In 1922 Hollywood, some of the most riveting dramas involved celebrity deaths.
First, there was the murder of director William Desmond Taylor. Police were unable to identify the killer, although suspects included screen comedienne Mable Normand and actress Mary Miles Minter. (Taylor’s murder remains unsolved, even today.)
Then there was the third trial of film comedian Roscoe Arbuckle, charged with the death of actress Virginia Rappe in September of the previous year. Arbuckle was not convicted during his first two trials, and he would be acquitted during the third trial.
As you may have guessed, Hollywood had a Very Bad reputation in the early 1920s, which would have been the ideal time to write about its sordidness. One author who seized this opportunity was Edgar Rice Burroughs, an American novelist specializing in science fiction and adventure stories. You may know him as the creator of Tarzan.
In June of 1922, Burroughs began publishing a serialized magazine story, The Girl from Hollywood, which he released as a complete novel in 1923.
He wasn’t unfamiliar with Hollywood. According to IMDb, seven of Burroughs’s novels were adapted to screen between 1917 and 1921.
While his 1923 novel, The Girl from Hollywood, is a somewhat soapy melodrama, it’s also a cynical look at Hollywood and its penchant for grinding up the lives of young women.
Reseda Trailhead, near Tarzana and Burroughs’s former ranch. Image: Mike Pearl via Google
In our opinion, the most telling observation in The Girl from Hollywood is made by a rancher who says, “It can’t be the motion-picture people – they’re not horse thieves.”
It’s the novel’s only (backhanded) compliment to the Hollywood community: Whatever nefarious activities movie folk engage in, they would never stoop so low as to steal a man’s horses.
The novel centers on two ranching families who live an unspoiled life in the hills and canyons outside Los Angeles. Although the parents have a passion for wholesome, natural living, their children are surprisingly corruptible. One son bootlegs stolen whiskey, while a daughter moves to Hollywood and succumbs to substance abuse.
Into these Goings On comes Shannon Burke, failed actress and struggling drug addict. She’s the epynomous Girl from Hollywood, the one who discovers a different world outside L.A. and realizes she’s well suited to it.
In many ways, this isn’t a book about Hollywood. Shannon could be a girl from any big city who finds Meaning and Purpose in the countryside. There is very little studio business in this novel, and the vices depicted here could (and usually do) thrive anywhere.
But the landscape feels like it could only be southern California: the smell of the foliage, the remote hills and trails, the enchanting moonlit nights.
The way Burroughs paints this environment – and surely this is his intention – makes you wonder why anyone would leave it to live in Hollywood.
In his introducton to the recently-published LARB reprint, Stephen Cha writes, “[T]he Girl from Hollywood is a departure from the tales of male herosim that formed [Burroughs’s] reputation.”
Cha sees a timeless quality in the novel. “Burroughs’s outrage is strong and apparent,” he writes. “He recognizes the vulnerability of young naïve women trying to make it in Hollywood, and condemns the industry men who abuse their position and power.”
The fictional area of Ganado in the novel is actually the ranch owned by Burroughs – now a large part of the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Tarzana. Burroughs bought the land in 1919 and began subdividing in 1923. It was ideally situated, only 20 minutes from Hollywood.
However, in the novel, that mere 20-minute drive is a chasm between Hollywood seediness and the salvation of the Santa Monica mountains.
It’s one of the qualities that make this book unputdownable, despite its occasional wordiness and inconceivable plot developments. We would have read it in one sitting, except for the interruptions of Normal Life.
The Girl from Hollywood was not adapted to screen in the early 1920s, as it wasn’t the kind of story Hollywood would touch with a 10,000-foot pole. It also reeks of Burroughs’s disdain, but never mind the money he earned from the film industry.
Even so, as you read the novel, you can’t help but think what a terrific movie it might have been. And still could be.
Notes
- You can order a copy of The Girl from Hollywood HERE.
- Disclosure: LARB sent us a copy of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review.
Silver Screenings 
I’d never actually heard of this book, but it is something worth adding to my ‘tales of old Hollywood’ collection. I’ll wait til I’ve read the book (originally a magazine article?) before I pass judgement, but it appears to be a ‘jump on the bandwagon’ work. Following the various scandals, there had been an immediate twist, when it was realised that young girls were being lured to Hollywood on false promises. Attempts by the friends of a certain scandalised actress to turn the tide of finger-pointing might, possibly, have helped this view take root. She did very well out of her 1923 film, Extra Girl, that was based on the story of a starry-eyed girl lured to Hollywood ‘Babylon’. Unfortunately, there were still two scandals to come — ah, the twists and turns of silent Hollywood.
