Category: Writing

September 23, 2015 / Vickie Lester

The autumnal equinox with Bette Davis, which puts me in mind of forever friends and Hollywood…

If you’re new around here I’ll let you in on the drill. At Beguiling Hollywood I post pictures and historical tidbits, and often that leads me right back to talking about myself. This fall finds me in Boston where my husband, the Mister, is working on a movie and…

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September 21, 2015 / Vickie Lester

Reprise: From Whence Novels Do Come – Unvarnished Vickie Lester

Here I am, sitting on the couch, pondering this post — considering doing something on the photo that inspired my novel — self referential to a degree of great ickiness… Perhaps. I’ll see if I can make it palatable, or not. I like to TALK with people about the process,…

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September 20, 2015 / Vickie Lester

…there was nothing timid or frail about the manner in which Carson McCullers faced life.

I first met Carson McCullers during the war when I was visiting Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith in upstate New York. Carson lived nearby, and one day when Buzz and I were out for a walk she hailed us from her doorway. She was then in her early twenties, and…

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September 20, 2015 / Vickie Lester

Hemingway said that nothing was as rewarding to him as the act of writing itself…

Hemingway said that nothing was as rewarding to him as the act of writing itself, when the words took wing, when the hand followed the thought, and the thought soared, the pen tracing its flight. My only thrill in writing comes after I’ve written something, put it away and then…

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September 19, 2015 / Vickie Lester

Autumn light…is perfect for reading

I believe this is a portrait of Jean Arthur, by a master of 20th century illustration art, Andrew Loomis. See the clear intensity of the colors? They remind me of autumn in L.A. This is one of my favorite times of year, the angle of the sun is lower, the…

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September 17, 2015 / Vickie Lester

Vickie Lester is stepping back and looking at the big picture

I have been contemplating, and not my navel, for the past couple days and have been absent from my post. Soon (ish) I’ll be back chattering and responding to your comments which I apologize for neglecting. I might have something profound to say about social networking — but probably not…

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September 16, 2015 / Vickie Lester

I had the same reaction to “Black Swan” as to “The Red Shoes”…and it involved an eye roll

Apologies if I’ve offended you, or if these are among your favorite movies… The message I gleaned from both films is: *** ballet kills. *** Really? So, if you dance, have talent, discipline, drive, and receive thunderous applause for your efforts you will lose love, go mad, and plunge to…

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September 16, 2015 / Vickie Lester

Vickie Lester used to employ incantations as an analgesic…

I used to do meditation in college to quell some rip-roaring uncontrollable migraines (way before they invented the meds that work), my mantra, my sacred utterance, my numinous phrase (thank you Google)…hold on…was…Baryshnikov. For true. Just saying it STILL calms me down.

September 11, 2015 / Vickie Lester

Got a minute? Stories my mother told me…

Pictured above is Shirley MacLaine in a film (of doubtful entertainment value) called My Geisha, released in 1962. The maternal one was very intrigued by all things Japanese in the early sixties. I have clippings from the paper of her doing esoteric floral arrangements—and I remember when I was…

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September 11, 2015 / Vickie Lester

Fever dreams and fiction, my film world…and the fridge

I thought I was going to lay low blog-wise while I was recuperating, but I had to blurt this one out. First a disclaimer; Dusty Anderson (model who married a director) pictured here in some kind of fifties romper in front of a Los Angeles oil field — is not…

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