Hollywood Babylon

At least half of it is bullshit. Entertaining but BS.

The subsequent editions by other authors are pure fantasy.

I innocently ordered this from my Dad's reading club and was traumatized.

Yes, loose with actual facts but GREAT fun to read. I have the follow up one by Darwin Porter. Fake and not fun.

I thought it was racy and scandalous! I would go in the local bookstore and gawk at the pictures, I always switched dust covers with a more age appropriate book in case my mother came in the store.

I checked it out from our public library when I was 12 or 13 and was scandalized and tittillated. I have to believe the librarians had no idea what the book was about.

Judging by the cover, it doesn’t look very good.

I love how tasteful the celeb pics in it were.

One of the first times I saw man ass in a book.

I have both. They are a very basic, badly written, "fun" read. There are a few scattered facts but most of it is made up. Kenneth Anger admitted it was exaggerated or outright lies. He was an asshole, and I say that with all due respect.

I thought it would be like a book version of People or Us magazine.

I read it and thought WHAT IS THIS DISTURBING SHIT?!

Fun to read but you cannot take them seriously.

My personal Old and New Testaments as a gayling.

Kenneth Anger was just that, angry. He just wanted to shit on a Hollywood that didn't bend to his rancid little fingers. He was what you would call a spiteful bitter queen. Never met a gay man like that before. A real rarity.

I would go to Waldenbooks in the mall and look at all the film & tv books, and I remember this was shelved in that section. I didn’t understand what it was. Didn’t it have a warning in it that it was for adults only or something? It was either printed right on the book somewhere, or i came across a listing for it in a catalog around the same time and it had such a warning.

I got the impression it had a lot of sexual material in it, but I don’t think I flipped through every page. I was mostly confused by the word ‘Babylon’—it was the first time I’d encountered it, and for a few years I pronounced it (in my head at least) as “baby lawn”.

Wouldn't use it for shitter wipes

I was disappointed as it was tamer than I expected. I had found Naked Lunch in my parents bookcase when I was 11 and nothing was likely to top the rimming/hanging scene.

HB didn’t show the Brando sucking cock photo for instance. Though I’ve since seen it and it wasn’t worth the build up.

Marlon Brando sucking Wally Cox's dick is the one of the sexiest celebrity sex images ever.

An older female relative had a copy and let me take it. It was the 80s by then and she'd been long done with it. I was 13 and believed every word. I was my first introduction to Old Hollywood and I credit it for peaking my interest in seeing I'd movies, if only to get a look at these SCANDALOUS old stars, most of whom were dead.

Of course I know better now, but the book has a place in my personal nostalgia.

^ seeing *old* movies.

good read,a lot of its made up

You must remember this did a season fact-checking Hollywood Babylon. Other than the annoying Anger-bot used to read passages from the book, it was pretty interesting.

I remember reading the section about the death of the “Mexican Spitfire” and thinking, “wait, how could anyone know all these details about the night she intentionally overdosed? She was by herself.”

Kenneth Anger, by the way? She’s still alive and kicking.

Lupe Velez was trash.

I bet Anger has made nice income blackmailing celebs.

It is ESSENTIAL.

He is indeed still with us at the age of 93. Rumor has it he was Olivia de Havilland's boy toy for most of the last decade.

Interest is piqued and not peaked.

- You're a dear!

R5 We know, we know, but we don't judge.

HB I & II were entertaining, but by far the best book about the Golden Age is Flesh & Fantasy by Penny Stallings. From the late 70s but it is a consistently entertaining read. Get it while you can; copies can be hard to find.

The Rosetta Sone of modern Hollywood gossip.

/Stone

I didn't come across either of the two books until I was an adult. The first one is so rife with errors and outright fantasies that it's pretty ridiculous. Among his many tall tales:

*He claims Marie Prevost's corpse was eaten by her pet dogs (in relaity, they were found in her apartment when she died but had not touched her corpse)

*In telling the story of how Ramon Novarro was killed by two tricks, he claims falsely they killed Novarro with a lead and silver dildo he had been given by Rudolph Valentino (there was no such object)

*He claims Lupe Velez drowned to death in her own vomit in her toilet bowl when throwing up from a spicy Mexican dinner after taking Seconal (which did not happen--she OD'ed on purpose from Seconal and left a suicide note and was found on her bedroom floor)

*He claims Clara Bow had sex with the entire USC football team, including a young John Wayne (a false story that has been debunked several times)

*He claims that Jayne Mansfield was decapitated in the car accident that killed her (which did not happen--the top of her head was crushed, but her head was not separated from her body)

*He claims that Walt Disney was addicted to opiates, and that this is reflected in the character of Goofy, whom he says is perpetually stoned (there is no corroboration of this anywhere)

He also claims that he himself played the part of the Indian Prince in the 30s Max Reinhardt version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Olivia de Havilland, and no one has ever been able to corroborate this story either.

