BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

I’ve been tossing about as much stardust as I can muster right now. That’s it, this novel is done. I think the podcast of the book runs a bit over 10 hours in its entirety. Let me know if you...

https://vickielester.com/2021/01/16/episode-35-you-made-it-the-last-chapter-of-hollywood-mine/

Honey, you’re looking great. What an ordeal this has been. Four years culminating in… Hold on. We’ve made it this far. Let’s step into the light. In a few short days things will start to ...

https://vickielester.com/2021/01/15/hello-is-that-you/

“Do you know the Mayo Clinic lists menopause under diseases and conditions? What do you think of that?” “Well, I know it’s not contagious.” He sat down beside me. “Jesus, this is hard...

https://vickielester.com/2021/01/10/episode-34-life-is-the-past-the-present-and-the-perhaps/

My angels I’ve been clacking those needles so much since Wednesday that I’ve strained the muscle that runs along my collar bone. Seriously, I started with a sweater and as the news rolled in ...

https://vickielester.com/2021/01/09/knitting-is-supposed-to-be-soothing/

There were heaps — accumulated reminders of a life — all around. Everything that served as an archival asset, or a teaching aid for future filmmakers, I boxed and hauled over to the Academy o...

https://vickielester.com/2021/01/02/episode-33-hollywood-is-very-pretty-but-people-grow-old-here-not-outside-but-inside/

I’m not going to enter into the year that was conversation. I think it’s too early. I will say one thing that kept me going this year was being able to read to you in a podcast. In my isolati...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/31/bye-bye-2020/

All through life, instinctively or intellectually, we adapt to survive. Even insects have some boss strategies, for example, the formation of a chitinous exoskeleton, which is the somewhat see-th...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/27/episode-32-its-said-in-hollywood-that-you-should-always-forgive-your-enemies-because-you-never-know-when-youll-have-to-work-with-them/

Life is a series of metamorphoses. Some of them get more airtime than others. I remember once waiting in a gynecologist’s office to see the doctor. There was his desk, on the walls family pictu...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/26/episode-31-i-always-say-that-if-a-woman-will-tell-you-her-age-she-will-tell-you-anything/

Tonight I may be wearing something similar to pajamas when the sun sets. I’m thinking some polar fleece when I climb on the roof — there’s a flat bit, don’t worry — to behold the Christ...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/21/i-will-not-be-looking-for-santa-in-my-lingerie-this-christmas-eve-though-knowing-me/

For a few short days after Antoine’s crisis I was more aware of the rhythms and mechanisms of filmmaking and its twitchy straitlaced cousin finance than I had ever been. Much like how time can ...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/19/episode-30-every-star-i-know-in-hollywood-acknowledges-the-same-fact-with-luck-you-can-climb-without-it-your-brakes-dont-work-even-when-you-coast/

Lethal stress can come at you no matter whether you’re onscreen or off. Actors in Hollywood have committed suicide by swallowing ant paste, Nembutal, or barbiturates. George Sanders (check out ...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/19/episode-29-never-admit-anything-to-anybody-honesty-is-not-the-best-policy/

Clara Bow wasn’t the only one who found Hollywood depressing. On a chilly, unusually clouded over, February afternoon in 2009 when I was 48, after the fourth week of shooting on the revived fra...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/19/episode-28-i-used-to-slip-down-to-the-beach-and-hold-my-head-under-the-water-just-long-enough-to-decide-to-come-back-up-againit-seemed-so-ironical-to-feel-like-that-just-when-i-was-made-a-s/

Gifted with a glib tongue he moved quickly from never-featured actor, to production assistant, to assistant director, and rapidly ascended the dating scale (as he saw it) from the cute craft serv...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/13/episode-27-is-introduced-by-mabel-normand-who-said-acting-in-the-movies-is-like-a-cold-you-get-used-to-both-after-a-while/

In the words of Dorothy Gale, there’s no place like home. The light here is what made filmmakers move to California. It shines here most of the time, and there are certain places, certain times...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/12/all-creative-people-should-be-required-to-leave-california-for-three-months-every-year-episode-26/

A friend of mine who lives far away told me she was having a hard time, and then reaching out (beautiful heart) she said she was worried about me in lockdown Los Angeles. I was about to tell her ...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/11/even-in-the-dark-there-are-roses-and-orchids-and-lilies/

Hi everybody, Some of my friends and readers have been asking me, “What gives?” Especially in regard to the blog, which is a direct result of the pandemic. I explain all in the video here and...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/06/old-gal-reads-own-novel-online/

The streets of Beverly Hills, unlike the streets of the Hollywood Hills, were nearly empty. One morning I saw a woman of about seventy, with the poise and stance of a dancer, shining long silver ...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/06/now-we-come-to-episode-25-of-the-novel-in-the-words-of-katharine-hepburn-life-is-hard-after-all-it-kills-you/

I loved recording this chapter, it’s got Hollywood history, everlasting friendship, and of course some very strange goings-on… There we sat, the mogul’s daughter turned academic, the copywr...

https://vickielester.com/2020/12/05/episode-24-people-with-nerves-should-never-go-into-the-movies-and-people-without-nerve-cant/

  We are all the lead character in our personal narrative yet this bothered me. Behind the scenes was my forté, I wasn’t ready for a starring role, never had been. Why was that? And why could...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/28/episode-23-hollywood-is-apt-to-make-one-lose-perspective-on-life-it-takes-a-steady-hand-to-keep-your-sense-of-balance-luise-ranier/

That smiling young person is yours truly, on a rather dingy cold movie set right after The Mister and I decided to get married. We met two years earlier on a movie set in baking hot Palms Springs...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/28/love-in-hollywood/

Listen my angels, it’s been a hell of a year. On this Thanksgiving I wish you happiness and peace and hope. And most of all — I wish you love.  

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/26/favorite-search-term-for-this-website-hollywood-old-smooch/

Chapter 20, in which Billie travels to Vegas and comes to a seismic realization. I tended to think of sleep as something healing, freshening, and cleansing. I traced this somewhat peculiar notion...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/22/episode-22-if-youre-gonna-to-be-two-faced-at-least-make-one-of-them-pretty/

Merle Oberon said that thing about Hollywood and one night stands. We’ll talk about her joy ride with David Niven later. Now we’re back to the story of Billie and chapter 19 — A film set is...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/21/episode-21-hollywood-is-like-a-one-night-stand-unless-one-is-careful/

Chapter 18 begins with a quote from Bette Davis: I’d marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he’d be dead within a year. O...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/15/episode-20-jane-was-steaming-out-a-gown-that-was-draping-gathered-a-form-fitting-sheath-with-a-train-and-veil-that-looked-like-it-had-been-stored-pristinely-waiting-for-this-day-since-the-1930s/

  There’s nothing a man can do, that I can’t do better and in heels. So said Ginger Rogers, and thus begins chapter 17. There are so many myths on which the reality of Hollywood is based. So...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/14/episode-19-the-dog-walker-had-a-reputation-in-town-for-being-deft-and-diplomatic-the-kid-who-once-lived-in-his-car-had-his-fingers-to-the-pulse-of-current-events-how-would-a-former-nanny-b/

I’m feeling celebratory, so there will be three chapters of Hollywood & Mine going up this weekend. This is episode 18 (chapter 16, for those of you keeping track) and it starts with a quote fr...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/13/episode-18-under-an-engineers-iron-guidance-the-silent-film-stars-aerie-was-remodeled-stripped-of-original-architectural-character-and-sold-for-enough-cabbage-to-deposit-engineer/

Usually I put up chapters on the weekend but today I thought I’d give it a rest. A friend wrote last night and asked how I was feeling. This is my reply. I feel like we escaped a fate my father...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/08/we-are-waiting-for-animal-rescue-to-come-pick-up-a-large-healthy-looking-coyote-from-our-back-yard-whos-got-a-broken-front-paw-theres-a-metaphor-in-there-somewhere/

    And thus, Anne Brown and her roommate, Tatiana Schneider were dispatched to a TV star’s mountain top domicile. They felt charged with responsibility and a certain kind of contempt for the...

https://vickielester.com/2020/11/07/17-if-you-want-to-see-the-girl-next-door-go-next-door-joan-crawford/

“I recorded that section about the riots of ’92 one week before the May-June protests in 2020. Pandemic, economic collapse, police brutality… Three horsemen of the apocalypse are quite enou...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/31/16-dont-be-afraid-to-be-as-angry-or-as-loving-as-you-can-lena-horne/

At the moment I’m looking at an old menu from a restaurant called the Brown Derby. On its cover is an imaginary map of Los Angeles with Hollywood at its center. It’s scattered with cartoon de...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/31/15-sometimes-a-map-is-a-map-and-other-times-its-a-state-of-mind/

…no more mail in ballots, it’s time to put on your masks and deliver your vote in person.

