Rating:  Summary: this is ( ) Review: do not read this book if you are looking for any sort of accuracy, it's about as factual as a grocery store tabloid. if you are just looking for a no-brainer read, then this is for you, but if you are interested in hollywood history, pass it by.
Rating:  Summary: an unadulterated hoot Review: Looks like a lot of people have gotten worked into a lather around here over this book. Lighten up folks! This isn't meant to be some serious anthropological study of Hollywood and its denizens. Anger's just dishin' up the dirt and gettin' down with the sleazemongers. A few little anecdotes about Fatty, Frances, Lupe, et. al are all that's offered up here. I don't believe it's even meant in a particularly mean-spirited way. It reads more like black comedy to me.
Rating:  Summary: A thought provoking examination of Hollywood Review: While many perceive Kenneth Anger as a unlikable, bitter, iconoclast who else could have captured the subject of Hollywood's dark side with such stamina and dark jest.This book for me makes any star gazer see the real side of fame, fortune, and power. Supposedly Anger and others were trying to make Hollywood Baby into a movie. I do hope that someday it does get done. Just the thought of the "Business" and it's dark side depicted on celluloid would be like one looking in a mirror and realzing that you are real and fallable. I urge all to enjoy this book for what it is. A complete and candid version of some of Hollywood's greatest in some of their most darkest hours when the cameras weren't rolling. It also reveals how the studios would protect their commodities at all costs.
Rating:  Summary: terrible. Review: There is hardly any text in this book. It's all pictures of hollywood stars in lewd positions. Marylin Monroe's pubic hair, Joan Crawford and another girl in flagrant delicto, and the writing is incredibly boring. Lighten up Kenneth. This book is ruined by your bitterness. I'm sorry if the hollywood of the old days is sour grapes for you.
Rating:  Summary: A very entertaining read, you won't get bored Review: This dated book still serves as an entertaining and somewhat historical account of the seedy behavior of movie stars past. It's hard to determine just where the facts stopped and the sensationalized gossip starts, but for the most part alot of the information can be verified by research. Plain dull facts do not sell books so Anger cannot be blamed for adding some spice to these stories. This is actually a good study of human nature and how a privileged few behave when they hit the big time, then react when the inevidible fadeaway comes. Many parallels can be found in sports and the music industry where sudden fame and wealth changes people. People will always be fascinated with the lifestyles of their heroes and idols. Anger does a good job of dishing up the aspects these idols don't want their adoring public to know.
Rating:  Summary: SICK, SICK, SICK! Review: Hollywood Babylon is like the movie, "Alive," in that it was great, but so sickening, you're not sure whether or not you want to recommend it to anyone. If you're of the faint of heart and want to hold onto cherished memories of the Golden Age of Hollywood, don't read it at all; you will be grossed out completely and may even lose your mind from the depravity. If you're of a stronger constitution, you may like it, but be prepared for grisly photos of dead people, revolting scandals and disgusting incidents. But if you're just a sick puppy, this book's for you! I, for one, am not one, so I gave it three stars. I would've given it four, but I had to deduct a point for the Tackyness Factor (c'mon--did we really need to see a picture of Jayne Mansfield's mangled dead dog after her fatal car crash? Yeeesh!). At any rate, buy this book if you like, but remember--you've been warned!
Rating:  Summary: Wonderfull Review: I loved this book. Unfortunately, Hollywood scandals are constantly in the news so it's no longer a shock. There is a French language Hollywood Babylon that Anger published in the 1950's while living in Paris. It was never published in the US.
Rating:  Summary: Wunnerful, wunnerful Review: Loved it as long as you go along with the saying that you should never let the facts interfer with a good story! And besides, this being about Hollywood and the movie industry, where do the facts finish and the gossip begin? More, more! Author! Author!
Rating:  Summary: enjoyable reading Review: i thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. but i know better than to take everything as fact. i look at it as being gossip about the stars which may or may not be true. it's a fun read if you enjoy reading about the stars and their frailties and failures. it makes them appear all too human and not larger than life
Rating:  Summary: hollywood babylon inaccurate Review: Hollywood Babylon contains inaccurate information. I believe the modern version is supposed to be more accurate than the original version, which I have never seen. Nonetheless, many people now accept what it says as fact. Actually, much of it seems to have come from gossip originally. There are some details in the book that I know are false, others that I think are distorted, some that I do not know anything about. There are also some things in the book that are true. But it is like they say, don't believe everything you read. The first time I read this book, a number of years ago, I wrote to the publisher and pointed out that there were some inaccuracies in it, but since they are m aking money out of it, they don't really care about it. I also remember one writer complained about what Hollywood Babylon said about Fatty Arbuckls supposedly being at an orgy in Massachusetts, which he evidentally wasn't really at. But mostly what I noticed Anger was wrong about was in the chapter about Thelma Todd. He says she was living in the house with the garage attached to it with Roland West, when actually she was living above the restaraunt. Roland West also lived up above the Restaraunt, but in a separate apartment. There has been some controversary about their living arrangements, so I won't go into that here, except to say that Anger's statement that Thelma Todd was West's "mistress" would have been denied by Roland West himself. Hollywood Babylong contains other erroneous information about Thelma Todd. For one thing, it says she was buried in Forrest Lawn cemetary. Actually she was cremated and her mother took her ashes back to to Massachusets, where they were later buried with the mother after her death. I once wrote to Hal Roach, the producer, and the former boss of Thelma Todd, and asked him about Anger's story that Roach dissuaded Thelma Todd's lawyer from starting another inquest. This story seems doubtful to me, but unfortunately Mr. Roach declined to comment
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