The Glamour Girls

Part of the Encore Film Book Classics series, this is a reprint of the original text of The Glamour Girls by James Robert Parish and Don E. Stanke. Dwelling in their own special solar system—far beyond mere film stardom or talent, are the Hollywood beauties known as Glamour Girls. Some were little more than animated mannequins daydreaming through movies, human May flies who soared, dazzled, and died all on the same day. Others were far more fortunate. Blessed with ability and determination, they broke free of their golden fetters and showed moviegoers that they were far more than store-window dummies. The most artificial creations of an artificial-loving business, Hollywood’s Glamour Girls were cinema’s Blessed Goddesses. In The Glamour Girls, nine of them are recalled—their films, their off-screen lives, and their special and highly varied brands of witchcraft. JOAN BENNETT—She only wanted to be a normal, upper-class flapper . . . YVONNE DE CARLO—From sumptuous Technicolor celluloid adventures to Broadway’s Follies . . . RITA HAYWORTH—Tigress or Pussycat? . . . AUDREY HEPBURN—The elegant gamine . . . JENNIFER JONES—What lay behind her intense innocence? . . . MARIA MONTEZ—The temperamental beauty who believed too strongly in her publicity hype . . . KIM NOVAK—“Her face is like a sponge that can soak you up”—Life magazine .. . MERLE OBERON—the aristocrat with a hidden past who insisted “I just want to look my best” . . . VERA HRUBA RALSTON—Was her amazing self-confidence justified? The Glamour Girls provides a probing examination of these Silver Screen Beauties—and the men who created these luscious movie icons: David O. Selznick spends a fortune selling Jennifer Jones as a great dramatic actress . . Herbert Yates “gives” Republic Pictures to Vera Hruba Ralston . . . Alexander Korda reconstructs Merle Oberon as an exotic beauty . . . Harry Cohn punishes willful Rita Hayworth by practically inventing luscious Kim Novak . . . and Walter Wanger shoots a film colony rival over Joan Bennett. This meticulous study of cinema glamour is filled with detailed filmographies of its subjects, precise recreations of scores of motion pictures, and telling reviews by contemporary critics who were at the same time caustic and captivated by these legendary love goddesses.