Category Archives: Los Angeles

All I do is dream of you…

September 10, 2016 by Vickie Lester

Hello! This excerpt from my novel in progress is for my friend in Seattle, Scott Parker-Anderson. I’m in a helluva good mood, because after months of being forbidden from typing (separated my shoulder joint, long story, tell ya later) I am back at the keyboard. For those of you who have read It’s in His Kiss by Vickie Lester you will recognize Anne, that book’s fish-out-of-water Hollywood heroine in a much younger incarnation… *** And thus, Anne Brown and […]

Categories: Advertising, Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, Gardening, History, Hollywood, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Short Stories, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting, #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, Hollywood behind the scenes, Hollywood insider, How to get ahead in Hollywood, Movie Mogul, Mulholland Drive, peccadilloes, roman à clef, studio head

Taminella Concept from The Frog Prince, Jim Henson

“Bake the hall in the candle of her brain…” Vickie Lester’s literary antecedents revealed

September 9, 2016 by Vickie Lester

I know, I know… You were probably thinking with the L.A. influence coupled with a long spell in an English girl’s school that my literary inspirations would be a cross between Joan Didion and Evelyn Waugh. Far from it, my angels! My writerly consciousness was largely shaped by the Muppets.

Categories: Art, Books, Culture, Design, Education, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Literature, London, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, Bake the hall in the candle of her brain, English girl's school, how the Muppets molded me, Jim Henson, Joan Didion, Taminella Concept from The Frog Prince, Vickie Lester is writing a new novel, Vickie Lester of sun and splash L.A. lived in venerable old London, Vickie Lester's literary antecedents revealed

The Not So Secret Origin of my first novel, or, It’s in His Kiss by Vickie Lester

September 8, 2016 by Vickie Lester

That’s me in a grungy corner of a set sometime in the late eighties. You can tell by the garish knitwear and the helmet of curls… I’ve been rattling around this part of the world for a long time, probably longer than some of you (dear readers) have been alive. During that time I took some things as a matter of course, and other things just stuck in my tiny mind. Things I couldn’t openly talk about, some of it […]

Categories: Advertising, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Mystery, Palm Springs, Photography, Publishing, Romance, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Writing • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, behind the scenes in Hollywood, Hollywood facts fictionalized, How to get ahead in Hollywood, on set, roman à clef, script girl

Where I get my ideas for Hollywood novels…

September 1, 2016 by Vickie Lester

September 1st! Where has the time gone? I spent the spring doing a remodel on my house, and the ensuing months recovering from a shoulder injury. I was warned off sitting for hours on the computer, and thus I have been barely a presence here, and I haven’t worked on my second novel at all, but once in a while I post a picture on Instagram… toobeguiling (click here to follow me on Insta) #itsinhiskissbyvickielester… “He had wooed the unwary […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Entertainment, Fiction, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: #amwriting, #hollywoodnovel, #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, #RudolphValentino, behind the scenes, Classic Movies, Hollywood history, Hollywood Hotel, Movie Star, Old Hollywood

Tony Curtis on cross-dressing… Some Like it Hot

August 16, 2016 by Vickie Lester

Tony Curtis — Orry-Kelly did the dresses for Marilyn Monroe, and Jack and I were going to wear clothes out of Western Costumes. So I went to Western Costumes and they fitted us out in these dresses that belonged to Loretta Young and Kate Smith and Debbie Reynolds and Lola Momez, they took all our measurements… and none of them fit. They all puckered tight up and I didn’t like them, I didn’t like the idea that these women had […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Music, Photography, Relationships, Story, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, behind the scenes, Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Orry-Kelly, the making of Some Like it Hot, Tony Curtis, Tony Curtis in a dress

Making movies in Mother Russia

August 6, 2016 by Vickie Lester

My uncle, who is retired (and very, very aged), used to travel the world. He was a Hollywood Production Designer. A title he scoffed at, preferring the old-school moniker, Art Director. He often sniffed, “King Cameron Menzies, what’re ya gonna do?” Uncle, once a medical student whose aspirations shifted in the gore on the beaches of Normandy, drafted up skyscrapers, and Spanish galleons, and space ships, and made them all into movie sets. The last movie he worked on was […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Crime, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Politics, Relationships, Short Stories, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, Bentley, canary in a coal mine, Chaika, film history, Hollywood, Marlene Dietrich, Production Designer, St. Petersburg, William Cameron Menzies

It’s a Frank Lloyd Wright! And bring an umbrella…

August 6, 2016 by Vickie Lester

Hello kittens, I thought I’d show you this – La Miniatura – draped off in tarps against the weather. Talk about maintenance! The house was originally commissioned by a rare book dealer… Paper… Water… Paper… Anything wrong here? As a follow up to the previous post (in a round about kind of way) I quote my uncle, “Frank Lloyd Wright, great designer, piss poor engineer.” Okay, okay, okay. A phenomenal designer, built in 1923 photographed in 1939: .

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Film, Gardening, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Relationships, Short Stories, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Weather, Writing • Tags: #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, art deco, behind the scenes, concrete block, designer, film, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollywood, La Miniatura, rare books

Cedric Gibbons – design genius – husband of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood – philanderer

August 6, 2016 by Vickie Lester

My uncle – when he still drove – used to take me on architectural tours of Los Angeles. We saw Frank Lloyd Wright’s leaky La Miniatura in a rain storm. We checked out a Neutra belonging to a friend of his that was perched in the Hollywood Hills and had jetliner views. I saw the legendary art director Cedric Gibbon’s estate in Santa Monica well before Joe Roth sold it (if you want to see it on film watch: TO […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Gardening, History, Hollywood, Humor, Los Angeles, Marriage, Movies, Photography, Relationships, Short Stories, Story, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, art deco, behind the scenes, Cedric Gibbons, Dolores Del Rio, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollywood, Neutra, Old Hollywood