HERE NOW! AN EPIC NEW NOVEL
BY JOHN W. HARDING

Cast Aside: With Bushman at the Unmaking of Ben-Hur in Italy
Francis X. Bushman

A shunned movie idol.
A love-starved signorina.
A blacklisted L.A. newsman.
A power-mad dictator.

The “handsomest man in movies” claws his way back from scandal into the spotlight, against the backdrop of Mussolini’s pre-war Rome.
Cast Aside: With Bushman at the Unmaking of ‘Ben-Hur’ in Italy” is a morality fable about propaganda, media manipulation and hypocrisy in the early years of motion pictures.

Available now at BearManor Media.com.

Learn more about Cast Aside here.


The author outside his Laurel Canyon home, circa 1978.

About The Author

I was born in Los Angeles under the Hollywood sign. So I learned early on what’s behind the magic of movie-making. In 2012, I left a career in journalism to write novels that dramatize key incidents in film history.
As a novelist two things in particular interest me about the early “picture makers.” The first is their innocence. The second is their corruption.
It’s the oldest story there is. And still the best.

A Note on the Ben-Hur Saga

“Cast Aside” is my newest novel about movie history. But it is actually the first installment in the whole amazing “Ben-Hur” saga.

Learn about “The Ben-Hur Murders” here.

Available at Amazon