The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin Book Spotlight! #NetGalley

An intimate portrait of the close friendship and powerful creative partnership between two of Hollywood’s earliest female superstars: Frances Marion and Mary Pickford. An enchanting new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviator’s Wife.

Hollywood, 1914. Frances Marion, a young writer desperate for a break, meets “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford, already making a name for herself both on and off the screen with her golden curls and lively spirit. Together, these two women will take the movie business by storm.

Mary Pickford becomes known as the “Queen of the Movies”—the first actor to have her name on a movie marquee, and the first to become a truly international celebrity. Mary and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, were America’s first Royal Couple, living in a home more famous that Buckingham Palace. Mary won the first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Talkie and was the first to put her hand and footprints in Grauman’s theater sidewalk. Her annual salary in 1919 was $625,000—at a time when women’s salaries peaked at $10 a week. Frances Marion is widely considered one of the most important female screenwriters of the 20th century, and was the first writer to win multiple Academy Awards. The close personal friendship between the two stars was closely linked to their professional collaboration and success.

This is a novel about power: the power of women during the exhilarating early years of Hollywood, and the power of forgiveness. It’s also about the imbalance of power, then and now, and the sacrifices and compromises women must make in order to succeed. And at its heart, it’s a novel about the power of female friendship. 

My Review

What a delightful book! It is 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. Frances becomes a screen writer for Mary.

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!

I received a copy of the book for review purposes only.

Melanie Benjamin is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE and THE AVIATOR'S WIFE, as well as the national bestseller ALICE I HAVE BEEN, and THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB. THE GIRLS IN THE PICTURE, about the creative, feminist friendship between Mary Pickford and Frances Marion, icons of early Hollywood, will be out in January 2018. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and is currently at work on her next historical novel.
http://www.melaniebenjamin.com
https://www.goodreads.com/MelanieBenjamin