Jane Allen’s "I Lost My Girlish Laughter" is a hilarious epistolary novel, published in 1938. It has the appealing tone of the great humor books by Cornelia Otis Skinner, Emily Kimbrough, and Betty MacDonald. The narrator, Madge Lawrence, an aspiring actress, becomes the secretary of a famous producer.

A college graduate, Madge has big Hollywood dreams. She stays in a women’s hotel where all the “girls” are looking in vain for acting jobs. Madge has letters of introduction. No one is interested. A typical response is:

"Mr. Freeman has asked me to acknowledge your letter and to advise you he regrets there is no opening at the present in which he could place you. I would suggest you apply to our Employment Department. I am sure they will show you every courtesy."

One desperate, dreary night Madge gets her break. Having nothing to do, she goes alone to a famous bar. And the magic happens; connections get her a job–and a bad connection too! It isn't the job she'd bargained for, though.

She writes in a letter to a friend:

"The bar is crowded, so I modestly hie me to a little table facing the bar. I have taken the third sip of my Scotch highball and am feeling very sorry for myself when suddenly I spy a familiar face and hear a familiar voice. My first reaction is a wild surge of joy at recognizing anyone I know; then I think why couldn’t it have been someone I liked. For, it is no other than that limp bore, Bob Faulkner. Don’t tell me! I know what you’re thinking. But, in my condition even Bob Faulkner is welcome. Do you remember how we used to devise every known dodge at State to avoid him? Well, I think my sins are coming home to roost, for now I feel a large grin of welcome sprouting on my face and I wave frantically. He doesn’t seem to see me so I wave the louder. I am sure he looks directly at me but it is as though his eyes are opaque and they see nothing. I am thinking it is all very odd when I notice that a man near him is nudging him and pointing to me and whispering. Suddenly Bob comes to life. Next thing I know he is beside me and introducing me to Max Sellers, the director. Mr. Sellers is very cordial to me and Bob is very much Bob."

There’s nothing like coming across a friend you don’t like in a new city! Bob hates her, but Mr. Sellers does not. In fact, he knows a famous producer who needs a secretary. He says Mr. Brand will be impressed that Madge is a college girl, and immediately makes a long-distance call to him in Palm Springs. And so she gets the job! And then the three of them go to Hollywood parties. She is enchanted.

Madge is thankful to have the job. Her secretarial adventures become more comical and hectic as she obeys Mr. Brand’s ridiculous demands, stays at the office all night to take notes on meetings where he completely changes the setting, time, and plot of a script and sends the exhausted writers to rewrite, flies with Mr. Brand’s retinue to calm a hysterical “foreign” actress on location, and observes how fame changes the actors. Fortunately, Madge’s friend, Jim Palmer in PR, tells her what to expect. She sees Mr. Brand at his best and at his worst. You can’t count on him!

In real life, Jane Allen was the pseudonym of two women who collaborated on this book, Sylvia Schulman Lardner, who was David O. Selznick’s personal secretary, and Jane Shore, who came to Hollywood to write a film which was not produced. Jane Shore used the Jane Allen pen name for her later work.

Gee Whiz Toots, That Was Swell

Hasn't aged a day, and reads sharp and smart - just like the heroine. This has a "His Girl Friday" feel. It's a screwball comedy, drama, romance, that captures, celebrates, and sends up early Hollywood and life on the studio lot.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. I'll be posting my review on Goodreads and Amazon

I Lost My Girlish Laughter is an amusing roman `a clef novel about old Hollywood written in epistolary form. While not for everyone, I do enjoy this type of story. I feel reading private letters, memos, and telegrams in this instance, adds to the whole "behind closed door" secretive nature of the book.

It is a shame that it was not turned into a movie as it could have been a really terrific one. As I was reading it, different scenes of movies sometimes popped into my head. Also it was fun to guess the real person behind the fictional character. Although I enjoy watching old movies, I don't feel I know very much about the people, both in front of and behind the cameras, who created such wonderful films. I was at a distinct disadvantage in that respect but it was fun trying!I

If you like old Hollywood or just like reading other people's mail you may enjoy I Lost My Girlish Laughter. It's a light enough read for warm weather, the subject is interesting, it is easy to pick up and read and then put down if you need to due to the writing style (Great for when you are waiting in line). Glad it has been reprinted.

