Author, Anne Carter's Novel Cape Seduction Ties to The Oscar Season

I haven't seen "Slumdog Millionaire." Until the Golden Globes, I hadn't even heard of it. EIGHT Oscars! It seems like that happens a lot; a great movie wins, but takes several other categories along the way. I guess it makes sense. And don’t feel bad if you hadn’t heard of it either; after a showing at the Telluride Film Festival in August, 2008, Slumdog

Millionaire debuted with a limited North American release on 12 November 2008, followed by a nationwide release in the United States on 23 January 2009. That limited 2008 release made it eligible for the '08 award.

Have you ever wondered if the recipients know in advance that they've won or lost? Officially, the Academy holds to its rule that winners names are, indeed, sealed in those precious envelopes. In early years, winning names were given to newspapers in advance so that they could get the information into their editions before press time. However, it is said that the Los Angeles Times once leaked the results prior to the broadcast, effectively ruining the evening and the mystery.

In 1948, both Rosalind Russell (shown here) and Loretta Young were up for best actress. The story goes that Russell had everything going for her, including the best PR representation in town. Variety had already typeset her victory for the next day's edition. So certain was she of her win, she began to rise from her seat before Frederic March could utter the words "Loretta Young for the Farmer's Daughter". Not to be shamed by her erroneous assumption, Russell continued to her feet and led an astonished crowd in a standing ovation. That's class.

Why am I so well-versed in this detailed minutia? Because the opening scene of my upcoming romantic mystery, CAPE SEDUCTION, reprises this very night at the Shrine Auditorium in Hollywood. I'm a sucker for old Hollywood, for its glamour, its mystery, its unapologetic excess. Oscar night is one of those almost historic rituals that epitomizes and keeps alive, to some extent, that golden era.

~Anne

Anne Carter is the author of paranormal romantic mystery, POINT SURRENDER, from Echelon Press, Amazon and Fictionwise. Visit Anne at BeaconStreetBooks.com and the Word From Beacon Street

The Oscars are Coming

The Oscars are Coming

by Brett L. Abrams

1/24/09

This week, Hollywood announced its 2009 Oscar nominations. The awards ceremony will be telecast live in primetime by ABC on Sunday, February 22.

Historian Brett Abrams explores Hollywood’s roots in his book,

Hollywood Bohemians.

My curiosity about people and places has always been especially focused on the US entertainment and leisure worlds. The film culture forges a highly dramatic environment filled with stars who bask in the limelight and adulation of fans. Yet there is always a place for role players who can rise to prominence with one amazing performance. In Hollywood Bohemians, we learn how the early publicity machine around the stars forged Hollywood’s identity.

Research is detective work. There is a range of likely sources of information that one keeps in mind---local newspapers, industry publications, the papers of notable persons and organizations. I read all these sources for insight into the issues and I also look for new names and details to follow-up additional sources and ideas. I take notes everywhere I go. I whip out pen and paper anywhere that I may be and write in short bursts, from coffee houses to standing at the bus stop. I notice that I get a lot of my ideas after random contacts.

So many unusual stories about Hollywood exist that I had to fight the impulse to share them with the people around me. I laughed when I read that during Rudolph Valentino’s divorce trial, his wife testified that he liked using her perfume. It surprised me to learn that Spencer Tracy had a public romance with Loretta Young years before his relationship with Katherine Hepburn. Unbelievably, a Life magazine caption for a photograph of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard called them a couple, while mentioning that Gable was still married to another woman.

Making these stories available to the public is part of what I relish about writing history, being an archivist, and teaching. Archivists play a key role in saving original information sources that preserve the nation’s history. We make information available to others who then write new incredible stories about our world. Teaching the history of sexuality and romance, and particularly the roles that the media have in shaping our understanding of these concepts, offers me the opportunity to share stories--those I have written and those of others.

Brett Abrams is Historian in Residence at American University and Archivist at the National Archives. He is the author of Hollywood Bohemians: Transgressive Sexuality and the Selling of the Movieland Dream.

www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3929-4

Visit the author at
www.bla2222.wordpress.com.