What determines who a woman will become? Jane Hall was an orphan at fifteen and a "literary prodigy" according to the press. How did this spirited young girl from an Arizona mining town become a Depression-era debutante, a successful author of magazine fiction, and a screenwriter at Hollywood's most glamorous studio? At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Jane wrote the story and the script for the "best social comedy of 1939," These Glamour Girls, and established a lively camaraderie with F. Scott Fitzgerald, who worked in the office next door to hers. But Jane's ambition conflicted with the expectations of her family, her friends, and the era in which she lived. Drawing on her mother's diaries and scores of letters, historian Robin Cutler takes us on an unforgettable journey through 1930s Manhattan and Hollywood as Jane wrestles with who she was meant to be. Such Mad Fun is a coming-of-age story set in a decade that has surprising parallels with American life today. For much more: www.robinrcutler.com.
About the Author :
Robin Cutler's early life was split between Manhattan and a farm near a tiny town in Virginia called Casanova. An only child, she never felt like one because of the menagerie collected by her mother, Jane Hall, a former screenwriter at MGM, who had the best years of her life before Robin was born. But that's the story in Such Mad Fun. Robin's siblings included an ocelot, multiple German Shepherds, farm cats, snooty cats, and a rescued screech owl (Sidney), who flew on Eastern Airlines in a modified Nantucket basket. In his salad days, her dad, Robert F. Cutler, founded and managed the popular Suffern County Theater. Robin decided she wanted to be a historian in the ninth grade. She grew up in a world without any modern digital devices and was happiest in the stacks of various libraries. Her love of books led her to earning a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. But most of her future career would be as a public historian. Highlights have included working for the National Endowment for Humanities when author Lynne Cheney was chairman, co-producing an Emmy-nominated dramatic series for PBS, working with several Native American tribes to chronicle their histories and culture on film and video, publishing three nonfiction books, two of which took way too long to research; these are featured on her website. robinrcutler.com for much more.
Review :
FROM THE ADVANCE REVIEWS: . . . . In this well-researched account . . . the author thoughtfully examines the allure and trap of glamour. In this, Hall's story mirrors those of many female professionals even today, who face immense pressures to maintain a certain look. Hall's brushes with Hollywood and literary celebrities make great reading . . . This portrait of a more literary mass-market America offers much food for reflection on modern culture. A valuable, absorbing contribution to the history of women, golden-age Hollywood, and America's magazine culture of the 1930s and '40s. NAMED TO KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF 2016 . . ..
An always fascinating tribute to a complex woman torn between home and career. Diary entries provide a window into the mixed emotions of a gallant woman trying to live an independent life, but shaped by the expectations of her class and time. Also revealing are the synopses of Jane's short stories and screenplays, which illuminate the kinds of stories women were writing and reading - and watching - in that era of glossy surfaces and incipient rebellion. MOLLY HASKELL, critic and author of From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies and the best-selling memoir My Brother My Sister.
Such Mad Fun adds much to our understanding of Depression-era American culture . . . It provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the studio system during its heyday as Hall negotiated interminable story conferences, demanding producers, the strictures of the Production Code, and credit squabbles with occasional escapes to Palm Springs to regroup. It also reminds us of the many challenges women of talent at the time faced as they pursued their ambitions. Robin Cutler tells the story of a remarkable woman and ably brings to life the milieus, both social and professional, Jane Hall inhabited during a fascinating life. RICHARD A. FINE, author of West of Eden: Hollywood and the Profession of Authorship.
Such Mad Fun is . . . a seamless story of twentieth century life narrated with style and verve and empathy. SCOTT EYMAN, New York Times bestselling author of John Wayne: The Life and Legend and twelve other books.
If you want to understand the power of a woman's professional identity - and the effects of giving it up too soon - read this compelling history of ambition and success in Hollywood and New York. I hope "Such Mad Fun" inspires readers, especially women, to pursue their talents no matter what. Thoroughly researched, this is a beautifully written history of Hollywood's Golden Age, and the role of the woman wunderkind writer who was the author's mother. In the end, you'll understand better your twentieth-century matriarchs, and most likely yourself. All my "womankin" are getting copies of Such Mad Fun. I hope this page-turner teaches them to never surrender their talents and brainpower BETTY BOOKER, specialist in generational writing, long-time reporter/columnist, Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch and Boomer Magazine
Robin Cutler is pitch-perfect in her description of the glittering social worlds of 1930's New York and Hollywood. Such Mad Fun chronicles the adventures of Cutler's prodigy mother, Jane Hall . . a gifted young writer whose wit and creativity assured success though Jane ultimately had to choose between her creative ambitions and the glamorous life she cultivated . . Working from her mother's writings and diaries, and written with the momentum of a page-turning novel, Robin Cutler's excellent new book is a must read. LINDSAY C. GIBSON, PSY.D. author of Who You Were Meant to Be: A Guide to Finding or Recovering Your Life's Purpose.
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2016 WINNER FOREWORD INDIES GOLD FOR BIOGRAPHY
