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102nd out of 331 books
—
453 voters
Hollywood Babylon
Hollywood Babylon was originally published in Paris, and quickly became an underground legend. Not a word has been changed. Not a story omitted. Here is the hot, luscious plum of sizzling scandal that continues to shock the world.
Hardcover, 292 pages
Published
July 22nd 1987
by Random House Value Publishing
(first published 1959)
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Jul 28, 2011
Mariel
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
sugar daddies
Recommended to Mariel by:
hot mamas
Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon is a boiling cesspool of lies! Practically none of this shit happened. The ratio of truth to lies is like 10 to 1. I have it on the highest authority those girls looked thirty under the bad set lighting. My great-great-great aunt was there for that underage (by trickery! It was set up!) sleepover-cum-orgy and Lillian Gish had no idea that Dorothy Gish was the other girl in the bed with Griffiths. This Kenneth Angers person is blowing it all out of proportion jus...more
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Ulysses and 100 Years of Solitude were killing me, so I just needed some well-written trash; something that I could actually FINISH.
So, yeah I'd known about this book for 30 years and ran across it many times with mild curiosity, but a couple years ago a slightly musty first edition hardcover availed itself for $1 at Half Price Books - kind of a no-brainer, whereupon it sat in the basement till now...
It begins in 1915, a convenient place to begin a history of the scandals of Hollywood, though th...more
So, yeah I'd known about this book for 30 years and ran across it many times with mild curiosity, but a couple years ago a slightly musty first edition hardcover availed itself for $1 at Half Price Books - kind of a no-brainer, whereupon it sat in the basement till now...
It begins in 1915, a convenient place to begin a history of the scandals of Hollywood, though th...more
2 likes · like · see review
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. Some stories are amusing, some pathetic, some disgusting, some sad, but every single one grabbed my attention. Anger writes in a very nifty style and the amount of pictures just add the allure.
4 likes · like · see review
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. One night I read “Hollywood Babylon” while guzzling an entire bottle of red Zinfandel and eventually fell asleep with the book by my bed. I proceeded to have one of the worst nightmares of my life.
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...more
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...more
15 likes · like · see review
Sex, drugs, murder, scandal, old movies and glamourous lives. 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. I love James Ellroy and this book is like reading his background research for books like The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential. Mickey Cohen actually existed, actors were perverse and hopheads. Murders and scandals were covere...more
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Dec 07, 2007
Chris
added it
There is no rating this book. It's the ultimate trash, but it's perfect trash. It's 400 pages of snide, gossip column-style writing about the first fifty years of Hollywoodland. You read about Fatty Arbuckle, Lana Turner, Charlie Chaplin, Errol Flynn and many more.
An excellent plus is the wealth of black and white photos of these stars - some movie stills, some candid photos and some police shots from death scenes.
One interesting this is to watch how the public's perception and expectations of m...more
An excellent plus is the wealth of black and white photos of these stars - some movie stills, some candid photos and some police shots from death scenes.
One interesting this is to watch how the public's perception and expectations of m...more
3 likes · like · see review
Experimental filmmaker, Kenneth Anger details the sordid rumors of old Hollywood in a convoluted mess of glamorization and finger pointing.
To be honest, I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading this. It is pretty obvious that most of the stories Anger relates are based on rumor and speculation. When, in many cases, actual facts are widely available, Anger ignores them in favor of titillating conjecture. Each of the stories would be better served by a heavily researched look at the facts, but all w...more
To be honest, I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading this. It is pretty obvious that most of the stories Anger relates are based on rumor and speculation. When, in many cases, actual facts are widely available, Anger ignores them in favor of titillating conjecture. Each of the stories would be better served by a heavily researched look at the facts, but all w...more
People are going to start to think I only read macabre books. It's not true! I read Steve Martin's autobiography within the last year. Be forewarned, however, this book is not about happy times in Tinseltown.