Some of these entirely made-up stories became so widespread (particularly about Clara Bow and Jayne Mansfield) that they've proven almost impossible to kill.

Thanks r33, I was just going to ask this.

Have no desire to read. Please share the highlights.

Well, I basically provided them at r33.

They aren't as interesting as my fictional antidotes.

[quote]They aren't as interesting as my fictional antidotes.

Oh, dear.

Anecdote

- You, too, are a dear!

Antidotes or antitoxins?

Yeah he made a lot of shit up - or repeated old stories he knew weren't true - but he did make this film "Fireworks" as a very young man -- he seems to have lied somewhat about it too: claiming he was 16 or 17 and shot it at home while his parents were away for the weekend. More likely he was actually 20 and shot it at his brother's house -- in any event, it's pretty remarkable. His other films on this reel are interesting as well.

His use of popular music (or curated soundtrack) has been done to death my multiple “titans of film.”

Otherwise, Puce Moment is a gas!

Were there parts vaguely referring to gays?

I *think* my grandmom had this book.

^many, not my.

These always work somehow.

Yes, fun, but as long as you know they’re not fact-laden. My favorite part was the stuff about Kate Hepburn hiring girls to eat out.

R33 I think Anger was also the first person to use the phrase "Princess Tiny Meat" in reference to Montgomery Clift. Having had family who worked in Hollywood and who had insider gossip, they had never heard that in reference to Clift before Anger's book.

What stood out for me were the Frances Farmer photos. I saw these before I even knew her as an actress and wasn't alive at the time they would have been originally published in the papers.

I got a copy around 1970 (I'm that old) and still have it. I poured over it, so deliciously morbid! My mother did, too. She kept it for a while but I got it back. I skimmed through it not long ago. Some photos really stand out. Carol Landis's body, Jane Mansfield's car wreck. So many came to bad ends.

Another memorable photo is of Paul Bern's dead body in Jean Harlow's boudoir.

Jean Harlow's mother wasn't bad looking. They look a lot alike.

Good grief, those are not some pretty titties.

Oops, went down a rabbit hole. HB and other gossip rags talk about Harlow's domineering mother but here they look quite close. So sad Harlow died at only 26. Dinner at Eight was on last week, it's one of my favorites.

Jay Sebring, a Tate murder victim, owned the house where Paul Bern lived and died at the time of his marriage to Jean Harlow.

The house has a strange history of untimely death.

You need to watch the Hollywood Babylon special that the BBC did in 1991 with Kenneth Anger. It's really fascinating.

Sharon Tate at the Sebring house.

Apparently Sharon Tate slept at the Sebring house and had a visit from Paul Bern's ghost with a sort of warning. Probably bullshit but also the type of story you'd find in HB.

[quote]Jay Sebring, a Tate murder victim...

Sharon Tate killed Jay Sebring?

She must have moved fast to get it done before Charles Manson arrived!

Marie Prevost was not nibbled by her dogs? Nick Lowe lied to me.

That's one thing I'm surprised Anger didn't have in the book - photos of the dead Sharon Tate. Maybe they are the in the sequel that I haven't seen. I had not seen those photos until recently.

The "You Must Remember This" podcast (I know, I know, her voice is ghastly to listen to) did a season devoted to debunking a lot of "Hollywood Babylon".

Seems like most of it was just pure B.S.

I wanted it to be true, dammit!

R33, He also claimed that the Danish Garbo, Gwili Andre, despondent over her failed career, gathered all her press clippings and mementos, set them alight and jumped into the pyre. Untrue. Gwili was 51 when she died in a house fire, her film career long over. Firefighters found her body sprawled on the bedroom floor, possibly overwhelmed by the smoke. Friends and neighbors were able to retrieve her scrapbooks which revealed to them her past as a celebrated model and film actress.

Many of the pictures in it are grimy and disquieting.

It’s a very eerie book, to me.

[quote]R30 by far the best book about the Golden Age is Flesh & Fantasy by Penny Stallings. From the late 70s but it is a consistently entertaining read. Get it while you can; copies can be hard to find.

I love love love that book.

There are both hardback and oversized paperback versions.

R50 And what was Jean Harlow's mother's name?

That whole relationship creeps me out. Look at Bombshell or Wife vs Secretary--Harlow was a terrific actress and a real loss.

