
The Girls in the Picture
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Kimberly Farr
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By:
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Melanie Benjamin
About this listen
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviator’s Wife, a “rich exploration of two Hollywood friends who shaped the movies” (USA Today) - screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford.
“Full of Old Hollywood glamour and true details about the pair’s historic careers...a captivating ode to a legendary bond.” (Real Simple)
Named one of the best books of the year by Real Simple.
It is 1914, and 25-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles, where she is determined to live independently as an artist. But the word on everyone's lips these days is "flickers" - the silent moving pictures enthralling theatergoers. Turn any corner in this burgeoning town and you'll find made-up actors running around, as a movie camera captures it all.
In this fledgling industry, Frances finds her true calling: writing stories for this wondrous new medium. She also makes the acquaintance of actress Mary Pickford, whose signature golden curls and lively spirit have earned her the title "America's Sweetheart". The two ambitious young women hit it off instantly, their kinship fomented by their mutual fever to create, to move audiences to a frenzy, to start a revolution.
But their ambitions are challenged by both the men around them and the limitations imposed on their gender - and their astronomical success could come at a price. As Mary, the world's highest paid and most beloved actress, struggles to live her life under the spotlight, she also wonders if it is possible to find love, even with the dashing actor Douglas Fairbanks. Frances, too, longs to share her life with someone. As in any good Hollywood story, dramas will play out, personalities will clash, and even the deepest friendships might be shattered.
With cameos from such notables as Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Rudolph Valentino, and Lillian Gish, The Girls in the Picture is, at its heart, a story of friendship and forgiveness. Melanie Benjamin perfectly captures the dawn of a glittering new era - its myths and icons, its possibilities and potential, and its seduction and heartbreak.
“A boffo production.... Inspiration is a rare and unexpected gift in a book filled with the fluff of Hollywood, but Benjamin provides it with The Girls in the Picture.” (NPR)
“Profoundly resonant, The Girls in the Picture is at its core, an empowering and fascinating tale of sisterhood.” (Bryce Dallas Howard)
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Critic reviews
"Set at the dawn of Hollywood, The Girls in the Picture explores the friendship between renowned starlet Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion. With the artistry for which she has become renowned, Melanie Benjamin has simultaneously created an insightful tale of the relationship between writer and muse and a breathtaking view into Hollywood's most glittering era." (Pam Jenoff, New York Times best-selling author of The Orphan's Tale)
"Melanie Benjamin's The Girls in the Picture is a scintillating journey back in time to the gritty and glamorous days of old Hollywood. With elegant prose and delicious historical detail, Benjamin delivers a timely tale of female friendship - and the powerful duo who dared to dream beyond the narrow roles into which they'd been cast." (Allison Pataki, New York Times best-selling author of Where the Light Falls and Sisi)
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- Unabridged
-
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Performance
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Nothing bad can happen at the Ritz; inside its gilded walls, every woman looks beautiful, every man appears witty. Favored guests walk through its famous doors to be welcomed and pampered by Blanche Auzello and her husband, Claude, the hotel’s director. Until June 1940, when the German army sweeps into Paris, setting up headquarters at the Ritz. Suddenly, with the likes of Hermann Goëring moving into suites once occupied by royalty, Blanche and Claude must navigate a terrifying new reality. One that entails even more secrets.
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2nd half was good
- By Amazon Customer on 07-05-19
By: Melanie Benjamin
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Curse of Riches
- By: Claire Prentice
- Narrated by: Claire Prentice, Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
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How did the Wendels, one of New York’s most famous Gilded Age families, disappear from history? The Wendels built a fortune from New York real estate, and rubbed shoulders with the Astors, Vanderbilts, and Stuyvesants. But as the 19th century came to an end, the Wendel family tore itself apart. Following six years of painstaking archival research, Claire Prentice has prised open the door of the Wendels’ Fifth Avenue mansion—dubbed “the house of mystery” by the press—to reveal a fascinating and dysfunctional family imprisoned in a gilded cage.
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Kept Waiting for it to be Interesting
- By Mary on 06-23-23
By: Claire Prentice
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The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb
- A Novel
- By: Melanie Benjamin
- Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
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In her national bestseller Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin imagined the life of the woman who inspired Alice in Wonderland. Now, in this jubilant new novel, Benjamin shines a dazzling spotlight on another fascinating female figure whose story has never fully been told: a woman who became a nineteenth century icon and inspiration—and whose most daunting limitation became her greatest strength.
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Amazing
- By Darrell Rupe on 08-17-11
By: Melanie Benjamin
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The Children's Blizzard
- A Novel
- By: Melanie Benjamin
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a punishing cold spell. It was warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota Territory to venture out again and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats - leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard blew in without warning. Schoolteachers as young as 16 were suddenly faced with life-and-death decisions.
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Homesteaders
- By Phyllis Relyea on 01-22-21
By: Melanie Benjamin
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In the Shadow of the Greenbrier
- By: Emily Matchar
- Narrated by: Gilli Messer
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Nestled in the hills of West Virginia lies White Sulphur Springs, home to the Greenbrier Resort. Long a playground for presidents and film stars, the Greenbrier has its own gravitational pull. Over ten decades, four generations of the Zelner family must grapple with their place in its shadow . . . and within their own family.
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So Many Stereotypes Reinforced (I Really Wanted to Like This Book)
- By JRC 318 on 03-22-24
By: Emily Matchar
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The Cloister
- A Novel
- By: James Carroll
- Narrated by: James Carroll
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Father Michael Kavanagh is shocked when he sees a friend from his seminary days named Runner Malloy at the altar of his humble parish in upper Manhattan - a friend who was forced to leave under scandalous circumstances. Compelled to reconsider the past, Father Kavanagh wanders into the medieval haven of the Cloisters and stumbles into a conversation with a lovely and intriguing docent, Rachel Vedette.
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Reading Cadence
- By Barbara on 05-16-18
By: James Carroll
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America's First Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 23 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, best-selling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph - a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.
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Great Story Great Narration
- By MissSusie66 on 03-30-16
By: Stephanie Dray, and others
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A Map to Paradise
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation. Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore.
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Not my favorite from my favorite author.
- By Ginger on 03-28-25
By: Susan Meissner
Fabulous
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Disappointing
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More Fran, a little less Mary.
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interesting subject, a bit melodramatic
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Narration kills it
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Stick with it
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You will want to know more...
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beautiful story of two women
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As for the narration: Kimberly Farr is a fantastic actress, and I will definitely listen to other books she narrates.
Melanie Benjamin is the master of this genre.
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I never knew much about Mary Pickford and I knew nothing about screen writer Frances Marion. It is truly amazing how much women influenced the movies.
Although almost all studio heads were men, this industry paved the way for the women of today.
I am grateful to these women who let nothing stop them and realized the force that women’s friendship could make almost anything possible.
If you’re a movie buff-this book is for you!
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