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/27/a-reminder-from-joanne-woodward-and-paul-newman-this-halloween/

At the onset of our thirties we, the former nannies, while ascending the career ladder, found our personal lives lagging. Polly found her male peers juvenile – emotionally immature and adolesce...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/25/14-the-american-dream-is-a-term-that-is-often-used-but-often-misunderstood-it-really-isnt-about-becoming-rich-and-famous-it-is-about-things-much-simpler-and-fundamental-than-that-doro/

Unlike Mr. Booker, Bob Brown was not a man who, he liked to say, “Waded through god damn minutia,” especially the finer points of male versus female behavior. Bob Brown tended to set goals an...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/24/13-youre-only-as-good-as-your-last-picture/

There is a kind of courtship that goes on between producer and director, a kind of wooing. The producer holds the means of movie making (money) and the director, if they’re any good, provides t...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/24/12-you-have-to-be-hard-boiled-to-get-through-life-whether-youre-a-shop-girl-a-debutante-or-a-movie-star/

There are definitely seasons in California, whatever anyone says to the contrary. In the winter the smog lifts. The daytime skies are a blue that delights my New England soul. At night the lights...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/17/episode-11-behind-every-cloud-theres-another-cloud/

  Instead of brocade and a ruff she favored cardigan twin sets and a short strand of pearls. She was bird-boned and regal. She powdered her face Elizabeth 1 white. She had no eyebrows to speak o...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/15/my-english-teacher-looked-like-queen-elizabeth-the-first/

“You know my mom and dad came out to visit me when I was on that first movie. I took them to set, Grauman’s Chinese, Max Factor’s. We looked at every little bitty star on Hollywood Boulevar...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/11/episode-10-i-was-all-right-in-the-long-shots-but-when-it-came-to-close-ups-sustained-emotion-was-beyond-me/

  Shooting began. Patsy Morris, checking in one afternoon as the crew broke for lunch cautioned me. “Remember, movies are like high school with a paycheck. The same juvenile behavior and more ...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/10/episode-9-all-the-men-in-my-life-have-been-two-things-an-epic-and-an-epidemic/

We were in pre-production for months, which is otherwise known as “development.” It’s mostly an accounting trick, cinema semantics as some impressive dollar deals are tied to certain points...

https://vickielester.com/2020/10/03/episode-8-its-not-possible-to-forget-pictures-anyone-who-works-in-them-thinks-of-them-constantly/

Some people apply battle strategy to film making. Many directors are able to extemporize on Sun Tzu’s thirteen principals of war. I wasn’t very familiar with eastern philosophy, even though C...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/26/episode-7-hollywood-mine/

I scanned the editing room to see if there was a physical tell for an epiphany moment. Two young men in their early twenties, my classmates, were hunched down in a darkened cubicle, stubble acros...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/20/episode-6-hollywood-mine/

I called my mom. Mother Lydia was the antithesis of everyone I knew in Hollywood. If I couldn’t get absolution I knew calling her would result in a strong dose of disapproval, an advised course...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/19/episode-5-hollywood-mine/

It’s amazing in L.A., how often the very early morning brings clarity. It’s true. The low angle of the sun, the freshly brewed coffee, the smell of moist earth and eucalyptus after the sprink...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/12/episode-4-hollywood-mine/

It’s not common knowledge, but most leading men are short. They have big heads in relation to their slight bodies, large symmetrical features, especially eyes, and straight expertly manscaped b...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/07/episode-3-hollywood-mine/

  Late in the summer following my sophomore year, I was living in the Beverly Hills home of a blonde former figure skater. This photogenic darling of Orange County had risen from championship sk...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/06/episode-2-hollywood-mine/

Hello, now we start our story, all about a Hollywood babysitter who rises to movie mogul. Comfy? Let’s begin… “Some one I love lives in Manhattan. I told him at the outset of the pandemic t...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/05/episode-1-hollywood-mine/

The idea occurred to me while reading aloud that I could keep in touch with my podcast listening loved ones far from home if I’d buy a microphone and get off my duff. This, by the way, is the v...

https://vickielester.com/2020/09/04/i-wrote-a-book-and-then-i-recorded-it/

The film industry started to shut down on March 12th, and for the week prior, while my husband was on set I was climbing up and down ladders, doing a deep cleaning on the house the likes of which...

https://vickielester.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-distance-from-dtla/

Don’t worry. It’s not contagious. I am increasingly persnickety; about the state of the world, modern discourse, and, hell’s bells, my favorite bakery is closed for renovation. Translation,...

https://vickielester.com/2019/07/13/oh-my-i-feel-yes-definitely-its-irritable-vowel-syndrome/

The exquisitely patrician Connecticut lady pictured above had quite a career – and split her time between the East Coast and the West. Very busy. I don’t know that she really cooked more than...

https://vickielester.com/2019/07/12/mr-lesters-great-aunt-hazel-and-katharine-hepburn/

Once upon a time, in the nineteen eighties, Cecil B.’s house still stood atop a hill in a neighborhood called Los Feliz, not far from our place in Beachwood Canyon. It was a beautiful spring da...

https://vickielester.com/2019/07/11/what-my-feet-looked-like-when-i-decided-to-walk-from-my-house-to-cecil-b-demilles-2/

WALLACE: Let’s go back to the Hollywood that you knew. I would like your opinion….. SWANSON: Oh, it was a fabulous….fabulous …fabulous… WALLACE: Well…… SWANSON: But we were all youn...

https://vickielester.com/2019/07/11/all-creative-people-should-be-required-to-leave-california-for-three-months-every-year-good-advice-from-gloria-swanson/

  And it’s not only people that make my heart flutter…so can a beautiful building, or the angle of light on a linen pillow case… That said, I have been taking a long break from blogging, w...

https://vickielester.com/2019/07/02/im-a-hopeless-romantic/

From left to right – Model, Orry Kelly, Bernard Newman, Travis Banton, Edith Head, Adrian, and Irene. With model showing evening gown, 1955: Edith at bat 1957: A fashion show from the “Think ...

https://vickielester.com/2019/07/01/edith-head-costume-designer/

Or as we gals call it — Schaum Torte. That’s my mom. She made a show stopping dessert and here’s the recipe: First of all preheat your oven to 275 degrees, then cut up a large brown paper b...

https://vickielester.com/2018/12/12/a-holiday-kiss-from-grandmother-to-mother-to-daughter-to-you-our-recipe-for-pavlova/

“He left Hollywood and renounced the pursuit of fame, joining a brotherhood of Franciscans who supported their monastery by refilling ink cartridges and baking fruitcake, available at Amazon.co...

https://vickielester.com/2018/11/18/fruitcake-is-my-kryptonite-an-admission-from-a-friend/

Visiting the city was fantastic. Loved that nobody is stumbling around the Frick taking phone photos like they do at the Met. Loved walking through Central Park every day. Loved staying with an o...

https://vickielester.com/2018/11/04/a-postcard-on-the-fly-on-the-rails-okay-wait-in-transit-thats-it-from-me-to-you/

This is a small aspect of an architect’s life lived large — below is the exterior of another of the textile block houses that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in the Los Angeles area — there are...

https://vickielester.com/2018/10/20/frank-lloyd-wright-in-hollywood/

She arrived somewhat out of breath, dressed entirely in darkest blue, looking pale but even more incandescent than before. A crowd of bobbysox autograph-hunters had run after her on her way to my...

https://vickielester.com/2018/09/18/cecil-beaton-and-greta-garbo/

Wondering on the internet What were the chances… Hello, Mercury! Sorry, got distracted there for a minute. Shall we get reacquainted? I used to post here all the damn time about things that str...

https://vickielester.com/2018/09/08/strangers-on-the-internet-exchanging-glances/

The heatwave broke yesterday and I finished the first draft of the manuscript. I was expecting some kind of elation, but instead I took a nap. Recharging for the revisions to come? Perhaps. I’v...

https://vickielester.com/2018/08/11/clifford-coffin-took-this-photograph-in-an-age-when-sitting-on-a-california-sand-dune-was-a-beneficial-or-at-least-benign-experience-stay-cool/

SO ALIVE In 1996 Keir Bloomfield got his first sole screen credit as a writer. Granted, it was on a low-budget, a very low-budget, movie that the producers guaranteed would be seen on oil platfor...

https://vickielester.com/2018/07/21/so-alive-an-excerpt-from-its-in-his-kiss-by-vickie-lester/

Cameron Crow: Having created Norma Desmond, what did it feel like making the movie? Was she a living, breathing person to you? Billy Wilder: Yes she was, yes she was. Yes, absolutely. Suddenly th...

https://vickielester.com/2018/07/21/when-characters-come-to-life/

https://vickielester.com/2018/07/16/i-once-asked-barbara-stanwyck-the-secret-of-acting-she-said-just-be-truthful-and-if-you-can-fake-that-youve-got-it-made-fred-macmurray/

Jean Marais in Orpheus, directed by Jean Cocteau

https://vickielester.com/2018/07/05/a-film-is-a-petrified-fountain-of-thought-jean-cocteau/

Jean Marais with makeup artist Hagop Arakelian Jean Marais and Josette Day behind the scenes in Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast

https://vickielester.com/2018/07/05/jean-marais-and-josette-day-behind-the-scenes-in-cocteaus-beauty-and-the-beast/

https://vickielester.com/2018/07/05/muse-artist-actor-love-two-jeans-cocteau-and-marais/

