Georgette Heyer was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. The couple spent several years living in Tanganyika Territory and Macedonia before returning to England in 1929. After her novel These Old Shades became popular despite its release during the General Strike, Heyer determined that publicity was not necessary for good sales. For the rest of her life she refused to grant interviews, telling a friend: "My private life concerns no one but myself and my family."
Margaret Brown, posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She unsuccessfully encouraged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field of the 1912 sinking of RMS Titanic to look for survivors. During her lifetime, her friends called her "Maggie", but even by her death, obituaries referred to her as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". The reference was further reinforced by a 1960 Broadway musical based on her life and its 1964 film adaptation which were both entitled The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Sylvia Sidney was an American stage, screen and film actress whose career spanned over 70 years. She rose to prominence in dozens of leading roles in the 1930s. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams in 1973. She later gained attention for her role as Juno, a case worker in the afterlife, in Tim Burton's 1988 film Beetlejuice, for which she won a Saturn Award as Best Supporting Actress.
Tempting Heart is a 1999 movie, directed and co-written by Sylvia Chang, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung as a pair of onscreen lovers.
Island in the Sun is a 1957 De Luxe in CinemaScope drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. It features an ensemble cast including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, John Williams, and Basil Sydney. The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta. Barbados and Grenada were selected as the sites for the movie based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its portrayal of interracial romance.
Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 American South Seas romantic adventure film directed and produced by William A. Graham and starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause. The film is a sequel to The Blue Lagoon (1980). The screenplay by Leslie Stevens was based on the 1923 novel The Garden of God by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The original music score was written, composed, and performed by Basil Poledouris. The film's closing theme song, "A World of Our Own", is performed by Surface featuring Bernard Jackson. The music was written by Barry Mann, and the lyrics were written by Cynthia Weil.
A Summer Place is a 1959 American romantic drama film based on Sloan Wilson's 1958 novel of the same name, about teenage lovers from different social classes who get back together 20 years later, and then must deal with the passionate love affair of their own teenage children by previous marriages. Delmer Daves directed the movie, which stars Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire as the middle-aged lovers, and Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue as their respective children. The film contains a memorable instrumental theme composed by Max Steiner, which spent nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1960.
The Tender Trap (1955) is a CinemaScope Eastman Color comedy directed by Charles Walters and starring Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne, and Celeste Holm.
You and Me is a 1938 American crime film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Sylvia Sidney and George Raft. They play a pair of criminals on parole and working in a department store full of similar cases; Harry Carey's character routinely hires ex-convicts to staff his store. The film was written by Norman Krasna and Virginia Van Upp.
Margaret Way is an Australian writer of romance novels and women's fiction. A prolific author, Way has written more than 120 novels since 1970, many through Mills & Boon, a romance imprint of British publisher Harlequin UK Ltd., owned by Harlequin Enterprises.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1936 American adventure romance western film based on the novel of the same name. The picture was directed by Henry Hathaway starring Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sidney, and Henry Fonda. It was the second full-length feature film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first in color to be shot outdoors, with the approval of the Technicolor Corporation. Much of it was shot at Big Bear Lake in southern California. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine was the fourth feature film adaptation of John Fox Jr.'s 1908 novel, including 1916 and 1923 silent versions. As with the novel, the film makes extensive use of Appalachian English in the dialogue.
Valentine Ackland was an English poet, and life partner of novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner. Their relationship was strained by Ackland’s infidelities and alcoholism, but survived for nearly forty years. Both were closely involved with communism, remaining under continued scrutiny by the authorities. Ackland’s poetry did not become widely noticed until after her death, when her reflective, confessional style was more in vogue, and left-wing writers of the 1930s had become a popular topic.
Ann Maddocks was a Welsh maid who according to tradition was forced to marry against her wishes and died pining for her true love. She is also known by the poetic name, The Maid of Cefn Ydfa.
The Copper Beech is a 1992 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, the storyline follows the lives of 12 characters living in a small Irish town, in chapters with interlocking plot elements. The novel was recorded as a BBC audiobook in 2007.
The Rainbow is a 1989 British drama film co-written and directed by Ken Russell and adapted from the D. H. Lawrence novel The Rainbow (1915). Sammi Davis stars as Ursula, a sheltered young pupil, then schoolteacher, who's taken under the wing by the more sophisticated Winifred.
Irene Swatridge, née Irene Maude Mossop was a British writer of over 175 children's and romance novels.
Valerie Grant is a fictional character from Days of Our Lives, an American soap opera on the NBC network. The character was created by Pat Falken Smith and introduced as the black love interest for white character David Banning. The role was originated by actress Tina Andrews in 1975 and Andrews was replaced by Rose Fonseca in the summer of 1977. Valerie and her family take David in when he is injured in a car accident and they soon fall in love. David and Valerie become engaged in the summer of 1976 but the romance is plagued by his infidelity, his ex-girlfriend Brooke Hamilton and her mother Helen's unwillingness to accept the relationship. When David's affair with Trish Clayton results in pregnancy, Valerie ends the relationship and takes a scholarship to medical school at Howard University in 1978. Actress Diane Sommerfield took over the role in 1981 when Valerie returns as a medical intern at the hospital. She becomes involved with Abe Carver which is plagued by Val's residual feelings for David and Abe's unwillingness to get married one day. The character is written out in 1982.
After is a 2019 American romantic drama film directed by Jenny Gage, based on the 2014 new adult fiction novel of the same name by Anna Todd, originally released as a fanfiction on Wattpad. The screenplay is written by Susan McMartin, Tamara Chestna, and Jenny Gage. The film stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, and follows an inexperienced teenage girl who begins to romance a mysterious student during her first months of college. The cast includes Selma Blair, Inanna Sarkis, Shane Paul McGhie, Pia Mia, Khadijha Red Thunder, Dylan Arnold, Samuel Larsen, Jennifer Beals, and Peter Gallagher in supporting roles.
Queen Bees is a 2021 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Lembeck. It features an ensemble cast, including Ellen Burstyn, James Caan, Ann-Margret, Christopher Lloyd, Jane Curtin, Loretta Devine, and Elizabeth Mitchell. It was released on June 11, 2021, by Gravitas Ventures, and received mixed reviews from critics.
Summer of Mesa is a 2020 coming-of-age romantic drama film written and directed by Josh Cox who was 20 years old during the shoot. Set in 1985 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, it stars Molly Miles, Andrea Granera, and Alec Bandzes. The story chronicles the romantic relationship between 16-year-old Lily, and Mesa, a girl her age who she meets on the peninsula.