It is, however, a pictorial history of the first half of the 20th century Hollywood, not picturesque. Here, Kenneth Anger assembles a menagerie of fallen stars from the Babylon era of Picture town. The book raises intriguing questions, about an array of debaucherous and deadly subjects. Did...more
It is, however, a pictorial history of the first half of the 20th century Hollywood, not picturesque. Here, Kenneth Anger assembles a menagerie of fallen stars from the Babylon era of Picture town. The book raises intriguing questions, about an array of debaucherous and deadly subjects. Did...more
It really doesn't matter if the stories here are true or not - and some people get upset about this. But then they are missing the point. It's "Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon." And it's the way he tells the stories which makes this book and Volume Two priceless.
The mixture of images and Anger's text makes it into a feverish dream - and really, cinema should be a feverish dream. Essential. If one does not have this in their library, they are not film lovers. Just tourists.
The mixture of images and Anger's text makes it into a feverish dream - and really, cinema should be a feverish dream. Essential. If one does not have this in their library, they are not film lovers. Just tourists.
4 likes · like · see review
The seamy side of the film industry have been around a long time. Hollywood Babylon seems ever more secure in its not-so-lofty status as Tinseltown's ultimate scandal-fest. Who's who of the film industry's baddest and brightest and such.
Not must truth if any in this book. As I was reading Hollywood Babylon, my growing sense of familiarity with the content was answered by taking a look at my Big Book of Scandals and finding out that Anger's book had been used as a primary source. The suspects are...more
Not must truth if any in this book. As I was reading Hollywood Babylon, my growing sense of familiarity with the content was answered by taking a look at my Big Book of Scandals and finding out that Anger's book had been used as a primary source. The suspects are...more
Goes to show you that old Hollywood wasn't all glitz and glamour. Think again, this was the age of so many suicides and murder murder murder (although that's nothing new, Hollywood is prevalent to murder.) This is more of a hey day gossip book of the era for the star struck obsessed. Anger writes it in a tabloid form style that is at the most enjoyable and intriguing. The authenticity is questionable, most of the material is said to have been false or over exaggerated. However, funnily enough, I...more
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This is a dishy, dirty, guilty pleasure of a book. Although in the final chapters the author begins to sound perhaps a bit too mournful for the bad old days of Hollywood legend, his saucy tone is perfect for the shameless gossip he's imparting.
This book was published in 1975, a time which Anger seems to regard as a sadly tamed and toned down era for what he lovingly refers to as Tinsel Town and La La Land. All the gossip rags have been shut down, he mourns. There are no longer more stars at MGM...more
This book was published in 1975, a time which Anger seems to regard as a sadly tamed and toned down era for what he lovingly refers to as Tinsel Town and La La Land. All the gossip rags have been shut down, he mourns. There are no longer more stars at MGM...more
I've known of this book forever but I've never actually sat down and read it. In my early life as a movie junkie -- i mean, cinephile -- I had no interest in it b/c it ran counter everything I wanted to idolize. Much older and wiser now (or at least much more jaded) and more familiar with the author and his work I am much less squeamish and honestly curious. It's an interesting, tantalizing and quick read. I was surprised at how many of the stories I already knew but I was fascinated to get more...more
This is the granddaddy of books dealing with Hollywood's dark side.
Drawing as much from gossip as he does from known facts, author Kenneth Anger dishes all the "inside dope" about the glamourous stars of Hollywood's Golden Age.
From the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial to the Lana Turner/Johnny Stompanato affair, no scandal is left out of this book that continually pushes the envelope to the very edge and, possibly, over it.
For example, there's one drawing in the book of Cary Grant (circa 1930s) that...more
Drawing as much from gossip as he does from known facts, author Kenneth Anger dishes all the "inside dope" about the glamourous stars of Hollywood's Golden Age.
From the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial to the Lana Turner/Johnny Stompanato affair, no scandal is left out of this book that continually pushes the envelope to the very edge and, possibly, over it.
For example, there's one drawing in the book of Cary Grant (circa 1930s) that...more
A fun, pulpy little book that chronicles America's obsession with and subsequent condemnation of celebrities. Although some of the "facts" presented in Hollywood Babylon have been vehemently denied, it's still an interesting exposure of how the Hollywood system worked in its early days, and how the government/other outsiders (aka the mob) influenced the system into what it is now.