Good read. Very recommended. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

A great throwback to classic Hollywood. The fact that this book is finally available after all these years should be celebrated.

This book was really hard to get into. Even though it was based around one of my favorite directors David O'Selznick it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I Lost My Girlish Laughter really caught my attention with its bewitching, curious title and eye-catching cover.

This book was originally written in the late 1930’s and is considered a lost gem. It is a ribbing of the actors, producers, writers, and directors of the Golden Age of the studio system.

The plot and timeline are pretty tight, mostly centring around the filming of a high-profile blockbuster. Madge Lawrence, from New York City, lands a job as the personal secretary to the powerful Hollywood producer Sidney Brand (based on the legendary David O. Selznick). Brand is hoping that the film will be the catalyst to introduce his new European bombshell (the real-life Marlene Dietrich) even though she can't act. Brand's negotiations aren't proving to be very successful; his attempts to secure Clark Gable for the male lead aren't going to plan, and the Broadway play he's bought for the screenplay has been reworked so that it is unrecognisable to its author.

High marks for the author, Jane Allen as it's really well written, mainly in the form of letters and telegrams; letters from Madge to her family and snippets of her personal journal, bestrewn with telegrams, press releases and more. The reader is privy to all of the shenanigans, romances, backroom deals, and betrayals that go into making a movie. Whilst I Lost My Girlish Laughter is not the most compelling story I have ever read, the result is still very readable and amusing. If you love old films that are the original stories and not mostly special effects, you will enjoy this great book.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

A juicy, well-written satire of 1930s Hollywood, written at the time and based on the author's time working for David O. Selznick. Well worth a read. Highly recommended for those interested in Old Hollywood and life on a movie studio. backlot. So glad this book was reissued.

This was a pretty enjoyable read! Madge feels completely of her time and also pretty contemporary, too. The book does have some 1930s casual, unconsidered racism, which was momentarily jarring.

All told, though, a really fun (and fictionalized) look at how the Golden Age of Hollywood worked.

I didn't fall in love with this one. I felt a disconnect by the way this book was formatted. It could very well just be me though.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the book. It didn’t grab my attention and it was kind of confusing. However, the dialogue and speech patterns of characters were great when considering the context and era.

I put together the newspaper's Books section annual gift guide again this season and was delighted to include this book as a selection in The Globe and Mail's massive Best Holiday Gift Books package (in print December 7, 2019).

I sorry to admit I liked the idea of Jane Allan’s I Lost My Girlish Laughter more than I did the experience of it.

Thematically, I feel this a wonderful piece. It is a reprint of a contemporary publication and I think the firsthand experience of the authors (Jane Allen is a pseudonym for both Silivia Schulman Lardner and Jane Shore) gift the story a unique tonal quality and depth.

That said, the mechanics of the telling failed to hold my attention. The characters didn’t strike me as all that interesting and I struggled to appreciate the epistolary format of the manuscript. The events also bored me and when it got down to it, I simply didn’t care how everything played out.

At the end of the day, I believe I Lost My Girlish Laughter will find an audience among lovers of Old Hollywood, but it did not suit my tastes and I don’t see myself recommending it forward.

DNF @ 16%

I was very excited about this book, as I grew up on a steady regimen of films from the Golden Age of Hollywood (Cary Grant has been one of my favorite actors since I was 9 years old, we named one of our dogs growing up Bogart, and I still maintain that Lauren Bacall was one of the most beautiful women to every grace the red carpets.) I so badly wanted to love it, but this narrative didn't work for me at all. The term that immediately comes to mind is "stream of consciousness," ... which just so happens to be my least favorite type of book to read. I was 16% in and already totally annoyed with almost every person that had been introduced, and was catching myself skimming 60-70% of every page. There were a lot of memos and letters and telegrams and little tidbits that I had hoped would move things along, but it didn't seem to work that way for me.

I know this book was originally written in the 30s or 40s, and that this is a reprint, and it would be easiest to just put it off as a simple reason of not being able to handle the writing style and vernacular of those times, but I have read a few others written in the 30s and I thoroughly enjoyed those.

I still love the idea of this book, and I hope it finds its audience! Unfortunately, it's just not one I would buy a ticket for.

