Interview: February 4, 2021
Donis Casey is the author of 10 Alafair Tucker mysteries. This award-winning series, featuring the sleuthing mother of 10 children, is set in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Casey has now penned VALENTINO WILL DIE, the second installment in her Hollywood-based series set in the 1920s and starring Alafair’s eighth child, Blanche, who has transformed into the celebrated Bianca LaBelle, the reclusive star of a series of adventure films. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, who has worked in book publicity since 1984, Casey talks about her inspiration for turning Blanche into a silent movie actress, what intrigued her so much about Rudolph Valentino that she decided to make him the focal point for her latest novel, and which actors working today she believes would have been a huge success in the silent film era.
Question: What was the inspiration that led you to segue from your 10-volume Alafair Tucker mystery series, which was set in the Ozarks between 1912 and 1919, to your 1920s Hollywood-based Bianca Dangereuse series?
Donis Casey: Throughout the Alafair series, I'd described Blanche as a breathtaking beauty, even as a child, who was what my mother would have called "work-brittle," smart but uninterested in school, and aching to be anywhere but stuck in boring little Boynton, Oklahoma. So when the opportunity arises for her to escape, off she runs with a cad who promises to put her in the movies.
Why the movies? Once I'd decided to fling Blanche into the world, I didn't know myself she was going to end up a movie star. That stroke of inspiration came to me while I was doing preliminary research for the new series. One great resource for learning about the world of 1920s America is silent movies. Besides reading old newspapers and doing historical research, I must have watched dozens of silent movies to get a sense of the look, feel and zeitgeist of the era. Until...eureka! The magic happened, and I realized that the new book should be fashioned like a silent movie, with inter-title cards rather than chapter headings, full of peril and ending on a cliffhanger. And, lucky for me, early Hollywood was so full of sin, corruption, strange happenings and colorful characters that I wouldn't have to worry about plot ideas for my mystery novels.
Q: Bianca is the daughter of Alafair, but otherwise the books have a totally separate tone to their mystery styles. Was that something you consciously tried to establish, or did their vastly different settings dictate the difference in tone?
DC: The latter, I think. The world was bigger in 1920. Blanche/Bianca found herself in a totally unfamiliar setting, among people who could have come from another planet as far she's concerned. My new time and place necessitated a whole new tone for the novel. I hear the sound of that new world in my head when I write. I went from the leisurely twang of rural Oklahoma to the gum-popping rat-a-tat of the East Coasters who populated Hollywood in the early 20th century. When I write the Alafairs, I hear the gentle cadence of my grandmother’s Kentucky accent. When I write the Biancas, I hear Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade.
Q: Since you have established Bianca as a silent film star, the books have to jibe with the Hollywood history of that time. To assure accuracy in that regard, what have your preferred research sources been?
DC: Contemporary sources, for sure. As many autobiographies, interviews and trade newspaper articles as I could find: Valentino's diaries were published by his agent a couple of years after he died. Valentino must have been interviewed hundreds of times, which was useful for learning his own take on events. Some of the interviews with early actors showed many of them to be very funny and very smart. Lillian Gish is hilarious. I like biographies of people of the era, and not necessarily actors, either. Joseph Kennedy's doings during the 1920s were certainly enlightening, for example.
But as I said, the silent movies themselves have been a godsend. Thank you, YouTube! There is one particular silent movie I have watched half a dozen times called Something New, starring a fabulous actor/writer/producer named Nell Shipman and a Maxwell automobile. The Bianca LaBelle character is heavily influenced by Nell's looks, manner and independence.
Q: Using Rudolph Valentino as the fulcrum of this second Bianaca Dangereuse mystery must have been fun, given that he was one of the most colorful yet mysterious stars of the silent era in Hollywood. Has his story always been of interest to you? His passing at an early age presaged the tragic deaths of later film stars like Jean Harlow, James Dean and, of course, Marilyn Monroe.
DC: I had used Rudy as a side character in the first Bianca Dangereuse novel, THE WRONG GIRL, because I wanted to show that she was friends with the most famous people in the world. I was aware of Rudy's fame --- that he was the first great screen lover and an international heartthrob whose early death caused a frenzy of grief. But when I did the research on him for that small part, I ended up down the rabbit hole. He was a fascinating guy, really accomplished in so many areas. He loved art and music and spoke five languages. He was hot-tempered but quick to forgive, loved women but by his own admission didn't understand them, extremely athletic but kind of boyish and naive. He was also flummoxed by his unbelievable fame.
But what really intrigued me was that as soon as he died, the rumors that he had been murdered began to fly. Newspaper articles posited that he had actually been shot by a jealous husband, or that the Fascisti had killed him, or the mob, or a jilted lover. There's a built-in murder mystery just waiting to be written.
Q: There are any number of other movie stars of the silent era that you might summon going forward, but I wonder if the mysterious figure of Lon Chaney, Sr. might be one whom you are considering. He, too, died at a relatively young age after making just one sound picture.
DC: Oh, now there's an idea. Chaney, Sr. was famous for his wonderful makeup and costuming, which would be a great talent to have if you wanted to kill someone, or follow someone, or investigate a crime. As you say, there are any number of stories to pursue. I've already written the first draft of the third Bianca Dangereuse mystery, which features Dashiell Hammett and Myrna Loy, perched on the brink of fame. I've also been looking into Joe Kennedy, Thelma Todd, John Barrymore and Josephine Baker. And John Wayne, Claudette Colbert and Barbara Stanwyck were just about to become famous. It's an embarrassment of riches!
Q: Are you able to name three novels with an Old Hollywood setting that you feel may have prepared you to write this series?
DC: Mary Miley's Hollywood novels are most enlightening, especially SILENT MURDERS, about the real-life murder of director William Desmond Taylor. Laini Giles' THE IT GIRL AND ME, about Clara Bow was fun. Melanie Benjamin’s THE GIRLS IN THE PICTURE, about the friendship between Mary Pickford and Frances Marion, both of whom have been side characters in the Bianca Dangereuse novels, was especially helpful.
However, I really stopped looking at 1920s Hollywood novels after I had the idea to write one myself. I'm careful about reading other people's novels with similar themes and settings while I'm writing. I don't want to be unconsciously influenced by their style or tone, or even their interpretation of the times or characters, which, believe me, is a very easy trap to fall into.
Q: Is there any actor or actress working today whom you think might have been a huge success if his or her Hollywood film career had been launched in the silent era 100 years ago?
DC: Physical actors like Melissa McCarthy, Steve Martin or Jim Carrey. Actors who can interpret their characters with their eyes and bodies, which means Meryl Streep. I'd say Brad Pitt, because I'd certainly pay a nickel to sit in the dark and look at him, but in the early '20s, blue-eyed people didn't film well. Their eyes disappeared, and they ended up looking like Little Orphan Annie. So maybe George Clooney.
