Kenneth Anger (1927–2023)

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 was watching 'The Man with Two Faces' on TCM one night, and Robert Osbourne mentioned the Mary Astor diary story and whaddyaknow I had just read about her salacious diary scandal in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon so there you have it. It's maliciously fun and sleazy: just one look at the cover of Jayne Mansfield showing her share of cleavage and well, that's one way to introduce the material. Oh, and it has flashy pictures! I enjoyed every bit of it.… (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 was watching 'The Man with Two Faces' on TCM one night, and Robert Osbourne mentioned the Mary Astor diary story and whaddyaknow I had just read about her salacious diary scandal in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon so there you have it. It's maliciously fun and sleazy: just one look at the cover of Jayne Mansfield showing her share of cleavage and well, that's one way to introduce the material. Oh, and it has flashy pictures! I enjoyed every bit of it.… (more)

Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon II is as entertainingly salacious and sleazy as the first one. There's chapters devoted to Hollywood lushes, Hollywood drug addicts, and Hollywood suicides. There's escapades and sexcapades, lurid, decadent, depressing, alarming incidents and accidents. It's a fantastic book, strewn with gorgeous black-and-white photos, my favorite being one of a greasy-looking Zero Mostel staring down the front of adult Shirley Temple's low-cut dress, ogling her cleavage. Hollywood Babylon II is a sordid soap dish: you won't get clean, but sometimes it's fun to be dirty.… (more)