Book excerpt: The lives and careers of Warner Brothers' screen legends Joan Blondell, Nancy Coleman, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Glenda Farrell, Kay Francis, Ruby Keeler, Andrea King, Priscilla Lane, Joan Leslie, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker, Ann Sheridan, Alexis Smith, and Jane Wyman are the topic of this book. Some achieved great success in film and other areas of show business, but others failed to get the breaks or became victims of the studio system's sometimes unpleasant brand of politics. The personal and professional obstacles that each actress encountered are here set out in detail, often with comments from the actresses who granted interviews with the author and from those people who knew them best on and off the movie set. A filmography is included for each of the fifteen.