Peggy Lane: Peggy Finds the Theater

 

    I've been suffering with reader's block for quite a few months. I have picked up several books but haven't been able to finish them. Thanks to Peggy Lane, or maybe Virginia Hughes, I have finally broken this little spell and finished a book. 

    As the book opens Peggy Lane is having a discussion with her parents about the possibility of her putting off college to pursue an acting career in New York. Her father is initially against it but Peggy works out a deal with him that if she can't land an acting job within one year she will return home to attend college. 

    Once her father is on board he calls up May Berriman, an old friend who acted in New York and now owns and operates The Gramercy Arms, a boarding house for actresses. May agrees to take on Peggy as a boarder and gets her an audition with the New York Dramatic Academy.

    After a quick trip to New York Peggy is accepted into the academy and soon moves into her new home in the city where she quickly becomes close friends with fellow boarder Amy, a southern girl who has also just arrived to attend the dramatic academy.

    On their first day of school they meet Mal, a British boy and aspiring director. He soon introduces the girls to his friend Randy, a song and dance man at local nightclubs. Mal and Randy have written a play but have hit an obstacle; they cannot find a theater to rent. The Broadway theaters are too expensive and the off Broadway theaters are booked years in advance. Peggy, wanting to help the boys and possibly wanting to impress Randy, declares she will find them a theater.

    Her plan of attack is to look up every theater license issued since the late 1800's, cross-reference them with a recent phonebook, and visit any that are not accounted for in the hopes that some are lying abandoned or forgotten about. 

    After a bit of searching Peggy finds one that is located on the fifth floor of a building. The building looks vacant but a ring of the door buzzer brings a surly janitor who insists there is no theater before shooing Peggy away. 

    Suspicious that crooks have taken up use of the theater Peggy suggests that the group take turns surveilling the theater at night in the hopes they will catch illegal doings so the police will clear out the theater thus leaving it available for Mal and Randy. On the second night while Peggy and Amy wait they witness a truck arriving and boxes being unloaded into the theater under armed guard.

    After informing the police it is discovered that hijackers have been storing their stolen loot in the old building. It is freed up and the landlord is so grateful he offers Mal and Randy a ten year lease at a steal of a price. Not only can the boys now put on their play but they also decide to turn a lower floor into a male version of the Gramercy Arms. 

    This was a quick, fun read. After Peggy begins her search for a theater the book gets quite interesting. I enjoyed the descriptions about different parts on New York City. There is one part where the boys take the girls on a date to Luchow's, an old and famous real life restaurant that was located in the old theater section of the city. At the time this book was written the restaurant was already a reminder of the past. I found this interesting as this book is from the 1960's. It is like looking in a window to the past while already looking in a window to the past.

    I read this as an eBook that I got for free from Project Gutenberg which is where the images in this post come from: Peggy Finds the Theater on Project Gutenberg

Peggy Lane: Peggy Plays Off-Broadway

    This is the first and only Peggy Lane book I have read. I recall finding the beginning boring but liking it once I got farther in. I consider the Peggy Lane series to be one of the three "glamorous series" Grosset and Dunlap put out at this time. The other series all feature more average girls; Nancy Drew is a suburban daughter, Judy Bolton is a housewife, Cherry Ames is a nurse, the Dana Girls are schoolgirls, pretty much they are all embellished version of everyday women. However Peggy is an actress who later travels to Hollywood, Vicki Barr is a flight stewardess who travels to exciting locations, and Connie Blair is a big city career woman. Anyways I'm getting off topic in my analysis of Grosset & Dunlap series.

    "In the second book of a thrilling new series for girls, Peggy Lane, aspiring young actress, takes her first important step up the ladder of success. She lands a small part in Randy Brewster's experimental play Come Closer--a part she secretly suspects Randy wrote especially of her.

Unknowns all, the cast is headed by lovely Paula Andrews, an inspiration on stage but something of a problem otherwise. Hit's don't just happen for an experimental group. They are created out of hardships and disappointments. The show's production is threatened with financial difficulties, and everyone's hopes now depend in the special presentation they are to give for a prospective backer. When Paula, at the last minute, backs out, Mal Seton, the director, blows up. Peggy, he says, can have the part.

    Peggy, knowing she is not yet ready for a leading role, proposes a radical solution. The, trying to help Paula, who appears tense and troubled, Peggy inadvertently discovers a mystery that cannot be unraveled until Peggy herself resolves a dilemma!"

- I think it was pretty mean of Peggy to tell Paula how she knows the director and that Paula will most likely get the part. What if she didn't? She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up like that when she wasn't sure.

- There's a lot of talk about how actors have to look just right for the part, that it doesn't matter how good they can act if they don't look just right. But then Mal tells Greta he cast her because of her acting and her appearance will have to be changed to match the characters. I hope no one was hoping to get casting advice from this book.

- The Penthouse Theater sounds interesting. The main floor is rooms for rehearsal, the second is the theater, and the third is rented rooms for actors. Apparently Peggy finds the theater for her friend in the first book and there's a mystery involved with it. Definitely has me intrigued.

- I don't understand why any of these girls in any of these series can't have steady boyfriends. Peggy and Randy have some weird non-relationship kind of relationship where they date, kiss goodnight, and Peggy even gets jealous thinking about him dating other girls in the past yet it's made very clear they are not dating.

- I think it's very selfish of Paula to accept money from Peggy and her friends. Paula wouldn't need money if she would give up her expensive park avenue apartment but she won't because she "likes it there". I Remember how this book ends and so I know Paula actually has money and is just playing some strange game of "poor girl". The people she's taking money from are actually trying to make it on their own and need that money themselves. Not only that but couldn't Mal just give her an advance on her pay since he was given a lot more money then he had asked for from that British backer.

- I find it strange that Amy and Peggy skip a night of rehearsal to set up a little friendship party in Paula's apartment. This isn't a school play put on for fun, it's a professional one with a lot riding on it's success. They aren't getting paid to skip rehearsals.

- The final chapter opens with Peggy writing a letter to her friend Jean Wilson. It took me forever to figure out where I'd heard that name before. I kept thinking it must have been in a Nancy Drew book or maybe even an episode of I Love Lucy. Finally I remembered it's from an episode of Faulty Towers.

    Overall this book was alright, it dragged a little in places and wasn't filled with very many thrills but it did go by fast.