THE STORY SO FAR
In 1928, talking pictures are all the rage. Newly graduated speech teacher Lucia is hired by Dazzle Studios to help movie star Babs Tremayne overcome a stutter, so she can make a ‘talkie’ with her husband and fellow star Jake. Working discreetly with Babs at the Tremaynes’ mansion, Lucia only has five weeks to prepare her pupil, a former dancer, for upcoming movie A Heart in Peril. On a night out, Lucia overhears starlet Joan Crawford threaten to tell everyone Babs’ ‘secret’, so Lucia forewarns the Tremaynes. Meanwhile, Lucia gets a letter from her beau Alfredo, a jazz trumpeter back in San Francisco, in which he hints at popping the question on her return. Jake’s assistant Rick discovers that Joan thinks Babs’ ‘secret’ is that she has webbed feet! Babs redoubles her efforts to correct her speech – now the day has dawned when she must perform with Jake in front of a microphone.
After they all picked at a light breakfast, Rick drove Jake, Babs and Lucia to the movie lot of Dazzle Studios, inching under the famous archway with its gleaming letters Where dazzling dreams come true!
Lucia tried to take it all in as the car passed warehouse-like buildings full of cranes and props.
‘Look!’ she exclaimed, pointing at a giant yellow replica of a sphinx. ‘That’s from Beyond the Rocks with Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson!’ Then she added, sheepishly, ‘Sorry, I guess I’m still a little starstruck.’
Babs stared straight ahead, her chin shaking slightly. Jake took his wife’s hand and squeezed it, Lucia
