Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary: Her Private Letters from Inside the Studios of the 1920s

Product DescriptionAdventures of a Hollywood Secretary is an insider’s view of the film studios of the 1920s and the first from a secretary’s perspective. Rich in gossip, it is also an eyewitness report of Hollywood in transition. In the summer of 1924, Valeria Belletti and her friend Irma visited California, but instead of returning home to New York, the twenty-six-year-old Valeria decided to stay in Los Angeles. She moved into the YWCA, landed a job as Samuel Goldwyn's personal and social secretary and proceeded to trip over history in the making. As she recounts in her dozens of letters to Irma, Valeria Belletti encountered every type of Hollywood player in the course of her working day: moguls, directors, stars, writers, and hopeful extras. She shares news about Valentino's affairs, Sam Goldwyn's bootlegger, the development of the “talkies,” her own role in helping to cast Gary Cooper in his first major part and much more often in hilarious detail. She writes of her living and working conditions, her active social life, and her hopes for the future all the everyday concerns of a young working woman during the jazz age. Alternating sophistication with naiveté, Valeria’s letters intimately document a personal journey while giving us a unique portrait of a fascinating era.From The New YorkerIn 1924, Valeria Beletti, a twenty-six-year-old from New Jersey, moved to Los Angeles and got a job as the personal secretary to the studio head Samuel Goldwyn. In spare moments, she wrote a series of chatty, heartfelt letters to a friend back home. She describes Goldwyn's mercurial temper; encounters with stars like Valentino and the young Ronald Colman; gossip about Charlie Chaplin and Marion Davies; the traumatic arrival of sound; and her own success in bringing a handsome young actor named Gary Cooper to the studio's attention. A mass of satisfying detail about early Hollywood suggests that essential features haven't changed much. "I know you would enjoy these people," Beletti tells her friend, "even though you have to more or less overlook their moral characters."Copyright © 2006 The New YorkerReview"Valeria's letters are candid, lively, and inescapably charming... Historian Cari Beauchamp, puts Valeria's letters in a smart and illuminating context." -- BookforumFrom the Inside Flap"Valeria Belletti's letters to her good friend Irma are sure to be devoured by all who want an inside look at Hollywood in the twenties. These letters make for some of the most fascinating reading about the goings on at the studios in one of their greatest eras. Cari Beauchamp's editing provides a superb read, and is not to be missed by all who love and laugh at the world of movie-making."Mary Lea Bandy, Chief Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, New YorkPlucky Italian Jersey girl moves to the Coast, survives Sam Goldwyn. Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary is an intelligent, clear-eyed view into '20s Hollywood and the psyche of the women who worked within it.John Sayles"At last, a delightful insider's account of stars and studios in 1920s Hollywood told by the one person who really knows and never tells-the secretary! Elegantly edited and annotated by Cari Beauchamp."Mollie Gregory, author of Women Who Run the Show"I greatly enjoyed reading Valeria's lettersshe fell in love with Hollywood and the romance of movie making much as I did when I got my first job as a reader at RKO in the thirties. She gives us a rare glimpse of a memorable era."Fay Kanin, Award winning screenwriter and four-term president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesFrom the Back Cover"Valeria Belletti's letters to her good friend Irma are sure to be devoured by all who want an inside look at Hollywood in the twenties. These letters make for some of the most fascinating reading about the goings on at the studios in one of their greatest eras. Cari Beauchamp's editing provides a superb read, and is not to be missed by all wh
Author: Belletti, Valeria

Publisher: University of California Press

Binding: Paperback

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0520247809

ISBN-13: 9780520247802