From the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviator’s Wife, a “rich exploration of two Hollywood friends who shaped the movies” (USA Today)—screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford “Full of Old Hollywood glamour and true details about the pair’s historic careers . . . a captivating ode to a legendary bond.”—Real SimpleNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS … legendary bond.”—Real Simple
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE
It is 1914, and twenty-five-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles, where she is determined to live independently as an artist. But the word on everyone’s lips these days is “flickers”—the silent moving pictures enthralling theatergoers. Turn any corner in this burgeoning town and you’ll find made-up actors running around, as a movie camera captures it all.
In this fledgling industry, Frances finds her true calling: writing stories for this wondrous new medium. She also makes the acquaintance of actress Mary Pickford, whose signature golden curls and lively spirit have earned her the title “America’s Sweetheart.” The two ambitious young women hit it off instantly, their kinship fomented by their mutual fever to create, to move audiences to a frenzy, to start a revolution.
But their ambitions are challenged by both the men around them and the limitations imposed on their gender—and their astronomical success could come at a price. As Mary, the world’s highest paid and most beloved actress, struggles to live her life under the spotlight, she also wonders if it is possible to find love, even with the dashing actor Douglas Fairbanks. Frances, too, longs to share her life with someone. As in any good Hollywood story, dramas will play out, personalities will clash, and even the deepest friendships might be shattered.
With cameos from such notables as Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Rudolph Valentino, and Lillian Gish, The Girls in the Picture is, at its heart, a story of friendship and forgiveness. Melanie Benjamin brilliantly captures the dawn of a glittering new era—its myths and icons, its possibilities and potential, and its seduction and heartbreak.
“A boffo production . . . Inspiration is a rare and unexpected gift in a book filled with the fluff of Hollywood, but Benjamin provides it with The Girls in the Picture.”—NPR
“Profoundly resonant, The Girls in the Picture is at its core, an empowering and fascinating tale of sisterhood.”—Bryce Dallas Howard
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This fictional account of Mary Pickford and screen writer Frances Marion is foremost a powerful story about friendship. It also shines a spotlight on the birth of the movie industry, from silent films through “talkies,” and how that industry changed the country and those directly involved — showing us both the good and the bad. It’s a journey that spans decades, and I enjoyed every step along the way reading about these two remarkable women.
When cinema was in its infancy, before the addition of sound to flickering black-and-white images, a queen took her mark in the center of the scene. The girl with the Curls, Goldilocks herself, America’s Sweetheart, Mary Pickford.
While Ms. Pickford claimed her time in the spotlight, an artist became enamored of the burgeoning cinematic artistry. This twice-divorced woman changed her name to Frances Marion and became one of the highest paid scenarists in Hollywoodland.
Melanie Benjamin tells the story of these remarkable women in “The Girls in the Picture.” They forged a friendship, weathered sexism, and created lasting legacies. The glitz and glamour of the emerging film industry grows along with the impact of these vividly portrayed women. The story is told from alternating perspectives and in the end gives a list of resources for further reading.
After reading this book, I treated myself to a few of the mentioned “Flickers” and “Movies,” and it was fun to imagine what I learned about the women as I did.
This was another really fascinating historical fiction novel from Melanie Benjamin. It taught me a lot about old Hollywood and how the movie industry was formed.
When artist/writer, Frances Marion, is introduced to silent screen star, Mary Pickford, it is a meeting of souls. Two ambitious women working in a man’s world in 1914, dream of success and riches and the ability to call their own shots. Alone, neither may have had the courage to succeed, together as a team, they are unstoppable. And so begins a journey of both a great friendship and great success.
Author Melanie Benjamin captures the era and the larger-than-life characters perfectly in her new novel, The Girls in the Picture. Using both fact and fiction, we follow each woman through her successes and failures, and watch as they each obtain the careers and lives they dreamt about, only to find that one should be careful what they wish for. Benjamin writes wonderfully fleshed out characters in a well thought-out story, and intrigues the reader with the highs and lows these women experience. I highly recommend to star-struck readers who love stories of old Hollywood.
