The Biograph Girl
A Novel of Hollywood Then and Now
-
-
5.0 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- $8.99
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
Award-winning author William J. Mann blends fact and fiction in this unconventional novel about the nature of celebrity
The Biograph Girl is Florence Lawrence, who gets her first big break in vaudeville as a tiny tot who can whistle like a man. By 1910 she’s a legendary movie star, pursued by thousands of rabid fans. Just a few short decades later, she’s all but forgotten, reduced to walk-ons at MGM. In 1938 she kills herself by ingesting a lethal dose of ant paste.
Fast-forward fifty-nine years. A 107-year-old woman named Flo Bridgewood is discovered in a Catholic nursing home in Buffalo. Could the feisty chain smoker with the red satin bow in her hair be America’s former sweetheart? Florence Lawrence is dead . . . isn’t she? And if not, then whose body is in her grave? That’s what journalist Richard Sheehan wants to find out as he and his identical twin brother, Ben, a documentary filmmaker, decide to cash in on a decades-old mystery. Sharing the stage is Flo herself, whose story is the stuff of Hollywood fantasy.
A provocative melding of fact and fiction, The Biograph Girl is about what it means to be a celebrity—then and now.
“Seamlessly combining actual people with fictional characters, Mann presents a wonderfully entertaining look at the ups and downs of the life of a star and of the film world, from its inception to the present day.” —Booklist
“A finely detailed and satisfyingly complicated mystery, aided in its allure by several characters simultaneously coming to terms with how they came to be who they are.” —Kirkus Reviews
William J. Mann is best known for his studies of Hollywood and the American film industry, especially Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn, named a Notable Book of 2006 by the New York Times, and Hello Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand, published in 2012. He is also the author of Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, for which he won the Lambda Literary Award, Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger, and How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood, which Publishers Weekly described as “like gorging on a chocolate sundae.” He is also the author of six novels.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The birth of the film industry and the advent of the world's first film star, Florence Lawrence, the original "Biograph Girl," form the basis of this fictionalized account of one woman's life in a burgeoning industry that changed the parameters of entertainment. The real silent film actress Lawrence committed suicide in 1938 by drinking ant poison. In Mann's version, Lawrence--who was at the height of her fame in 1910, but by the late '30s had faded into oblivion--and a besotted physician-fan use the suicide of Lawrence's housemate as a ruse to allow Lawrence to disappear gracefully from an industry that no longer wants or cares about her. The fictional Lawrence not only goes on to have her own life, but lives to the ripe old age of 107. Lawrence's compelling story could easily stand alone: she starts out in show business as a stagestruck child, famous as "Baby Flo" for her whistling talents; has a knack for hooking up with the wrong men; and in her new incarnation emerges as an independent, insouciant dame doing her own thing with lan. Mann (Wisecracker) unfortunately burdens this lively material with a cumbersome plot device concerning twin brothers at odds with each other. While researching a piece, New York Times journalist Richard Sheehan discovers that the legendary Florence Lawrence is alive, living in a Catholic nursing home as Florence Bridgewood. Struck by the ex-actress and her remarkable life, he decides to write her biography. His brother, Ben, however, has other plans. Once a film student wunderkind and now stuck in an unrewarding advertising job, Ben intends to use Florence's story--and Florence herself--to make his way back into the film industry. Though the subplot revolving around the brothers' rivalry pales next to the vivacious incarnation of Florence Lawrence, Mann builds each tale on the other, leading up to a fittingly cinematic grand finale.
Customer Reviews
Really good
I couldn’t put this book down. I admire the author’s creativity in creating a fictional life for Florence Bridgewood, his attention to the details of the early film industry and his great character development.