The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book (3rd edition)

Rating:
Summary: Please Do Not Trespass
Review: I purchased the first edition in 1995(?) and have purchased revised copies since then (frankly, I don't remember the # of revisions). The information in the book is very accurate, but you have to keep in mind that celebrities move quite often. That's why you will periodically need an update (duh!). The book is laid out by communities/neighborhoods, and this feature is very helpful in preventing a lot of backtracking. It's a great book for a first time visitor to LA or a habitual return tourist such as myself, who is always looking for something fun and/or new. As the author warns.....remember to respect the privacy of these people. I'm sure they don't like having this information readily available to tourists.

Rating:
Summary: Buy before you go to LA!
Review: I read the book AFTER returning from LA--put me through the best and worst of 2 worlds. One of estasy (I remember that place, it was cool) to one of envy (I wish I had seen that). Please pick this book up before you leave, and plan your trip according to the sites listed. After taking one of the traditional tour vans around the city, it seems the driver must have used this book as a guide as I remember some of the houses matching up with what the author talked about. On the flip side, I would have preferred more pictures and more detailed information on hollywood grave sites, but maybe that's fodder for its own book!

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book
Review: I sm the author of the book and I wanted to alert readers that the second edition is not the most recent edition of the book. The second edition was published in 1997, not in 2002, as Amazon.com's listing states. The third and most recent edition was released in 2002. In between official editions, I also update the book. The latest printing--the 18th--will have 26 new pages, plus updated maps of Hollywood. It will be ready to ship in June 2004.

To order the most recent edition of the book, make sure you click "All Editions" and then click "Third Edition." Contrary to what you might read, Amazon.com has plenty of books in stock.

If you have any questions you can e-mail me at through the North Ridge Books web site.

Rating:
Summary: Tinseltown Mania
Review: There must be 50 Hollywood homes books on the market. If you visit Beverly Hills, a tour-bus or map salesman will gladly take your money. But W. Gordon's remarkably accurate and truthful guide will spell out where the buses point out homes where movie stars never lived. Gordon provides detailed directions and maps to the sites you want to see. And loads of "goodies" and information. He shows you how to get to Arnold's palatial block of homes in Brentwood, and warns that driving there is a $ 500 fine and possible jail time! Wow! He also gives directions to Rudolph Valentino's original 1920's mansion(and much, much more). Forget the B.S. Here it is. When I e-mailed him for an up-date, he gladly provided it for free(see the book). Why waste time driving around freeways?

Rating:
Summary: Famous Words of Famous Writers
Review: This absolutely delightful book has been updated and re-titled The Quotable Writer.

As the author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles, I highly recommend this book to writers, publishers and bibliophiles. [e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: Decidedly Worth Your Time (and $)
Review: This is a not so typical tour guide which provides its reader with a lot of bang for his/her buck. It provides information which is fairly accurate regarding the living (who tend to move quite a bit). The listings provided for death scenes are very accurate (assuming you only die once). Ditto for burial sites (assuming that remains stay put in one place.....unfortunately, that isn't always true as I seem to always be finding out). What is really impressive about the many editions of this book that have been published to date is that the author constantly updates the information in the book, so that it is as accurate as it can be given the odd and fluctuating state of celebrity mindsets (and fortunes).
So if you are willing to assume that some of the information may become outdated, you will probably enjoy this book quite a bit.

Rating:
Summary: Great resource for DIYers with cars
Review: When I took an exploratory job trip for two weeks in L.A., I had a copy of the previous edition of "The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book" and found a lot of cool stuff using this book. (I drove by O.J. Simpson's home -- which he has since sold -- as well as the former homes of Joan Crawford and Shirley Temple in Brentwood).

Since I drove down from San Francisco I stopped in Malibu and drove through some of the exclusive star neighborhoods mentioned in here (that was the first time I'd ever seen a street sign marked "Private") and I saw someone who looked suspiciously like Pierce Brosnan riding his bike and he waved! Surreal!

The maps were black and white, but still good enough to get me where I wanted to go; used in conjunction with a regular street map, you won't go wrong. As far as I know, there's no other guide book to L.A./Hollywood like this. So if you don't want to feel like a tourist and see all the regular stuff PLUS stuff no one will tell you about GET THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: A plethora of information about my neighbors in Los Angeles.
Review: William Gordon certainly has done his homework. Whats great about his book, is that it gives the average person access to these hot spots in Los Angeles, by giving directions to the Aaron Spelling house and David Geffen's house. For those coming to Los Angeles, I would recommend buying this book, rather than buying one of those "Maps to the Stars Homes". Those have not been updated in years, Gordon Updates his book twice a year. I have met William Gordon and had lunch with him, what a great guy. He is even open to suggestion, if you know of something he has left out of the book, drop him a line. You could tour everything in that book in a day!