Hettem’s on Vermont opening day 1931: Look at those light fixtures! If the Depression hadn’t wiped me out I may have gotten my De Soto out of the garage and headed over to the store. Another of the lesser known buildings by Morgan, Walls, and Clements – a car dealership…
Author: Vickie Lester
Susannah Corwin is a screenwriter and novelist (under the pen name of “Vickie Lester”). She started her career as a production assistant after studying Film at an east coast university. Her first duties behind the scenes in Hollywood included locating actors who had wandered away from set for romantic assignations. One particularly memorable roundup involved chivying said actors back into the makeup trailer where she picked up a sponge to help reapply their fake tans as they were required onset faster than all hands could paint them. Susannah Corwin’s screenplays have been optioned by David Matalon, Alan Blomquist, A. Kitman Ho, and Kevin Spacey. Her first novel, “It’s In His Kiss”, a modern Hollywood Noir, was published May 2014. She writes the blog “Beguiling Hollywood” (vickielester.com) peeking into the glittering past of Tinseltown with the witty eye of an educated observer. Susannah is now writing her second novel, “You Don’t Own Me” about a Hollywood babysitter who rises to studio boss.
Even the grocery stores were glamorous – designed by Morgan, Walls & Clements (also designed the Chapman Market) – this firm designed some of the most iconic buildings of early Hollywood (and I promise we’ll get to these landmarks) but for now we’ll roll with my fascination with the mundane…
No matter how I tried to camouflage it with garage sale art there was no hiding the shabby materials and crooked cabinets, and I really couldn’t ignore that it was falling down. There was a point when I considered shoving a two by four under the main cabinet because it…
We bought a fixer-upper. In my bright eyed youth all I saw in this kitchen was ceiling height and potential. And, then I lived with it and learned to loath it as I waited to remodel… I will just say when I moved in the refrigerator was under the range…
As you might have gleaned by now, when there’s a story to tell about Hollywood, I’m inclined to change the names and mix it up a bit to protect the innocent. What follows is mostly true, except what’s not. Ben had been raised in a show-biz bubble, tutored on set,…
As you might have gleaned by now, when there’s a story to tell about Hollywood, I’m inclined to change the names and mix it up a bit to protect the innocent. What follows is mostly true, except what’s not. Once upon a time a gifted comedienne, Marion Davies, fell hard…
Okay, it was my intention when I started this blog never to be crass, or destructive, or part of the weird gawker aspect of a fame driven news cycle; and to that end I’ve tried to write pieces mostly on Hollywood history – which means I usually write about people…