With a foreboding title like I Lost My Girlish Laughter, I was sure this rediscovered roman à clef written by David O. Selznick’s former secretary would be a harrowing read. I was almost relieved to find it a light-hearted satire, though it takes several healthy jabs at the absurdity of Hollywood.

Jane Allen is the pen name of Silvia Schulman Lardner, a diligent woman who toiled in the administrative departments of RKO and MGM, but clearly got the most inspiration from working as the top man’s personal secretary at Selznick International. It was a lot of fun to read this long forgotten book which captures the spirit of a unique time and an unpredictable business with a screwball sense of comedy.

Though Schulman never got credit for her influence on Selznick’s greatest productions, she had a hand in the development of films like A Star is Born (1937) and perhaps most notably convinced her boss to purchase the rights to Gone with the Wind (1939) after reading the book’s galleys. She also tried to make her own mark as a writer, co-writing the play Adam Had Three Eves with Barbara Keon in 1935. Selznick bought the rights, but never produced it.

Eventually, Schulman married writer Ring Lardner Jr. and left Hollywood in 1937. A year later she collaborated on I Lost My Girlish Laughter with screenwriter Jane Shore, wondering all the while if she was revealing too much.

It is the story of a well-educated single woman who comes to Hollywood looking for work. She gets more than she bargained for when she takes on the job of secretary for super producer Sidney Brand. Told in letters, telegrams, and of course, given the inspiration, memos, this is a light, if not thoroughly loving take on the movie industry.

More amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, it is nevertheless an entertaining book. Schulman creates a lively gallery of buffoons and kooks, with obvious takes on the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Paulette Goddard, super-agent Leland Hayward, Louella Parsons, and her own husband Lardner.

While Schulman is freely ruthless with her subjects, there’s an exasperated affection woven through it all. Maybe she was driven nearly to madness by an over-demanding boss and a brutal industry, but there were plenty of perks and a great deal of adventure. Clearly she recognized that the only healthy response to it all was satire.

While there were rumblings that I Lost My Girlish Laughter would be adapted for the screen, that project never materialized. To the loss of us all, Schulman retired from writing. She became the mother of two, and worked as an interior designer and building contractor. That said, the one book she had in her was as good as a lifetime of writing.

This book was originally written in the late 1930’s and is considered a lost gem. The book is an epistolary novel, told in letters and journal entries and even Western Union Transmissions.

This book centers around Madge who becomes a secretary for a big Hollywood producer, which the author(s) did have the understanding of the life. There are recognizable stars out there, just under pseudonym.

This is an inventive story and an extremely quick read. If you want a little more insight to how a movie was made in the golden age, than have fun reading this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Vintage for an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ​

This re-release of a fictionalized biography from 1940s Hollywood was a lot of fun. It reminded me of similar ‘working girl’ books from the period which I’ve read and enjoyed over the years.

"A lost literary gem of Hollywood in the 1930s, I Lost My Girlish Laughter is a thinly veiled send-up of the actors, producers, writers, and directors of the Golden Age of the studio system.

Madge Lawrence, fresh from New York City, lands a job as the personal secretary to the powerful Hollywood producer Sidney Brand (based on the legendary David O. Selznick). In a series of letters home, Western Union telegrams, office memos, Hollywood gossip newspaper items, and personal journal entries, we get served up the inside scoop on all the shenanigans, romances, backroom deals, and betrayals that go into making a movie.

The action revolves around the production of Brand's latest blockbuster, meant to be a star vehicle to introduce his new European bombshell (the real-life Marlene Dietrich). Nevermind that the actress can't act, Brands' negotiations with MGM to get Clark Gable to play the male lead are getting nowhere, and the Broadway play he's bought for the screenplay is reworked so that it is unrecognizable to its author. In this delicious satire of the film business, one is never very far from the truth of what makes Hollywood tick and why we all love it."

A rediscovered classic and a must for those who love the golden age of Hollywood!

A fun reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same. While this was originally published in 1938, it's an insider's view of Hollywood. Madge gets a job with a big time Hollywood producer and learns the secrets of how movies are made - and there's a lot of churn in the process, Told through notes, letters, and other bits and pieces (don't worry- it works) this is a thinly veiled novel of David O'Selznick as told by his secretary, which makes it all the more entertaining. Fans of old Hollywood will relish this for the behind the scenes insight. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A treat from the past.