The Extra Girls: Six Decades. Ten-thousand Strivers. One House That Holds the History of Hollywood.

An acclaimed film critic’s entertaining history of a Hollywood dormitory that served as both home and sanctuary to generations of aspiring actresses.

In 1916, in the world capital of an electrifying new invention called the movies, an unusual boarding house opened its doors. For the next six decades, the Hollywood Studio Club would shelter over 10,000 young women arriving in Los Angeles on a quest for film fame. The industry called these starlets, “extra girls.”

Some became movie stars: Mar...