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Title: Lost Hollywood by David Wallace ISBN: 0-312-26195-0 Publisher: LA Weekly Books Pub. Date: 07 April, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.77 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Golden Age of Hollywood is no longer LOST!
Comment: David Wallace's work is an absorbing account of the sights and sounds of Hollywood's golden age from its silent beginnings to the classics of the talkies. Intriguing anecdotes abound; stories of the Hollywood Bowl, Rudolph Valentino's infamous love trysts and a somber tale of an actress who leaped off the "H" letter of the Hollywood sign to her death, among many others. Unfortunately, the book is filled with errors; one photo claims to be of Zasu Pitts (with Mack Sennett), when in fact, it is his star/lover Mabel Normand. Many films are documented with their wrong release years, and actors are credited with scenes from incorrect films (Claudette Colbert's bath in asses' milk from "Sign of the Cross" is credited to her other epic "Cleopatra"). I was also amazed that the book failed to mention the recent discovery of DeMille's lost city from his 1923 version of "The Ten Commandments", which was discovered in nearby Hollywood sand dunes. Nevertheless, "Lost Hollywood" is a good read and should prompt the reader to go beyond its source for more detailed (and more correct) information.
Rating: 5
Summary: Enormously entertaining
Comment: You know that famous "Hollywood" sign perched on its hill? Well, the view from my front window includes that hill's reverse slope. That back side has ... nothing, which is about all I knew of Hollywood's golden era despite the fact that I've lived in the environs of Los Angeles just about all of my adult life. From the vantage point of such abysmal ignorance, I found LOST HOLLYWOOD to be one of the more entertaining and interesting books I've read recently.
In twenty-three chapters, journalist-author David Wallace takes the reader as far back as the 1870's to begin his narrative, most of which focuses on the evolution of the Tinseltown movie industry, its stars, and associated glitz from around 1911 through the glory years of the 20s, 30s, 40s, and into the 50s. Each chapter has its own stand-alone topic, e.g. Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, the arrival of "talkies", the Hotel Hollywood, the studio contract system, the Hollywood sign, gossip mongers Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, the stars' cars, the stars' yachts, the Cocoanut Grove, the Hollywood Canteen, and Schwab's drugstore. Much of the volume's diversion value lies in the fascinating, sometimes titillating, trivia it contains. Did you know that womanizer Errol Flynn's custom-built Packard had a passenger seat that became a bed at the touch of a button, and the license plate read "R U 18"? Or that New York opera star Geraldine Farrar was paid two dollars per minute of daylight for every day she was in Hollywood filming "Carmen"? Or that the fake palm trees in the Cocoanut Grove were leftover props from Valentino's film "The Sheik"? Or that Paulette Goddard got the female lead in "North West Mounted Police" after slapping her bare foot on director DeMille's desk knowing it would appeal to his foot fetish?
My only criticism of LOST HOLLYWOOD is that it cries out for more pictures. True, there's a relevant period photo at the beginning of each chapter, but it just isn't enough. At 188 pages in paperback, it's a book I was compelled to read in a single day, reluctantly wasting time on other nuisance activities like my job, sleeping and household chores. Is LOST HOLLYWOOD a masterpiece? Nah! It's simply great fun.
Rating: 4
Summary: Highly recommended for hollywood buffs!
Comment: I guess I got the edited version, because I noted none of the errors that have plagued previous versions. I thought this book was a fairly well-written, intelligent tour of "Old Hollywood." It does focus mainly on the Hollywood of the 20's, but the last chapter is a real knockout. Worth the cover price in iteself. Like the other reviewers, though, I would have liked to have seen more pix. I would also like to see more descriptions of some of the stars' homes. As a graphic designer I give the cover and book design an A --definitely added to my enjoyment. Great job, David and Liz!
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Title: Hollywoodland by David Wallace ISBN: 0312291256 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 25 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Hollywood Book of Death : The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols by James Robert Parish ISBN: 0809222272 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: L.A. Exposed: Strange Myths and Curious Legends in the City of Angels by Paul Young, Paul Young ISBN: 0312206461 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: California Babylon by Kristan Lawson, Anneli Rufus ISBN: 0312263856 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Complicated Women : Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood by Mick LaSalle ISBN: 0312284314 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 19 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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