Customer Reviews

California Babylon

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is more a tourist guide to trivia than a guide to places of scandal, mayhem, and celluloid. How scandalous is the place that inspired the Beach Boys hit "Fun, fun, fun"!?!

If you want to travel all over California and take in all the bizarre (aka definitely not mainstream) tourist sites along the way, buy this book! It provided me with all sorts of information. Imagine my shock when I found out that the site of the Heaven's Gate last supper was the Marie Calender's I frequent when I am in Carlsbad. Really, this book is a lot of fun. Provides a lot of trivia and gives books like LA Bizzaro and San Francisco Bizzaro a run for the $$$$ and also flip flops all over the state in search for crime scenes and other oddities.
Even if you don't use it as a tour guide and/or never step foot in California, this book will entertain and provide more than a few chuckles.

I found this little gem in a back alley bookshop in Manila, and being a Californian, I had to have it. It has provided me with hours of fun and discussion, and with my friends, we have relived much of the trivia that occurred in our lifetimes and in LA County. The favorite response was,"I never knew that's where it happened," or "I can't beieve it, I drove by that location almost every day on the way to work." Part of the book declares "A Guide to Sites of Scandal,Mayhem and Celluloid in the Golden State," and it does all of that. There are a lot of sites to do with Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Marlon Brando, the Manson Clan, Rodney King, Linda Ronstadt, and other well-known people and events. A excellent book for conversations and tours if you can afford the gas...or maybe do it from the armchair. Buy it - good return for your buck!

A fun guide to where things happened, but you'll find some of the sites no longer exist. In serious need of revision, but still will give you hours of good reading.

I love movies. And I live in L.A. And I know that most movies are filmed around here somewhere...but where? Now I know! These writers have tracked down the filming locations of hundreds of the coolest movies ever -- all over southern California. I am a big Q Tarantino fan, and this is the only book to give me all the exact filming locations for Jackie Brown, my favorite Tarantino movie. I've been looking for a long time for them. Also, Pulp Fiction, too, though they reveal that the cool diner where the holdup happens has been torn down! Sad. I have seen some other books and maps that say some movie filming locations, but they are nothing like this book, which really gets under the surface --talking about which scene, who was in it, etc. They have lots of old movies too from the 50s and earlier, even amazing secrets about Casablanca I never knew about though I thought I was the expert! I am keeping this book in my car permanently. There is a lot of other stuff here too about historical sites and scandals etc but what really got me was the movies.

Excellent on detail and accuracy, heavy on rock 'n' roll; some odd omissions
(e.g., entry on Palace Hotel in San Francisco does not mention that President Harding died there in 1923; the list of sites from Hitchcock's picture Vertigo omits the Argonaut bookstore [called Argosy bookstore in the movie - both because of the gold associated with the city]). Below the belt comments about Ronald Reagan.

Yeah, it's all here - the scandals, murders, drugs, etc. - kind of a condensed version of the tabloids at the market checkout station. It is outdated but definitely gives you an inside look at behind the scenes of the movies and musicals. I must say I found it entertaining and added a few 'must-see' stops on my next California adventure. PLease read it for general interest about celebrities and wealthy people - not classic literature by any means but makes for good conversation when the gossiping starts around the coffee pot at work.

I've actually been into this sort of thing for years, visiting any local sites associated with the more sensational stories of the San Francisco Bay Area, and there simply isn't a better general guide to cover the many other California stories that are even further away.

I say general because I like to read about many other incidents, even those that are no more than bizarre accidents or forgotten front page stories from the Victorian era. I will determine where those occurred too, and newspapers often publish addresses.

The Southern California people with this book will be green with envy that I have easy access to places they don't, and I feel the same way about their area. I'll just have to wait until I get a chance to visit the Southern parts of this state again.

Among the sites I have gone to here in San Francisco are Jimmy Stewart's Apartment from the 1958 thriller Vertigo, and the apartment house where the Symbionese Liberation Army brainwashed Patty Hearst in the closet in 1974. I had already read Patty's own riveting account of the kidnapping, so that particular site made an even more ominous impression.

The Vertigo site has very relaxed vibes, and the SLA site really unsettling vibes. I even looked into the hallway of the latter and noticed a creepy gun sight like design in the old colored windows. Anyone would notice those while going up the stairs, and that's all the more interesting because the SLA practiced with pellet guns in the bathroom during the three months they were there.

One of the things I like about seeing all these places is that they give a local resident a kind of frame of reference about the neighborhoods. Even most cab drivers won't know the city like those who have this little encyclopedia as they travel around.

I never really paid much attention to some areas before, like the ones associated with rock n roll history in the Haight Ashbury and elsewhere, but now when I hear people talking about many legendary names I have visual references to real places and it's something we can both talk about.

If you'd like to chat about this hobby, send me an e-mail. I'm working on an 1895 San Francisco history book that will also have a generous list of places to visit at the end, and I'll let my fellow time trippers know if the project is ever completed.

When I picked this book up, it was the uncorrected pre-press edition. It had a few errors in direction (East was West and North was South) and content, but I still find it rather informative.
If you are a California native or new to the Golden State I strongly recommend it for an idea of what fame, fortune and failures can plague the Left Coast. While some information was interesting and thought provoking, other items were rather banal and uninspired. Maybe this was corrected in the later printing, but it still makes me wonder about the veracity that the facts were checked.
Nevertheless a great book for those interested in the underbelly of California pop culture.

This really is a great guide to California. That is if your a gore hound, movie nut or history freak (I think I'm all three!) Ever wanted to know where the chase scene from Bullitt was? Or where they found the Black Dahlia's body? How about where Dashiell Hammett wrote the Maltese Falcon? This book has it all, from old Chinatown [brothels] and opium dens, to O.J. sites. A little something for everyone! Highly recommended!!