians as they wake early and go for long rides. Many Hollywood stars have been and continue to be part of the Desert Riders. It was formed in 1930 and continues to this day.
Veronica Lake was a leading actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The Shrine Auditorium hosted the Academy Awards in 1947 and 1948. Olivia de Havilland was nominated for the Academy Award in 1948 and won in 1949.
CHAPTER 24
Griffith Park is a 4,310-acre urban wilderness park in Los Angeles’s Hollywood Hills.
El Mirador was a luxury hotel in Palm Springs that hosted several actors, celebrities, and world leaders. It was designed in a Byzantine style and was converted to a hospital in 1977.
One of Valentino’s most popular films is 1921’s The Sheik.
The Ranch Club was a western ranch in Palm Springs frequented by movie stars.
Robert Taylor starred in MGM’s 1941 production of Billy the Kid.
Johnny Boyle and his Hawaiian wife, Tani, were regulars at the Ranch Club gatherings.
Donkey Serenade is the signature song of actor and singing cowboy Allen Jones.
Cary Grant was originally from Bristol, in Southwest England.
CHAPTER 25
Many of the details of this chapter, from Pete’s initiation ceremony into the Desert Riders, to the terms crupper and Caterpillar Club, and the Desert Riders Hymn are all taken from a small book on the Desert Riders written by local Palm Springs historian John Hicks.
Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are two Hollywood trade publications that report on the lives and business of the stars. They are both still published today.
In late 1948, Cary Grant left for Europe for three months to film I Was a Male War Bride.
CHAPTER 26
Mrs. Helen Rose was a costume designer for MGM.
CHAPTER 27
Greer Garson was a leading British-American actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Before coming to the United States, she was a stage actress in Birmingham, England.
Zeppo Marx, after acting alongside the other Marx Brothers, became a talent agent. Billy Wilkerson was the publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. It is alleged that they discovered Lana Turner at a soda fountain in Hollywood.
After Lana’s father was murdered, her mother became a nightclub singer to help support the family.
CHAPTER 28
“Star-crossed lovers” is a reference to a line in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed means something is foretold in the stars or fated to happen.
Woodbury Soap was a popular brand of facial soap in the 1940s. It sponsored radio shows, including the one hosted by Hedda Hopper. One of its slogans was “A skin you’d love to touch.”
Santa Anita is a horse racing track in Los Angeles.
Bathtub gin was a term for homemade liquor made during Prohibition.
Lucille Ball was a leading actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She acted in a radio comedy called My Favorite Husband that was later turned into her famous TV sitcom, I Love Lucy.
The Polo Lounge is one of the bars located at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Before becoming President of the United States, John F. “Jack” Kennedy was a congressman from Massachusetts.
The Beverly Hills Hotel was painted its signature pink color in 1948.
Venus is the goddess of love in ancient Roman mythology. The planet is named after her.
Cassiopeia is a constellation named after a queen in Greek mythology whose arrogance led to her downfall.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is most well known as a 1953 film starring Marilyn Monroe but is based on a 1925 book of the same name.
CHAPTER 29
A Hundred Years from Today is a jazz ballad by popular singer Sarah Vaughn.
That Wonderful Urge is a 1948 romantic comedy starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney.
Rory Calhoun was a lead actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The Mocambo was a popular nightclub in Hollywood. Romanoff’s and Chasen’s were popular restaurants. All are no longer in business.
Angels Flight is a funicular railway that runs for one block between 3rd and 4th Streets in Downtown Los Angeles. The current railway opened in 1996, replacing the one that was a half a block south and ran from 1901 to 1969.
CHAPTER 31
Bullock’s Wilshire was a high-end department store that operated from 1929 until its acquisition by Macy’s in the 1970s. It closed in 1993.
The Outlaw is a film starring Jane Russell. It is infamous for the prominence of her breasts, made so by a bra designed by aviation engineer, Hollywood studio owner, and multi-millionaire playboy, Howard Hughes.
