STAFF PUBLICATION: Second Chances in Hollywood
In Sarah Hendess’s debut novel, Second Chances in Hollywood, Josie is a 23-year-old nurse and divorcee. She moves to Hollywood, where her marital status is not unusual. When she checks on a patient who happens to be a TV producer, he seems impressed with her ability to sweetly sidestep his sass—an attitude the man has been looking for in his show, Gunslingers.
“I grew up watching the mid-century Westerns in syndication,” says author Hendess, “and I always thought it would be fun to write a story that takes place on a Western set during the genre’s heyday.”
Josie is suddenly swept up in acting classes and costuming, flying to Yosemite to film on-location with her three male co-stars: Charlie Lyon, who plays her father; Beau Fraser, the blue-eyed heartthrob who plays her love interest; and Robert Coolidge, the brooding grump who plays a deputy.
“I absolutely had Lorne Greene, who played Ben Cartwright on Bonanza, in mind when I wrote Charlie Lyon,” says Hendess. “I envisioned Beau Fraser as a rival of sorts to the real-life Michael Landon, whom Beau name-drops in the book.”
But the character of Robert Coolidge, who we see more of due to the love affair with Josie, has more complexity. “Pernell Roberts, who played Adam Cartwright on Bonanza and left the show after season six, was pretty vocal about his dislike for the role, and Robert Coolidge’s complaint in the book about his character is similar.”
Robert is also divorced. His high school sweetheart hated Hollywood and moved back to their tiny South Carolina hometown with their son. Robert doesn’t blame her, but Hell Hole is called that for a reason. Utterly lost without his son, Robert is too melancholy for friends. But the moment he lays eyes on his new co-star, Josie, he knows he has to stay away. He would only get hurt all over again.
Josie gets along swimmingly with everyone but Robert, who barely interacts with anyone among the cast and crew. Josie makes it her mission to bring Robert into the fold of their on-set family.
It’s a love story fit for black-and-white television. From the characters debating the need for a color TV, to gaping at an automatic dishwasher, this book feels like Southern California of a different era, right down to the brand-new theme park, Disneyland. “[Disneyland] opened a huge expansion in June 1959,” Hendess says. “So I got to put Robert and Josie on all sorts of brand-new rides.”
