My soon-to-be-released novel, The Golden Age of Magic, is set in Hollywood, 1927. It is about the movie business but mostly focuses on a seamstress who works in the costume department of a fictional Hollywood studio. I was fortunate enough to travel out to California to do some research for the story. Mostly studio tours and museums, although I did maybe spend a night or two at The Beverly Hills Hotel, since my character—a fairy godmother in training—sets herself up in one of their bungalows for her stay. Research!
I’d been to Los Angeles and the surrounding area a few times before, but this was the first chance I got to indulge my movie buff side. I love the movies. I have since I was a young child. In fact, I was that weird girl who stayed in on Saturday mornings in the summer to watch old black and white movies featuring Jean Harlow, Mae West, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Abbot & Costello, and my favorite: Errol Flynn as Robin Hood. Really, I’d watch whatever came on our local Channel 2 in Denver (this was way before anyone had cable television and abundant choices), and I would sit there transfixed until it was over. I had it bad. I remember one night when I was about ten-years old my family tried to get me to go outside to watch an incredibly rare eclipse of the moon. I said, “Nah, I’m good. I’m watching my cliffhangers right now.”
I think my obsession with movie watching at such a young age was just an early phase of my growing addiction to stories. Movies were a quick fix for someone who hadn’t yet learned to read books on her own. And these movies had drama, acting, and costumes! It was all very alluring to a developing mind that craved the language of story, something I believe is innate to most humans. It’s just that some of us get a bigger high off of storytelling than others.
Below are a few photos I took on my trip last year. So much of The Golden Age of Magic was inspired by the things I saw and read about while I was in L.A.. And while the tours and museums were fascinating and indispensable to the writing of the novel, what I really loved was that everywhere I went I was surrounded by fellow movie buffs who couldn’t get enough. My people!
The Hollywood Museum on Highland Ave.
THE director’s chair.
Who doesn’t love Claudette Colbert?
The Bronson Gate — Sunset Boulevard, anyone?
Costume props at Paramount Studios.
An Edith Head drawing. She was part inspiration for the character Rose.
Warner Bros studio head’s phone book. Look at all the famous names on one page!
Had to do it.
