Dear Marsha,



Ursula Parrott didn’t just write stories about modern women trying to balance wildly successful careers with their personal lives. In 1931 she published a gangster novel, Gentleman’s Fate, under the name K.U.P. (Katherine Ursula Parrott’s initials), although her full name was used when it was serialized in Household Magazine. I love the garish, colorful cover for the book!

MGM bought the rights to Gentleman’s Fate and borrowed director Mervyn LeRoy from Warner Bros. to make the film, casting John Gilbert in the starring role, described unfavorably by one reviewer of the film as an actor who “battles the cruel microphone more successfully than usual in his latest attempt to overcome the handicap that the talking pictures have placed upon him.”

Speaking of the cruel microphone, I continue my battles with it--hopefully with more success than Gilbert.



Thursday November 9^th at 4pm: “Writing Women’s Film History” talk followed by a 7pm screening of The Divorcee (1930) at Michigan State University.



Friday November 10^th at 4pm: “Ursula Parrott in Hollywood” Department of Cinema and Media Studies talk the University of Chicago, book signing hosted by the Chicago Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, followed by a 7pm screening of Douglas Sirk’s There's Always Tomorrow (1956) at the beautiful Logan Center on campus.



Saturday November 11^th at 2pm: screening of Sirk’s There’s Always Tomorrow followed by a discussion with my former “Movies on the Radio” co-host Laura Boyes plus a book sale and signing at the Carolina Theater in Durham, NC.

Boston, I'm headed your way soon (full details for all events are on my website)!!!

If you know folks in Lansing, Chicago, Durham, or Boston, please let them know I’m coming their way!  



And please consider following my new UrsulaParrottAuthor Instagram, which will likely replace this newsletter at some point in the future.

 
Sincerely,

Marsha Gordon

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