[quote]Judging by the cover, it doesn’t look very good

Are you really this dumb?

There is [italic]literally[/italic] a saying about this.

[quote]R64 And what was Jean Harlow's mother's name?

Mama Jean.

JH’s name was actually Harlean (for some reason.)

Jean Harlow's mother's birthname was ...Jean Harlow.

(And Jean Harlow's name was not Jean Harlow.)

^^ clearly enmeshed in some weird way : (

If I had a baby, I might name it Whorelean.

There is an entity on the DL that posts as “Lucifer the Light Bringer.” I always assumed it was Kenneth Anger. Am I wrong?

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

[quote]The "You Must Remember This" podcast (I know, I know, her voice is ghastly to listen to)...

I really can't listen to her, it's torture!

She also does sketchy research and presents new "facts" that still are not true! I've managed to get through a few but the vocal fry, shrill upreads and bad info are impossible. It's a shame because the topics chosen are great.

R63, it's always been one of my favorites, too. Anger's books are horror stories. Even if the stories are false, they're hard to shake off. Stallings's book has a lighter touch, and much more reliable gossip.

No problem, r71...

I'm sorry Frederic March's lawyers intervened and prevented him from including in the book's original publication the infamous suppressed "Shits and Giggles" chapter about Hollywood stars into scat. I thought once March was dead he would publish it, but I guess he wanted to be sure every single person he mentioned was also dead so he couldn't be sued. Maybe now Olivia de Havilland is finally gone we'll see it.

When the recent movies and documentaries about the Black Dahlia were released, I was surprised that so many people were hearing about it for the first time.

Marilyn tits weren't that big in R63.

I remember reading Hollywood Babylon when I was in the 6th grade, and I knew it was total bullshit even at the tender age of eleven.

I didn't find it scandalous because so much of it was just exploitative. Like a huge close-up of an older actor dead with his eyes wide open, having had a heart attack outside his home. Psychopath Kenneth Anger had made up a story about him dying while yelling "get offa my lawn" or some such thing to make it "scandalous" in a flimsy "he was a jerk who deserved it" way, but it was obvious the entire book was just Anger's hissy fit about never being part of the fabulous Hollywood society.

Some of his films are important culturally, but his obvious personality disorder and inability to tell the truth outweighs his artistic talent.

[quote] r60 The "You Must Remember This" podcast (I know, I know, her voice is ghastly to listen to)...

[quote]R72 I really can't listen to her, it's torture!

What are you two talking about?? She’s perfectly fine. That’s a well produced podcast, and I think she sounds good.

[quote]Marie Prevost was not nibbled by her dogs? Nick Lowe lied to me.

The photo of her body is right there in the HB book, you can see there are no chunks taken out of her. The discoloration is from the fact that she was there for a day or two before being found.

But this isn't one you can blame on Anger, because the day after she was found, the LA Times published that her dog had been biting at her body. He just took the story and added a picture of her dead body to it.

[quote]R77 Marilyn tits weren't that big in [R63]. —Arthur Miller

They were at their biggest when she was with YOU, [italic]Arthur, [/italic]Mr. World Famous Playwright Always Locked In His Study... because you made her so miserable she ate everything in sight!

Get a load’a THESE apples!

Jayne could have had sex with any straight man in any room at any time with these tits.

The pig face, however - -

Despite what the mailing address says, Book of the Month Club was actually in the town I lived in and my mother worked there in the 1970s sorting the mail with the responses for those choosing the book or other titles. They had a bookstore one day a week for all the employees of ones that were returned because people didn’t want them, but they were considered used and could not legally be sent out again. They always came without the dust covers and HB was done with a sparkly gold cover. I think there were a considerable amount of them and she saw Hollywood on the title and grabbed it for my brother and I who loved movies. We were fascinated by the lured details and the photographs. I think I was most drawn to the Mansfield accident with the dead dogs and oversized champagne bottles.

I picked up these books in the late 80s at a used bookstore, as an aspiring film student and loved them. I was fascinated by the era and read the books over and over. I now realize that when a person is dead, you can speculate and imply anything you want, so the stories are probably fabricated! The autopsy photos of Marylin Monroe are very disturbing, though.

I had a wonderful babysitter who always got me whatever I wanted because she was selling weed from our house and didn't want to lose such a prime location close to the university where my mum taught.

One of the things I asked for that took forever to get was a copy of Hollywood Babylon. She delivered Helter Skelter the day after I asked, but the wait for Hollywood Babylon almost killed me.