I’ve only witnessed speaking in tongues once – what struck me about it was the ardent wish of the people gathered to experience the spirit – they all seemed to be riding the same euphoric w...

https://vickielester.com/2018/06/24/whether-you-like-it-or-not-youre-an-actress-charlie-chapman-to-aimee-semple-mcpherson/

There’s a lot of things having a fever will do to you, and now that it’s past I can say one of the benefits was an extremely strong remembrance — like a sense memory. It goes like this: I w...

https://vickielester.com/2018/06/17/gregory-peck-archetype/

I found a copy of Paraic O’Donnell‘s “The Maker of Swans” while I was in Seattle, it seems the perfect thing to distract me from the news this evening and take me into some kind of sorcer...

https://vickielester.com/2018/06/05/dear-one-what-are-you-reading/

I know my father served from almost the start of World War II until 1946 when it was all over. He was nineteen and studying pre-med when he enlisted. He told me that the carnage he witnessed duri...

https://vickielester.com/2018/05/28/memorial-day-most-of-what-he-did-in-the-war-was-classified/

Oasis: The bookshop on Fifty-second Street and Fifth Avenue in New York which stays open till midnight. Dietrich: In the German language: the name for a key that opens all locks. Not a magic key....

https://vickielester.com/2018/04/30/she-surrounded-herself-with-a-hot-plate-telephone-scotch-and-books/

I have a thing about how Los Angeles is portrayed on film and in books. An author who makes me laugh, perhaps because of his dour satiric streak, is Evelyn Waugh. He visited Hollywood in 1947 to ...

https://vickielester.com/2018/03/28/this-is-a-purely-fanciful-tale-a-little-nightmare-produced-by-the-unaccustomed-high-living-of-a-brief-visit-to-hollywood/

I do. There’s a question of degree, certainly, and while the term Dragon Lady implies an implacable force, the bitch epithet contains a big splash of disrespect and venom. One term was used by ...

https://vickielester.com/2018/03/04/tell-me-dont-you-think-theres-difference-between-calling-someone-a-dragon-lady-or-a-bitch/

https://vickielester.com/2018/03/03/who-designed-the-wardrobe-on-some-like-it-hot-orry-kelly-did-he-win-an-academy-award-for-it-yes/

via The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

https://vickielester.com/2018/03/03/contrary-to-the-instructions-of-edith-head-i-predict-a-lot-of-necklines-at-the-oscars-this-sunday-like-this/

INTERVIEWER There’s a passage in one of your books in which you and Auden are on a train, and you’re savagely attacking religion, and he says: “Be careful, my dear, if you carry on like tha...

https://vickielester.com/2018/02/26/art-may-spill-over-from-creating-a-world-of-language-into-the-dangerous-and-forbidden-task-of-trying-to-create-a-human-being/

The world was interconnected, even before the Internet. Nicky Haslam worked with Diana Vreeland (peanut butter and Jello?), who was a dear friend of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, seen here reading ...

https://vickielester.com/2018/02/02/our-office-lunches-consisted-of-peanut-butter-and-jello-sandwiches-served-with-slugs-of-vodka-nicky-haslam/

I had a Preston Sturges film fest instead, and went to bed blissfully happy…movie magic…binge watching of the best kind 😉 . The Lady Eve… In which card shark Barbara Stanwyck tries to sw...

https://vickielester.com/2018/01/31/okay-i-lied-about-last-night-i-didnt-watch-all-the-presidents-men/

I just completed a very big task in terms of the book I wrote, and I thought I’d reward myself, by reading a childhood favorite of mine; a novel I read—enchanted, immersed—compulsively one ...

https://vickielester.com/2018/01/31/the-best-thing-for-being-sad-is-to-learn-something-that-is-the-only-thing-that-never-fails-t-h-white/

Whereupon, at the tender age of thirteen, I set upon the path of playing nothing but hookers. Ida Lupino Is it any wonder she turned to directing? In an era, I might add, when that was a nearly i...

https://vickielester.com/2018/01/23/my-agent-had-told-me-that-he-was-going-to-make-me-the-janet-gaynor-of-england-i-was-going-to-play-all-the-sweet-roles/

Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech – American Rhetoric.

https://vickielester.com/2018/01/15/martin-luther-king-hollywood-attends-the-march-on-washington-1963/

“I speak of peace because of the new face of war…in an age when a singular nuclear weapon contains ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied forces in the Second World War …...

https://vickielester.com/2018/01/03/i-speak-of-peace-because-of-the-new-face-of-war-jfk/

I’m greeting the New Year with the cold that spans the world right now, so thanks to Mr. Benny and Ms. Crawford we have some comfort food for cold weather. And by “cold weather” I mean some...

https://vickielester.com/2018/01/01/i-didnt-say-it-was-good-i-said-it-was-meatloaf-three-versions-joan-crawfords-jack-bennys-and-mine/

  It seems we must be reawakened to the challenges of living civilly. The 1920s, when this picture of Myrna Loy was taken, was a time similar in many ways to our own. It was an era of startling ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/12/31/as-the-old-year-greets-the-still-slumbering-new/

Something has been troubling me recently, and as the New Year is approaching I decided to clear my mind. Little did I know that when I thinly disguised two (secondary) characters in my first nove...

https://vickielester.com/2017/12/29/on-writing-a-hollywood-novel-finding-yourself-tap-dancing-on-a-minefield-you-werent-aware-was-there-or-when-fun-fiction-meets-an-uglier-reality/

Come the holidays and breakfast seems more of an event than dinner. I love the scent of coffee brewing on a chilly morning, the look of sliced bright red strawberries, the bright blue glow of the...

https://vickielester.com/2017/12/23/i-will-honour-christmas-in-my-heart-and-try-to-keep-it-all-the-year-flipping-pancakes-for-you-my-dear/

“The difference between me and is that he shows you the king on the throne and then he shows you the king in his bedroom. I show you the king in his bedroom first. Then when you see him on the...

https://vickielester.com/2017/12/19/madame-is-the-greatest-chef-patissier-of-them-all/

Joan Crawford looking very festive. Her recipe for Broiled Steak with Roquefort Cheese — a-okay for a carnivore’s Christmas — is below. Serve with crispy roast potatoes and a green salad an...

https://vickielester.com/2017/12/11/dont-fck-with-me-fellas-this-cowgirl-has-been-to-the-rodeo-before-joan-crawford-without-doubt-knew-how-to-flame-broil/

The morning commute to a location shoot in L.A. on December 6th — and it gets worse. By the end of the day the city of L.A. had pulled the movie’s filming permit because it was unsafe to work...

https://vickielester.com/2017/12/07/one-hell-of-a-start-to-the-holiday-season/

Mama Gabriella’s Sicilian Christmas Pie (Lemon Ricotta Torte) Lighter than a cannoli, kind of like a Southern Chess Pie but more delicious… You can use your favorite flaky pie dough recipe, o...

https://vickielester.com/2017/11/19/ready-to-bake-some-pies-this-one-has-nothing-to-do-with-mildred-pierce-but-its-perfect-for-the-holidays/

I look at images like this and I remember my grandmother’s house. The teenagers in my life get the same glazed look they exhibit whenever I turn the channel to TCM. “It’s old-timey!” Whic...

https://vickielester.com/2017/11/18/over-the-l-a-river-and-through-the-wood-to-grandmothers-house-we-go/

After his beloved Lillian died Mr. MacMurray was fortunate to find June Haver, with whom he had a wonderful marriage and adopted two more children. I don’t know who did the cooking at home, but...

https://vickielester.com/2017/11/16/thanksgiving-pumpkin-pie-fred-macmurray-and-june-haver/

I love pie, stand by for a few recipes for holiday baking.

https://vickielester.com/2017/11/15/actings-just-waiting-for-a-custard-pie-thats-all-katharine-hepburn/

I think a lot of us have mothers that once upon a time could be referred to as “forces of nature.” I think Judy Garland was one such force. Perhaps a loving whirlwind? I wouldn’t know, she ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/10/27/it-was-her-love-of-life-that-carried-her-through-everything-the-middle-of-the-road-was-never-for-her-it-bored-her-she-wanted-the-pinnacle-of-excitement-liza-minnelli/

  NCE upon a time, many years ago—when our grandfathers were little children—there was a doctor; and his name was Dolittle—John Dolittle, M.D. “M.D.” means that he was a proper doctor ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/10/15/but-i-like-the-animals-better-than-the-best-people-said-the-doctor-doctor-dolittle-created-by-hugh-lofting/

For ten days author William Kuhn and I have been talking about writing, reading, screenplays, books, black and white photography, Los Angeles, the dream factory, and what and who we love. A tall ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/10/13/i-get-interviewed-in-evocative-black-and-white-by-william-kuhn-author-of-reading-jackie-and-more/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/30/star-dust-joan/

I’ve been reading the fascinating memoirs of Carmel Snow, and I’ve noticed she does what every good writer does — she takes a core truth and fiddles with the details so they enhance the poi...

