Anne Girard - Platinum Doll

Set against the dazzling backdrop of Golden Age Hollywood, novelist Anne Girard tells the enchanting story of Jean Harlow, one of the most iconic stars in the history of film

It’s the Roaring Twenties and seventeen-year-old Harlean Carpenter McGrew has run off to Beverly Hills. She’s chasing a dream—to escape her small, Midwestern life and see her name in lights.

In California, Harlean has everything a girl could want—a rich husband, glamorous parties, socialite friends—except an outlet for her talent. But everything changes when a dare pushes her to embrace her true ambition—to be an actress on the silver screen. With her timeless beauty and striking shade of platinum-blond hair, Harlean becomes Jean Harlow. And as she’s thrust into the limelight, Jean learns that this new world of opportunity comes with its own set of burdens. Torn between her family and her passion to perform, Jean is forced to confront the difficult truth—that fame comes at a price, if only she’s willing to pay it.

Amid a glittering cast of ingenues and Hollywood titans—Clara Bow, Clark Gable, Laurel and Hardy, Howard Hughes—Platinum Doll introduces us to the star who would shine brighter than them all.

Praise for PLATINUM DOLL

“A novel of glittering Hollywood, Platinum Doll will entrance readers as Harlow entranced the world.”

—Heather Webb, author of Rodin’s Lover

“A novel as brilliant as the star herself.”

—Marci Jefferson, author of Girl on the Golden Coin

Praise for MADAME PICASSO

“Girard creates a wonderful period piece [and]…successfully captures the essence of an iconic figure.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Gripping.… Written with…heartfelt passion.”

—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Girard…ably marries history, art, and romance here as Eva remains broadly rendered and famous figures shine.”

—Booklist

“Early twentieth century Paris and Picasso’s lost love come to enchanted, vivid life. With a deft eye for detail and deep understanding for her protagonists, Anne Girard captures the earnest young woman who enthralled the famous artist and became his unsung muse.”

—C.W. Gortner, bestselling author of The Queen’s Vow

“A wonderful portrait of the complicated relationship between art, passion and love. Girard is a talented storyteller and historian, drawing readers into the world in which her characters live.”

—RT Book Reviews

www.millsandboon.co.uk

In memory of

Marlene Hanke

For more than words can express

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

Title Page

Dedication

Quote

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Author Note

Acknowledgments

Reader’s Guide

Questions for Discussion

A Conversation with the Author

Extract

Copyright

“I wasn’t born an actress, you know. Events made me one.”

—Jean Harlow

Chapter One

April, 1928

“Slow down, Chuck, or you’ll get us both killed!”

A giggle bubbled up through her as she clutched the scarf tied around her pillowy ash-blond hair. The ends of the floral silk flapped, billowing out like a sail in the warm sun.

In spite of her protest, she loved the speed. It brought the delicious sensation of being scared and excited at the same time. Giving in to the moment, she tipped her head back against the car seat of their convertible, tore off the scarf and let her hair fly away from her face.

Fresh air and sunshine could cleanse anything. Her mother always said it took the pockets of darkness away, and that seemed to be true in Hollywood especially. She said that very thing when they came here the last time, in 1923, when she was an impressionable child of twelve, and Harlean had never forgotten it. Mother still believed Hollywood was a magical place, even though she had been too old for that magic to turn her into a star.

Harlean felt the return of that old excitement as she entered this place again. Childhood memories flooded back as she and Chuck drove between endless orange groves beneath an arc of brilliant azure sky.

This impetuous trip was meant as an escape from the darker things they had left behind in the Midwest. The sudden way they had eloped last September, with Chuck twenty and she just sixteen, had only been the start of the turmoil. Then there were her grandfather Harlow’s reproving words, and her mother’s tearful charge that she had officially just ruined her life by marrying a spoiled boy, even though he had a trust fund. That had fomented Chuck’s rabid desire to arrange their escape—and Harlean had agreed. After all, she had turned seventeen a month later, and so she, too, felt ready for a grown-up adventure.

She squeezed her summer-blue eyes closed and tipped her face up toward the sun, refusing to think about any of that anymore. When she opened her eyes again, she glanced over at her young husband, his nose dusted with a pale coppery spray of freckles, the waves of his wind-buffeted cinnamon-colored curls spilling onto his cheeks over stylish horn-rim sunglasses.

Men didn’t have a right to be so appealing, she thought to herself. No matter who was angry with her back home for their impetuous trip to a justice of the peace six months earlier, she wasn’t sorry she had gone against them to marry him. Really, was there anything more important than being in love with a man who took her breath away?

“I’m gonna do right by you, Harlean. See if I don’t,” he had earnestly promised her two days before they’d eloped, as they lay across the front seat of this same green roadster, wound together, bathed in perspiration. He didn’t know it had not been her first time, but he had confessed it had been his. That had only made her love him more.

He gripped the steering wheel more tightly now as they finally entered the vibrant city and then turned onto Sunset Boulevard.

Hollywood, she thought, her heart soaring. I’m back! Harlean hadn’t a clue where they would sleep tonight, but she knew they were going to begin their married life here. They would work out the rest of the details later.

“So, does the place look any different to you, doll?”

“Oh, gosh, it hasn’t changed a bit!” she replied excitedly as they passed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and a crowd of tourists milling outside looking for the footprints of their favorite motion picture stars. “Did I tell you we saw Miss Pola Negri there once before a picture show?”

“You’ve told me a few times,” Chuck answered with a wink, followed by an indulgent grin.

“Most beautiful, exotic creature I ever saw.” Harlean sighed wistfully at the memory of the dark-haired superstar, wrapped in ermine, waving and tossing kisses outside of the crowded theater.

“I’ve read everything about her in the movie magazines, you know. Mommie tried to get her autograph that day but it was too crowded. When the fans surged to close around her, Miss Negri ended up leaving without signing anything that day.”

“Your mother was hoping a bit of Miss Negri’s stardust would rub off on her, no doubt?”

Harlean heard the usual hint of sarcasm in his voice. It always showed up in discussions about her mother, who he knew perfectly well had tried everything to find her own stardom when they lived here last, but Harlean was determined to ignore it. Nothing in the world could ruin the excitement of today. “She tried to get the autograph for me. Mommie’s idol was always Clara Bow.”