Hollywood via Orchard Street
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.