Introduction

Set against the dazzling backdrop of Golden Age Hollywood, novelist Anne Girard tells the enchanting story of Jean Harlow, one of the most iconic stars in the history of film 

It's the Roaring Twenties and seventeen-year-old Harlean Carpenter McGrew has run off to Beverly Hills. She's chasing a dream—to escape her small, Midwestern life and see her name in lights. 

In California, Harlean has everything a girl could want—a rich husband, glamorous parties, socialite friends—except an outlet for her talent. But everything changes when a dare pushes her to embrace her true ambition—to be an actress on the silver screen. With her timeless beauty and striking shade of platinum-blond hair, Harlean becomes Jean Harlow. And as she's thrust into the limelight, Jean learns that this new world of opportunity comes with its own set of burdens. Torn between her family and her passion to perform, Jean is forced to confront the difficult truth—that fame comes at a price, if only she's willing to pay it. 

Amid a glittering cast of ingenues and Hollywood titans—Clara Bow, Clark Gable, Laurel and Hardy, Howard Hughes—Platinum Doll introduces us to the star who would shine brighter than them all.

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Excerpt

Harlean sat for a moment, taking in the activity of the back lot. Huge props were being wheeled past groups of actors, and other workers were pushing stuffed racks of costumes. Harlean was figiting with her wedding band and finally growing restless, after almost thirty minutes of waiting, when a man in a gray three-piece business suit and felt homburg walked briskly past the car, and then he did a double take.

Panic set in because surely he was going to ask her to leave. As he approached the car, she tried to think of something clever to say, a plausible reason why she was parked here so he wouldn’t insist that she move along.

“Say, don’t I know you?”

“I don’t think so,” she replied, and her voice broke as she looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun.

“No, honestly, whose wife are you?”

“No one you know,” she returned with caution, but he was undeterred.

He looked down at her appraisingly. “You’re in a new picture then, that’s gotta be it.”

He seemed to be taking her apart with his eyes as he waited for her to reply.

Harlean was surprised at his insistence. She could feel herself trembling like a leaf. “I’m not an actress, I’m waiting for a friend, Rosalie Roy. That’s her stage name.”

“Rosalie, yeah, I know her. She’s a good kid. You sure you’re not an actress?”

“I’m sure.”

He glanced around, then back at her. He seemed hesitant suddenly. “Listen could you, I mean, would you mind stepping out of the car just for a minute?”

Harlean looked at him as she tried to discern if he was flirting with her or about to call a security guard. But if he was flirting, he had a strange way of showing it. Not sure how to say no, she finally opened the car door and stepped out. His visual sweep of her went from head to foot and back again.

“Did you ever think of trying to break into pictures?”

Harlean chuckled as she shook her head at the absurdity of the question.

“I’m only here because Rosalie asked me to give her a lift, honest.”

As an afterthought, he finally introduced himself and reached for her hand. “I’m Bud Ryan, a casting director here.”

“Harlean McGrew,” she said as they shook.

“Can you wait here a minute?”

“I’ll be here till Rosalie comes out.”

“Okay, good. Don’t go anywhere!”

She watched him dash past the line of would-be actresses and inside the casting office, and then she sank against the car and slipped on her sunglasses, feeling entirely embarrassed by the encounter.

When she looked up again, the young man was hurrying back toward her car with Rosalie and two other men. They were older, serious looking, and they were staring at her with curious expressions, even Rosalie.

“See what I mean?” she heard the first one say to the others as they approached.

“So then, what is a dame who sparkles like you doing sitting here if you’re not trying to break into pictures,” one of them asked.

She glanced over at Rosalie, whose usual cheery smile seemed hidden behind something that looked like a glimmer of envy.

“I was just waiting for her, that’s all. Tell ‘em, Rosie.”

Rosalie was silent.

“Well, miss, whatever your story is, I want you to take this,” the shorter of the two men said as he began to write something on his clipboard.

Harlean saw Rosalie look away.

“It’s a letter of introduction to the Central Casting Bureau. All three of us are gonna sign it.”

“That’s awfully nice of you, but honest, I’m not—”

“Listen sweetheart, everyone has a story, so you don’t need to sell us. Dave is definitely gonna want to see you.”

“Dave Allen is the top guy over at Central Casting. It’s at the corner of Hollywood and Western Avenue. Head over there right now and give his secretary this letter.”

She didn’t want to be seen. It was really the last thing she wanted but she had been raised always to be polite. “Thank you,” she said as she took the letter and pressed it into her handbag. “Are you ready, Rosalie?” she asked, then stepped back into the car and started the engine.

As they drove off the Fox lot and back out onto Sunset Boulevard, she could feel Rosalie’s reproving glare. “I’ve been trying to get that kind of attention in this town for over a year. All you do is sit there and they come to you like three foxes about to raid the henhouse.”

“I didn’t do anything, Rosie, I swear.”

“I know. And that’s what makes it so damn frustrating! And where do you think you’re going? This isn’t the way to Central Casting.”

“You’re right, it isn’t. I’m going home. I told them I don’t want to be an actress, and that’s the truth.”

*** view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

1) Shortly after their arrival in Hollywood, Harlean declares that she has no interest in becoming an actress. Do you think she actually believed that of herself at that point?



2) Mother Jean and Harlean have a complex relationship throughout the novel. Did you find yourself understanding Harlean’s inability to stand up to her mother, or was that relationship difficult to read about? How did their uses of the terms “Mommie” and “Baby” for each other strike you?



3) Chuck and Harlean had a tumultuous, short-lived marriage. For its demise, did you find yourself blaming their youth or Mother Jean’s influence more? Could anything have changed what happened?

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