Megan Abbot's noir novel The Song is You is about party girls in post-World War II Los Angeles;  they see themselves as hopeful actresses, but that's not for long.  They have left their dreary lives behind to pursue the glamor of Hollywood only to find out it's not all that it seems. Thousands of beautiful women who look just like they do have already beaten them to the punch.  When they arrive in Hollywood, the competion is stiff, pickings are slim.   Instead of acting, they begin hustling to meet the right people and be seen in the right places.  They become desperate to make contacts that will get them on to a movie studio lots. They meet fast-talking men in bars that they should know better not to talk to.  Soon they are turning tricks.  They'll do anything to avoid the agony of going home with their tails between their legs.

The book cover of The Song Is You hightlights one of these party girls, posing in the middle of what appears to be a dark, seedy hotel room.   She looks to be maybe twenty-two years old, very close to the age of my students.  Her breasts are front and center, posed in a way to capture the attention of everyone, both men and women, loitering in the background. She's sparkling in tight-fitting, low-cut rayon evening gown, the color purple like the shadows of a dimly lit bar. Her arms are up and her hands are folded behind her head as if she is lying back against a pillow. Her eyes are sleepy sexy, and her lips are painted a shade to match her dress.  Everyone else in the room is wasted.  Lonely.  Angry.  This is the life of the party girl…

The Song is You is a fictional account for the murder of real-life, party-girl victim Jean Spangler.  You may never have heard of her.  Jean was a movie extra/party girl who disappeared on the evening of October 7, 1949.  She was 27-years-old brunette, and by all accounts very pretty.  A few pages into The Song is You, the author lets you know, "Everyone smiled when Jean Spangler smiled.  That's why they all said she'd make it someday.  An why no one had been surprised when the leading men started circling."  In real life, Jean was sleeping with Kirk Douglas.  That Kirk Douglas.  Hollywood Superstar Kirk Douglas.  She was also known as a girlfriend to notorious L.A. gangster Mickey Cohen.  She worked nights at the famous Hollywood nightspot Florentine Gardens, and she had Extras Guild card, so she was able to get bit parts in movies.

On Oct. 10, the L.A. Times ran the missing-person headline "Glamor Girl Body Hunted; Parallel to 'Dahlia' Case Seen."  The story begins with Jean kissing goodbye her five-year-old child and telling her sister-in-law and babysitter not to wait up for her – she had landed a spot as an extra on an all-night shoot.    Apparently this was a frequent occurence, or often-used story she handed the rest of the family.  The "Dahlia" mentioned in the headline refers to the gory L.A. party girl murder two years before that shook the community. The "Dahlia" was the infamous "Black Dahlia" victim who was found naked, mutilated one morning in the weeds of an abandoned lot.  She was cut in two and her face was sliced ear to ear.  A few years later, Jean's purse was discovered in Griffith Park.  The straps were broken, as if there had been a violent struggle.  Inside the purse was a note: "Kirk: Can't wait any longer, Going to see Dr. Scott.  It will work best this way while mother is away."  No one would ever see Jean again.  Everyone knew she was DEAD.

I'm not going to write a book report here, but I'm on a constant reading journey to find the next novel to introduce to my English classes. This one probably won't make the cut.  The violence is brutal and the sex is graphic.  Currently, many of my students are researching the life of Marilyn Monroe.  Marilyn grew up in the hard times of the Great Depression. Her mother worked in a movie studio, but was schizophrenic and commited to a mental hospital.  Seperated from her mother in her early childhood, Marilyn bounced from one orphanage to one foster family.  On more than one occasion she was sexually abused. She was forced to drop out of high school and  marry her first husband at age 16 – this was to avoid having to return to state care.  Why am I mentioning Marilyn Monroe?  Marilyn and Jean may have traveled in the same circles. I've seen photos of Marilyn in the same pose as the party girl on the cover of The Song is You.  As many of my students will tell you, Marilyn did what she had to do to pursue her dream of one day becoming a famous actress. Lucky for her, she was able to make the right contacts.  Unlucky for Jean, she was not.  In reading this book, I have to think that stardom – or survival – in Hollywood for these desperate young women is often a matter of sheer chance.

I discovered Meg Abbot in an anthology of crime-fiction short stories based on Edward Hopper's paintings: In Sunlight or in Shadow.  I bring Edward Hopper paintings to my classroom lessons to help my students understand and use visual analysis in their essay writing. Each author in the anthology responds to a Hopper painting according to his/her own style and perception. Meg Abbott created a story behind Hoppers Girlie Show. I won't spoil the story for you here, but the woman in the painting is Hopper's wife.  This short story, "Girlie Show,"  I think I will share with my students.  Somewhere in the middle of my classroom instruction I will tell my students Hopper's wife, Josephine, an accomplished artist in her own right, posed for all his female figures.  Ed and Joe married after they had reached their forties, so the woman you see – in the painting – sauntering across the stage naked is married and middle aged. The only thing she is wearing is a tissue-thin piece of blue netting between her legs.  Her nipples have been dabbed with rouge. In her story, Meg  Abbott compares their shape and color to clown hats. I've read my share of biographical material about Hopper and his wife.  She was known for her diminutive size and firecracker-red-colored wild hair.   She was a determined artist in her own right.  You can see it in her face in the painting.  That's her, Josephine,  I know it.

It's becoming more frequent to see my students write about violent against women in our society.  The note found in Jean Spangler's purse to "Kirk" implied she was pregnant with the famous actor's baby.  The real-life Kirk Douglas of the 1940s sounds like the Harvey Weinstein we know today.  Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, was tortured and murdered, probably by a man she barely knew.  She was only 22.  Jean Spangler's body was never found.  she was 27,  Marilyn made it futher than either of them, to age 37, before she took her own life by swallowing a bottle of barbituates.  In The Song Is You one of the character describes Jean like this:  "A girl like that, come on, was always finding herself tangled up with rough stuff… Hell, it was surprising that more of them [party girls] didn't go missing — skip town, run away with a fella, maybe a married guy, or sometimes, sure, just know too much, simply too, to much."  All three of these woman – Elizabeth, Jean, Marilyn -  started their journeys in pursuit of the the American Dream, but sadly, and tragically,  they only got as far as Hard-Boiled Hollywood.