Gossip meets history—a compulsively readable
collection of Hollywood's most notorious clashes and
controversiesin the spirit of Hollywood
Babylon Believe it or not, America's
fascination with celebrity culture was thriving well before
the days of TMZ, Perez Hilton, Charlie Sheen's breakdown and
allegations against Woody Allen. And the stars of
yesteryear? They weren’t always the saints that we make them
out to be. Film professor Anne Helen Petersen is here to set
the record straight with Scandals of Classic
Hollywood. Pulling little-known gems from the archives
of film history, Petersen reveals eyebrow-raising
information, including:
The smear
campaign against the original It Girl, Clara Bow, started by
her best friend
The heartbreaking story
of Montgomery Clift’s rapid rise to fame, the car accident
that destroyed his face, and the “long suicide” that
followed
Fatty Arbuckle's descent from
Hollywood royalty, fueled by allegations of a boozy orgy
turned violent assault
Why Mae West was
arrested and jailed for "indecency charges"
And much more
Part biography, part
cultural history, these stories cover the stuff that films
are made of: love, sex, drugs, illegitimate children,
illicit affairs, and botched cover-ups. But it's not all
just tawdry gossip in the pages of this book. The stories
are all contextualized within the boundaries of film,
cultural, political, and gender history, making for a read
that will inform as it entertains. Based on Petersen's
popular column on the Hairpin, but featuring 100% new
content, Scandals of Classic Hollywood is
sensationalism made smart.
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