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/29/she-lies-beautifully-and-to-maximum-effect/

1931, On the set of ‘Possessed’ — Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/29/joan-crawford-and-clark-gable-on-set-and-off-yes-they-certainly-did/

There’s another marvelous memoir, from the amazing Diana Vreeland, you might be interested in reading. Her autobiography reads like a novel. This extract resonates with me because of its delici...

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/29/the-essence-of-fiction-is-fact/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/27/when-stanwyck-joined-the-follies/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/27/im-a-tough-old-broad-from-brooklyn-i-intend-to-go-on-acting-until-im-ninety-and-they-wont-need-to-paste-my-face-with-make-up-barbara-stanwyck/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/27/egotism-usually-just-a-case-of-mistaken-nonentity-barbara-stankwyck/

Face it, women have a peculiar affinity for a certain room in the house. And, I’m here to tell you why: sanctuary. Imagine, if you will, a bustling household on a typical morning. People teemin...

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/26/why-i-love-the-bath-room/

Completed in 1934, The Oliver House: Another view: The living room:

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/12/the-olviver-house-architect-rudolph-schindler/

On this overcast day in Southern California I wasn’t going to post anything in reference to 9/11 — more eloquent voices than mine have noted the passage of 16 years. I will just say this, a f...

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/11/let-conversation-cease-let-laughter-flee-this-is-the-place-where-death-rejoices-to-help-the-living-giovanni-morgagni-an-18th-c-physician/

What has this to do with baking? Let me back up a little bit and we’ll get to that. Josh Marshall is a journalist who writes about the political scene. He is astute, insightful, and sometimes h...

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/10/unless-you-were-raised-by-ferrets-in-the-catskills-youre-going-to-know-this-is-a-problem-josh-marshall/

M.B. What inspired you to write a story with Prince Harry as your main character? W.K. I saw a production of Shakespeare’s two Henry IV plays. I was surprised to find how much Shakespeare’s P...

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/06/imagine-a-playwright-writing-a-character-four-centuries-ago-that-is-still-vividly-familiar-to-us-today-william-kuhn/

“It’s about a lazy prince. Nobody thinks he’s got a brain. All he does is drink and joke around and hang out with lowlifes in the bar. Even his father thinks he’s a zero. Then all of a su...

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/05/free-on-kindle-you-wont-be-able-to-put-it-down/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/05/living-is-like-tearing-through-a-museum-not-until-later-do-you-really-start-absorbing-what-you-saw-thinking-about-it-looking-it-up-in-a-book-and-remembering-because-you-cant-take-it/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/04/if-you-want-a-thing-well-done-get-a-couple-of-old-broads-to-do-it-bette-davis/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/02/im-not-a-film-star-i-am-an-actress-being-a-film-star-is-such-a-false-life-lived-for-fake-values-and-for-publicity-vivien-leigh/

https://vickielester.com/2017/09/01/what-in-the-world-would-we-do-without-our-libraries-katharine-hepburn/

Oh my heavens, did I screw up or what? And thanks to an astute comment the author of this quote is revealed: Here’s the complete quote from Irene: “Film as dream, film as music. No form of ar...

https://vickielester.com/2017/08/31/no-form-of-art-goes-beyond-ordinary-consciousness-as-film-does-straight-to-our-emotions-deep-into-the-twilight-of-the-soul-ingrid-bergman/

Myrna Loy grew up in Los Angeles and when she was a teenager she posed for this statue outside the old Venice High School. Around the same age she was taking dance lessons with the famed Natacha ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/08/30/she-was-absolutely-beautiful-the-most-beautiful-woman-i-had-ever-seen/

I write these posts all too often as catastrophe strikes, and it’s heart breaking. Here’s how you can help those in need. Donate to the Red Cross. Mission Statement The American Red Cross pre...

https://vickielester.com/2017/08/27/how-to-help-the-victims-of-hurricane-harvey/

Definition of film noir plural film noirs -ˈnwär(z) or films noir or films noirs -ˈnwär :  a type of crime film featuring cynical malevolent characters in a sleazy setting and an ominous atm...

https://vickielester.com/2017/08/27/how-could-i-have-known-that-murder-could-sometimes-smell-like-honeysuckle-double-idemnity/

Madeleine Vionnet is an alert and mischievous old lady of ninety-six with eighty-six years of practical experience in the art of dressmaking. Her couture house on the Avenue Montaigne shut its do...

https://vickielester.com/2017/08/26/to-show-the-knee-is-ordinaire-vulgaire-madeleine-vionnet-1876-1975/

“Before the days of auto-advance motor drives and today’s high-sensitivity digital chips, the motion-picture unit photographer had to plan his or her photographs with the discipline of a pain...

https://vickielester.com/2017/08/15/capturing-starlight/

More than a year has passed since I wrote the post below, and if anything, things have only gotten worse. The Republican candidate is now president. The ideals my father fought for, and a generat...

https://vickielester.com/2017/08/14/let-us-not-be-afraid-to-help-each-other-let-us-never-forget-that-government-is-ourselves-and-not-an-alien-power-over-us-the-ultimate-rulers-of-our-democracy-are-not-a-president-and-senators/

The erudite Mr. Huxley made his home in the Hollywood Hills. Besides writing a number of seminal works, he wrote screenplays. He also really loved Los Angeles, unlike a lot of writers who made a ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/30/words-are-magical-in-the-way-they-affect-the-minds-of-those-who-use-them-aldous-huxley/

Ms. Hellman wrote these when she was 23-24ish. I think at that time she was divorced, working at MGM as a reader, and had just met the love of her life, Dashiell Hammett. The stories are the firs...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/29/two-rarely-seen-stories-by-lillian-hellman/

“By the way, would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss-waiter ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/28/there-is-something-about-the-literary-life-that-repels-me-all-this-desperate-building-of-castles-on-cobwebs-raymond-chandler/

I had the happy chance to meet William Kuhn through his bookshelves before I met him in person. In 2015 my husband was working on a film in Boston, and after subletting the author’s apartment, ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/23/a-little-laughter-in-grim-times-is-better-than-xanax-an-interview-with-author-william-kuhn/

There are some people whose soul you can see in an instant. You can see it captured in an image or in a passage from a book. After I read this description of a former nanny to two princes in Will...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/22/her-being-in-the-papers-had-been-forgotten-about-or-the-people-who-worked-at-the-church-pretended-not-to-know/

I was reading the other day about Englishmen on secret missions in Afghanistan, and to my surprise, T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) may have been there in the late 1920s, possibly working beh...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/21/all-men-dream-but-not-equally-t-e-lawrence/

Ellen Terry (1847-1928) appeared on stage for seventy years. During that time she married twice, managed a theater, toured the United States, taught and lectured, corresponded with George Bernard...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/20/wonderful-women-have-you-ever-thought-how-much-we-all-and-women-especially-owe-to-shakespeare-for-his-vindication-of-women-in-these-fearless-high-spirited-resolute-and-intelligent-heroin/

Marilyn Monroe — seen here being presented to Queen Elizabeth II — was very savvy about appearances; about what made people tick, and how fame blurred the picture. She struggled to balance he...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/19/fame-doesnt-fulfill-you-it-warms-you-a-bit-but-that-warmth-is-temporary-marilyn-monroe/

In language gender is particularly peculiar. Why, please, should a table be male in German, female in French, and castrated in English? French children, for instance, are male even if they are gi...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/18/at-the-best-of-times-gender-is-difficult-to-determine-marlene-dietrich/

“Danny La Rue…the most professional, the most witty and the most utterly charming man in the business.” Noel Coward. “London is a man’s town… London is an even worse town to find a ma...

https://vickielester.com/2017/07/17/london-is-an-even-worse-town-to-find-a-man-in-than-hollywood/

This photo was taken in 1922 at the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital, as a young polio victim received physical therapy in warm spring waters… This is the kind of tender care that will be imposs...

https://vickielester.com/2017/06/22/simply-put-if-theres-a-chance-you-might-get-sick-get-old-or-start-a-family-this-bill-will-do-you-harm-barack-obama/

    I just received a beacon from the past. Last night I opened a trove of photos and came across a letter to my grandmother, from her best friend, dated October 13, 1944…when the world was a...

https://vickielester.com/2017/06/02/the-world-cannot-wait-and-neither-will-we-mayor-garcetti-los-angeles/

When asked by the Hollywood Reporter about the relationship portrayed in Feud, Olivia de Havilland replied: “I have received your email with its two questions, I would like to reply first to th...

https://vickielester.com/2017/04/19/an-oh-snap-with-eclat-from-olivia-de-havilland/

  This is what Spring looks like at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. I love-love-love this time of year here, but… When I was little girl my father had business in London for ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/04/15/once-upon-an-easter-in-london-and-paris/

I have a friend I met when we were nine. This picture of Mary Pickford reminds me of her, the solid gaze, the bold spirit, and the curls. She’s the only person I’ve ever known whose hair fell...

https://vickielester.com/2017/04/08/friends/

In the living room, sitting side-by-side with the Mister, I noticed he was enraptured by his smart phone. I remarked that studies had shown infants (whose parents were always checking in digitall...

https://vickielester.com/2017/04/02/formative-years/

“She was an absolute genius as a comedic actress, with an extraordinary sense for comedic dialogue. It was a God-given gift. Believe me, in the last fifteen years there were ten projects that c...

