Author Archive
Searchlights and Shadows, by Martin Turnbull
Reviews for Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull: 5 STARS I embarrassed myself several times (in a good way) as I openly wept in public during several scenes in the book. I found them sensitively written and quite affecting. … I’m actually pretty blown away how much this series has swept me away and held my […]
Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull
Reviews for Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull:Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull 5 STARS I literally just finished Citizen Hollywood, the third in Martin Turnbull’s “The Garden of Allah” novels. Once again he has delivered. Gwendolyn, Katherine and Marcus are so well developed that you feel like they are old friends. The way Martin brings old Hollywood to life is a joy and I find myself wishing I had been a part of it. Since reading the trilogy, I can’t watch an old movie with Orson Wells, Tallulah Bankhead, Errol Flynn, Humprey Bogart, et al, without thinking about the residents of The Garden and wondering how Gwendolyn, Katherine and Marcus would feel about how their movies have stood the test of time and what Hollywood has become over the years… Please tell me there is a fourth book on the way. 5 STARS Having read the other two already (and out of order), I bought the 3rd one last Friday night and finished it Saturday night. I literally stopped for bio breaks and food….that’s it. I love the characters with all their flaws – they seem real – and the period seems spot on. I moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and love all the history. Very familiar with the area where the Garden of Allah used to be. I’ve already emailed the author to see when the next book is coming out. Hope you enjoy the series as much as I do. 5 STARS I’m completely hooked on this series. The characters are completely affable and I love the plot. It’s the kind of book that you don’t want to end because it’s so enjoyable, yet you compulsively keep turning the page thus ending the journey too early. I look forward to reading more. Mr. Turnbull is a master at cliffhangers, breathes vivid life into long gone celebrities in a manner that allows one to live vicariously through the story’s hero and heroines. This is a great and fascinating period in entertainment history and is thoroughly a worthwhile read. Have fun! From the publisher’s description: Hollywood, 1939: When Tinseltown begins to woo wunderkind Orson Welles, he stashes himself at the Chateau Marmont until he’s ready to make his splashy entrance. But gossip columnist Kathryn Massey knows he’s there. Kathryn has been on the outs with Hollywood since her ill-fated move to Life magazine, but now that she’s back at the Hollywood Reporter, she’s desperate to find the Next Big Thing. Scooping Welles’ secret retreat would put her back on the map, but by the time she hears rumors about his dangerous new movie, she’s fallen prey to his charms. She needs to repair her reputation, find out if Welles will take on the tycoon, and extricate herself from an affair with a man whose kisses make her melt like milk chocolate. Hollywood writers are only as good as their last screen credit, but Marcus Adler is still scrambling for his first. His Strange Cargo will star Clark Gable after Gone with the Wind wraps, but Machiavellian studio politics mean Marcus’ name might not make it to the screen. It’s time to play No More Mr. Nice Guy. Opportunity knocks when his boss challenges the writing department to outdo The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Marcus is confident—until the love of his life bursts back onto the scene. How can he write another word until he knows for once and for all whether he and Ramon Navarro will be together? And to make matters worse, it seems like someone in town is trying to sabotage him Everyone knows if you haven’t made it in Hollywood by the time you’re thirty, it’s curtains . . . and Gwendolyn Brick is starting to panic. She’s considering moving to a naval base in the Philippines with her baby brother, but she wants to give Hollywood one last go before she gives up. When she saves Twentieth Century Fox honcho Daryl F. Zanuck from an appalling fate at a poker game that goes awry, he rewards her with a chance at a role in a major movie. Gwendolyn needs to win before her ship sets sail. When William Randolph Hearst realizes Citizen Kane is based on him, he won’t be happy—and when Hearst isn’t happy, nobody’s safe. Marcus, Kathryn, and Gwendolyn need to go for broke, and the clock is ticking. Citizen Hollywood is the third in Martin Turnbull’s series of historical novels set during Hollywood’s golden age.   Martin Turnbull is a co-founder of the Alla Nazimova Society.
