Without Lying Down

Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood by Cari Beauchamp (1997) 475 pages

Years ago I read the historical fiction book The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin. Fans of that would like this non-fiction book about Frances Marion's full life and career. Also, back in 2017, I borrowed a Mary Pickford movie and the DVD had a documentary with this same title, Without Lying Down. Cari Beauchamp died late last year, so this cinema history book moved up in my list of priorities. The title comes from a quote that Frances, as a highly paid writer in the early days of filmmaking, said, "I've spent my life searching for a man to look up to without lying down." 

I loved the behind the scenes stories of the filmmaking process the most. Frances was mentored by Lois Weber. Befriended Marie Dressler and helped to bring her from the stages of New York to the sets of Hollywood. Her friendship and working relationship with Mary Pickford fills a large section of the book. The cover photo is of the two of them. She also was friends with fellow writers Hedda Hopper and Adela Roger St. Johns. She worked closely with managing producer Irving Thalberg at MGM. Frances often worked on films for W.R. Hearst's company to star Marion Davies. The great love of her life was Fred Thomson, a now forgotten Western star, who died too young. Her hobbies of playing piano and sculpting as well as being a founding member of the Academy and then the Writer's Guild was fascinating too.

Next-Door Nemesis

Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin (2023) 338 pages

Collins Carter, a native Ohioan, is living back in her childhood bedroom after a tumultuous breakup with Peter, her boyfriend in Los Angeles, after he took a script she had been working on for years and sold it as his own. She was enraged. A neighbor in LA filmed her as she was vandalizing Peter's car while sob-singing, wearing high heels and a silk robe. The video went viral, pretty much assuring her of being blacklisted in the industry.

When she finally reappears in public in her Ohio subdivision, she's blind-sided again, this time by Nate, one of her best friends from childhood, who had suddenly unfriended her in high school. Now he's a realtor and also sits on the board of the neighborhood's homeowners' association. They spar often, especially after Nate gives Collins a citation for planting a tree in her parents' yard without getting approval from the homeowners' association. This means war! She decides to run for president of the association, an office he is also running for. It's a humorous hate-to-love story with a cast of colorful characters, including Ashleigh and Ruby from high school, as well as Collins's parents and myriad nosy neighbors.