CHAPTER 32
Ava Gardner was a leading actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was married to jazz band leader and clarinet player, Artie Shaw. Shaw married eight times, including to Ava Gardner and Lana Turner. In 1948, he was on wife number six.
Jimmy Stewart was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He was 6’3” tall.
A dance card was a booklet of songs that originated in the eighteenth century. Women would write down who they intended to dance with during each song.
The Brown Derby was a popular restaurant in Hollywood that was shaped like a derby hat. It went on to open in with other locations around LA and was in business from 1929 to 1985.
Poor Little Rich Girl is a song written by Noël Coward for the 1925 revue On with The Dance. Judy Garland covered it in the early 1940s.
For a time, the Cocoanut Grove was elaborately decorated with palm trees and monkey dolls, inspired by a time when actor John Barrymore brought his pet monkey with him to the club.
Pandro “Pan” Berman was a Hollywood producer. He worked for MGM starting in 1940.
Henry Ginsberg was a producer for Paramount Studios in the late 1940s.
CHAPTER 33
The Brown Derby is reportedly the birthplace of the Cobb Salad, named for owner Bob Cobb.
Myrna Loy was a leading actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Grauman’s Chinese Theater is a lavish movie house opened by theater owner Sid Grauman on Hollywood Boulevard in 1927. It still hosts many movie premieres today.
In the late-eighteenth-century tragic play, Faust, by Johann Goethe, a black poodle is an allegory for the Devil.
CHAPTER 34
Chicken of the Sea is a brand of canned tuna. The company was founded in 1914 in California as the Van Kamp Seafood Company.
CHAPTER 35
“Just try and stay out of my way. Just try! I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!” is a line uttered by the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz.
Captain Ahab is the main character in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick.
The Women’s Army Corp (WAC) was a division of the U.S. Army formed in 1942 and eventually integrated into the rest of the army in 1978.
Toto was Dorothy’s dog in The Wizard of Oz.
Tarzan is a literary and cinematic character known for living in the jungle and speaking rudimentary English.
David Selznick was a film producer and studio executive. John Huston and Peter Lorre were leading actors during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Lorre was known for his somewhat unnerving appearance and for often playing a villain.
In The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch is killed by having a pail of water splashed on her.
In classic operas like Pagliacci, and several of Shakespeare’s plays, the clown or fool was a serious character, one who subtly spoke truth.
That Old Black Magic is a jazz song written in 1942 by Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics).
CHAPTER 36
Nearly everyone thought New York Governor Thomas Dewey would win the 1948 presidential election against incumbent president Harry Truman. The Chicago Daily Tribune even released an early edition with the headline Dewey Defeats Truman.
David Bushnell started his binocular company in California in 1948 upon returning from a honeymoon in Japan with 400 pairs of binoculars. He sold them mail-order in a short time and went on to found the company that still exists today.
In the late 1940s, the Red Scare, fear of Russia invading the United States, was prevalent. Part of the fear led to a targeting of some Americans thought to be communist sympathizers, many of whom worked in Hollywood.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekov were a late-nineteenth-century Russian writers. Chekov, a playwright, influenced Konstantin Stanislavski’s Method acting system.
CHAPTER 37
Vincente Minnelli was married to actress Judy Garland from 1945-1951. Garland struggled with substance abuse and suicidal depression throughout her life.
Melvyn LeRoy was a director and producer at MGM during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Frances Marion was a prolific screenwriter with a career spanning sixty years from 1912 to 1972. She wrote over 325 scripts and was the first screenwriter to win two Academy Awards.
Gregory Peck was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
CHAPTER 38
East Prussia is an historical region encompassing parts of modern-day Germany and Poland. It was part of the East Prussian Campaign during World War I.
CHAPTER 40
Matka is the Polish word for mother. Siostra is the word for sister.
Bing Crosby was a leading actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He is known for starring in musicals.
Joan Fontaine was a leading actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
CHAPTER 41
The Mills Brothers were a popular musical group in the 1940s and 50s.
CHAPTER 42
Bing Crosby’s rendition of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is the most popular single ever sold.
