Movie Magic

Author’s Note: This is a sneak peek of the new series, A Timeless American Historical Romance Golden Age. Hollywood Hush follows Greta as she is dropped in the beginning of the pioneering days of motion pictures. Click below for discount preorder – Coming in June.

Greta was terrified. For months she heard her boyfriend Harry spin yarns in all directions about all the wonderful movies she was going to star in. But she thought it was a pipe dream. It never seemed real. 

Since he enlisted her to be a screen actress, all she’d done at this point was stand in front of a blank wall dressed like a pixie and ballet dance for a nickelodeon reel. That was easy.

Now Harry sunk all his family’s fortune and even worse, money from a New York mobster into a full feature length production of forty-five minutes, starring her. 

Sitting in a makeup chair, she desperately tried not to shake, but her whole body was flinching in fear.

She memorized the lines, even though there was no sound.  It didn’t really matter what she said, as long as her lip movements matched. 

And for weeks, she worked with an acting coach from Broadway to perfect her facial expressions. She spent hours in front of the mirror, practicing every eye roll, leer and look of hopelessness. 

Harry kept telling her all she had to do was flash her big, beautiful baby doll eyes at the screen and everyone in the world would fall in love with her. 

Greta didn’t care if the world fell in love with her, as long as Harry stayed enamored. She was mesmerized with him. Ever since she served him in her parents’ German restaurant, she was entranced. 

She thought all she could do was serve wiener schnitzel to people, but he saw something else in her. He was exciting and had so many thrilling ideas for the future. She couldn’t help but be swept up in his wake. 

But now this is it. She will film her close ups today and her big blue baby doll eyes are covered in so much black eyeliner she looked like a raccoon. That was Harry’s idea. He said the camera needed to focus on them like a bullseye. 

So although frightened to her core, she trudged herself out of the tiny dressing and makeup tent Harry created and into the set, as he called it. 

The movie was about a young harem girl who falls in love with a handsome guard and tries to escape the clutches of the Shah. 

Harry and some interior designer he knew in Brooklyn constructed a makeshift tent covered in flowing chiffon fabric to resemble the Shah’s lair. 

She and five other girls stood there dressed in scandalous little harem costumes sewn by an old Jewish lady Harry knew from his old neighborhood in Queens. Throughout the entire fittings, she mumbled in Yiddish something about toucases and shameful outfits. She even sewed a sheer beige lining into the midriffs, so no one would see their bare stomachs.

But the costumes were beautiful and masterful. The silk fabric freely flowed with their movements and the beads sparkled in the hot lights blaring on the girls, blinding them like beacons of sunrays. 

Waiting to perform the choreographed belly dance number a Broadway dancer taught them, Greta watched Harry with admiration. He was in command of everything. Sitting in his wooden director’s chair, he barked orders at everyone as if he was conducting a symphony. 

Unfortunately, this movie was not going well. They began filming outdoor scenes a few days ago and it was challenging. So many things went wrong. The cameras didn’t always work. The hot lights melted part of the tent material, starting a small fire. And the desert sand he had trucked in from the beach swirled everywhere in all directions when he applied giant fans. Mimicking a violent desert storm, she and her leading man escaped amid the bowls of endless dust for eight hours straight, leaving them picking tiny grains of sand from their hair and clothes for days. 

Greta even had to use salve to soothe the burns from the grains of sand gritting against her pale alabaster skin. 

Every day seemed to be a trial of mammoth proportions, but Harry’s raw guts and determination transcended every problem. He was going to make movies and be rich and famous. That was his dream and she really believed it could happen. Harry would make it all come true.

As he walked toward her with a big smile on his face, she took a deep breath. All she had to do was trust his direction. 

“Are you ready to make magic baby,”  Harry said kissing her on the cheek. 

“Sure Harry, whatever you say,” she forced a smile and held her breath. 

Then Harry picked up this cone called a megaphone and yelled “Action.” 

This was it. It was happening. 

(C) Suzanne Rudd Hamilton 2025