INTRODUCTION & DISCLAIMER - In this story we travel back over 80 years into the past and to the golden era of Hollywood, where 18-year-old Sam works as a stagehand for a film studio in Los Angeles. Grateful to have any sort of job in the difficult economic times, one of the perks for Sam is getting to meet famous actors and actresses. And none are as famous as the leading man and lady of the current film - Max Michaelson and Jo Jamieson, who have starred together in numerous films.
But while Max is one of Hollywood's nice guys, it is a completely different story with Jo, whose awful personality is completely at odds with the nice characters she plays on-screen. Rude, selfish, demanding, egotistical, racist and intolerant, Sam and other junior staff are given strict instructions about how to act around the difficult starlet, who constantly argues with her leading man and drives the highly strung director to the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Sam does his best to stay out of Jo's way, however when the troublesome young woman insists that he join her in her hotel room one evening after filming, what is going to happen?
All characters and events in this story are fictional, and any similarity to real people living or dead coincidental and unintentional. Only characters aged 18 years and older are in any sexual situations. Please enjoy your trip back to the 1930s, enjoy 'The Starlet Seduces the Stagehand' and rate and comment.
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At the age of 18, Sam Smith held just about the lowest position in the chain of command at the organization that was his employer, but the young man couldn't have been happier with his job. A general hand at a film studio in Hollywood, Sam's main function was running around on set performing errands on demand and he was expected to get things right first time without fail. His father and older brother had each expressed cynicism when he had taken a job with a film studio saying it wasn't a real job and wouldn't last, but Hollywood was making many films - a growing number in Technicolor - so there would be plenty of work for Sam in the foreseeable future at least.
And a job - any job - was important in the current year of 1936. America like the rest of the world was still struggling from the effects of the Great Depression, and while things were not as bad as they were in the years immediately after the stock market crash in 1929, they were still nowhere near the more prosperous years in the mid-1920s. The huge dust storms that had plagued the Great Plains, the Midwest and Texas were continuing, leaving vast tracts of agricultural land barren and unworkable. Overseas, things were uncertain to say the least. In Europe there was the communist Soviet Union in the East, while Hitler was making no secret of Germany's increasing military ambitions and future expansion in this region. In the Pacific, tensions between Japan and China were at breaking point, and similar to the Nazis in Europe, the Japanese made few secrets about future expansion of their territory through military force if required.
Sam's work was interesting, and the young man often went home star struck after seeing famous actors and actresses who when younger, Sam found it hard to believe actually existed. And in the current film he was working on - a Western - had some of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the lead roles.
The main plot of the movie was a love story between a cowboy and a young schoolteacher, and the male lead was none other than Max Michaelson, a handsome and sultry dark haired leading man who at age 28 had made female cinemagoers swoon for years. The female lead was played by Jo Jamieson, a slim and stunningly beautiful leading lady with perfectly styled red hair. The 24-year-old star of many Hollywood films was a huge box office drawcard and much loved by audiences, Sam one of them who admired the starlet and her work in cinema. The young man had felt somewhat light-headed when the pretty young star walked onto the set for the first day of filming. But Sam had learned an important lesson. Despite her good looks, talent and positive publicity generated by the studios and her agents, Jo Jamieson was not a nice person.
On the first day of filming Sam and other junior employees were sat down by their supervisors and given a comprehensive list of rules of working with the star. Miss Jamieson was not to be spoken to directly to by any of them, except in the unlikely event she chose to speak to them directly. Employees were not to engage in direct eye contact with Miss Jamieson, or to look at her for any longer than necessary. When Miss Jamieson made a request, it would be attended to immediately.
There were no such problems with the leading man Mr. Michaelson. He was a charming and down-to-Earth man and away from the screen married with a young son and daughter. He requested everyone simply call him Max and seemed to have time for everyone. He would always say hello, be this to the head of the studio who called in to see how things were going on the first days of filming or the ladies in the catering team when they served him some coffee. There was only one person on set that Max Michaelson didn't seem to get along with, and this was his leading lady Jo Jamieson.
Max and Jo had had romantic leading roles in quite a number of films together, so it was a testament to their acting abilities that they brought such chemistry to their characters despite their intense distaste for each other off-screen. The laid back Max would make some sort of joke about his uptight and demanding co-star, Jo would react and the tension on set would last for hours. This was certainly causing issues during filming, with the movie now in production for a week. It was certainly causing much angst for the pedantic director Cyril Carter.
