Getting Garbo: A Novel of Hollywood Noir

by Jerry Ludwig

Set in the glamorous, cruel and often bizarre Hollywood era of the 1950s, Getting Garbo is a hilarious and suspenseful novel of the cinema's Golden Age, when autograph hounds were relentless as they sought the names of stars who became legends in their own lifetime.
Nineteen-year-old Reva Hess is a charming autograph collector and the number one fan of Roy Darnell, star of the hit TV series Jack Havoc. Reva follows him everywhere, while keeping tabs on the private lives of film celebrities with her group of expert autograph collectors called The Secret Six.
Soon, the slight confusion between Roy's own personality and the dashingly dangerous Jack Havoc becomes an ominous obsession and the novel turns to murder. Along the way, Jerry Ludwig brings the old Hollywood to life, evoking the giant screen figures of Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and dozens more, as well as the off-screen ruthlessness of Jack Warner. This is a world where "getting Garbo," the elusive Greta who never signs autographs, is synonymous with the yearning for the impossible, the longing for fame and romance and the blurring of fiction and reality.

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Jerry Ludwig is a multiple-Emmy Award–nominated television writer. He has written for Murder, She Wrote, MacGyver, Mission: Impossible, and Hawaii Five-O.

He lives in Carmel, California.

Reviews

[Dewayne Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was searching the LAPL for a Noir set in Hollywood and found this one. This book has more Hollywood or Television actors mentioned, might be a record. After a few pages I set it aside as trying to follow the two characters jumping back and forth with their story and all these movie tiles was plain too much.

I restarted it only because of the Los Angeles geography which interests me and the Black Ford T-Bird with 24 coats of paint that Ford provided to the actor. The T-Bird is interesting in it is described as a powerful which it was not. Later in the story Roy throws the items taken from his dead wife's place in the back seat of the T-Bird. That is hard to do since there isn't a back seat.

Grace Kelley gets a mentioned after her autograph is hunted by Reva in New York and Reva is saving the signing for the future as Kelly is basically unknown. Kelly was the wife in 1952 High Noon award winner so maybe the storyline got confused or it is me.

The wife is buried in a Jewish cemetery and the service is led by a rabbi. I had no idea that the wife was Jewish.

Roy is amazing in that he leaves the theater after watching the start of the show. Finds his car, goes to his wife's house, has wine, gets into a fight, she dies, he cleans up the place, takes the screwdriver out of the desk , fakes damage, returns it, gathers items, removes finger prints, returns and has to search for a parking place all in 111 minutes run time of the Star is Born.

Roy is a super tennis player, a runner that goes to UCLA to run the track but is also serious smoker, a drunk, plus he takes meds and smokes pot.

My best part of the story is when he goes to the Santa Monica Pier to throw the jewelry in the bay. Wouldn't there be a better place. The Santa Monica Life Guards were stationed at the end of the pier then. I used to fish there under the end of the pier when I was a preteen.

I had to love the description of the Aero Theater on Montana in Santa Monica where Reva sold tickets. Any mention of the Aero is worth 3 stars in a review.

IMO the ending is a big toilet flush and without name dropping Aero and Elvis a one star review.