Hollywood Babylon: The Legendary Underground Classic of Hollywood's Darkest and Best Kept Secrets

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This is all about whose pretty little C list head was found in a locker at Grand central Station, which no longer famous former star was eaten by her own pet poodles (they might look chic, dear, but they have no taste at all), who put this there and that there and had to be revived by medics who could not believe what they were seeing, who couldn't do it without various types of rigs and harnesses, who did it an extraordinary number of times in one weekend and was filmed the whole time, and so on, and so forth. But the book itself is recklessly trashy, poorly written, especially the segments after 1940, which feel nearly stream of consciousness, with an assumption that the reader knows whom he’s describing.

Sucked me right down the gutters and dark alleys of the glittery and smutty Old Hollywood, so much so that I could barely stop to eat. The mixture of images and Anger's text makes it into a feverish dream - and really, cinema should be a feverish dream. It would take a couple of decades (just as its influence was waning, perhaps unsurprisingly) before old Hollywood in earnest turned a self-critical, unflinching gaze towards itself, through such films as Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).I needed to finally dive into this after listening to You Must Remember this a few years ago and hearing all of the true stories behind Angers’ tabloid stories.

He had one too many drinks at the party and while driving at Pacific Coast Highway near Santa Monica Canyon, he lost control and careened off into the oncoming traffic which resulted in three deaths. I really enjoyed both Hollywood Babylon books but this one for some reason seemed even more cynical than the first, which is just what is needed!Sadly, the tragic "Chords of Fame" have continued to play on for far too many in and out of Hollywood in subsequent years, despite the cautionary tales of their forebears. In sum, the book is no longer the "luscious plum of sizzling scandal" it once was, and Anger's tabloid naughtiness has dated badly. For here we have the infamous, tragicomic tale of Mexico born actress Lupe Vélez who, in a botched suicide attempt by drug overdose, ended up not peaceful in her bed like some ravishing Aztec queen as intended, but head down in a toilet bowl, covered in her own throw-up.

Actor John Bowers who lost all his money when he invested in a failed flying school, he became penniless and depressed. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. It was perhaps a little less thrilling than the first one--presumably because Anger had already used up all the superstar gossip.

It's a case of sitting down with the nelliest queen in all Nellydom and listening to caviar quality dirt. Previous owner's name penned to inside front cover, sticker to inside rear cover and date penned to REP.

The story of Hollywood gossip and depravity begins at the turn of the century in this book - and continues through the excess of the 20s, through to the 60's, although most of the stories focus on the 20s to 40s. In effect, you were utterly disposable, as someone more talented, more hungry, or more young was always waiting in the wings, resolute in wanting to take your place. hardcover with dust jacket, tight, pages clear and bright, shelf and edge wear, corners bumped, date stamp on flyleaf, dust jacket is present but worn with rubbing and chipping, packaged in cardboard box for shipment, tracking on U.Trying to discern meaning from this has proven the perfect voyeuristic conclusion to the ultimate voyeur's book. Other debunked urban legends started by the book include claims that impoverished film star Marie Prevost's body was partially eaten by her dachshund after she died in her Hollywood apartment in 1937, and that Jayne Mansfield was decapitated in her fatal 1967 car accident. In 1938 Buzz was sued by Irving Wheeler for seeking the affections of Irving’s wife, actress Carol Landis, and the suit was dismissed.