Elsa Emerson grows up in small town Wisconsin, in a
household that is also the local playhouse theater. Every
summer, young actors come and stay with the family and put
on shows in the converted barn, inspiring a love of show
business in Elsa and her two younger sisters Hildy and
Josephine.
Elsa makes her escape from her small town life by marrying
an aspiring actor who is heading for Hollywood, a move that
becomes a misery to her but also the vehicle to the life
she wants. When she meets studio manager Irving Green, he
turns out to be the answer to her dreams, both personal and
professional. He changes her from a wholesome blonde to a
sexy brunette, and gives her a new name of Laura Lamont.
For awhile, her life is perfect. But life doesn't offer
nicely packaged happy endings like is seen in the movies.
Laura's life goes through a lot of twists and turns
before it's all over and done.
With her debut novel, LAURA LAMONT'S LIFE IN PICTURES,
author Emma Straub takes her readers right to the golden
days of the Hollywood. She gives a great depiction of how
the movie studio system worked back then, where the studio
took over every aspect of the actor's life. Straub also
scatters some great cameos throughout her story with
cleverly disguised celebrities, such as Lucille Ball, Jack
Warner, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, interacting with
the main character Laura as she negotiates the tricky life
of show business.
LAURA LAMONT'S LIFE IN PICTURES is a captivating look at
Old Hollywood, and is a fast-moving adventure that readers,
especially fans of the Golden Age of Film, are sure to
enjoy.
The enchanting story of a midwestern girl who escapes a
family tragedy and is remade as a movie star during
Hollywood’s golden age.
In 1920, Elsa Emerson, the youngest and blondest of three
sisters, is born in idyllic Door County, Wisconsin. Her
family owns the Cherry County Playhouse, and more than
anything, Elsa relishes appearing onstage, where she soaks
up the approval of her father and the embrace of the
audience. But when tragedy strikes her family, her acting
becomes more than a child¹s game of pretend.
While still in her teens, Elsa marries and flees to Los
Angeles. There she is discovered by Irving Green, one of the
most powerful executives in Hollywood, who refashions her as
a serious, exotic brunette and renames her Laura Lamont.
Irving becomes Laura’s great love; she becomes an Academy
Award-winning actress—and a genuine movie star. Laura
experiences all the glamour and extravagance of the heady
pinnacle of stardom in the studio-system era, but ultimately
her story is a timeless one of a woman trying to balance
career, family, and personal happiness, all while remaining
true to herself.
Ambitious and richly imagined, Laura Lamont’s Life in
Pictures is as intimate—and as bigger-than-life—as the great
films of the golden age of Hollywood. Written with warmth
and verve, it confirms Emma Straub’s reputation as one of
the most exciting new talents in fiction.
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