One of the things I liked most about Hollywood Babylon is that it sheds light on older, classic movies and celebriti...more
One of the things I liked most about Hollywood Babylon is that it sheds light on older, classic movies and celebriti...more
Well, it's "non-fiction" in that the people in the book actually existed. This book is pretty much the epitome of Hollywood gossip rag trash, written in a style that doesn't ask for respect. I don't know how much of this stuff Anger believed. There's enough verifiable fact with some scandals to lend enough credence to the rest so that one thinks, "Hmmmm....I wonder..."
For the most part, though, it's recycled rumor and speculation that has plagued people like Thomas Ince, Roscoe Arbuckle, and the...more
For the most part, though, it's recycled rumor and speculation that has plagued people like Thomas Ince, Roscoe Arbuckle, and the...more
This has to be one of my favorite books as far as Hollywood history goes. It's incredibly easy to read, has great photos, & really shows me that today's starlets don't have anything on the wild child actors & actresses of the past.
There's a lot of this book that's debatable as far as accuracy goes, but it's so much fun to read that you don't care that this is pretty much the book form of the National Enquirer. It's the literary form of a candy bar. You know it's probably not good for you...more
There's a lot of this book that's debatable as far as accuracy goes, but it's so much fun to read that you don't care that this is pretty much the book form of the National Enquirer. It's the literary form of a candy bar. You know it's probably not good for you...more
Rabid, overheated, at times incoherent, this is a sleazy book that I felt a little bad for finishing (and the ending of the book is the weakest, worst, most rushed part). This look at the dark underbelly of Hollywood has few real revelations or surprises. In Anger's description of the rise of "Confidential" magazine and its hatchet stories he could be describing his own book: "His formula was simple: a well-known name, an unflattering photograph and a story, fairly short, which presented a sordi...more
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The pictures are more interesting than the book itself, which is filled with exaggeration and outright untruth. Few of the rumors are substantiated (excerpts from Mary Astor's diary and letters from Lana Turner to Johnny Stompanato are exceptions), and some of them have been outright disproven in the fifty years since the book's original publication.
Read as fiction, it's mildly entertaining, but even then the erratic writing style — veering wildly from semi-readable prose to sensationalistic la...more
Read as fiction, it's mildly entertaining, but even then the erratic writing style — veering wildly from semi-readable prose to sensationalistic la...more
Jan 21, 2013
Joshua
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in Hollywood and those looking for a quick read
Recommended to Joshua by:
The Misfits
I picked up this book because I had always heard of it, it was super cheap, I am intrigued by Kenneth Anger, and the Misfits "Hollywood Babylon". It's an extremely easy read and is far from dense.
Who knows how much of this book is bullshit but think of this as the TMZ of the early Hollywood. Scandals, suicide, murder, drugs, ands lots of sex...it is what it is. It's fun, it reminds me of Day Of The Locust and the L.A. Noire video game. As I was born and raised in LA I enjoyed the little shout ou...more
Who knows how much of this book is bullshit but think of this as the TMZ of the early Hollywood. Scandals, suicide, murder, drugs, ands lots of sex...it is what it is. It's fun, it reminds me of Day Of The Locust and the L.A. Noire video game. As I was born and raised in LA I enjoyed the little shout ou...more
Kenneth Anger paints a sinister, evil picture of a Hollywood that chews its "stars" up and spits them out. How can you not feel sorry for Frances Farmer and Fatty Arbuckle? I believe you judge a tree by its fruits, from the mindwashing destructive propaganda that Hollywood spews out to the many screwed up people that work in the business as performers, some of whom deserve to be scorned, some deserve your pity. Either way its a poisonous fruit that this tree bares. Hollywood Babylon covers a tim...more
I am really obsessed with old sordid Hollywood tales. And this is your one and only stop right here. Kenneth Anger was a brilliant and influential filmmaker in the 40's who made the classic, "Lucifer Rising" His films have inspired David Lynch and Martin Scorsese among others. He grew up as a child actor in Hollywood and when his parents went on vacation he used their large house to film his very first short. He's made tons. And in this book he tells all the dirt about many of our most beloved m...more
one of the weirdest, creepiest books I've ever read. Kenneth Anger is labyrinthine: the more I investigate, the farther I have to go, the more uncomfortable I come. This book is written in an interesting, almost demonic style: wickedly sardonic with lots of insider Hollywood knowledge; somewhat scornful tone. oh the perils of a failed child star! apparently Anger put a hex on Marianne Faithfull when she bad-mouthed one of his movies. thinking he just did it to enhance his own legend, much like h...more
"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul."
