Women, Herstory, Film, famous people, Lesbian, women loving women, queer women 

"The Sewing Circle." To outsiders, the phrase conjures up quaint images of white-lace-collared spinsters in rocking chairs, of china teacups and needlepoint and small-town chatter. But to a handful of Industry insiders at the dawn of motion pictures' Golden Age, The Sewing Circle was something far more provocative.
As the silent films of the Roaring Twenties gave way to the Depression Era talkies, few people were aware of the furtive Tinseltown sisterhood of women in love with women. Bound by the glittering facade of fame, the confinement of lavender marriages, and the constant fear of discovery, Sapphic post-suffrage starlets were lured by forbidden love -- and bolstered by a clandestine lesbian community whose prominent members included Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, and countless others. One by one, the silver screen's most fabled beauties were drawn to the seductive secret society -- and, more often than not, into the arms of beguiling poet-playwright Mercedes de Acosta.

Only now, as the renowned players of Hollywood's halcyon years fade into legend, has the startling truth emerged. Only now do we dare to lift the veil of invented lives. Only now can we glimpse the private lives of cinema's most enduring actresses -- and the women they loved.