A nervous, effeminate and perfectionist director, Cyril Carter's nerves were shot to pieces after just seven days, and Sam knew this movie was one that was going to take a long time to shoot. Firstly it was a long movie, with an approximate running time of two and a half hours when completed. Secondly, in addition to the scenes shot at the studio, much filming on location was required. Thirdly, Jo Jamieson's antics were causing numerous delays as the demanding diva queried just about every line in the script and squabbled with co-stars and senior production staff, not least the despairing director.
Initially the film was to be shot in Technicolor but the studio in assessing the films it had on its books pending production and analyzing them decided that the extra expense of shooting in color should be reserved for the upcoming pictures, and relegated this film to being filmed in black and white. This had irritated Jo Jamieson no end, and she was not shy about letting her feelings known about this.
"I want people to see and marvel at my natural beauty, how can they see that when I'm in black and white?" the actress had scoffed on the first day when she arrived on set and found out about the change.
Sam agreed that Jo Jamieson was beautiful, but thought really she shouldn't be referencing herself as such so shamelessly. Talk about a vanity problem!
This Wednesday, a bright, sunny and warm day in California, filming had moved out of the Los Angeles studio and into the countryside for a week. A series of trailers were set up, and cast and crew had just about booked out a large hotel in the area.
Sam was going about his business when the effeminate and fuming figure of Cyril Carter strode by him, dressed in his white shirt, waist coat and trousers, carrying a bull horn, other production staff and leading man Max Michaelson following him. "How am I supposed to direct on time and budget when my leading lady is nowhere to be found?" demanded Cyril. "She should be dressed and here to start filming. Time is money you know."
"I'm sure there's an explanation Sir," said one of the women.
Unlike the missing leading lady, the leading man was already dressed and ready to go, Max fully dressed as a Wild West era cowboy. Sam watched the group go on their way and he was relieved that the latest problem with Jo Jamieson was not his problem to deal with. Then Sam heard the voice of Tom, one of the sound guys. "Sam, could you please come and help us move some equipment?"
"Sure Tom," said Sam, following Tom around the trailers. They rounded one corner from one direction, Cyril, Max and their group from another and were both faced with the same sight.
Outside one of the trailers, reclining on a deckchair was leading lady Jo Jamieson. The pretty redhead, her long hair loose was wearing a light blue robe similar to a Japanese kimono, her shapely legs outstretched and her feet bare.
Jo's bare feet were being attended to by two young women, the actress obviously enjoying a pedicure. Another young woman was attending to her hair and make-up. A young man, a nervous look on his face approached the actress. "I have your water Miss Jamieson," he said nervously, holding the glass out.
Without a word, Jo took the glass and had a sip, then her expression soured. "What is this?" she snapped at the young man.
"Water, like you requested Miss Jamieson," said the young man, looking as terrified as if a hungry tiger or lion was in front of him.
"When I asked you to get me a glass of water, was I not specific enough in the instructions I gave to you?" Jo asked, the expression on her pretty face intimidating, the tone of her voice condescending. "Are you a Chinaman? You don't look like a Chinaman, but maybe you speak Chinese and I should have spoken to you in that language. Did I not give you a direct instruction that my water was not to be refrigerated and not room temperature, but of a temperature between the two? So why did you bring me water that is room temperature? Did you do it just to annoy me? I'm not drinking this, I'd rather drink my own urine. Yuck."
With that Jo threw the water away and sat glaring at the young man with an expression of contempt, like he was a cockroach she had found in her kitchen.
"I'm really sorry Miss Jamieson, I'll get you another," said the young man nervously, reaching towards the actress to take the empty glass.
Jo slapped his hand away. "Don't bother, I'll go thirsty. You'd be sure to get it wrong again, and we're running short of time as it is."
Jo adjusted her position on the deckchair, and with her legs slightly open it was possible to see under her robe and the white panties she was wearing. The young man chastened over the glass of water stood in front of her still stunned by the tongue-lashing, which annoyed the short-tempered actress.
"Why are you still standing there?" she spat. "Go away, and stop staring at me or I'll make it my business to see that you are without employment by day's end. A Negro could do a better job than you, at least a Negro can follow simple instructions like it is supposed to do."
The threat of unemployment hanging over his head, the young man scurried away, keen not to annoy the leading lady any more by remaining in her line of sight.
