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| At The Limits of Limelight book launch |
Two nights ago, at my book launch for The Limits of Limelight, during the question and answer time, a friend asked, “What was the
hardest part of writing this novel?”
Without hesitation,
I replied, “Peg Entwistle.”
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| Peg |
Immersed in her
life, thanks to the exceptionally detailed and brilliantly researched biography
by the late James Zeruk, Jr., there was a great heaviness on my heart and
spirits. As a renowned stage performer, and a promising film actress, she deserved
a much happier fate than the one she chose for herself.
Peg was born in Port Talbot, Wales, to an English theatrical family that worked on both sides of the Atlantic. Her parents divorced, her father died, and she and her two stepbrothers were raised by her aunt and uncle, who had settled in Los Angeles. But Peg's sights were set on the stage, so as soon as she was old enough, she headed East. Unlike many stage-struck teens, she enjoyed rapid and meteoric success.
I’ve known a
little bit about Peg for a long time. Enough to believe that she must have
needed a close and supportive friend in those final months, weeks, and days. So
I gave her Phyllis. My novel’s main character. They were
definitely acquainted with each another, put under contract by RKO at the same,
time along with the other young beauties dubbed “The Baby Stars.”
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| Phyllis & Peg in makeup class at RK) |
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| RKO's "Baby Stars" |
Both were cast in David Selznick’s pet project, Thirteen Women, with Myrna
Loy and Irene Dunne, and many more. Peg had a significant role, which was
drastically reduced in the final edit—for reasons my novel reveals. Phyllis had
a minor role, and was cut out of the movie entirely.
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| Lobby card for Thirteen Women |
On the night of September
16, Peg walked from the Beechwood Drive home of her aunt and uncle, scaled the
steep and rocky path leading to the Hollywoodland sign—in her younger years, she’d
observed its construction, the laborers and trucks had passed by her house. She’d
even climbed onto it, with her brothers, for fun.
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| The Hollywoodland sign from Peg's street |
Motivated by despair
and disappointment, all too conscious of her own mistakes, depressed about her dire financial situation and a run of bad
luck, she made her final ascent.
Her body, lying in
a ravine, was spotted by a female hiker, who reported the discovery to the
police. It wasn’t recovered until after dark. Her relatives didn’t learn what
had happened until they read the newspaper—two days after Peg’s disappearance.
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| A report of her death |
The legends about Peg, whose gardenia-scented ghost reportedly haunts the neighbourhood where she lived and died, and assumptions made about her, are endless. And often erroneous. Like her biographer, I feel
too little attention is given to her talent, her spiritedness, her persistence,
her love of family and theirs for her, and her optimism—which eventually, tragically, ran out.
The impossibility
of giving Peg a happy ending is another reason writing about her was painful. I
hope in the afterlife, she and James are chatting up a storm. He dedicated
years of his life to presenting the real Peg. He died before I could send him a
copy of The Limits of Limelight, so I’ll never know his response to my
portrayal of her. But I'm forever grateful to him for his lasting legacy--her biography.
