I was so excited to be part of the virtual tour for this book, and I’m grateful to Over The River PR, Jerome Charyn, and Liveright Publishing for the signed first edition!
“I was an actress who couldn’t act, a dancer who couldn’t dance, a singer who couldn’t sing. So I went straight to Hollywood after my sophomore year of college.”
With those words we are introduced to Rusty Redburn, the book’s feisty narrator. It’s 1943. She is in love with the movies and the movie business, and works at Columbia Pictures.
The legendary Rita Hayworth is Columbia’s biggest movie star to date. But studio mogul Harry Cohn is worried about Hayworth, because she’s with troubled filmmaker Orson Welles. So Cohn does what any other studio head would do—he hires Rusty to spy on Hayworth. She becomes her private secretary and confidante, but things don’t quite unfold the way Cohn hopes.
I found this book so fascinating. It’s a look behind the curtain at the rise and fall of a Hollywood legend, but at the same time it’s commentary on how actresses were treated by the studio system. It’s also an interesting look at what life was like for a lesbian in the 1940s.
Whether or not you’re a fan of classic movies and Old Hollywood stories, this is a great read.
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