Hollywood via Orchard Street

Wayne Clark

Book Cover

GENRE

DRAMA CRIME HISTORICAL FICTION

    Core Theme

    GOING UNDERCOVER WITH THE MOB TO SELL STORIES TO THE PAPERS.

    TIME PERIOD

    1920s & '30s

    COMPARABLE TITLES

    BOARDWALK EMPIRE, CHINATOWN

    CHARACTER LIST

    • CHARLES CZERNY (AKA BULLDOG): 20’S. LEAD. DEDICATED, TWO-FACED, INNOCENT, AND CREATIVE.

    • THUGSY: 30. CRIMINAL, UNEDUCATED, AGGRESSIVE

    • MI LING: 15. DECISIVE, ENGAGING, HONORABLE, OBEDIENT, COMPLEX, EMPATHETIC, MODEST

    Logline

    A fabricated alter ego helps a shy young man on New York's Lower East Side escape poverty and become a somebody.

    Target Audiences

    Age: 35-54

    Target Gender: Universal

    Setting

    New York City

    Based on a True Story

    No

    Publishing Details

    Status: Yes: self-published

    Year Published: 2018

    Starting Description

    A young man living in the poverty of the Lower East Side in the 1930s finds a typewriter in the rubble of a tenement fire. He immediately dreams of becoming a reporter for one of the New York papers he delivers. Eventually, he gets published, but only after getting unknowingly involved with mobsters

    Ending Description

    The protagonist is forced by the mob to kidnap a beautiful Broadway actress. A rival gang in Chinatown rescues her and the protagonist gets the inside scoop on a story the papers are clambering for. He turns it into a script at Hollywood's request and goes to Hollywood with the actress at his side.

    Group Specific

    Information not completed

    Hard Copy Available

    No

    ISBN

    Information not completed

    Mature Audience Themes

    Information not completed

    Plot - Other Elements

    Happy Ending, Coming of Age

    Plot - Premise

    Rags to Riches

    Main Character Details

    Name: Charles Czerny

    Age: 21

    Gender: Male

    Role: Protagonist

    Key Traits: Adventurous, Empathetic, Insecure, Naive, Underdog, Aspiring

    Additional Character Details

    Name: Shantelle "Shawny" Vox

    Age: 25

    Gender: Female

    Role: Emotional

    Key Traits: Sexy, Underdog, Aspiring, Beautiful, Empathetic, Insecure, Perseverance, Romantic

    Additional Character Details

    Name: Thugsy

    Age: 30

    Gender: Male

    Role: Antagonist

    Key Traits: Criminal, Uneducated, Adventurous, Aggressive

    Additional Character Details

    Name: Mi Ling

    Age: 15

    Gender: Female

    Role: Sidekick

    Key Traits: Seductive, Decisive, Engaging, Honorable, Obedient, Perseverance, Beautiful, Complex, Empathetic, Modest

    Brief

    In the 1930’s, an aspiring journalist living in poverty in New York begins working for the mob to make ends meet while also secretly reporting what he witnesses to newspapers.

    What We Liked

    - The unique way the protagonist finds himself descending into working with the mob and his journalistic aspirations;
    - The way the novel is crafted--it starts with Charles and then goes into other characters’ storylines after the midpoint rather than just staying with Charles--reflects how it’s fitting for a series or mini-series.
    - Supporting characters are complex and worth exploring as well;
    - Diversity opportunity with Chinese Characters;
    - Potential to Attract Name Actors with Complex Characters;
    - Unique Period Piece with a Mob War;
    - Costume and Set Design Awards Potential with Period Piece;
    Gratifying Conclusion.

    Synopsis

    After his mom dies, Charles, an aspiring journalist, gets a job delivering newspapers. He barely scrapes by. His friend, Gus, vouches for him so that he can start taking on sides jobs with the mob.

    Charles soon begins driving around Thugsy, who works to intimidate competing newspapers. Charles starts to participate in the intimidation tactics with Thugsy. He soon realizes that what he witnesses would make great stories he can sell to the papers to start realizing his journalistic dreams. He starts selling stories to the papers under the pen name Bulldog.

    Charles befriends a young Chinese girl, Mi Ling, and at the same time, Thugsy’s Irish mob boss enlists Charles for a special mission involving the boss’ gorgeous girlfriend, a Broadway actress named Shawny. Charles obeys orders but Shawny doesn’t want anything to do with the Irish mob boss. She begs Charles for help. He helps her escape the Irish mob boss at the risk of his own life.

    Charles hides Shawny with Mi Ling, daughter to a Chinese mob boss. A war between the Irish and Chinese mob ensues with Charles and Shawny at the center of it, and all the while, Charles sells stories to the papers about what he witnesses as Bulldog.

    By the end, he’s achieved more than he ever imagined as a writer, he finds love with Shawny, and he manages to avoid any bad blood with the mobs.

    About The Author

    Award-winning author Wayne Clark was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ont., but has called Montreal home since 1968. His career comprises journalism--including newspapers and magazines, as a reporter, editor and freelance writer--and advertising, besides writing fiction.