Evoking the flip side of Hollywood

0 Star Joanne Hartstone has a singing voice akin to Judy Garland’s name) lived through some of the defining moments of the early 20th century: after her father was left destitute by the 1929 Wall Street Crash, they moved to a “Hooverville” shanty town to survive the Great Depression, before 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbour heralded a surge of military employment in California. Naturally, while daddy was helping construct the Spruce Goose, Evie found other ways to entertain herself – such as hanging out in the Hollywood Canteen with the likes of Bette Davis.

Hartstone’s accent and delivery are perfectly evocative of the period – her straight-talkin’ speech recalls Katharine Hepburn or Rosalind Russell, while her singing voice is akin to Judy Garland’s. Together with forgotten silent star Theda Bara and ‘Platinum Blonde’ Jean Harlow (who, Edwards claims, died aged 26 from kidney disease exacerbated by her toxic hair treatment), Garland is held up as an icon by the young starlet, who’s only too aware of the tragedies that befell them.

As she relates her compelling, all-too-believable tale, that gigantic half-h looms in the background, a constant reminder of (almost) certain tragedy to come. NIKI BOYLE