Studio Girls
Lisa Ireland
Penguin Random House AUS
2024, 336p
Copy courtesy of the publisher
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: It’s 1955, and four talented young women become best friends while living at the Hollywood Studio Club, the famous boarding house for movie hopefuls.
Julia Newman is a rising star. As Goldstar Studios‘ ‘new Grace Kelly’, she has been sent to the club to keep her out of trouble, though Julia is just thrilled to finally make friends.
For Peggy Carmichael, Julia’s roommate, life is not so easy. She takes classes, auditions constantly, and grabs whatever bit-part is offered. Still, her ‘big break’ remains stubbornly out of reach.
Meanwhile, Vivienne Lockhart, the most talented actress of them all, is constantly reduced to ‘sexpot’ roles. She’ll do whatever it takes to succeed. But is she driven by ambition, or by a heartbreaking need to be loved?
Finally, there’s aspiring scriptwriter Sadie Shore, who has little interest in the trappings of fame. Particularly when she becomes the PA of a big studio boss and her eyes are opened to the perils of her friends’ dreams…
This was a hugely anticipated title for me for this year. I have really loved Lisa Ireland’s previous books and was looking forward to this one, a take on a golden age of Hollywood where actors were signed to specific studios and had strict clauses for their employees, particularly their female actresses.
This centres around the Hollywood Studio Club a (real) “chaperoned dormitory” for young women who were involved in the movie business from around 1916-1975. It definitely housed some famous names including women like Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Eden from I Dream of Jeannie fame and Sharon Tate. Studios often required their actresses to reside there because there were some strict rules imposed, such as curfews, dating rules and the like. For the women there, it could be a helpful club as there was plenty of space to practice for auditions, other women to help you do make up or hair or run lines with you, etc. But above all, it helped maintain an image of propriety and provide safety for women in an industry that was already rife with scandal.
Our four main characters, Peggy, Sadie, Vivienne and Julia are all residents in the 1950s. The first three are already there when Julia Newman, newest up and coming star arrives, with a clause in her contract from her studio that she must reside there. Whilst the girls form a tight knit friendship, it’s not one that doesn’t have its problems. Living together provides both a way to form the bonds but also little escape from each other, especially when there are uneven trajectories in the careers of the women. There are romances as well, some of which definitely cause some feelings between the women.
This is set in two timelines – as well as the time they all lived at Hollywood Studio Club in the 50s, there’s also time leading up to New Years Eve 1999, where the women are all much older. Three of them still meet for lunch regularly and you have to read through to find out why it’s only three of them and what happened to their friendship with the fourth. The way it unfolds is so well done. There is some serious resentment towards the woman they have fallen out with in 1999, although one of them is definitely softer towards her. When they are forced to confront the truth of what happened forty years ago, it provides a chance for healing.
I love a dual timeline and I found this so enjoyable. Just a really easy book to sink into and I haven’t been able to read a lot lately (very stressed with uni deadlines, lots of academic reading, etc). But this book? I flew through it. I have read books set in and around the movie production industry before but I wouldn’t say it’s something I’m particularly knowledgeable about or overly familiar with so I found that aspect of it interesting as well, the control the studios had over their talent, etc. Julia is about to be a big name, she’s easily able to afford her own place but her studio decides that they would prefer her to be living in this dormitory style accomodation and so it’s written into her contract. There are other aspects of control they have too, over her movements, what she can do really even in her downtime, who she can date, etc. Julia is by far the most successful so far of the girls, with Peggy and Vivienne still mostly looking for their big break. Sadie wants to be a writer, rather than an actress but lands a job working as an assistant to a big studio head, so she begins to learn a lot of the ins and outs of the business that way.
Through the women, you get a front row seat at the control in this industry, the often double standards, the judgement for certain actions. It’s very much a showcase of its time (not that some attitudes have probably changed that much, in some ways) but it gives you a sense of the lack of agency these grown women often had, over their own lives. It’s hard not to get infuriated at some of the issues the women face and sometimes the decisions they make. In the more recent timeline, there’s a rather sad portrayal of something (done very well) that forces the other three women to confront the truth of events from so many decades ago and the fallout was very emotional. I ended up feeling for everyone in the scenario, even the ones who had perhaps not covered themselves in glory with their actions.
Loved this one!
9/10
Book #95 of 2024
Counting this one towards my 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader & Baker! It’s the 10th book so far, so 2/3 of the way through my goal for the year.
All The Books I Can Read 
So glad to hear that this is a great read!!