Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema Kindle Edition

Since this is mostly going to be about what went wrong for me with this book, let me start by saying: It's good! Buy it! I'm glad I did. Having said that...I've been waiting for this book for six months--thus, like any Hollywood movie, it was bound to struggle to live up to the anticipation. Don't get me wrong; for any lover of classic hollywood, this is a good read, and I'd probably have loved it if I hadn't been devouring Anne Helen Peterson's online articles--whether through Hairpin, Buzzfeed, her blog, or other media--for a couple years now. But I have and therein, I think, lies the slight disappointment with the book.While the promos promise the chapters are not repeats of the Hairpin articles, that is a bit disingenuous. The articles aren't transplanted verbatim, but many of the stories (Fatty Arbuckle, Clara Bow Dorothy Dandridge, Montgomery Clift, and others) are repeats and cover familiar territory.Still, a good story is always worth rehearing. What I miss most in the book is the lively, irreverent, voice Peterson uses in her online pieces, which often read like a personal email to you, the reader. SHE IS FUNNY. Her side remarks on Hollywood hypocrisy and comments on the plethora of images that populate her online text are vastly entertaining and sadly missing in this textRead this comment on a still of Lana Turner in a turban from the Postman Always Rings Twice:"I mean, THIS IS IT, right? Like there's no need for another seduction scene ever? And the high-waisted white shorts and the knotted crop top ... does Urban Outfitters carry those in my size? Can someone teach me how to make my towel topknot look like that? Do I need to live in the South, seduce some guy who comes to the diner owned by my old boring husband, and get him to kill said husband? "Isn't that great? Doesn't it make you want to just hang with her, watching old movies and debating whether Joseph Cotton or Melvyn Douglas would be better movie star boyfriends?Unfortunately, there's too little of that in the book. While it's not academic, one can feel the influence and the self-restraint (believe me, I've written enough deadly literary analyses myself to know). There is an occasional glimmer of the old style, as in this sly comment on Marlon Brando's engagement: "And as she [his fiancee] told the press, she didn't love Brando because he was a star, but as a man like any other. Plus, she was a 'sloppy dresser' with 'odd manners,' and the two had first met at his analyst's office--clearly, they were meant for each other."I snorted latte out my nose at that one, and it made long even more for the AHP of Hairpin.Now, it's doubtless a monetary/copyright thing, but there's also an odd dearth of photographs--especially in the Kindle version that I read, which delegates the few images to the back of the book, where I only found them after I'd finished reading. A good part of the power in her online writing lies in the plethora accompanying imagery, whether movie stills, shots of gossip mags or whatever. They not only allow the reader to visualize the commentary, but also engage in the analysis with AHP. Plus, as I said, her comments on the images are darned funny. That interaction is lacking in the bookNevertheless it says something that I started reading this Tuesday night, and finished by 11 am the next morning. And that I'm actually bothering to write a review, which I don't usually do. It's a good and enjoyable read. AHP has really carved a niche for herself in her analysis of Hollywood semiotics and what it means for the rest of us. She takes gossip and makes it "respectable."

The title is a bit of a misnomer. What Peterson does here, and beautifully, is look at the image making machine of a bygone era. She's very savvy and as a longtime Garland fan I didn't expect to learn much new. And did I? One very telling thing. Every one is aware that Garland's diet was strictly supervised by the studio, but I had assumed this was information that was confidential at the time it occurred. I did not realize that her dieting struggles were so public, and that this information was passed out by the studio. Peterson understands the gossip industry as if she were on the inside, and as a result gave me a new perspective on an old perception.Also, Peterson doesn't play around with the facts. Where there is doubt about something, she doesn't hedge about the fact. She doesn't claim to know everything, and is therefore a lot more trustworthy than whose who do. Plus, she's very respectful of those she writes about.Salacious scandal? You won't find much here. A very insightful look at how stars of a past era were marketed and sold, and how this affected their psyches? It's on every page.

I love this author. She makes me more and more interested in classic Hollywood with her academic but also humorous approach to the subject. I'm not very interested in celebrities and scandals, but she enriches this topic and really highlights why it's important to the history of Hollywood and sociology in general. I really wish she included chapters on other famous people but she cut out a lot of celebs she covered elsewhere. I really wanted to read about Rita Hayworth, but maybe we have to wait for her to come out with another book that will include more scandals of classic Hollywood. She has a new book out about female public figures of today and I can't wait to read it.

Please let it be known that I love, love, love Anne Helen Petersen's writing on the Hairpin and most of the work she does on Buzzfeed. Sadly, I feel like the vibrant, funny, and relate-able way she presents Hollywood scandals has been slowly damped over time. Perhaps it because she wants to appeal to a larger audience or sound more scholarly. Needless to say, I was really disappointed. I wanted a book filled with the same tone she used on The Hairpin. If they ever publish her previous blog/articles I'll buy that book in a hot second. This book wasn't it.It was interesting, but felt flat. She only halfheartedly extrapolated on the impact and sensation these scandals caused. I felt like I was reading a series of wikipedia articles.

Wow If only half of this book is true then the old Hollywood is a place of evil. Who would have thought. After reading this book I burned it. I wouldn't want the grand kids to find it.

I am a huge fan of this feature on The Hairpin and in general of Anne Helen Petersen's academic work on celebrity. There was some really fascinating content in here – I'm not even a huge classic movie fan but am so fascinated at the machinations of the studios and how they built and tore down personas. I found myself doing more research on these fascinating figures. That said, it was kind of a dry read and had some repetitive phrases. I may sound like an idiot for saying this, but I wish it had pictures (I'm spoiled on the blog posts). All and all I enjoyed it and hope this is the first of many books to come by this author.

Petersen's joy for her subject shines through on every page; it feels like a gossip session at a slumber party. This is a warm, witty look at some of the greats. She manages to be affectionate and generous throughout, too: this is friendly gossip that's never malicious, flavored with sociological analysis and full of insight.The book is mostly new material; even those who have read her column on The Hairpin will find something they like here.

Reading the gushing intro to this book (written by the author herself) you would expect it to be a red hot roller coaster of sex, scandal and salaciousness. In short it offers nothing of the kind other than a very sanitised version of Kenneth Anger’s celebrated, scandalous and at one time possibly libellous book Hollywood Babylon, but without that author’s bitchyness.

I must admit to being quite disappointed by this book.Let's just say that the author has a very odd idea of 'scandal'!

didn,t tell me anything i already know

Interesting, informative & impartial accounts of some fascinating lives involved in the Hollywood bubble. Bought for fantastic value as an ebook. Would recommend!

Well researched and an easy read - Recommended