Of course it went to school with me as soon as I got it, and I told everyone that it was Jayne Mansfield's head in profile, not a hair out of place, sitting upright just where the windscreen would have been. I was surrounded by clusters of kids all that day as everyone wanted to see dead people, tits, and especially the head.

Luckily, I went to a hippyish school and instead of having my book confiscated the teacher who asked what we were looking at decided to turn it into a physics lesson and shatter all of our dreams.

Mansfield was decapitated in the accident and her head flew across the street.

That would have been lovely, but I think just the top of her head was sheared off.

She was scalped.

r86 I have a hard time believing the very strait-laced Book-of-the-Month Club would have had anything to do with trash like "Hollywood Babylon."

My friends dad was the Coroner of New Orleans and he conducted the autopsy of Miss Jayne. It was her wig, not her whole head at the side of the road.

R91 I’m not saying it was ever a chosen book for the month, but they had a large and wide offerings of other titles besides the one that if you did not send in the decline notification in time would arrive at your house.

I didn’t know that after Mansfield’s death there was federal legislation that requires tractor trailer trucks to have a bar hanging down from the back of the truck to keep cars from going under them and is literally known as the Mansfield bar?

Mansfield was NOT decapitated; it was her wig or hairpiece that ended up on the side of the road. Well documented and reported!

It was my first exposure to the darker side of gossip. My Mom didn't buy tabloids, so I only had the nice "ladies'" magazines to contemplate. I embraced the filth as the dirty truth. I know better now, of course, but I'm open to believing the unsavory stories.

[quote]Were there parts vaguely referring to gays?

As I recall one of the HB books reprinted an 'at-home' magazine spread featuring housemates Cary Grant and Randolph Scott.

Anger's captions were naturally arch and insinuating - or maybe (he thought) fondly teasing, given that here were distant A-list family.

Kenneth Anger has always creeped me out. Where do you suppose he gets the money for his little short films?

From the IMDB: "He claims to have appeared as the child prince in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), but Warner Brothers production reports and casting sheets conclusively document that a little girl, child actress Sheila Brown, actually played the role."

I'm suspicious he might be a bit of a liar.

I remember this picture in one of the Hollywood Babylon books - Carmen Miranda dancing with Cesar Romero. He's lifting her off the ground and she's not wearing underwear, exposing her hairy beaver.

Ceasar Romero was big ole homo, that's for sure!

A big old hairy WHAT!?! R96

Hollywood Bea-balon

Mansfield’s head was sheared clean off at the neck. I know this for a fact becsuse im one of the kids who found it on the sidewalk and played soccer with it!

One of the reasons the myth about Jayne Mansfield being beheaded has persisted is because of photos at the crash site that showed one of her wigs in the middle of the road. People said it was her head that had been sheared off and was lying there.

r89, that story was de-bunked up thread.

Some of you are too stupid to live.

"Airing His Basket"

R89, Mansfield's head flew across the street? That just gave me an idea for a startup airline. "Fly Mansfield's Head Airlines today. Lots of leg room, no need for head room."

Anger watches and talks about the scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the video at R54

R108 The video is almost an hour long. Can you give us the time code in the video where he talks about A Midsummer Night's Dream?

[quote]...drowned to death...

r33, as opposed to say, drowned almost to death?

R108, If you watch the BBC Hollywood Babylon special, they show the Midsummer clip with Anger in it. He was very much in that movie.

Mansfield did in fact lose part of her head in the accident.

Come one...

Trepaning is not decapitation.

OT: I once heard Jayne Mansfield’s head was cut off in her car accident, but then others said it wasn’t.

Anyone else heard this?

She lost her head! Flipped her wig, too!

R114 See R104

I usually wait for the movie version

How old was Judy Garland when she died? She looks about 80 in that photo!

^ 47 - that's what drugs and alcohol does to you - ages you well before your time

I found it on a remainder table when I was about 12 years old and snapped it up. I thrilled to every word and in my heart of hearts, if not my brain, still believe she drowned in her toliet, an Egyptian chartreuse onyx Hush Flush Model DeLuxe.

I wanted to read it until I learned from DL that it was mostly fictitious rambling.

[quote]^ 47 - that's what drugs and alcohol does to you - ages you well before your time

That won't be a problem for me, I've never liked drugs. People cannot control the drugs, the drugs control them.

Alcohol? I can take it or leave it. I usually leave it. I only have a glass of wine when out dining with friends. My partner barely drinks. We keep liquor for guests, but never drink any if it. There are no addition genes in my family, that also helps. Over the years, most of the heavy drinkers I've known, come from families of alcoholics.