Silvia Schulman
Silvia Schulman (March 3, 1913 – February 19, 1993) was an American writer, interior designer, and building contractor. During the 1930s, she worked for the Hollywood film studios RKO Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and later Selznick International Pictures as a secretary. She was producer David O. Selznick's personal assistant until February 1937, when she quit to marry screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. During their honeymoon, she began to write a comic novel based upon her Hollywood experiences, and later enlisted the help of freelance writer Jane Shore. In 1938, I Lost My Girlish Laughter was published under the pseudonym Jane Allen. Biography Silvia Schulman was born in Manhattan to Russian Jewish parents David and Sarah Schulman in 1913. Both of her parents emigrated from Minsk. She attended Hunter College, but left before graduation to take a job at RKO's New York office. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she met David O. Selznick. She took a job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with Selznick, and in 1935, when Selznick left to form his own company, Schulman accepted a position as his personal assistant. She worked with him on David Copperfield (1935), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), The Garden of Allah (1936), and A Star Is Born