
In Ryan Murphy’s latest series, Hollywood, Tinseltown is re-envisioned in a brand new light.
The limited series, which premiered on Netflix last week, follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in the movie business.
Unlike the reality of the Golden Age of cinema, however, Murphy’s series provides an alternate reality. A reality where the racist, homophobic, sexist Hollywood of the 1940s evolves into something better.
Watch the trailer for Netflix’s miniseries Hollywood below. Post continues after video.
Although the series involves lots of fictional elements, much of the series is actually based on real-life figures in Hollywood.
“I wanted to do something where I gave some, if not all of these people a happy ending,” Murphy, who also brought us Glee, Scream Queens and American Horror Story, told Time.
“How do I make a commentary on the power of Hollywood to change hearts and minds? I decided to put together a fictional alternate-universe Hollywood and then populated it with some real people, and other fictional characters loosely based on real people.”
The true story of Peg Entwistle
One of the many stories touched on within Hollywood is the infamous story of British-born actress Peg Entwistle, who later became known as the ‘Hollywood Sign Girl’.
In the Netflix series, writer Archie Coleman (played by Jeremy Pope) bases his screenplay on the actress’ real-life story.
Peg Entwistle was born Millicent Lilian Entwistle on February 5, 1908, in Wales.
It’s unclear what happened to Peg’s mother, however, it’s known that Peg was raised solely by her father Robert from the age of two years old.
In 1912, Peg and her father moved to the United States, where they settled in New York.
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In the years that followed, Robert remarried and had two sons with his new wife.
In 1921, Robert’s second wife passed away and just one year later, Robert died after being struck by a car, leading Peg to be taken in by her uncle Harold at just 14 years old.