This 1943 book is a play on words that I didn’t spot until I’d finished it, embarrassingly. For it is about following Our Hearts to Hollywood – more specifically, the 1942 book Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, in which Emily Kimbrough and Cornelia Otis Skinner hilariously recounted their tour of Europe in the 1920s. It’s a brilliant book, and I think relatively well known in the US – if you find a copy this side of the Atlantic, snap it up and you won’t regret it.
Hollywood moved fast in the 1940s, and almost immediately a film version was in the works – and Kimbrough and Skinner were asked to go to Hollywood to help write the script. (The film was released in 1944 – things really did move fast! – and there was even a sequel in 1946, Our Hearts Were Growing Up, which Skinner and Kimbrough were unable to prevent despite legal action.)
We Followed is pretty slender in terms of plot. It essentially shows how the two women are a bit like fish out of water in the dizzying whirl of Hollywood. Imagine what it would feel like to them now! But it’s good fun to see them get overwhelmed by the grandeur of their hotel, starstruck by various stars they encounter (few of whom meant anything to me now, I’ll confess), and try to get their heads around writing the dialogue. Or, more precisely, holding off writing the dialogue as any number of other meetings take place to determine an outline – once anybody realises that the two have even arrived.
Throughout, Kimbrough documents the sort of affectionate ribaldry and rivalry that only good friends can have – with her own ironic dose of teasing Skinner about her theatrical background (clearly, simultaneously, admiring it). There is no real butt to any of the jokes – everything is very good-natured, and witty in a self-deprecating way rather than anything more malicious.
It’s always interesting to read a book written by two people, and wonder how they did. Having now read quite a lot of Cornelia Otis Skinner’s books and this by Emily Kimbrough, I can make an attempt at piecing together how their different styles cohered so gloriously in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. And I think it’s fair to say that Skinner provided all the sharpest wit and the funniest lines. Kimbrough is more delicately amusing, and brings the sense of wonderment and almost naivety. Don’t expect any exposés of famous people, or any people – there is no dark side to this Hollywood. There is perhaps an inefficient side, but that’s about as dark as it gets.
I’m having a really good year for books about the film industry, thinking about it. Christopher Isherwood’s Prater Violet, Darcy O’Brien’s A Way of Life Like Any Other, the extraordinary non-fiction The Devil’s Candy by Julia Salamon, and now this. Four very different perspectives on movie making, but somehow working very well together – and all very good.
If Kimbrough is at her best alongside Skinner, this is still a wonderfully enjoyable book to read. (I wonder why it wasn’t written by both of them?) If you’ve loved Our Hearts Were Young and Gay then I think you’ll relish following them to Hollywood with this one – to see a bit about the book’s afterlife, and to enjoy a snapshot of Hollywood in the 1940s.
I recently read the book but have never seen the film. Will look out for it on the classic movie channel. The book was very funny. A gentle story.
“Our Hearts Were Young and Gay” is a joy! As are Cornelia Otis Skinner’s other droll books. But Emily Kimbrough…hmmm… I’ve read “We Followed Our Hearts to Hollywood”, and it is fine, but I found it a bit flat, and then I read an assortment of other Kimbroughs – she made quite a thing of travel books evenually – and I thought these were even flatter. I mean, you could catch moments of the humour and gentle self mockery which make “Our Hearts” such a pleasure, but there is an overdone earnestness there, too, as if Kimbrough is trying just a tiny bit too hard. End result: her books – at least her later books – are tilted towards boring.
Emily Kimbrough’s books which look back at her childhood and youth are quite a lot better – they have some of the flavour of “Our Hearts” in their polite rollicking, their gently humorous depictions of Emily’s family and her experiences with her first job and so on. If you run across “The Innocents from Indiana”, and “Through Charley’s Door”, give them a go. Ditto “Forty Plus and Fancy Free”, where Emily returns to Europe with a group of friends (though not Cornelia, who was invited but couldn’t make it, if I remember correctly) for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, which Kimbrough was commissioned to cover for CBS.
The later travel books tend to drone on, and to be overly concerned with how best to ensure that the cocktail hour is well-observed wherever one goes!