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

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Hosted by Tony Curtis, the series featured dramatic reenactments of stories from Anger's books, augmented by veteran actor Curtis relating Hollywood-based anecdotes of his own. Hollywood Babylon is a book by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger which details the sordid scandals of many famous and infamous Hollywood denizens from the 1900s to the 1950s. Kenneth Anger paints a sinister, evil picture of a Hollywood that chews its "stars" up and spits them out. I was in a silent film, scratchy, jumpy and dirty as hell – in it Albert Dekker was preparing his noose in ladies’ lingerie as Ramon Navarro looked on, William Ince was feeding bits of Marie Prevost to her dogs, and Fatty Arbuckle was tossing Jayne Mansfield’s head to Frances Farmer. 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.

After all, the almighty dollar and commercial considerations utterly ruled the land, and if it turned out you couldn’t cut it, you had no business being there in the first place. Many years ago I lived in the courtyard apartments Charlie Chaplin built for his crew across the street from his studio on La Brea Avenue.

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. And hereafter, Anger's book becomes a litany of the notorious: the drug death of Wallace Reid, the rape and manslaughter trial of Fatty Arbuckle and so forth.

I guess I read this for the same reason one cranes one's head to see the details of a traffic accident. Used books have different signs of use and might not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material.The book's famous cover perfectly captures its attitude: the Hollywood glamor image self destructing before our eyes in Jayne Mansfield's overpainted face and saggy tits. It turned out that when Clark Gable was still a bit player at MGM, he had let himself blow-serviced by Haines and seek his help to further his career at MGM.

Parts of this book feel dated and parts feel absolutely iconic, in particular the litany of Hollywood suicides. Joe also had eyes for beautiful females in Hollywood that led to a sensual relationship with actress Gloria Swanson. There's still a lot of great information and awesome photos, but the meat of the book is considerably weaker than the original Holly Baby. A mere cursory glance at the chapter index should suffice in giving one a clear idea of what to expect if opting to proceed any further: ‘Heroin Heroines’, ‘William Randolph’s Hearse’, ‘Charlie’s Nymphs’, ‘The Dirty Hun’, ‘Death Garage’, ‘Monster Mae’, ‘In Like Flynn’, ‘Chop-Suicide’ and - my absolute favourite - ‘Hollywoodämmerung’. sleepover-cum-orgy and Lillian Gish had no idea that Dorothy Gish was the other girl in the bed with Griffiths.

It was good honest sleazy fun when it was published and stuff like being gay and doing drugs was rather scandalous, but I think the powder has worn right off its puff now. William (Billy) Haines was the first MGM star to face the ordeal of a microphone with Lionel Barrymore in 1928 film “Jimmy Valentine. 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. Although it's structured as a series of gossip vignettes about various personages sprinkled throughout Hollywood history, certain celebrities pop up repeatedly in different places to tie the whole random, rambling history together.

The book details alleged scandals of Hollywood stars from the silent era through to the 1960s, including Charles Chaplin, Lupe Vélez, Mary Nolan, Rudolph Valentino, Marie Prevost, Mary Astor, Wallace Reid, Olive Thomas, Jeanne Eagels, Thelma Todd, Errol Flynn, Frances Farmer, Juanita Hansen, Mae Murray, Alma Rubens, John Gilbert, Barbara La Marr, Ramon Novarro, Jean Harlow, Carole Landis, Lana Turner, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. Se da un lato la fabbrica dei sogni ha contribuito a creare gran parte dell'immaginario collettivo di generazioni di adoratori e appassionati, dall'altro, in privato, si e' rivelata una terribile macchina assassina e distruttrice di vite e destini. The author was an insider who worked in Hollywood as a child-star and got to know many well-known personalities in movie business.The challenging job was to make sure that studio stars conformed to a strict image of morality is highest. Charles Boyer's tragic end, when I first read of it in Jeanne Basinger's 'The Star Machine', left me near tears, frankly.