Depending on how you measure it, Hollywood’s golden era lasted between 30 and 40 years. Personally, I believe it ran from the 1927 release of Warner Bros.’ The Jazz Singer to 1959, when the studios treated us to some of their let’s-go-out-with-a-bang blockbusters: Ben-Hur, Some Like it Hot, and North by Northwest. (Coincidentally (or not-so-coincidentally) those are the same years the Garden of Allah Hotel was open.) But during that time, there was a particular year when everything came together, when the most talented people were at the top of their game and putting out their best work.

And that year was 1939.

In the space of those twelve short months, moviegoers were treated to some of the most timeless movies to come out of the studio system. Here is just a short list:

Gunga Din (RKO)
Beau Geste (Paramount)
The Women (MGM)
Drums Along the Mohawk (20th Century-Fox)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (RKO)
Union Pacific (Paramount)
The Wizard of Oz (MGM)
Stagecoach (United Artists)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Columbia)
Ninotchka (MGM)
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (20th Century-Fox)
Of Mice and Men (United Artists)

And, of course, the big kahuna:

Gone With the Wind (Selznick International Pictures)

For a while now, my author mind has been whispering in my ear, “There’s got to be a story worth telling in there somewhere.” Over time, the whisper became louder and more insistent until it grew into a nagging shrew I couldn’t ignore. And so when I finished You Must Remember This, book 3 in my WWII-era trilogy, I turned my attention to 1939.

I first read Mark A. Vieira’s Majestic Hollywood: The Greatest Films of 1939, then went onto 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year by Thomas S. Hischak. Soon, the “What Ifs?” were swirling in my head.

What if…a character from outside Los Angeles lands in town?
What if…she arrives as Hollywood is gearing up to have its greatest year?
What if…she finds herself in the eye of a hurricane that nobody knows is happening?

These days, we have the benefit of 21^st century hindsight. We can look back and wisely nod as we tell each other, “Yes, oh, yes, 1939 was the year when Hollywood reached pinnacle moviemaking, and there would never be another quite like it.” But back then, did those people know it? Highly unlikely, I think, but gosh, wouldn’t it be fun to look back with hindsight?

Yes, I decided, it would.

And so now I’m ready to reveal to you a few details of my next novel.

Selznick’s Girl Friday

by
Martin Turnbull

Book 1 in the Hollywood’s Greatest Year trilogy

As with my Hollywood’s Home Front trilogy, what started out as a stand-alone novel fairly quickly showed me there was more story to tell in just one volume. So, yes, Selznick’s Girl Friday kicks off a new trilogy.

And here is the book description:

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Polly Maddox lives under the sheltering wing of Santa Catalina Island, her world as small and idyllic as the isolated cove where her father ran a not-so-secret moonshine operation during Prohibition. But when he’s accused of a startling crime and goes on the lam, Polly’s life capsizes, leaving her with little choice but to flee toward the gleaming mirage of 1939 Los Angeles.

Armed only with lightning-fast fingers and a sharp wit, Polly talks her way into the executive suite of demanding, brilliant movie producer David O. Selznick as he labors over his most ambitious project: a film the rest of Hollywood scornfully dismisses as “Selznick’s Folly.”

As Polly gets swept into the chaos of filming Gone with the Wind, she realizes Selznick may have information about where she might find her father—but does he have murky motives of his own? Undaunted, Polly forges ahead, but the battle to clear her father’s name thrusts her directly into the path of a ruthless insider—and he plays for keeps. Polly must outmaneuver his insidious ploys in a town where favors and fraud reign hand-in-hand.

From the author of the Garden of Allah novels comes book one in the Hollywood’s Greatest Year trilogy. This delightfully nostalgic yet gripping tale promises to transport you to a time when movies were larger than life and Hollywood was reaching its golden zenith.

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You can read the first chapter here ahead of the June 2024 release.

As ever, thanks so much for your interest!

Martin Turnbull