I recently reviewed Melanie Benjamin’s The Mistress of the Ritz, which is a very different kind of novel to this one.
Both books are meticulously researched, both books really draw you into the time period in which they are set, and both do a brilliant job of depicting the ups and downs of a close relationship over many years.
For The Girls first and foremost is a story about friendship, that of Hollywood’s first major female movie star, Mary Pickford, and her good friend and screenwriter, Frances Marion.
From the early days of film-making in California, when the industry is made up of scrappy chancers and charlatans to the rise of the big-budget movie, Mary and Frances, as women in a male-dominated industry, must always prove themselves.
The name Mary Pickford may be more familiar to readers than that of Frances Marion. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she was quickly billed as “America’s Sweetheart,” taking Hollywood and the world by storm.
Her sweet features and trademark ringlets stared out at many a billboard poster and “moving picture” magazine from the 1910’s until the 1930’s when changing tastes, discrimination against older women in the film industry and personal problems brought an end to her career.
Not only was Mary the most popular actress of her day, she was also a very astute businesswoman, becoming the highest paid actor in Hollywood, before forming her own production company with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, director D.W. Griffiths and Charlie Chaplin.
Frances, on the other hand, is far less well-known and remembered, but her climb to fame was no less spectacular. Growing up in a well-to-do family in San Francisco, Frances was a young divorcee when she arrived in Culver City a few years before the outbreak of the First World War. Making ends meet by getting parts as an extra in early films, Frances’ real dream was to be a screenwriter for the movies.
Together, they collaborated on a string of successful films, with Frances’ name often appearing just above Mary’s in the credits.
However, no friendship is without its difficulties and as Mary’s star ascended then began to wane, she withdrew from those she once knew, becoming a virtual recluse in her later years.
More than anything, this novel is a testament to the power of female friendship, and how women have a unique ability to lift each other up and support each other in a world where we are still striving for equality with men.
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Fascinating picture of two very important women–Mary Pickford, actress and Frances Marion, writer–in the silent movie era. Entertaining but also revealing about the early success of women behind the scenes before men took over much of that action.
Melanie Benjamin strikes again! After taking on the Lindberghs, Mrs. Tom Thumb, and Truman Capote, Benjamin turned her attention to Frances Marion (like Babe Paley, I asked myself, who??) and Mary Pickford. Frances Marion, I learned, was one of the first – and best – screenwriters in Hollywood. She also happened to be one of few women to ply the trade in the early days of movie making. More inexplicably – although Benjamin certainly does her darnedest to explain it – she was best friends with Ms. Pickford (née Gladys Smith) who was, it seems, rather despicable.
As always, Benjamin has done her homework and brings her characters fully to life, their fun, fame, and flaws equally on display. Hers is a no-holds-barred style and goes a long way toward capturing her protagonists as they really were (one imagines). She did omit Pickford’s children, which is perhaps understandable given that, according to Wikipedia, “Both children later said their mother was too self-absorbed to provide real maternal love. … Ronnie recalled that “Things didn’t work out that much, you know. But I’ll never forget her. I think that she was a good woman.”
Her topic – the golden days of Hollywood – has certainly been thoroughly mined (West of Sunset and All the Stars in the Heavens came to mind regularly), but in Frances Marion, Benjamin has found a sympathetic character whose story is likely new to her reading audience. (That said, I do live under a pretty big rock, pop culture-wise, so maybe I’ve just revealed myself as a complete ignoramus.) On occasion, some of Fran’s thoughts seemed forced, or overly filtered through the lens of 21st century America – maybe the actresses resented the patrician attitudes and wandering hands, or maybe 100 years ago, women couldn’t envision the world to be otherwise. Who knows? I wasn’t around, so I won’t pretend I do. More interesting is that the type of people drawn to Hollywood, or more to the point, the types of behavior they seem to openly espouse, hasn’t changed in the past century.
