Category: Audio
January 16, 2021 /

Episode 35. You made it! The last chapter of Hollywood & Mine

January 2, 2021 /

Episode 33. Hollywood is very pretty, but people grow old here — not outside, but inside.

January 1, 2021 /

Bye-bye 2020!

I’m not going to enter into the year that was conversation. I think it’s too early. I will say one thing that kept me going this year was being able to read to you in a podcast. In my isolation it was one way I could contribute, if only to…

Read the postBye-bye 2020!
December 6, 2020 /

Now we come to episode 25 of the novel, in the words of Katharine Hepburn — life is hard, after all, it kills you.

November 15, 2020 /

Episode 20. Jane was steaming out a gown that was draping, gathered, a form fitting sheath with a train and veil that looked like it had been stored pristinely, waiting for this day, since the 1930s. “Madeleine Vionnet,” Jane explained, “she did this for my grandmother.”

Chapter 18 begins with a quote from Bette Davis: I’d marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he’d be dead within a year. On a Saturday following the first week of shooting, I woke, and for…

Read the postEpisode 20. Jane was steaming out a gown that was draping, gathered, a form fitting sheath with a train and veil that looked like it had been stored pristinely, waiting for this day, since the 1930s. “Madeleine Vionnet,” Jane explained, “she did this for my grandmother.”
November 14, 2020 /

Episode 19. The dog walker had a reputation in town for being deft and diplomatic, the kid who once lived in his car had his fingers to the pulse of current events — how would a former nanny be perceived? It depended entirely on how much money my movie made.

  There’s nothing a man can do, that I can’t do better and in heels. So said Ginger Rogers, and thus begins chapter 17. There are so many myths on which the reality of Hollywood is based. Some are funny and fun, some are sad, and some are desperate. I…

Read the postEpisode 19. The dog walker had a reputation in town for being deft and diplomatic, the kid who once lived in his car had his fingers to the pulse of current events — how would a former nanny be perceived? It depended entirely on how much money my movie made.
November 13, 2020 /

Episode 18. Under an engineer’s iron guidance the silent film star’s aerie was remodeled, stripped of original architectural character, and sold for enough cabbage to deposit Engineer and Executive in a ticky-tacky enclave for millionaires off the 405.

I’m feeling celebratory, so there will be three chapters of Hollywood & Mine going up this weekend. This is episode 18 (chapter 16, for those of you keeping track) and it starts with a quote from good old Greta Garbo: If only those who dream about Hollywood knew how difficult…

Read the postEpisode 18. Under an engineer’s iron guidance the silent film star’s aerie was remodeled, stripped of original architectural character, and sold for enough cabbage to deposit Engineer and Executive in a ticky-tacky enclave for millionaires off the 405.
October 31, 2020 /

16. “Don’t be afraid to be as angry or as loving as you can…” Lena Horne

October 25, 2020 /

14. “The American dream is a term that is often used but often misunderstood. It really isn’t about becoming rich and famous. It is about things much simpler and fundamental than that.” Dorothy Dandridge

At the onset of our thirties we, the former nannies, while ascending the career ladder, found our personal lives lagging. Polly found her male peers juvenile – emotionally immature and adolescent in their delight at attaining useless things. Darla made a three year, nine million dollar TV development deal and…

Read the post14. “The American dream is a term that is often used but often misunderstood. It really isn’t about becoming rich and famous. It is about things much simpler and fundamental than that.” Dorothy Dandridge
October 24, 2020 /

13. “You’re only as good as your last picture.”

Unlike Mr. Booker, Bob Brown was not a man who, he liked to say, “Waded through god damn minutia,” especially the finer points of male versus female behavior. Bob Brown tended to set goals and chart practical points to achieve them. He thought of himself as an integral, fundamental, part…

Read the post13. “You’re only as good as your last picture.”