Octavia Broske was born June 4, 1886, and if you want to imagine the start of her story, don’t picture velvet curtains and spotlights. Picture San Francisco at the turn of the century: streetcars clanging, fog rolling in like a tired animal, theaters smelling of powder and sweat and cheap cigars. That’s where her stage … Read More “Octavia Broske — a vaudeville spark who learned how to last in the footlights” »
She entered the world in Saint Paul and grew up in Apple Valley, where the suburbs stretch out like polite sentences and dreams have to shout a little louder just to be heard. For a while she tried the college thing—St. Olaf, snow and structure—but Los Angeles whispered its usual poison, and by nineteen she … Read More “Brianna Brown – the Minnesota girl who crossed state lines, then studio lines, then genre lines, always carrying that steel-spined smile you only get from growing up somewhere winter teaches you not to flinch” »
She came into the world as Virginia Cecelia Labuna on June 26, 1904, in Brooklyn, a place where noise never slept and ambition had to push through cement. Later, her name would appear in magazines and on marquees as “Virginia Brown Faire,” but that came later, after she slipped into a contest called Fame and … Read More “Virginia Brown Faire – the girl who stepped out of a Brooklyn walk-up and into the silent-era dream machine, carrying nothing but a new last name and the kind of hope that makes a person believe Hollywood might actually keep its promises.” »
Phyllis Brooks – the blonde smile with a backbone of steel, the Ipana girl who wandered into Hollywood like it was a party she wasn’t sure she’d been invited to, and ended up dancing anyway. She began life as Phyllis Seiler, born July 18, 1915, in Boise, Idaho—a place that barely seems real when you … Read More “Phyllis Brooks – the blonde smile with a backbone of steel, the Ipana girl who wandered into Hollywood like it was a party she wasn’t sure she’d been invited to, and ended up dancing anyway” »
Bobbie Jean Brown was born in Baton Rouge in 1969, a place where humidity clings to you like bad decisions and every cheerleader learns early how to smile through a storm. She grew up the oldest kid in a family where divorces hit like summer thunderstorms—loud, sudden, and leaving everyone soaked. By the time high … Read More “Bobbie Brown — the girl who became a guitar riff” »
Rebecca Broussard was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on a cold January day in 1963, in a country that still believed in movie stars and happy endings, and hadn’t yet figured out that both of those things charge interest. She grew up far from Hollywood, in a place where the bright lights were neon beer signs … Read More “Rebecca Broussard – The girl in the green sweater who walked through the blast radius” »
Louise Brooks was born in Cherryvale, Kansas, in 1906, a place she later described as the kind of town where people “prayed in the parlor and practiced incest in the barn.” That’s the sort of sentence you only write if you’ve seen too much, too early. Her father buried himself in law books, her mother … Read More “Louise Brooks – The girl who cut her hair, burned the world, and then watched it forget her” »
She came into the world on September 8, 1924, in Cape Town, South Africa, which is a place built out of sea wind and old ship stories. Her father was a sea captain. That sounds romantic until you remember what the sea takes. It took him early. Hazel was three when he died, and that … Read More “Hazel Brooks — a comet in satin who learned the sky doesn’t love you back.” »
She was born Jacqueline Victoire Brookes on July 24, 1930, in Montclair, New Jersey, a tidy town with trimmed hedges and quiet rooms where you learn early how to behave in public even when your private head is on fire. Her father was an investment banker, the kind of work that keeps a man in … Read More “Jacqueline Brookes — a Broadway blade wrapped in velvet.” »
She started life as Louise Fulton, born in San Francisco on October 31. Most records put the year at 1907, though a few later roll calls try to shave it to 1911 like the calendar was a vanity mirror. Either way, she came into the world with the smell of salt air and streetcar sparks … Read More “Sheila Bromley — a B-movie cowgirl with a Broadway spine” »