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    The Trouble with Scarlett: A Novel of Golden-Era Hollywood
    The Trouble with Scarlett: A Novel of Golden-Era Hollywood
    The Trouble with Scarlett: A Novel of Golden-Era Hollywood
    Ebook422 pages5 hours

    The Trouble with Scarlett: A Novel of Golden-Era Hollywood

    By Martin Turnbull

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever wanted to climb into a time machine and visit Hollywood during its heyday?

    Summer, 1936: "Gone with the Wind," Margaret Mitchell’s first novel, takes the world by storm. Everyone in Hollywood knows Civil War pictures don’t make a dime, but renegade producer David O. Selznick snaps up the movie rights and suddenly America has just one question: Who will play Scarlett O’Hara?

    When Gwendolyn Brick gets her hands on the book, the clouds part and the angels sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Only a real Southern belle can play Scarlett—and didn’t her mama raise her on stories of Sherman’s march and those damned Yankees? After years of slinging cigarettes at the Cocoanut Grove, Gwendolyn finds a new calling: to play Scarlett. But she’s not the only gal in town with a deep-fried accent. She’s going to have to stand out bigger than a hoop skirt at a Twelve Oaks barbeque to win that role.

    Marcus Adler is the golden boy of Cosmopolitan Pictures, the studio William Randolph Hearst started for his mistress, Marion Davies. When Marcus’ screenplay becomes Davies’ first hit, he’s invited to Hearst Castle for the weekend. The kid who was kicked out of Pennsylvania gets to rub shoulders with Myrna Loy, Winston Churchill, and Katharine Hepburn—but when the trip turns fiasco, he starts sinking fast. He needs a new story, real big and real soon. So when F. Scott Fitzgerald moves into the Garden of Allah with a $1000-a-week MGM contract but no idea how to write a screenplay, Marcus says, “Pleased to meetcha. We need to talk.”

    When Selznick asks George Cukor to direct "Gone with the Wind," it’s the scoop of the year for Kathryn Massey, the Hollywood Reporter’s newest columnist. But dare she publish it? Scoops are the exclusive domain of the Hearst papers’ all-powerful, all-knowing, all-bitchy Louella Parsons. Nobody in Hollywood has ever dared to outscoop Louella—until now. When Louella comes back low and dirty, Kathryn’s boss lets her dangle like a scarecrow in a summer storm. Then the telephone rings. It’s Ida Koverman, Louis B. Mayer’s personal secretary, and she has a proposition she’d like to make.

    "The Trouble with Scarlett" is the second installment in the Hollywood's Garden of Allah saga, a series of historical novels set in Hollywood's heyday. If you like authentic and richly-detailed history, compelling and memorable characters, and seeing fiction and history seamlessly woven together, then you'll love Martin Turnbull's authentic portrayal of the City of Angels.
    Flip through the pages to see Hollywood's history come to life before your eyes.

    Martin Turnbull's Garden of Allah novels have been optioned for the screen by film & television producer, Tabrez Noorani.

    INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

    What was your original inspiration?

    I came across an article about the Garden of Allah Hotel, which opened on Sunset Boulevard in 1927, just before “The Jazz Singer” ushered in the talkies, and closed in 1959 when “Ben Hur” announced the last hurrah of the studio system. The Garden’s residents witnessed the unfolding evolution of Hollywood.

    How has writing these novels changed your view of this golden age?

    L.A. was a much less densely populated city. People moved from MGM to Paramount to Twentieth Century-Fox to RKO to Warner Bros. Three degrees of separation were usually enough!

    Why did you not change the names of the major players to suit your story?

    The whole point of recounting the history of Hollywood was because so many celebrities lived the Garden of Allah. Harpo Marx and Sergei Rachmaninoff were neighbors, F. Scott Fitzgerald played charades with Dorothy Parker, Errol Flynn got drunk, Ginger Rogers was always looking for a tennis partner, and Bogart courted Bacall. Why tell it if I’m going to change the names?

    Do you think stories set in old Hollywood are becoming more popular because of Turner Classic Movies?

    Yes! TCM has produced a greater inte

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMartin Turnbull
    Release dateOct 7, 2012
    ISBN9781301115945
    The Trouble with Scarlett: A Novel of Golden-Era Hollywood
    Author

    Martin Turnbull

    Martin Turnbull has worked as a private tour guide showing both locals and out-of-towners the movie studios, Beverly Hills mansions, Hollywood hills vistas and where all the bodies are buried. For nine years, he has also volunteered as an historical walking tour docent with the Los Angeles Conservancy. He worked for a summer as a guide at the Warner Bros. movie studios in Burbank showing movie fans through the sound stages where Bogie and Bacall, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and James Cagney created some of Hollywood’s classic motion pictures.From an early age, Martin was enchanted with old movies from Hollywood’s golden era–from the dawn of the talkies in the late 1920s to the dusk of the studio system in the late 1950s–and has spent many, many a happy hour watching the likes of Garland, Gable, Crawford, Garbo, Grant, Miller, Kelly, Astaire, Rogers, Turner, Welles go through their paces.When he discovered the wonderful world of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs, his love of reading merged with his love of movies and his love of history to produce a three-headed hydra gobbling up everything in his path. Ever since then, he’s been on a mission to learn and share as much as he can about this unique time.Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Martin moved to Los Angeles in the mid-90s.