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/29/my-god-i-think-there-have-been-more-books-on-marilyn-monroe-than-on-world-war-2-and-theres-a-great-similarity-it-was-not-easy-it-was-hell-but-it-was-well-worth-it-once-you-got-it-on-the-scree/

On Marilyn Monroe: Jack Lemmon — I liked her very much and I got along great with her. She had a lot of problems, she was basically an unhappy girl. She drove Billy and Tony crazy, she drove me...

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/29/jack-lemmon-marilyn-monroe-some-like-it-hot/

ooo ooo ooo Lucky Son, in which sleight of hand meets soul… This is the story of an innocent, with an innate gift of picking the numbers, caught up in a maelstrom of violence and manipulation. ...

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/23/the-lucky-son-conjuring-both-the-brutality-and-magic-of-vegas-with-blistering-verve-a-novel-by-paul-hughen/

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/11/why-am-i-so-good-at-playing-bitches-i-think-its-because-im-not-a-bitch-maybe-thats-why-joan-crawford-always-plays-ladies-bette-davis/

Photo by George Hurrell

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/10/nobody-can-imitate-me-you-can-always-see-impersonations-of-katharine-hepburn-and-marilyn-monroe-but-not-me-because-ive-always-drawn-on-myself-only-joan-crawford/

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/09/my-passions-were-all-gathered-together-like-fingers-that-made-a-fist-drive-is-considered-aggression-today-i-knew-it-then-as-purpose-bette-davis/

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/08/until-youre-known-in-my-profession-as-a-monster-youre-not-a-star-bette-davis/

Crawford, for example, could be her unabashedly eccentric self when telling readers to entertain while wearing a lovely gown (she often had her dressmaker fashion a matching turban and shoes). Or...

https://vickielester.com/2017/03/08/joan-crawford-my-way-of-life/

A.O. Scott of the New York Times makes a glowing Christmas pick: . In a second I’ll tell you why this particular film fills me with a sense of Christmas well being… It is near the close of th...

https://vickielester.com/2016/12/25/the-shop-around-the-corner-christmas/

A Visit from St. Nicholas ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/12/24/twas-the-night-before-christmas/

Norman Rockwell, 1965, Oil on canvas Astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom are suited for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. NASA loaned Norman Rockwell a Gemini spacesuit in o...

https://vickielester.com/2016/10/31/imagine-getting-into-these-costumes/

https://vickielester.com/2016/10/31/happy-halloween-from-myrna-loy-and-beguiling-hollywood/

You know, I’m not usually ill-behaved (or quiet) or unmindful of comments but, I have the most…percolating cold…tonight I should probably wear gloves while I give out the candy. At any rate...

https://vickielester.com/2016/10/31/thou-sanctimonious-long-tongued-odiferous-stench/

Hello! This excerpt from my novel in progress is for my friend in Seattle, Scott Parker-Anderson. I’m in a helluva good mood, because after months of being forbidden from typing (separated my s...

https://vickielester.com/2016/09/10/all-i-do-is-dream-of-you/

Impressions from September of last year… Back to Boston after spending a few days on Cape Cod. Most of the time there I spent walking, buttoned up in a wool blazer, wind full in my face — and...

https://vickielester.com/2016/09/10/tempus-fugit-for-us-all-even-erstwhile-denizens-of-hollywood/

I know, I know… You were probably thinking with the L.A. influence coupled with a long spell in an English girl’s school that my literary inspirations would be a cross between Joan Didion and...

https://vickielester.com/2016/09/09/bake-the-hall-in-the-candle-of-her-brain-vickie-lesters-literary-antecedents-revealed/

That’s me in a grungy corner of a set sometime in the late eighties. You can tell by the garish knitwear and the helmet of curls… I’ve been rattling around this part of the world for a long...

https://vickielester.com/2016/09/08/the-secret-origin-of-its-in-his-kiss/

September 1st! Where has the time gone? I spent the spring doing a remodel on my house, and the ensuing months recovering from a shoulder injury. I was warned off sitting for hours on the compute...

https://vickielester.com/2016/09/01/where-i-get-my-ideas-for-hollywood-novels/

Tony Curtis — Orry-Kelly did the dresses for Marilyn Monroe, and Jack and I were going to wear clothes out of Western Costumes. So I went to Western Costumes and they fitted us out in these dre...

https://vickielester.com/2016/08/16/tony-curtis-on-cross-dressing-some-like-it-hot/

Hello kittens, I thought I’d show you this – La Miniatura – draped off in tarps against the weather. Talk about maintenance! The house was originally commissioned by a rare book dealer… P...

https://vickielester.com/2016/08/06/its-a-frank-lloyd-wright-and-bring-an-umbrella/

My uncle – when he still drove – used to take me on architectural tours of Los Angeles. We saw Frank Lloyd Wright’s leaky La Miniatura in a rain storm. We checked out a Neutra belonging to ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/08/06/cedric-gibbons-deign-genius-husband-of-dolores-del-rio-philanderer/

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/28/life-without-emotions-is-like-an-engine-without-fuel-mary-astor/

Dear Nat, …The weather here seems to be brightening and at long last we may get Taylor up on that Sphinx, if we can ever get her out of Burton’s arms. During one of the love scenes the other ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/28/i-really-dont-remember-much-about-cleopatra-there-were-a-lot-of-other-things-going-on-elizabeth-taylor/

In fact, Mr. Watson, it’s a queer world, and the longer I live in it the queerer I find it. Once I thought it would be a good idea to regulate things myself and run the world as it ought to be ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/28/l-frank-baum-the-conjurer-of-oz-once-wrote-under-a-womans-pseudonym-edith-van-dyne/

  President Obama, July 27, 2016 Twelve years ago tonight, I addressed this convention for the very first time. You met my two little girls, Malia and Sasha – now two amazing young women who j...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/27/the-american-dream-is-something-no-wall-will-ever-contain-president-obama/

Thank you all. Thank you so much. You know, it’s hard to believe that it has been eight years since I first came to this convention to talk with you about why I thought my husband should be pre...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/26/incredible-speech-by-an-incredible-woman-couldnt-be-more-proud-our-country-has-been-blessed-to-have-her-as-flotus-i-love-you-michelle-president-obama/

“Her personality is so forceful that she appears to be ill-mannered and high-handed, and, for this, she is apt to be unpopular. But her honest frankness cannot be hidden and her intensity and e...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/23/katharine-hepburn-creates-a-bad-first-impression-cecil-beaton/

“If, oddly enough, he has chosen California for his home, the products of his pen are still respectfully and enthusiastically received on both sides of the Atlantic. In short, he is an acknowle...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/22/he-never-alarms-you-with-his-knowledge-yet-brings-it-out-in-the-most-offhand-and-entertaining-way-cecil-beaton-on-aldous-huxley/

Marilyn Monroe photographed by Milton H. Greene, Connecticut (1955)

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/17/first-im-trying-to-prove-to-myself-that-im-a-person-then-maybe-ill-convince-myself-that-im-an-actress-marilyn-monroe/

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/17/acting-should-be-bigger-than-life-scripts-should-be-bigger-than-life-it-should-all-be-bigger-than-life-bette-davis/

Ava Gardner photographed by Milton H. Greene (1954)

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/17/nobody-ever-called-it-an-intellectual-profession-ava-gardner-on-acting/

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/16/hollywood-is-wonderful-anyone-who-doesnt-like-it-is-either-crazy-or-sober-raymond-chandler/

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/16/come-to-work-on-time-know-your-lines-and-dont-bump-into-the-other-actors-spencer-tracy/

Hm… She worked consistently for 58 years in film, radio, and TV (from 1931 to the year of her death in 1989). I think she took it very seriously.

