Rating: 
Summary: Glorious. A must.
Review: The best and most beautifully produced book on Hollywood I've ever seen. Graydon Carter has drawn on Vanity Fair's own vast and unique archive of exquisite photographs to maximium advantage.
Rating:
Summary: Instant Classic
Review: This book is a pure delight. It captures the glamour and shimmering romance that is Hollywood. David Friends' brilliant picture editing showcases the best of Vanity Fairs' evocation of the dream factory, past and present. Each turn of the page elicits a gleeful chuckle or nostaglic sigh. There's enough star power here to illuminate a small town. God bless Vanity Fair and David Friend for giving us this book just in time for the gift giving season.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough of the old stuff
Review: This book is filled with photographs and essays about Hollywood and its stars. There is a wide variety of photographs exhibited here. My only complaint would be that they are not set up in any kind of order. A picture of Jack Nicholson playing golf on one page and then turn the page to find a picture of Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I suppose they thought chronological or theme order would have been too predictable. My favorite photos are: Doris Day (p. 26), the essay and photo of Greta Garbo (pgs. 42-43), James Dean clowning (p. 47), Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren (p.158) the Malibu Beach drawing from 1933 (p.242), Sophia Loren (p. 247), Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney (p. 276), Loretta Young in 1935 and 1999 (pgs.292 and 293) and Olivia de Havilland (p. 310). As you can tell, my interests are toward vintage photos, but there are photos of today's celebs as well, such as Gwyneth Paltrow or Cameron Diaz and these are wonderful photos, too. The pictures in Vanity Fair are always unique and this is a great compilation.
Rating:
Summary: Great coffee table book!
Review: This book is filled with photographs and essays about Hollywood and its stars. There is a wide variety of photographs exhibited here. My only complaint would be that they are not set up in any kind of order. A picture of Jack Nicholson playing golf on one page and then turn the page to find a picture of Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I suppose they thought chronological or theme order would have been too predictable. My favorite photos are: Doris Day (p. 26), the essay and photo of Greta Garbo (pgs. 42-43), James Dean clowning (p. 47), Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren (p.158) the Malibu Beach drawing from 1933 (p.242), Sophia Loren (p. 247), Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney (p. 276), Loretta Young in 1935 and 1999 (pgs.292 and 293) and Olivia de Havilland (p. 310). As you can tell, my interests are toward vintage photos, but there are photos of today's celebs as well, such as Gwyneth Paltrow or Cameron Diaz and these are wonderful photos, too. The pictures in Vanity Fair are always unique and this is a great compilation.
Rating:
Summary: A century's worth of Hollywood images
Review: Vanity Fair's Hollywood draws from the magazine's photo archive to reveal a century's worth of Hollywood images, choosing over 290 of its photos and pairing them with notable writers for added impact. A beautiful visual and verbal history of Hollywood results, suitable for art libraries and coffee tables alike. Well detailed in its essays, Vanity Fair's Hollywood is weightier and packed with information.
Rating:
Summary: Not enough of the old stuff
Review: While there were some great vintage articles and photographs, why are pages blown to show wastes like Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, and other I-make -money- because- of- my- looks and not acting ability "artists?" Many obscure silent and early talking stars could've and SHOULD'VE been included. But that's the way it is- nobody cares for the old. Makes a great coffee table book. Get this from the library. I was disappointed. I was done with it in one afternoon.
