Illeana Douglas’ new book Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women, published on Sept. 15 by Lyons Press, delves into the titular 1939 classic which boasted an all-star cast of actresses — among them Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine — and provided a template for modern female-driven projects like Sex and the City and The Real Housewives.

Once upon a time, there were three little girls who came to Hollywood — two from Texas, the other from Alabama — to become famous. And they were each, at first, assigned very captivating roles, including a nonspeaking ghost in a vampire soap opera and a pitchwoman in shaving cream and shampoo commercials. But then along came a producer who took them away from all of that, and they went to work for him.