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/16/i-dont-take-the-movies-seriously-and-anybody-who-does-is-in-for-a-headache-bette-davis/

“In the twentieth century war will be dead, the scaffold will be dead, animosity will be dead, royalty will be dead, and dogmas will be dead; but Man will live. For all there will be but one co...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/15/life-is-bristling-with-thorns-and-i-know-no-other-remedy-than-to-cultivate-ones-garden-voltaire/

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/10/youve-got-to-have-something-to-eat-and-a-little-love-in-your-life-before-you-can-hold-still-for-any-damn-bodys-sermon-on-how-to-behave-billie-holiday/

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/10/all-music-is-folk-music-i-aint-never-heard-a-horse-sing-a-song-louis-armstrong/

Ella Fitzgerald — Image by © Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/10/just-dont-give-up-trying-to-do-what-you-really-want-to-do-where-there-is-love-and-inspiration-i-dont-think-you-can-go-wrong-ella-fitzgerald/

The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flam...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/04/give-me-your-tired-your-poor-your-huddled-masses-yearning-to-breathe-free-the-wretched-refuse-of-your-teeming-shore-send-these-the-homeless-tempest-tost-to-me-i-lift-my-lamp-beside-the/

I love the fourth of July, but this year I am obsessed with what’s going on in the country that we got our independence from… “It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see….” “You ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/04/independence-is-loyalty-to-ones-best-self-and-principles-and-this-is-often-disloyalty-to-the-general-idols-and-fetishes-mark-twain/

Louise Dahl Wolfe photographs Diana Vreeland for Harper’s Bazaar, 1941 Diana Vreeland, Dovima, and Richard Avedon

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/03/diana-vreeland-got-her-start-working-for-carmel-snow-at-harpers-bazaar/

Snow’s genius came from cultivating the best people. Her first big find was art director Alexey Brodovitch, who innovated Bazaar‘s iconic Didot logo. Brodovitch is perhaps best known for his ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/03/carmel-snow-high-society-gal-with-an-eye-for-genius-became-editor-of-harpers-bazaar-after-a-stint-with-conde-nast-at-vogue/

 In 1933, editor in chief Carmel Snow (who’d been a fashion editor at Vogue) brought photojournalist Martin Munkacsi to a windswept beach to shoot a swimwear spread. As the model ran toward th...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/03/carmel-snow-legendary-fashion-editor-mixes-with-hollywood-and-goes-to-the-beach-with-martin-munkacsi-in-1933/

…”By golly, I’m alive, all right. and I do live in France, and not under but on top of solid Parisian limestone. Furthermore, I speak First Class Foreign French, and if I’ve stunned you i...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/01/olivia-de-havilland-turns-100-i-dont-need-a-fantasy-life-as-once-i-did-that-is-the-life-of-the-imagination-that-i-had-a-great-need-for-films-were-the-perfect-means-for-satisfying-that-need/

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/01/i-am-attracted-by-almost-any-french-word-written-or-spoken-before-i-knew-its-meaning-i-thought-saucisson-so-exquisite-that-it-seemed-the-perfect-name-to-give-a-child-until-i-learned-it-mea/

Even if you’re fighting with your beloved, the point is never to lose connection. Sometimes, even in heated debate, the Mr. and I find we’re still touching, and there’s not a damn thing mak...

https://vickielester.com/2016/07/01/a-little-unsolicited-advice-on-love-from-a-middling-old-dame/

* Chapter 20 Anne headed back to Los Angeles. Fifteen minutes out from the basin she slipped her earpiece in and called her uncle, who complained when he answered the phone that it sounded as if ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/30/cruising-just-as-fast-as-she-can-now-an-excerpt-from-its-in-his-kiss-by-vickie-lester/

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/30/another-reason-i-love-it-here-you-cant-make-stuff-like-this-up-elizabeth-taylor-and-richard-burton-in-matching-mink-arriving-at-lax/

A natural amphitheater – 1923 – progress – 1925 – 1927 – Rebuilt, again – 1928 – Twilight at the bowl in the 1930s – note the more pronounced arch – Distinctive – always –

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/30/the-hollywood-bowl/

What’s the world coming to when two men with improbable hair (?) — one born to the elite, one shockingly elitist — both having deeply dysfunctional relationships with the truth, manipulate ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/24/whats-the-world-coming-to-a-post-for-the-british-friends-of-beguiling-especially-the-dearest-george-kaplan-sarah-vernon-and-pippa-rathborne/

Still walking in the mornings, always before the sun gets too high. It’s not just the cooler temperatures I like, it’s the company. For example, nearly every morning  I see a very old man, w...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/24/its-a-neighborly-day-for-this-beauty-wood-or-not/

I’ve started taking walks just after six a.m. Yesterday, when I turned the corner were my street starts to climb into the foothills, I saw the windows of a Spanish Colonial had all been flung o...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/23/where-i-live-its-bloody-hot-l-a-experiencing-warmest-year-since-records-started-being-kept-in-1877/

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/23/i-was-born-at-the-age-of-twelve-on-a-metro-goldwyn-mayer-lot-judy-garland/

I like religious people, conditionally. I like them if they live according to their creed and keep quiet about it. Nothing is more tedious than someone spouting off about “doing unto others” ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/19/as-nature-intended-by-vickie-lester/

That’s my father, he died many years ago on a business trip to London. And being my father’s daughter, this is the deal—this portrait of him is a link to my Hollywood novel, click and it’...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/19/i-wrote-my-first-novel-for-the-man-who-put-me-on-his-shoulders-and-showed-me-the-world-happy-fathers-day/

Aldous Huxley, The Art of Fiction No. 24, Paris Review Interviewed by Raymond Fraser, George Wickes It is rather odd to find Aldous Huxley in a suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood. He lives in...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/18/aldous-huxley-on-writing-and-the-doors-of-perception/

I know I’ve been scarce around these parts, yet I’m coming out of hiding for a moment because I couldn’t be prouder of my nephew, who, I used to refer to on this blog as, the Kid… Direct ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/17/elijah-schali-royal-academy-of-fine-arts-antwerp-fashion-2016/

…Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/04/london-june-4th-1940/

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/02/cary-grant-is-the-only-actor-i-ever-loved-in-my-whole-life-alfred-hitchcock/

There are so many stories in Hollywood of his wit and humor – and there’s one mythic tale (and I’ve never seen the footage, so I’d have to say it was a myth) of Hitch dancing in a hula sk...

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/02/the-lighter-side-of-alfred-hitchcock/

https://vickielester.com/2016/06/02/there-is-a-dreadful-story-that-i-hate-actors-imagine-anyone-hating-james-stewart-alfred-hitchcock/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/30/hollywood-at-war-marlene-deitrich-performed-on-the-front-lines-often-at-great-peril-earned-the-medal-of-freedom/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/30/hollywood-at-war-james-stewart-the-first-star-to-enlist-and-he-was-the-real-deal-flying-20-combat-missions/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/30/hollywood-at-war-fred-astaire-dances-for-the-troops-at-versailles/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/21/she-listens-wants-cares-i-catch-her-laughing-across-a-room-and-i-bust-up-every-pore-of-that-lovely-translucent-skin-is-alive-open-every-moment-even-though-this-world-could-make-her-vulne/

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, photography by Sam Shaw 1957

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/21/ive-learned-about-living-from-her-i-took-her-as-a-serious-actress-even-before-i-met-her-i-think-shes-an-adroit-comedienne-but-i-also-think-she-might-turn-into-the-greates/

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, photograph by Milton H. Greene

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/21/egghead-weds-hourglass-variety-1956-on-the-marriage-of/

Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/17/on-location-in-new-york-for-breakfast-at-tiffanys/

Gloria Vanderbilt by Horst, 1961

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/17/anderson-coopers-mama-at-the-spa-1961-gloria-vanderbilt-on-whom-capote-is-said-to-have-modeled-a-certain-character-in-his-novella/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/17/marilyn-was-always-my-first-choice-to-play-the-girl-holly-golightly-truman-capote/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/12/when-a-horse-learns-to-buy-martinis-ill-learn-to-like-horses-steve-mcqueen/

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by maps. From when I was a little boy maps, atlases, and globes offered a window onto the wider world out there, and, more than that, made it ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/12/the-map/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/12/it-seems-fairly-ridiculous-for-someone-of-forty-five-or-fifty-to-be-learning-words-written-by-other-people-most-of-which-are-bad-to-make-a-few-dollars-richard-burton/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/11/i-read-shakespeare-and-the-bible-and-i-can-shoot-dice-thats-what-i-call-a-liberal-education-tallulah-bankhead-photographed-by-florence-vandamm/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/11/i-think-most-of-the-people-involved-in-any-art-always-secretly-wonder-whether-they-are-really-there-because-theyre-good-or-because-theyre-lucky-katharine-hepburn-photo-by-florence-vandam/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/11/tv-is-the-toughest-medium-because-theres-more-strain-but-the-theatre-requires-the-most-work-movies-are-the-easiest-you-can-sip-coffee-between-takes-miriam-hopkins/

I just put my feet in the air and move them around. Fred Astaire

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/10/happy-birthday-fred-astaire-for-ill-be-there-puttin-down-my-top-hat-mussin-up-my-white-tie-dancin-in-my-tails/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/10/interestingly-young-people-dont-come-to-you-for-advice-especially-the-ones-who-are-related-to-you-meryl-streep/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/10/i-handed-in-a-script-last-year-and-the-studio-didnt-change-one-word-the-word-they-didnt-change-was-on-page-87-steve-martin-introducing-the-best-adapted-screenplay-at-the-2003-academy-awards/

What got me started on this train of thought, was, of course, the Kid. He has a habit of referring to his elders as, “Boss,” however it all started with me and my very special name, “Crime ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/08/im-no-irene-dunne/

Picture two willowy ladies of indeterminate age, although judging from their carefully dyed hair, and the fact they are wearing calf length mink coats we could probably safely say they were betwe...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/08/bette-davis-in-fur/

Here, poppets, is a photo of Miss Dietrich in a mouton coat and hat – just in case you were wondering what mouton is… Mother: More solid than the ground under your feet when you are little, m...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/08/i-would-hardly-call-her-a-lamb-marlene-dietrich/