Rating:
Summary: HOLLYWOOD'S CLASSIEST, MOST GLAMOROUS HISTORY
Review: You won't need popcorn to enjoy this trip to the movies. And, what a trip it is - the classiest, glossiest, most glamorous photographic history of Hollywood to be found in print. "Vanity Fair," the magazine that has kept an unerring eye on Tinsel Town for the past 87 years, has assembled a gallery of memorable images by such renowned photographers as Edward Steichen, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, and others. Luminaries of the silver screen are found at work and at play, in incredible photos that capture not only a visage but an essence: a clown costumed Al Jolson is poignant in song, an in your face bathrobe clad Jack Nicholson wields a golf club, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Crawford laze on a sun kissed beach, a sensuous Johnny Depp challenges with his eyes, a bereft Steve Martin is the quintessential loser, and Mae West gives a boxer her heavy lidded once over. Artfully and thoughtfully positioned, the photos themselves are a visual record of movie town's history: a black and white studio shot of Walter Huston faces a color portrait of jodphur clad Anjelica Huston, the Fonda family (Jane, Henry and Peter)offer congenial smiles, A piquant very young Drew Barrymore is partnered with a revealing backstage glimpse of John Barrymore, Harold Lloyd faces a bemused Tom Hanks. Group photos also tell a story from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall joining pals for a Sunday afternoon gin rummy tournament at Clifton Webb's house to the directors who made and are making cinematic history to the MGM musical starlets from the 1940s and 1950s. All here - a visual paean to the past and present. Among the 292 iconographic photographs are found brief essays, the words of P. G. Wodehouse, D. H. Lawrence, Dorothy Parker, Walter Winchell, and Patricia Bosworth. Carl Sandburg devotes a poem to Charlie Chaplin, Clair Booth Brokaw Luce focuses on Greta Garbo, a woman of whom she writes, "Our generation's loveliest woman is but a phantom upon a silver screen." We go behind the scenes with the top gossip columnists of their day - Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. One round and chunky, the other extravagantly hatted - the two amazingly powerful. We also discover that there is more footage to the dark, mysterious murder of Lana Turner's lover than we had ever imagined. Scandal, greed, cupidity aren't overlooked in this chronicle of the land of broken dreams. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter offers a succinct explanatory foreword in which he confesses to being "a simple unabashed fan. Of movies, of the people who make them, and of Hollywood." Confidante to the famous Dominic Dunne pens a telling afterword. in which he admits to being mesmerized by Hollywood. Aren't we all? Remember the catchy "Hooray for Hollywood"? Now, it's hooray for "Vanity Fair's Hollywood", which is a great deal more than catchy - it's a wonder! Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: HOLLYWOOD'S CLASSIEST, MOST GLAMOROUS HISTORY
Review: You won't need popcorn to enjoy this trip to the movies. And, what a trip it is - the classiest, glossiest, most glamorous photographic history of Hollywood to be found in print. "Vanity Fair," the magazine that has kept an unerring eye on Tinsel Town for the past 87 years, has assembled a gallery of memorable images by such renowned photographers as Edward Steichen, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, and others. Luminaries of the silver screen are found at work and at play, in incredible photos that capture not only a visage but an essence: a clown costumed Al Jolson is poignant in song, an in your face bathrobe clad Jack Nicholson wields a golf club, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Crawford laze on a sun kissed beach, a sensuous Johnny Depp challenges with his eyes, a bereft Steve Martin is the quintessential loser, and Mae West gives a boxer her heavy lidded once over. Artfully and thoughtfully positioned, the photos themselves are a visual record of movie town's history: a black and white studio shot of Walter Huston faces a color portrait of jodphur clad Anjelica Huston, the Fonda family (Jane, Henry and Peter)offer congenial smiles, A piquant very young Drew Barrymore is partnered with a revealing backstage glimpse of John Barrymore, Harold Lloyd faces a bemused Tom Hanks. Group photos also tell a story from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall joining pals for a Sunday afternoon gin rummy tournament at Clifton Webb's house to the directors who made and are making cinematic history to the MGM musical starlets from the 1940s and 1950s. All here - a visual paean to the past and present. Among the 292 iconographic photographs are found brief essays, the words of P. G. Wodehouse, D. H. Lawrence, Dorothy Parker, Walter Winchell, and Patricia Bosworth. Carl Sandburg devotes a poem to Charlie Chaplin, Clair Booth Brokaw Luce focuses on Greta Garbo, a woman of whom she writes, "Our generation's loveliest woman is but a phantom upon a silver screen." We go behind the scenes with the top gossip columnists of their day - Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. One round and chunky, the other extravagantly hatted - the two amazingly powerful. We also discover that there is more footage to the dark, mysterious murder of Lana Turner's lover than we had ever imagined. Scandal, greed, cupidity aren't overlooked in this chronicle of the land of broken dreams. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter offers a succinct explanatory foreword in which he confesses to being "a simple unabashed fan. Of movies, of the people who make them, and of Hollywood." Confidante to the famous Dominic Dunne pens a telling afterword. in which he admits to being mesmerized by Hollywood. Aren't we all? Remember the catchy "Hooray for Hollywood"? Now, it's hooray for "Vanity Fair's Hollywood", which is a great deal more than catchy - it's a wonder! Gail Cooke
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