Salvatore Ferragamo was born in Italy in 1898. He moved to Boston and eventually Hollywood in 1915 where he continued his profession of shoemaking and designed footwear for the cinema. In 1927, he returned to Italy where he opened his now famous shop and continued making designer footwear for prominent women. The company opened its first shop in the U.S. in New York in 1948.
The Super Chief was the Santa Fe Railroad’s premiere train. It ran between Los Angeles’s Union Station and Chicago’s Dearborn Station. It was frequently ridden by Hollywood stars. Its lounge and dining cars were decorated in Southwestern turquoise and copper accents and featured a menu of fresh trout, New York steak, Malossol Caviar, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
The Plaza Hotel is a luxury hotel located near New York City’s Central Park.
Tavern on the Green is a restaurant in New York City’s Central Park. Except for a brief hiatus from 2009-2013, it has been in business since 1934.
The Palm Court is a restaurant located inside The Plaza Hotel.
The St. Regis Hotel is another luxury hotel in New York City. Several wealthy socialites lived there full time, including Bill and Barbara “Babe” Paley, who were famous for their lavish parties.
Prior to marrying Bill, the Chief Executive of CBS, in 1947, Babe was married to advertising executive Stanley Mortimer. Together with her sisters Mary and Betsey, they were known as the fabulous Cushing sisters and were a mainstay of East Coast elite society.
The Paley penthouse was decorated in an ornate Louis XIV-style until 1949, when Babe brought on famed interior designer Billy Baldwin (aka Billy B) to redecorate it in a North African and Near East style.
A French 75 is a drink made of champagne, gin, lemon juice, and sugar.
The Vulcania was an Italian passenger liner that ran, off and on, between New York and Naples from 1926 to 1965.
Barbiturates are a depressant drug that were regularly abused by Hollywood stars and others. They are often turquoise and crimson in color.
C.Z. Guest, Barbara Hutton, and Gloria Vanderbilt were members of the East Coast social class. Guest starred for a time in the Ziegfeld Follies theatrical revue shows in New York City. Socialites like them were sometimes referred to as swans.
CHAPTER 43
Pep pills is a term given to stimulant drugs like amphetamines. They were often given to actors to get them through the long shooting schedules. The actors often became addicted to them.
The Sicilian Revolution started in 1848 and lasted for about 17 months. It was an attempt by the local population to overthrow the Bourbon French aristocracy of King Ferdinand that ruled the island.
Gloria Grahame was a supporting actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She won an Academy Award for her supporting role in The Bad and the Beautiful.
Picciota is the Sicilian word for girl.
Bollito magro is Sicilian for boiled thin and refers to bits of beef snout and other less desirable parts that are boiled and sold in the market as a quick snack.
Sulfur and saltpeter, or potassium nitrate, are two historic components of gunpowder or black powder.
Topaia is the Sicilian word for rathole, hovel, or shack.
Magna Grecia was the term given by the Romans to much of Southern Italy due to its extensive population of Greeks who settled there in the eighth century BC.
Camporeale is a small village in the hills of Sicily.
CHAPTER 44
The sheep and the goats is a biblical reference to those who go to heaven and those who go to hell.
An osteria is a tavern that serves wine and a simple menu of locally sourced food.
Before becoming an actor, Gregory Peck considered studying for the priesthood.
Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus Christ during His ministry.
Cain and Abel were brothers and the first children of Adam and Eve. Abel was favored by God for his worship and offering. Cain did not give a proper offering and was displeasing to God. Cain committed history’s first murder by slaying his brother and was forced to wander the wilderness for the rest of his life, shunned by his other siblings.
Providence is another name for God.
CHAPTER 45
A rare snowstorm hit Los Angeles during the winter of 1949.
Howard Strickling was a fixer for MGM, someone who made sure scandals that stars were involved in didn’t get into the press.
CHAPTER 46
Alfred Hitchcock was a leading British-American director of suspense films.
Joseph Schenck was a studio executive for 20th Century Fox. He played a key role in launching the career of a young, platinum blonde girl named Marilyn Monroe who he was occasionally involved with.