Yes, that tall Montanan played an architect in one of the most humorless bombastic pieces of drivel ever put on the screen—and by that I mean “The Fountainhead”—but he knew where to go wh...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/07/a-quincy-jones-builds-a-house-for-gary-cooper/

I often wonder about the lost art of conversation. In a way social media binds us together, but I can’t help thinking the Internet might be leading to the automation of humanity. Walk down any ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/06/lets-talk/

The Amateur Cloud Society That (Sort Of) Rattled the Scientific Community An improbable tale of how a British maverick harnessed crowd sourced meteorological discoveries to reveal the poetic wond...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/04/there-are-more-things-in-heaven-and-earth-horatio-than-are-dreamt-of-in-your-philosophy-hamlet/

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/04/ive-given-my-memoirs-far-more-thought-than-any-of-my-marriages-you-cant-divorce-a-book-gloria-swanson/

You know I have to put a qualifier in here… My screenwriting career, such as it was… Anyway, once upon a time a big Hollywood producer had a bored overnight guest and after a sweet interlude ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/05/02/true-story-how-my-screenwriting-career-was-launched/

Dexter: Orange juice, certainly. Tracy: Don’t tell me you’ve forsaken your beloved whiskey and whiskeys. Dexter: No, no, no, no. I’ve just changed their color, that’s all. I’m going for...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/28/this-authors-favorite-pick-me-up-courtesy-of-the-philadelphia-story/

“There is no such thing as a person that nothing has happened to, and each person’s story is as different as his fingerprints.”

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/25/stardom-is-all-hard-work-aspirins-and-purgatives-elsa-lanchester-happy-birthday-and-click-on-the-pic-for-her-autobiography/

  Anne’s mother emerged from the kitchen carrying two mismatched mugs. The one she handed to Anne was emblazoned with The Rolling Stones’ lips and lolling tongue logo; it reminded Anne of he...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/25/a-hollywood-mystery-a-page-turner-a-love-letter-to-everything-great-and-horrible-about-tinseltown/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/24/the-look-of-the-sixties-catherine-deneuve/

toobeguiling  It’s amazing to wake to sunrise on roses, it really is a dream — but you know about dreams — they dissipate with coffee. I’m writing another novel, the one that comes after...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/24/behind-the-scenes-in-hollywood-with-itsinhiskissbyvickielester/

“Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent. As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of ou...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/21/you-have-to-live-a-life-to-understand-it-tourists-just-pass-through-prince-resquiesat-in-pace/

  Portrait of Princess Margaret in front of the portrait by Annigoni, by Cecil Beaton Last year Viscount Linley surprised everyone by buying back an Annigoni portrait of his mother, Princess Mar...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/21/portrait-of-royalty-and-not-the-hollywood-variety/

. BBC – Radio 3 – Eve Arnold Interview.

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/20/i-never-go-outside-unless-i-look-like-joan-crawford-the-movie-star/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/19/the-look-of-the-sixties-ursula-andress/

You know. The movies that make you curl up on the couch and purr. I’ll get it rolling. Trouble in Paradise Senses of Cinema calls it a Lost Treasure, and I have to agree. A man in a tuxedo stan...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/16/tell-me-about-your-cinematic-chocolates/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/16/cary-grant-and-virginia-cherrill-out-riding-at-hearst-castle-he-stayed-there-34-times-a-great-place-to-spend-the-depression-until-his-bags-were-finally-packed-for-dropping-flour-on-the-roof-fr/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/16/ive-been-close-to-bette-davis-for-thirty-eight-years-and-i-have-the-cigarette-burns-to-prove-it-henry-fonda/

5.0 out of 5 stars Art Director By Bob Schulenberg on August 16, 2014 Format: Paperback “Ms. Lester” certainly knows the ins of Hollywood! Let doubters doubt no more, she takes you there, sho...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/15/like-two-hundred-and-fifty-kids-out-of-their-minds-on-x-at-coachella-itsinhiskissbyvickielester-available-on-amazon/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/14/the-look-of-the-sixties-goldie-hawn/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/13/the-look-of-the-sixties-brigitte-bardot/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/12/my-formula-for-living-is-quite-simple-i-get-up-in-the-morning-and-i-go-to-bed-at-night-in-between-i-occupy-myself-as-best-i-can-cary-grant/

Ruth Chatterton, at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Ennis House during the shooting of “Female.” When she retired from the screen she started writing. I found this copy of her book, “Homewa...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/10/i-know-for-some-women-men-are-a-household-necessity-myself-id-rather-have-a-canary-ruth-chatterton/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/10/it-felt-to-me-like-a-permanent-cocktail-party-without-the-drinks-acting-took-me-away-from-real-life-to-a-pretend-life-i-wanted-that-real-life-back-i-am-not-a-dedicated-actress-im-afraid-i/

It shines here most of the time, and there are certain places, certain times of year that take your breath away with sheer beauty. Pity that with generations of talent based here so much producti...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/09/the-light-that-made-filmmakers-move-to-california/

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/08/i-was-betty-bacall-always-and-lauren-was-howard-hawks-he-felt-that-lauren-bacall-was-better-sounding-than-betty-bacall-he-had-a-vision-of-his-own-he-was-a-svengali-he-wanted-to-mold-me-he-wa/

A defining role: Reading sides on a leaning board. Jean Harlow chats with visiting director Edmund Goulding. To her left is cast member Edmund Lowe and director George Cukor. Photograph by George...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/07/jean-harlow-dinner-at-eight/

For those with lipstick, click here. #itsinhiskissbyvickielester Her book reads like “The Jet Set” episode of Mad Men, when Don finds himself immersed in the desert, in a world of modern glas...

https://vickielester.com/2016/04/04/a-girl-cant-read-that-sort-of-thing-without-her-lipstick-holly-golightly/

https://vickielester.com/2016/03/27/cecil-beaton-as-the-easter-bunny-photographed-by-gordon-anthony-1937/

That quote is a guiding light, but then again, this one is nearly perfect: “I wasn’t kissing her, I was just whispering in her mouth,” uttered by Chico Marx when caught in flagrante. Now, y...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/24/to-work-i-go-amwriting/

Now don’t argue, if you’re looking at this on a phone, tablet, or computer; the point about teeny-tiny images is made. Here we have a GIF from Sunset Blvd., and another excuse to jump from a ...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/23/i-am-big-its-the-pictures-that-got-small-norma-desmond-played-by-the-one-and-only-gloria-swanson/

Get the skinny on a Hollywood origin story… When Becky invited Steve to accompany her on the adventure, she put it like this, “Steve, I got a gig at a big firm out in California; you wanna co...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/20/lets-do-lunch-over-my-dead-body-itsinhiskissbyvickielester/

Look at that, Loretta Young in 1931, in a movie called “Too Young to Marry.” You have to indulge me today because it’s my birthday, and, love found me thirty-one years ago. Since it’s nea...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/12/love-isnt-something-you-find-love-is-something-that-finds-you-loretta-young/

Dive into a romantic Hollywood mystery for Valentine’s: “Did they know about The Buccaneers?” “It’s a sex club, Ms. Brown.” “You said it was an after-hours club.” “Good, you’r...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/11/a-sex-club-itsinhiskissbyvickielester/

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/09/love-is-a-publicity-stunt-and-making-love-after-the-first-curious-raptures-is-only-another-petulant-way-to-pass-the-time-waiting-for-the-studio-to-call-louise-brooks/

A little pedantic information, “disinterested” is not the word you sought. It is “uninterested.” The two words don’t have the same meaning; “uninterested means you have no interest in...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/08/askaneditor/

Feel like dancing? James Johnson loved Manhattan. He loved Juilliard. Most of all he loved shedding all the tiresome, uncool parental pressure, but not his monthly allowance, which he supplemente...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/04/he-gave-up-dealing-well-mostly-lied-about-his-age-and-got-a-job-slinging-drinks-topless-okay-lets-not-forget-the-bowtie-at-studio-54-itsinhiskissbyvickielester/

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/04/a-gentleman-is-simply-a-patient-wolf-lana-turner/

Butter lettuce, pickled shallots, pistachios, and cherry tomato salad Parisian pot roast, or Daube, or Étouffée, anyway it involves a chuck roast or a brisket and a lot of braising A crusty bag...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/04/a-wintery-dinner-inspired-by-lucy-and-desi/

For Lena Horne, a Home at Last She was one of the most famous performers in the country, a recording star, a Hollywood actress and a nightclub sensation. But in the late 1950s, Lena Horne still s...

https://vickielester.com/2016/02/02/the-inestimable-lena-horne-finds-a-home-in-manhattan/

I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU an excerpt from “It’s in His Kiss” by Vickie Lester Dawn White turned seventeen in August of 1966. It was a propitious year. Instead of driving her VW Bug from Ki...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/31/whats-not-hot-after-a-fifth-of-jagermeister-and-six-lap-dances-itsinhiskissbyvickielester/

“Just take a breath,” said Shamari, dipping a hand into her Prada bag, her entire arm like a dowser’s wand dragged toward a source of water. There appeared an expression of almost religious...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/29/lipstick-as-panacea-it-always-works-in-the-movies-itsinhiskissbyvickielester/