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I just bookmarked “Extra Girl” to watch later. Thanks for the heads up – that’s one of the films I’ve been intending to see.
I hope you get the chance to read this book. I would be really interested to hear your thoughts, given all the research you’ve done.
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I’ve just received a copy, courtesy of Amazon Kindle. I’ll let you know what I think, when I’ve read it.
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I’ve never heard of this book – but you gotta love those old Hollywood stories. Just might have to add it to my list!
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For all its quirks, it’s immensely readable. I loved the way Burroughs describes the countryside outside L.A.
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I’ve only ever known him as the author of Tarzan–good to know that he wrote other good stuff!
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He sure knows how to tell an engrossing story. Honestly, I could hardly put it down.
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You tell us about the most interesting stuff! I’ll definitely be adding this to the shelf. I only hope that that pesky “normal life” will let me dive right into Burroughs book.
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Haha! Yes, I was really engrossed in this book. I hope you get the chance to read it – would love to know what you think.
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Sounds interesting as the only Burroughs novels I’ve read are fantasy ones and a trio of the Tarzan books.
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It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this book in comparison to the others you’ve read. Admittedly, I haven’t read any of his other works.
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A great read thanks
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Thanks! I haven’t visited your fab site in a while, but I’ll be by this weekend to do some binge reading. 🙂
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You’re always welcome 🙂
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Here’s my view of the book.
Firstly, I may be a little biased, as I knew, before I read it, exactly what the book would contain, having seen so many of the scandal-based books and articles. Consequently, I will not specifically say whether this is a good book, or if it is an engaging read. In the wake of the scandals of 1921 and 1922, we cannot blame the author for helping to slake the great public thirst for a book of this kind.
Personally, I regard this work as ‘intellectually lazy’ in that the author makes no attempt to compose a good story, but instead relies on the momentum of scandal to propel it along. I’ll not linger too long on the merits, or otherwise, of the book, but will simply state the areas where the author has taken pre-published material about Mabel Normand’s life and built it into his story. Horses and horse-riding play a part in the story, and Mabel was keen a horsewoman and for a couple of years rode regularly in the hills beyond Edendale with Mack Sennett. There is mention of cats, and horses with cat-like coats, as well as other animals – popular of course with Mack and Mabel, and featuring strongly in their films. The countryside around L.A. often forms a backdrop to Keystone films, and your picture of the Reseda Trail reminds us of the scene in ‘Suzanna’ where Mabel is walking along a similar trail under her huge sombrero. Mabel was well-known for her dark, Spanish house interiors, so often depicted in magazines, and this type of interior is also referred to within the book. I was surprised to see the exclamation “You beast!” a couple of times in the book – this is something Mabel utters (mouths) in several films, and is especially prominent in ‘Getting Acquainted’ (well, she couldn’t cuss and swear). “Selfish egotism” and “rejection of marriage” are charges hurled at a character in the book, but these features could be found, applied to Mabel, in any newspaper article of 1922. I was more than a little surprised to find that one actress in the book is chastised for not bringing her mother out to Hollywood to share in her success. This was something also hurled at Mabel, and it suggested she did not want the scrutiny of ma’ around her – Mabel, of course, was “bad, bad, bad” so did not need a stage mother. She was, furthermore, a mass of contradictions, so one character in this book, although bad, was sweet and natural to her servants, exactly like Mabel, who, as with one book character, had a Japanese cook. Mabel always said that the problems in Hollywood and, indeed, the world, were created by men, so no surprise that this is a mainstay of the book. Drugs? Well, this particular football has been kicked about so much down the years that we have little need to mention the subject here, except that Mabel was implicated in the drug-taking culture. Now we can’t say this book is based entirely on Mabel, but it is certainly based on the stories behind both the Arbuckle and Normand scandals, which clearly gave rise to this particular work and other entities, such as Hollywood Babylon. I do have words to describe this book, but I’ll keep them to myself, and refer readers to The New York Times that said of ‘Hollywood Babylon’ “It is without one single redeeming merit.”
Happy blogging!
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Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. With your background and extensive research, I really wanted to know what you would think of the book. Thank you for taking the time to do this.
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