Marilyn Monroe
If you are a film buff of any type and haven't read this, it is most highly recommended, an encyclopedic exposé of the tarnish on the tinsel.
Hard to think of a more High End Brand, with it's U.S. state-department-approved soft-culture trademark, gee-whiz practical sense and enchanting, casual glamour -- that had a more unsavory backstory, a seamier underbelly, than what's incl...more
Marilyn Monroe
If you are a film buff of any type and haven't read this, it is most highly recommended, an encyclopedic exposé of the tarnish on the tinsel.
Hard to think of a more High End Brand, with it's U.S. state-department-approved soft-culture trademark, gee-whiz practical sense and enchanting, casual glamour -- that had a more unsavory backstory, a seamier underbelly, than what's incl...more
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Entertainingly awful, even if some of it has been debunked.
2 likes · like · see review
I am embarrassed to say this was the perfect book for me during the holidays. The author often gives the rumor of a given situation but does not bother to divulge the truth behind the rumor (such as with Clara Bow and those Trojans). But I enjoyed it anyway. The picture of Mansfield's dead dog at the car accident scene though was so unnecessary. I could only recommend to people who have a good understanding of the whole story of these cases or who will supplement the book with more reading on th...more
I read the first edition copy from 1965 that was on shelves for 10 days only to be banned due to "libel" and "copyright issues" from those subjects portrayed in the book. There's a difference: the 1965 version is packaged like that of a sleaze-gossip rag in 95 cent paperback form, versus the 1975 edition, which was published again after the ban was lifted, Anger having cleaned up some of his facts, embellished some of the fluidity and structure of the book, and laid out higher quality images int...more
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Impeccably researched and replete with many of the most revealing photographs you have never seen, Hollywood Babylon is part picture book and part compendium of low-down dirt on some of the most infamous Hollywood scandals from its beginnings to the 1960s. All of the big names are here, including Fatty Arbuckle, Clara Bow, Frances Farmer, and Marilyn Monroe. Chapter titles like, "The Clutching Hand," "Saturn Over Sunset," and "Peep Show Peccadilloes" titillate the reader, and their contents do n...more
I actually had to read this for a class I was taking. I can't believe how much trashy, fun it was to read. It was like a thick stack of tabloids. I didn't even know half of the actors Kenneth Anger wrote about, but I was still engrossed in it. If you're interested in the darker side of "old hollywood glamor" I'd highly reccommend reading Hollywood Babylon. Oh, and I let a friend borrow my copy. It was so good she boldly just stole it, so I had to get a new copy. Definitely worth checking out.
I used to check this out regularly from my small-town public library back in middle and high school; I loved it because the library's innocuous cover meant my parents had no idea that I was reading something so (to use their word) sinful. Needless to say, it was an eye-opening experience, raising my awareness of a number of different behaviors, coupling possibilities, creative use of inanimate objects, etc.
A copy now has pride of place on my bookshelf next to my other film books.
A copy now has pride of place on my bookshelf next to my other film books.
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Kenneth Anger (born as Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer) is an American underground avant-garde film-maker and author. He gained fame and notoriety from the publication of the French version of Hollywood Babylon in Paris in 1959, a tell-all book of the scandals of Hollywood's rich and famous. A pirated (and incomplete) version was first published in the U.S. in 1965. The official U.S. version was not publ...more
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