Los Angeles Playbill for production of Ibsen’s “Ghosts” starring Alla Nazimova at the Biltmore Theatre, 1936
Not only did Madame Nazimova star in the production, but she directed it too! More information on Erlanger’s Biltmore Theater: Performing Arts Archive Historic Los Angeles Theaters – downtown  
  • Martin Turnbull | Feb 12, 2014
  • Section: Blog
Alla Nazimova is included in a set of (non-traditional) matryoshka dolls by Alex Chowaniec
  From Juxtapoz.com: I first met Alex Chowaniec 4 years ago when we were both showing in a pop-up gallery in San Francisco.  Now both in NY, we swapped studio visits on a winter afternoon. I was excited to hear about her project questioning cultural traditions in contemporary Russia. A friend gifted Alex a set […]
  • Martin Turnbull | Feb 12, 2014
  • Section: Blog
“MME. NAZIMOVA HAS HANDSOME NEW HOME”
After acquiring a mansion at 8080 Sunset Blvd. (or 8152 Sunset, depending on who’s counting) in 1918, Alla Nazimova spent six years living in the home she somewhat facetiously dubbed “The Garden of Alla” (referring to an enormously popular 1904 novel The Garden of Allah by Robert Smythe Hichens). What is rarely mentioned is that […]
  • Martin Turnbull | Oct 11, 2013
  • Section: Blog
“Famous Film Folk: A Gallery Of Life Portraits And Biographies” by Charles Donald Fox
"Famous Film Folk: A Gallery Of Life Portraits And Biographies" by Charles Donald Fox “Famous Film Folk: A Gallery Of Life Portraits And Biographies” by Charles Donald Fox was originally published in 1925, and then reissued in 2012. It contains an entry on Alla Nazimova.
“Alla Nazimova, my aunt; a personal memoir” by Lucy Olga Lewton
"Alla Nazimova, my aunt; a personal memoir" by Lucy Olga LewtonIf you have any information on this book, especially if you have a photo of the cover, please let us know.
Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969, by William J. Mann
Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969From the publisher’s book description:
Whether in or out of the closet, gays and lesbians played an essential role in shaping studio-era Hollywood. Gay actors (J. Warren Kerrigan, Marlene Dietrich, Rock Hudson), gay directors (George Cukor, James Whale, Dorothy Arzner), and gay set and costume designers (Adrian, Travis Banton, George James Hopkins) have been among the most influential individuals in Hollywood history and literally created the Hollywood mystique. This landmark study-based on seven years of exacting research and including unpublished memoirs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and scrapbooks-explores the experience of Hollywood’s gays in the context of their times. Ranging from Hollywood’s working conditions to the rowdy character of Los Angeles’s gay underground, William J. Mann brings long overdue attention to every aspect of this powerful creative force.
“The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood” by Diana McLennan
"The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood" by Diana McLennanFrom the publisher’s book description:
THE GIRLS lifts the veil on the private lives of early Hollywood’s most powerful and uninhibited goddesses…The most unforgettable and immortal women of Hollywood’s golden era thrilled to a hidden world of exciting secrets. In THE GIRLS, Diana McLellan reveals the complex and intimate connections that roiled behind the public personae of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and the women who loved them. Previously unseen FBI files, private correspondence and a trove of unpublished documents reveal a chain of lesbian affairs that moved from the theater world of New York through the heights of chic society to embed itself in the power structure of the movie business.
Hollywood Bohemians: Transgressive Sexuality and the Selling of the Movieland Dreams, by Brett L. Abrams
On the cover: Alla Nazimova in a still from "Eye For Eye" (1918)From the publisher’s book description:
Between 1917 and 1941, Hollywood studios, gossip columnists and novelists featured an unprecedented number of homosexuals, cross-dressers, and adulterers in their depictions of the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle. Actress Greta Garbo defined herself as the ultimate serial bachelorette. Screenwriter Mercedes De Acosta engaged in numerous lesbian relationships with the Hollywood elite. And countless homosexual designers brazenly picked up men in the hottest Hollywood nightclubs. Hollywood’s image grew as a place of sexual abandon. This book demonstrates how studios and the media used images of these sexually adventurous characters to promote the industry and appeal to the prurient interests of their audiences. Illustrations, notes, bibliography and index.