I liked The Girls in the Picture and read it quickly. I did think that at times it felt Benjamin was writing just to write; that is, whatever point she’d been working to establish or image she wished to evoke had long been accomplished, but the words still flowed and so she committed them to paper. This is a relatively minor flaw, but enough to say that, had the book been 50 or so pages shorter, I’d have been that much more disposed toward it.
Four stars.
(This review was originally published at https://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2019/05/the-girls-in-picture.html)
Fascinating look into the world of Hollywood at its beginning.
Early Hollywood days, I so enjoyed getting the story behind Mary Pickford, who was before my time but I had heard her mentioned by the older generation when I was younger. This really gave a great picture of the early Hollywood. I so enjoyed every page.
A disappointing portrait of account of an exciting and interesting era. I wouldn’t recommend it.
A bit slow to read so it took a long time to finish. I expected more.
I enjoyed this book of old Hollywood and 2 stars that once were friends.
Infomative, because of all the detail in the lives of screen icons and studio villains. Whether the main characters are accurate can be overlooked in favor of the novelty
I loved this book! As the Author noted, her facts were very accurate and were fleshed out in a hard to put down narrative. It was sad to learn of the rise and fall of women’s equality. To have more equality in the 1920’s, that’s the shock! The relationship between Mary Pickford and Frances Marion was heartwarming and heartbreaking.
I love reading about that era, and Hollywood and biographical novels.
What a delightful book! About Mary Pickford and Frances Marion, two real characters from the Hollywood scene. Mary was a child stage actress who continued to play girls even into her twenties. Her younger siblings, Jack and Lottie were also forced to work on the stage. The main characters in this story though are Mary, Frances and Mary’s mother Charlotte.
in 1909, with no work in sight, Mary decides to appear in the “flickers” and becomes America’s Sweetheart. Frances Marion is a talented woman who writes screenplays. She met Mary Pickford when Mary’s first husband, Owen, invited Frances to sketch his wife. They immediately became fast friends and they collaborated on films. Mary doing the acting and Frances writing the script. Mary came to own her own production company along with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin. So with Frances writing and Mary acting, they were definitely a force to be reckoned with. Both women were passionate and fierce when it came to their careers and would do what it took to succeed.
Mary had a whirlwind marriage with Douglas Fairbanks but their marriage did end. Frances was introduced to the love of her life, Fred Thompson and they had two sons. Mary and Frances stayed friends until Frances died in 1973 and Mary died in 1979.
This book was very interesting to me, I had not read a lot about Hollywood and Mary Pickford in particular. It appears that there had been a lot of research. Full of real characters, producers, D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, Albert Capellani and the Lumière brothers from France and actresses Lilian Gish, Lois Weber, Frances Marion, Anita Loos, June Mathis. What a cornucopia of people! A book with a passion for acting and the persona’s of Mary and Frances were amazing and poignant. Lots of history of Hollywood, silent films and talkies! I loved it and recommend reading this one! The girls in the picture may have faded over time but they are never forgotten!
Enjoyed this book
This beautifully written book by Melanie Benjamin is a work of historical fiction about the friendship between screenwriter Frances Marion and actress Mary Pickford. The reader will recognize many names of Hollywood legends who played a role in their story. The film history interwoven into this novel makes it even more interesting.
Frances and Mary are both strong women but they do not have equal success as the film industry moves from silent films to “talkies” and they experience this change differently. Still, even as their Hollywood success and jealously intervenes you feel that they sense the bond between them.
Ms. Benjamin is a new author to me. However, while this is the first of her books that I have read I am sure that it will not be the last.
I received an advance readers copy from NetGalley. Any opinion expressed here is strictly my own.
I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. This is a new author to me, but I have to say that I will be looking for more by her! This was a GREAT book! This is based on the true life friendship of Frances Marion (a Hollywood Writer) and Mary Pickford (who was one of the original stars of Hollywood). They had a chance meeting when movies were silent. They became friends and through all of life’s wierdness in Hollywood, they managed to have a friendship. They were close at times, at not so close. They had marriages and divorces. They had children, they made movies. Frances won awards, BIG awards! I learned a LOT about the early days of Hollywood and LOVED every minute of it! This is a definite MUST read!