Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530856
PARKER: "She was a very unhappy woman," one acquaintance said. P H OT O : P H OT O F E S T 50 C I N E M O N T A G E B O O K R E V I E W feelings. She destroyed her letters and memorabilia before her death, so Crowther was forced to rely on accounts from others, public records, and observations about the way contemporary society viewed a very successful woman writer. In Dorothy Park- er's case, that was with alarm. A l c o h o l i s m i n w o m e n w a s l i t t l e discussed in the first half of the 20th cen- tury, and probably because her romantic partners and other people in her social circles also drank heavily, and she produced quality work that made money, few peo- ple confronted her. Crowther attributes Parker's misbehavior to her deep-seated insecurity and dependence on good-look- ing men. The book emphasizes Parker's tremendous lack of self-confidence, re- iterating the ways she minimized and demeaned her own writing. The melancho- lia rises from reading about how this small, brilliant, and successful woman despised herself. Crowther captures this fascinating story beautifully. Parker was famous; her books always sold well, and she was a star at the infamous cocktail-fueled literary lunches in the Rose R o o m o f New Yo r k 's A l go n q u i n H o te l . Parker was a darling of that city's Roaring '20s café society and her name carried the kind of prestige that Hollywood was buy- ing in the early 1930s. Like many writers, including her dear friend and Algonquin lunchmate Robert Benchley, she was per- suaded to move west by the large salary the studios offered. In 1937, she and her writing partner (and husband) Alan Campbell were making a joint salary of $5000 a week. E v e n s o, P a r k e r n o to r i o u s l y h a te d Hollywood, stating, "I can't talk about Hollywood. It was a horror to me when I was there and it's a horror to look back on. I can't imagine how I did it. When I got away from it, I couldn't even refer to the place by name. 'Out there,' I called it." Like some of the other literary figures of the 1920s — Scott Fitzgerald, Nathaniel West, and John Howard Lawson — Parker had a push-pull relationship with the studios, despite the fact that it was the film work that made them rich, at least temporarily. Parker's finances were generally a mess. She made big money, and she spent lavishly on herself and on the social causes that were vital to her. She was ardent in donating money for causes that helped poor and disenfran- chised people, was active in reinvigorating the Writers Guild of America in the 1930s, and even journeyed to Spain in support of the Popular Front in the Spanish Civil War. According to Crowther, Parker felt that there was no irony in living a luxurious lifestyle as long as she supported, both with money and her presence, the political caus- es in which she believed. Her left-leaning activism later made her the target of an- ti-Communist investigations, but she was spared the worst of the blacklist horrors. Although closely identified with New York, Parker was peripatetic for much of her life. Crowther documents the many moves that Parker made among Hollywood, New York City, Europe, and a farm she and Alan Campbell purchased in Pennsylvania. Crowther's excellent research gives careful attention to the many places Parker lived w h i l e i n L o s A n ge l e s. Ap p a re n t ly, s h e never found a house there that suited her. Especially interesting are descriptions of Parker's first Los Angeles residence, the fabled Garden of Allah on the Sunset Strip, where Parker and her husband joined the rowdy nightly parties in Robert Benchley's bungalow. There her behavior was watched and written about by nationally syndicated gossip columnists, including Scott Fitz- gerald's lover, Sheilah Graham. Crowther quotes Graham about Parker, "She was the most unpredictable woman I ever met in my life….I realize that she was a very unhappy woman. She inhabited a vale of tears, and the only way she could live with herself was to murder everyone else with her biting word." "Hollywood Behind the Lens" gives a good sense of that area of the Strip in a 1938 photo of Schwab's Drugstore which was across Crescent Heights Blvd. from The Garden of Allah. This spot supplied much of the liquor and food to residents of The Gar- den of Allah, as it later did for the Chateau Marmont, which was built down the street from Schwab's. Parsing what Parker contributed to films is as difficult as pinning down her true motivations. That she contributed is certain; she earned 32 screen credits and was involved, uncredited, with at least six more releases. She and Campbell received