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.
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