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
Hollywoodβs 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 childΒΉs 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 Lauraβs great love; she becomes an Academy
AwardΒ-winning actressβand 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 Lamontβs Life in
Pictures is as intimateβand as bigger-than-lifeβas the great
films of the golden age of Hollywood. Written with warmth
and verve, it confirms Emma Straubβs reputation as one of
the most exciting new talents in fiction.
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