In the history of the movies, thousands of men, women, children, and even animals have tried to find success as a movie star. They were drawn from theater, opera, sports, and every type of entertainment venue, and some even came from out of nowhere. Men and women, young and old, took valiant stabs at entrancing audiences with their faces, personalities, or peculiarities. A precious few achieved greater popularity than anyone could have ever dreamed, but others vanished beneath the sands of time along with the films they so lovingly made. They gave us their most audacious efforts, but they did not find any lasting success, or having enjoyed a brief blush with triumph, they returned home to their true métiers. Some simply never found a second chance. This book celebrates the memorable attempts of ten who tried to be a movie star. They shot across silver screens like comets, but they all disappeared like falling stars.

Chapters include:
Helen Keller: The Most Unlikely Movie Star
Enrico Caruso: Double Trouble
Mary Garden: Blooming in the Wrong Season
Babe Ruth: Strike Three
Otis Skinner: Kismet Lost
Anna Pavlova: A Swan Out of Water
Eleonora Duse: In Transit
Lottie Pickford: Doomed to the Shadows
Harry Houdini: The Disappearing Act
Maude Adams: The Movie Star Who Never Was

Author and film historian David W. Menefee was nominated for a 2011 Pulitzer for Wally: The True Wallace Reid Story (Foreword by Robert Osborne), and his Richard Barthelmess: A Life in Pictures was named one of the Top 10 Film Books of 2009.