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Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary is an insider's view of the film studios of the 1920s--and the first from a secretary's perspective. Rich in gossip, it is also an eyewitness report of Hollywood in transition. In the summer of 1924, Valeria Belletti and her friend Irma visited California, but instead of returning home to New York, the twenty-six-year-old Valeria decided to stay in Los Angeles. She moved into the YWCA, landed a job as Samuel Goldwyn's personal and social secretary and proceeded to trip over history in the making. As she recounts in her dozens of letters to Irma, Valeria Belletti encountered every type of Hollywood player in the course of her working day: moguls, directors, stars, writers, and hopeful extras. She shares news about Valentino's affairs, Sam Goldwyn's bootlegger, the development of the "talkies," her own role in helping to cast Gary Cooper in his first major part and much more--often in hilarious detail. She writes of her living and working conditions, her active social life, and her hopes for the future--all the everyday concerns of a young working woman during the jazz age. Alternating sophistication with naiveté, Valeria's letters intimately document a personal journey while giving us a unique portrait of a fascinating era.… (more)
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These are not exciting letters. This is a young woman writing to her bestie, explaining roommate woes and good dates and bad dates and sharing gossip about her new job--as secretary to Sam Goldwyn. Valeria is in Hollywood during a time of incredible transition. She quits for a time to make a dream trip to Italy to reunite with her father, only to find out he recently died, and struggles through sickness and legal issues before returning to the States. She returns to Los Angeles and chronicles changes as studios consolidate, but the instability of her job doesn't bother her too much as she's preparing for her own new job: as a wife. The letters end as Talkies emerge as the future of the industry.
Valeria comes across as such a bright, fierce woman. She is brave to strike off on her own to start anew in California, and to travel to Italy with her little-practiced Italian. She dates often, always with an eye to marriage, and is also guided by strict morals. Her viewpoint on the 1920s is an absolute treasure.