Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin (2016)

I like Melanie Benjamin's historical novels and this is of a time and place close to my own history, though the first meeting of Truman Capote and Babe Paley and some of the other "Swans" of New York was the year I was born. 

I have to say that this one I had a harder time reading, as the goal of being beautiful and perfect by itself just sounded so empty. The energy that Babe Paley put into making herself and all her homes beautiful, and her husband Bill Paley's (founder of CBS) life go smoothly, would easily qualify her to run her own company or foundation or something. All the ladies in this circle of friends had their main goal to look fabulous, marry rich, send their kids off to boarding schools, maintain numerous abodes and attend lunches and galas. One sentence just got to me - that they elegantly pushed their fancy French meal around on their plates, because to fit in those designer clothes, they of course could not eat it. Ugh! What a waste. I grew up in the generation that rebelled against this. In high school, I would go with my parents to the City Opera at Lincoln Center. You could go in a sequined gown or torn jeans.

But somehow, the socialites were befriended by Truman Capote. He had a lousy childhood and obviously did not fit in Alabama as the precocious gay boy. His one friend from home, interestingly enough, was fellow writer Harper Lee (of To Kill a Mockingbird fame, which is about their home town and the two of them used to go to court hearings for entertainment.) Plus the courtroom provided material for stories that Truman told all his life - some true, some imagined. Capote ended up in New York and began to write stories and scripts. So by the time he met the socialites of New York, he was a known author with a flamboyant flair.

When he met Babe Paley, while tagging along with a friend on the Paley private plane, he and Babe connected. He would tell great stories, loved to gossip, but also really listened. Over the years he gained the trust of Babe and her socialite friends. He did also work on writing, and became obsessed with a murder of a family in Nebraska - going out there to interview the townspeople, the cops, the murderers, and wrote the whole story up in his most famous book In Cold Blood. (Maybe I should read it.) After the success of that book he threw his famous Black and White Party in 1966, where he invited his 540 closest friends -  a combination of writers, artists, socialites, politicians, movie folks and also invited a family from the Nebraska town. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. Unable to write anything else, he ended up writing about his socialite friends, and Babe and Bill in particular, and was outcast from their society.

The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin (2018)

Fascinating look at the early years of movie making through the (fictional) eyes of two of the first women that were involved. Mary Pickford, who even I have heard of, and Frances Marion, a screenwriter of the times that won two academy awards. They were very close friends for quite a while, as Francis wrote parts for Mary where she could be a little girl that movie goers loved. Mary married Douglas Fairbanks, a swashbuckling hero, though neither did very well when silent movies went to talkies, but they were a beloved Hollywood couple around the globe. Melanie Benjamin takes all the facts she can find about historical characters and then weaves a tale of how these people might have felt and what they might have thought and said. I understand it is fiction, but it works for me.

I found it fascinating to hear about how the early movies were made, how the film companies evolved. Mary, Frances and Charlie Chaplain founded United Artists and were founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts. Though I am not a movie buff, I would really like to see how movies are made one day. If my son continues to live out in California, I just might get around to it.