    Read more from Martin Turnbull

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    • 5/5
      Summer, 1936: Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell's first novel, takes the world by storm. Everyone in Hollywood knows Civil War pictures don't make a dime, but renegade producer David O. Selznick snaps up the movie rights and suddenly America has just one question: Who will play Scarlett O'Hara?When Gwendolyn Brick gets her hands on the book, the clouds part and the angels sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Only a real Southern belle can play Scarlett--and didn't her mama raise her on stories of Sherman's march and those damned Yankees? After years of slinging cigarettes at the Cocoanut Grove, Gwendolyn finds a new calling: to play Scarlett. But she's not the only gal in town with a deep-fried accent. She's going to have to stand out bigger than a hoop skirt at a Twelve Oaks barbeque to win that role.Marcus Adler is the golden boy of Cosmopolitan Pictures, the studio William Randolph Hearst started for his mistress, Marion Davies. When Marcus' screenplay becomes Davies' first hit, he's invited to Hearst Castle for the weekend. The kid who was kicked out of Pennsylvania gets to rub shoulders with Myrna Loy, Winston Churchill, and Katharine Hepburn--but when the trip turns fiasco, he starts sinking fast. He needs a new story, real big and real soon. So when F. Scott Fitzgerald moves into the Garden of Allah with a $1000-a-week MGM contract but no idea how to write a screenplay, Marcus says, "Pleased to meetcha. We need to talk."When Selznick asks George Cukor to direct Gone with the Wind, it's the scoop of the year for Kathryn Massey, the Hollywood Reporter's newest columnist. But dare she publish it? Scoops are the exclusive domain of the Hearst papers' all-powerful, all-knowing, all-bitchy Louella Parsons. Nobody in Hollywood has ever dared to outscoop Louella--until now. When Louella comes back low and dirty, Kathryn's boss lets her dangle like a scarecrow in a summer storm. Then the telephone rings. It's Ida Koverman, Louis B. Mayer's personal secretary, and she has a proposition she'd like to make.The Trouble with Scarlett is the second installment in the Hollywood's Garden of Allah saga, a series of historical novels set in Hollywood's heyday. If you like authentic and richly-detailed history, compelling and memorable characters, and seeing fiction and history seamlessly woven together, then you'll love Martin Turnbull's authentic portrayal of the City of Angels.
    • 5/5
      "Have you ever wanted to climb into a time machine and visit Hollywood during its heyday?" Yes! Yes, I have! For as long as I can remember! That's the quote that drew me to this book, along with a life-long fascination about "Gone with the Wind" and the making of the movie. It's the stuff of legend. Martin Turnbull has succeeded in doing what would seem to be the impossible - transporting readers to the Golden Age of Hollywood with a story that has it's main characters mixing and mingling with the people and at the places all classic movie-aholics have heard about for so many years.The story of the search for Scarlett, once it was announced a movie would be made from the bestselling book, ate up yards of print in publications as the speculation of who would be cast in the iconic role started immediately. In what was -- intentionally or unintentionally -- the biggest public relations campaigns in Hollywood history, every actress in town wanted the part and everyone who read the book had their own opinion of who would make the best Scarlett. It's a legendary story known by all movie buffs.It provides a fascinating backdrop for Turnbull's second novel in his Garden of Allah series. Events and people surrounding that story are skilfully interwoven with the lives of the book's three main characters. These three - Marcus, Gwendolyn, and Kathryn - a struggling scriptwriter, an aspiring actress, and a budding columnist respectively - are all residents at the Garden of Allah. Their placement there affords them encounters with figures ranging from Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and F. Scott Fitzgerald to Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and all the way up to Louis B. Mayer and George Cukor.As their stories unfold concurrently with the search for Scarlett, the reader is taken on a pure joyride through the homes, the haunts, and the watering places of Hollywood. It's the ultimate fly-on-the wall experience for any classic movie buff who has ever wished to climb in that time machine.Well done, Mr. Turnbull! I am a fan for life. Thanks for the pure pleasure! Long may the Garden of Allah series continue!
    • 5/5
      I usually get bored or the story line gets tired for me when I read trilogies but there are 6 books in this series of old Hollywood and I'm loving the books. I've read books one and two and ready to jump into book three. I'm glad I found this series and it is still holding my interest!We continue with the 3 main characters from book one all still trying to make their mark in Hollywood. The journalist, the want to be actress and the screen writer. Good friends always there for each other. All the ups and downs and I really like these characters. This book moves on to the making of Gone With the Wind. All the excitement, back stabbing, secrets and glamour of what I like to think was old Hollywood.

    Book preview

    The Trouble with Scarlett - Martin Turnbull

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