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/28/louise-brooks-photographed-by-edward-steichen/

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/26/stars-or-the-1950s-sophia-loren/

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/23/charlie-chaplins-studios-during-a-very-rare-los-angeles-snow-storm-in-1921/

The storm — blustery in some places, blinding in others — was a swirling, sprawling mass with a reach of nearly 1,000 miles. It had already largely immobilized Washington, Baltimore and Phila...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/23/noreaster-bearing-down-on-manhattan-possibly-bringing-record-snowfall-the-flatiron-building-the-first-skyscraper-in-ny-under-a-blanket-of-white-1905/

Okay, my angels. It doesn’t get any better than this, this is the heart and soul of the Internet, the thing that keeps us online; connection. When we post or tweet or Instagram — or write a n...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/23/this-book-has-reignited-my-passion-for-21st-century-fiction-scott-parker-anderson/

Friends and family to the east, stay warm, stay safe, and let us entertain you with a Hollywood novel, served up weird, witty, and with a twist…

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/22/listen-to-a-book-at-bedtime-and-stay-out-of-the-blizzard-itsinhiskissbyvickielester-narrated-by-pippa-rathborne/

Oh, it’s so lovely to have an excerpt from a fresh new novel just about to be submitted to a select few publishers. SECOND CHANCES: London Bound. Manhattan Magic. a novel by sophia stuart. Chap...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/22/secondchanceslondonboundmanhattanmagic-sorcery-with-a-sardonic-twist-from-sophia-stuart/

You really should read the entire piece… Louis Auchincloss, The Art of Fiction No. 138 Interviewed by George Plimpton click anywhere below. INTERVIEWER Have you seen the movie The Age of Innoc...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/18/i-think-shakespeare-got-drunk-after-he-finished-king-lear-that-he-had-a-ball-writing-it-louis-auchincloss/

Agnes de Mille, daughter of William de Mille, was an American choreographer most well know for three works, Rodeo, Fall River Legend, and Oklahoma! As a youngster she lived here, in a Hollywood t...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/17/living-is-a-form-of-not-being-sure-not-knowing-what-next-or-howwe-guess-we-may-be-wrong-but-we-take-leap-after-leap-in-the-dark-agnes-de-mille/

It’s always lovely to visit NoelCoward.com

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/16/my-body-has-certainly-wandered-a-good-deal-but-i-have-an-uneasy-suspicion-that-my-mind-has-not-wandered-enough-noel-coward/

“Is what a big deal?” he countered, chewing on his pipe stem. “An agent being on set.” “Let’s just say there’s always a natural antagonism between management types and creative type...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/15/itsinhiskissbyvickielester-navigating-behind-the-scenes-in-hollywood-can-be-deadly-chapter-4-read-to-you-by-pippa-rathborne/

If you want to know the truth, just about every novel written — on some level — is a roman à clef. You may think you’re writing noir fiction, or something picaresque, but in the end everyt...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/12/ive-been-waltzing-through-the-doors-of-perception-more-years-than-youve-been-alive-things-ive-heard-that-have-ended-up-in-my-novel-2/

PREFACE I am a woman of a certain age. An age at which I have gained, if not wisdom, then at least the experience and discernment to intuit that when an old friend I haven’t heard a squeak from...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/11/amwriting-hollywoodfiction-hop-in-ill-take-you-for-a-short-spin/

  It’s a god-awful small affair To the girl with the mousy hair But her mummy is yelling “No” And her daddy has told her to go But her friend is nowhere to be seen Now she walks through he...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/11/david-bowie-1947-2016-to-hear-the-angels-sing/

That’s the irony of creative expression, isn’t it? Attention is vital, yet it’s a double-edged. Too much and it cuts into your psyche, too little and the artist withers into obscurity. No w...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/10/attention-embarrasses-me-i-dont-like-to-be-on-display-barbara-stanwyck/

“Regarding his dilated pupils, and distraught expression with apprehension, she realized he had asked ‘Why?’ in tones so deeply afflicted, so heart-torn, so wounded, she couldn’t, at firs...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/09/higher-than-a-kite-at-his-own-sons-funeral-itsinhiskissbyvickielester/

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/08/they-say-that-bundling-is-a-new-england-custom-both-reverenced-and-honored-charlotte-vale/

Grieving Jean Harlow at the funeral of Paul Bern, her husband, 1932. Things take a turn for the sad in chapter 3, You Only Live Once…

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/07/sometimes-eternal-rest-doesnt-come-easy-itsinhiskissbyvickielester-chapter-3-you-only-live-once-read-to-you-by-pippa-rathborne/

I dream of toast. My favorite beverage is tea. The Mister gave me this photo in the beginning of our relationship, and I have loved him ever since. If you want the nitty-gritty details of my back...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/05/all-about-vickie-lester/

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/03/i-dont-seem-to-get-solemn-about-it-and-some-people-might-not-understand-thats-why-i-never-talk-about-it-i-think-its-all-here-in-the-mountains-and-the-desert-i-dont-think-god-is-a-softie/

Evelyn Waugh based “Brideshead Revisited” on family friends, the Lygons, children of Lord Beauchamp — a man who was driven into exile from his stately home (and country) by his Catholic wif...

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/01/a-few-more-chapters-of-itsinhiskissbyvickielester-and-youll-begin-to-see-which-hollywood-royals-im-talking-about/

https://vickielester.com/2016/01/01/sashay-into-the-new-year-with-some-sizzle-itsinhiskissbyvickielester-chapter-2-feeling-good-read-to-you-by-pippa-rathborne/

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/30/its-said-in-hollywood-that-you-should-always-forgive-your-enemies-because-you-never-know-when-youll-have-to-work-with-them-lana-turner/

* HAPPY HOLLYWOOD, BEGUILERS! AND A MERRY NEW YEAR! Compliments of the Season, from Pippa of London & Vickie of Los Angeles! Look for Chapter 2 (the slightly saucy one) on New Year’s Eve… .

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/24/time-to-get-swept-up-chapter-1-of-itsinhiskissbyvickielester-read-to-you-by-pippa-rathborne/

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/23/the-best-thing-to-hold-onto-in-life-is-each-other-audrey-hepburn/

(a holiday excerpt from my Hollywood novel in progress) …He looked up from The Wall Street Journal. Since the days of white-hot celebrity were behind him he had become increasingly interested i...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/22/twas-the-night-before-christmas-in-vickie-lesters-hollywood/

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/21/you-know-what-you-learn-if-youre-a-new-yorker-the-world-doesnt-owe-you-a-damn-thing-lauren-bacall/

If these Mount Everests of the financial world are going to labor and bring forth still more pictures with people being blown to bits with bazookas and automatic assault rifles with no gory detai...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/20/entertainment-is-all-right-but-entertainment-with-an-idea-behind-it-is-much-more-important-gregory-peck/

Otto Preminger’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” 1955

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/19/there-were-giants-in-the-industry-now-it-is-an-era-of-midgets-and-conglomerates-otto-preminger/

There’s No Business Like Show Business, 1954

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/19/i-dont-like-to-read-the-only-things-i-read-are-gossip-columns-if-someone-gives-me-a-book-it-had-better-have-lots-of-pictures-ethel-merman/

“The Hateful Eight” The glory of 70 mm filmmaking resurrected in the service of a vapid one-note narrative, that devolves into a prolonged finale of exploding meat bags. That said, I’ve see...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/19/vickie-lester-and-a-moment-of-penance-for-a-film-that-opens-christmas-day/

London based actor Pippa Rathborne and I would like to present our Christmas gift, a chapter a week of “It’s in His Kiss” a Hollywood Noir — perfect to curl up in bed with. Look for us sa...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/17/a-book-at-bedtime-lets-begin-with-itsinhiskissbyvickielester-narrated-by-the-amazing-pipparathborne/

Hello, my angels! If you’ve been reading along on Beguiling you know I reverence Ms. Davis. She was bold and brilliant and always laid it on the line. In that spirit I am about to make some cha...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/16/feeling-as-blissful-as-bette-for-whats-to-come-christmas-and-a-very-creative-new-year/

When I was in college, that’s exactly what I thought. Then I finished school and started working, and people around me kept reinforcing the idea of prolonged youth. Do you babysit? You look lik...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/16/when-you-think-youre-going-to-live-forever/

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/15/rita-hayworth-so-not-anywhere-near-snow/

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/15/olivia-de-havilland-in-christmas-red/

“Are the words well chosen and do the characters live? All the rest belongs to literary gossip. You are not in this class to learn how to be gossip-writers.” A Visit to Morin, a short story b...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/13/a-novel-is-made-up-of-words-and-characters-grahame-greene/

“I designed the house myself. I would make of it a playhouse, a spot for rest, recreation, good living, romping, roistering, and cultured living too… The interior of the house wasn’t ornate...

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/13/errol-flynn-wrote-a-memoir-called-my-wicked-wicked-ways/

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/12/how-the-stars-shine-norma-shearer-photographed-by-george-hurrell/

https://vickielester.com/2015/12/12/isnt-cary-grant-angelic-decorating-the-christmas-tree-for-the-bishops-wife/