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.

August 31, 2012 /

A New Yorker in LA… Here we have Woody Allen in 1965 promoting kitten rescue by appointing Anna Marie San Martin to the divine rank of Miss Pussycat. Of course the release of his new movie, WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT was completely coincidental.

August 27, 2012 /

Sorry angels, I have residential architecture on the brain – perhaps because I’m renovating my kitchen. The devil’s truly in the details. Quelle horreur! Don’t even get me started on counter depth refrigerators. I’ll put this in parlance any bride would understand; counter depth or built in refrigerators are the…

August 25, 2012 /

1969 parade in New York City for astronauts; Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, Neil Armstrong:

August 22, 2012 /

Ever have one of those days? Well, I really can’t complain… Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor in MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, directed by John M. Stahl, based on the book by Lloyd C. Douglas. The 1954 Douglas Sirk version deserves a post of its own…

August 20, 2012 /

Ms. Diller, a 37-year-old homemaker when she took up comedy, mined her domestic life for material, assuring audiences that she fed Fang and her kids garbage soup and buried her ironing in the backyard. She exuded an image that was part Wicked Witch of the West (a role she actually…

August 16, 2012 /

J. Edgar Hoover (as I mentioned before, a big fan of “I Love Lucy”) and Clyde Tolson at the races in Del Mar: Cagney in “G Men”: Leo as J. Edgar:

August 12, 2012 /

Lindbergh made his famous flight in 1927. This photo is of a somewhat obscure movie actress, Gertie Messinger, posing at an art exhibit in Los Angeles with a bust of “Lucky Lindbergh” sculpted by Irene Hundt Rundquist.

August 9, 2012 /

Hey, kittens! When it climbs into the hundreds we get to talk about the weather. It never snows here, except in 1932, and the big storm of 1949. New Yorkers might call it sweater weather when the thermometer plunges, but… Right now it’s positively toasty so take a gander at…

August 8, 2012 /

That’s William Wyler on the set of THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. His pithy comments are well documented (especially in these posts!). Here’s my new favorite quip from a brilliant director (yes, yes, we continue to be… somewhat discrete) while guiding a hapless performer through a difficult scene: “Do…

August 6, 2012 /

Dr. William H. Pickering of JPL explains the satellite, Explorer II, in 1958.