Tallulah Bankhead was an actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was fairly open about her bisexuality and was often seen around town with young female lovers.
CHAPTER 47
Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a late-nineteenth century British social commentary novel by Thomas Hardy. The protagonist, a woman named Tess, evades capture with her husband, Angel, for a murder of self-defense. She is eventually captured at Stonehenge and executed at Wintoncester Prison. Her younger sister and ally in the story is named Liza-Lu.
The SS Catalina was one of the steamships that ran between Los Angeles and Catalina Island from 1924 to 1975.
William Randolph Hearst was one of the wealthiest men in America in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. He was a businessman and newspaper publisher, and even financed some films.. His very public mistress was actress Marion Davis. He entertained a wide variety of celebrities at his castle overlooking the central California coastline near San Simeon.
Louella Parsons was a Hollywood gossip columnist whose column was syndicated in more than seven hundred newspapers around the world.
CHAPTER 48
The return of swallows to the San Juan Capistrano Mission is celebrated every year on March 19. A popular jazz standard was written about the event and covered by several musicians, including band leader Glenn Miller.
The Berlin Airlift was an American military operation that delivered supplies to the city of West Berlin, trapped behind the Iron Curtain, during the early days of the Cold War from June 1948 to September 1949.
Ernest Hemingway was an American author known for his hyper-masculine prose about adventure and war.
Messerschmitts were fighter aircraft used by the Germans during World War II.
The character of Bill is partly based on American World War II veteran Bill Durkee, who joined the British Army to fight against the Nazis before the U.S. entered the war. He saw action at the Battle of El-Alamein in North Africa, fighting with the King’s Royal Rifle Corp. (One of the Royal Rifle Corp’s official marches is Road to the Isles.) Durkee was originally from California but did not return from the war to become a stuntman. Instead, he went to Yale Law School, married, and spent a career in international relations with the CIA, State Department, and Department of Defense.
Donna Reed and Shirley Temple were both leading actresses during Hollywood’s Golden Age and tended to be cast as wholesome and positive female leads. Most of Temple’s roles were as a child star in the 1930s.
CHAPTER 49
Phillip Marlowe was the protagonist in a number of Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled detective novels.
The Katzenjammer Kids was a popular comic strip that began in 1897 and ran original stories until 2006. It is still in syndication featuring reprints today.
CHAPTER 50
Alfred Hitchcock was known for eating huge meals and being rather boorish with actresses. It has also been reported that he had a peculiar hatred of cold meats and hard-boiled eggs.
Sabayon is a mousse-like dessert made of eggs, Marsala wine, and sugar. It was a menu item at Chasen’s Restaurant.
CHAPTER 51
The Hotel Del Coronado is a luxury hotel located on San Diego’s Coronado Island. It is often referred to simply as the Del.
The Crown Room is located inside The Hotel Del Coronado.
In myth, storks are the bringers of children.
La Maze is a steakhouse in San Diego that has been open since 1941. It is frequented by Hollywood stars.
Ramona’s Spanish Kitchen opened in Old Town San Diego in 1928 and was the oldest Mexican Restaurant in San Diego until it permanently closed in 2018.
CHAPTER 52
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was a U.S. House of Representatives committee formed in 1938 to investigate alleged communist sympathizers in the U.S. Many of its targets were Hollywood actors.
Movie studios often provided homes and cars for their stars to use.
The Andrews Sisters were a popular swing and boogie-woogie jazz trio from 1925 to 1967. They had a popular cover of the Yiddish song Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.
CHAPTER 53
It girl was a term for a studio’s or director’s number one actress. The term originated in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century and meant a girl with sex appeal and personality. It was further popularized by Paramount’s 1927 film It, starring Clara Bow.
NBC Radio aired Screen Directors Playhouse from 1949 to 1956. It featured radio adaptations of current movies with the actors reprising their roles.
CHAPTER 54
All the world’s a stage is a phrase from the Shakespeare play As You Like It.
“What does it profit a [woman] to gain the whole world but lose [her] soul?” is a verse from the Bible. (Mark 8:36)
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