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The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Historical fiction

The Seventh Veil of Salome

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Quick take

Competition is fierce in Golden Age Hollywood for fame and fortune, but are the sacrifices worth the glitz and glamor?

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Feminist

    Feminist

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    Movieish

  • Illustrated icon, Glamorous

    Glamorous

Synopsis

1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.

So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingénue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.

But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.

Before the curtain comes down, there will be tears and tragedy aplenty in this sexy Technicolor saga.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Seventh Veil of Salome.

The Seventh Veil of Salome

Joe Kantor

I’d spent most of the day tucked away at the Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard, working through a pile of notes. Its high-backed, padded red leather booths were the perfect hiding spot for harried writers trying to clobber their way through script changes and, boy, did I have script changes.

Some folks called Max Niemann a bully and others called him a genius. I called him an obsessive workaholic. I was laboring on yet another draft of The Seventh Veil of Salome, and I was the third writer that Niemann had hired. His propensity for new notes was enough to send any scribe howling out the door, but I didn’t mind him. Previously, I’d done work for other directors of note: Howard Hawks, who liked to mutter disparaging comments about Jews, and I’d had to stomach Michael Curtiz’s creative barrage of hyphenated insults—no-good-son-of-a-bitch—ad nauseam. Niemann didn’t think highly enough of writers to abuse them, reserving his barbs for his actors and assistants, so I was in a relatively serene state of mind.

After a couple of whiskey sours and a plate of grilled lamb kidneys, I tucked my portable Smith-Corona Sterling into its case and headed back to the studio to deliver the pages Niemann had been asking about. Pacific Pictures was a midsize player. The gorillas in the business were MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. The crown jewels of Hollywood. Then you had RKO, Universal, Columbia, and of course Pacific Pictures. We were not providers of Poverty Row fare, like Grand National, but we didn’t have MGM’s dazzling facilities, either. We made a heck of a lot of mindless comedies, our share of corny romances and dramas, and a couple of big-budget opuses each year. Just as you’d expect, like clockwork.

Things were changing, though, in more than one way, around town. The antitrust case against the majors dealt a blow to the mega studios, and TV was picking up speed and viewers. Charlie Chaplin sold his studio at La Brea after being declared persona non grata in the US, and a bunch of writers decamped to Mexico for fear of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. I’d stayed put. HUAC had lots of us spooked, but I needed the work, and work meant living in Hollywood.

So, nu, anyway, that’s not what your documentary is about, I know. Salome, let’s talk about her.

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Why I love it

To me, there’s nothing better than a novel set in 1950s Hollywood: the swift rise of a pretty young thing to starlet, the behind-the-scenes jealousies and backstabbing, and the glitzy sheen of vintage Los Angeles from the cavernous stage sets to Schwab’s soda fountain.

Vera, the reserved, opera-loving heroine of The Seventh Veil of Salome, is an unlikely choice for stardom at first glance. The fact that Vera was “discovered” in Mexico doesn’t help matters in a society where prejudice is rampant and gossip rules the day, notching up the pressure on Vera to conform as she struggles to maintain her equilibrium and sense of self-worth.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia adds even more layers by weaving the biblical story of Salome through the 1950s plotline. In doing so, she deftly explores how, throughout time, beautiful women have been “chosen” by men in power to titillate and perform, or have betrayed each other in order to secure a modicum of power for themselves. The cinematic, powerful ending will leave you breathless, almost as if you’ve just performed the dance of the seven veils yourself.

This book has it all: romance, intrigue, and thrills, rounded out by a cast of complicated characters who sizzle on the page. Dive on in!

Other books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Member ratings (557)

Feminist
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The Seventh Veil of Salome
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My Body
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True Story
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The Book of Longings
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Bringing Down the Duke
Three Women
Shout
Thick
Still Lives
The Rules of Magic
The Nightingale
Feminist
View all
The Stone Witch of Florence
The Seventh Veil of Salome
Hera
The Lion Women of Tehran
The Return of Ellie Black
Annie Bot
More
Bright Young Women
The First Ladies
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Weyward
Queen of Thieves
Hester
Love on the Brain
Bronze Drum
The Bodyguard
The Change
Lessons in Chemistry
Kaikeyi
My Body
Half Sick of Shadows
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Outlawed
More Myself
Practical Magic
A Rogue of One's Own
True Story
Fleishman Is in Trouble
The Book of Longings
Untamed
The Kingdom of Back
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Throw Like a Girl
Trick Mirror
Bringing Down the Duke
Three Women
Shout
Thick
Still Lives
The Rules of Magic
The Nightingale