Hollywood Babylon--It's Back (Hardcover)

by Darwin Porter (Author), Danforth Prince (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Dishing with abaondon, the authors spare no one--especially not the dead. Marilyn Monroe had an affair with Ronald Reagan, Marilyn also had a tryst with Joan Crawford but refused to make it an ongoing affair. James Dean showed a disconcerting interest in a 12-year-old boy in the early 1950s. Lucille Ball launched herself into show business as a hooker, and her husband Desi Arnaz had a fling with Cesar Romero. Cary Grant had an incestuous relationship with his stepson, Lance Reventlow. And this, by the way, is only the tip of the iceberg. --Rush & Molloy, The NY Daily News

Many of Hollywood's most outrageous secrets remained hidden. Until now. This book will set the graves of Hollywood's cemeteries spinning. --Daily Express (London)

The American movie industry is always eager for the spotlight if the close-up is flattering and good for business. But Hollywood may get more than it bargained for with HOLLYWOOD BABYLON'S compendium of stories, rumors, and myths. Virtually every page features one kind of train wreck or another, usually accompanied by spectacularly lurid photographs. Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince provide a hair-raising list of compromises and strategically granted sexual favors as proof that some stars will do anything for a part. Not even Grace Kelly and Lucille Ball escaped having to get down and dirty on the proverbial casting couch, according to Porter and Prince. Read these pages to learn what Robert Mitchum is said to have taught Marilyn Monroe on the set of THE RIVER OF NO RETURN that would prove useful during her rumored affair with JFK. Try as you might, you won't be able to stop turning the pages...In revealing so many facts previously under wraps, this book, in fact, raises the question of how much more remains hidden. --Shelf Awareness/ Bookselling News

Product Description
For decades, there s been speculation that somebody, somewhere, would produce an updated version of Hollywood Babylon, perhaps even more notorious than the first two volumes compiled a half-century ago by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger. For pop culture fanatics, his books became an underground legend.

Anger s original version had to be published in Paris, as it was too hot for America at the time. But beliefs about celebrities, sexuality, and morality have changed radically since then. New waves of narcissists, exhibitionists, and looney toons have invaded the entertainment industry. The gossip industry has transformed America into a nation of voyeurs. By today s standards, Anger s spin on Babylon looks downright demure.

With a respectful nod to those long-ago statements by Kenneth Anger, Blood Moon is proud to release another Hollywood Babylon, in this case more shocking and more scandalous than before. Within this first volume, we visit Babylon as well as Sodom and Gomorrah. And we don t deal just with Hollywood s Golden Age we zero in on some present-day brouhahas as well.

Buyer beware: The scandals exposed within this book are not for the faint-of-heart. You might not think of the old pinups in quite the same way after reading this edition. Those offended by male movie stars dropping trou for offscreen cameras should stick to Alice in Wonderland.

It s true: We re not shy about male nudity, or even female nudity. Today, nudity in films is commonplace.

In the past, the porno films made by major movie stars (including Joan Crawford and Sylvester Stallone) were enveloped in a sense of secrecy and, perhaps, shame. Today, what would previously have been defined as pornography regularly makes its way onto the screen.

Within this book, Blood Moon daringly applies the gossipy reportage of today to the tabloid scandals of yesterday think Confidential Magazine on amphetimines with access to the Internet. Breast measurements of Hollywood bombshells are being widely publicized. Even the mainstream press has gotten more graphic. Time Magazine has even published the length (in inches) of Hugh Grant s penis.

Scandal is not limited just to events within America. Within this edition of Hollywood Babylon, it goes global. As such, we visit the Vatican boudoir of a former pope and his male lovers. And we document Sir Winston Churchill s onetime sexual liaison with Britain s most handsome actor.

There's more. Revealed for the first time are stories about James Dean, the child molester; Bette Davis, offscreen murderess; Errol Flynn, the incestuous father; Ava Gardner, the part-time lesbian; and Marilyn Monroe s involvements with Jackie Kennedy and Elvis Presley.

We ll even tell you about what happened to Judy Garland s body before it was finally laid to rest.

Hollywood celebrity biographer Darwin Porter and former New York Times reporter Danforth Prince take you on a roller-coaster ride through the scandals of yesterday and today. An early reviewer referred to this book as A movieland massacre, followed by an autopsy with a scalpel whose cutting edge is coated with Lucretia Borgia s poison. It s about The Good, The Bad, and the Fabulous.

To those who love her, Hollywood was and is a gossipy, mendacious (Big Daddy's word), and whorish place that remains captivating despite the passage of time. In Hollywood Babylon, it s depicted at its sleaziest, most venal, and most deliciously unseemly.

Rock Hudson said it all In Hollywood, you can keep a mistress, or a boyfriend, maybe both. You can go gay, -bi, or pan-sexual. Just don't tell anybody, and don't get caught.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Blood Moon Productions; 1st edition (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974811882
• ISBN-13: 978-0974811888
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,255 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #6 in	Books > Entertainment > Movies > Industry
  #22 in	Books > Reference > Fun Facts > Trivia
  #23 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Rich & Famous

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars HOLLYWOOD BUNK, June 17, 2008

By	J. Gunning "Allhallowsday" (Midst the Oaks of SRH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I definitely enjoyed KENNETH ANGER's two books that this book is riding the coattails of. I also enjoy gossipy tell-alls, and have no problem with a tall tale. However, HOLLYWOOD BABYLON IT'S BACK is dubious trashy tidbits, obsessed with celebrity endowments, apparently written over many years, and poorly cobbled together with no real editor's discerning eye. Stars of yesteryear are "quoted" amusingly and then the same "quotes" are retooled with the essential tidbits changed to suit another chapter. NICK ADAMS' reputation is mercilessly trashed, and inaccurately (uhm... how could he have been servicing ELVIS when THE KING was watching the moon landing? ADAMS had been dead nearly a year and a half, as the book itself reports!!) Every stupid, groundless rumor you've ever heard about dead stars is offered as fact, though not a single principal is left to defend themselves. Half of Hollywood is gay and the other half bisexual, and the authors enjoy pointing out who did NOT have an affair with who as if that is intended to lend credibility to the incredible. Over 350 pages, by page 126, I was appalled! Here's a quote: "In 1951 (HARRY) COHN offered (LUCILLE BALL) a trashy part in The Magic Carpet...With her commitments at Columbia finished, LUCILLE landed at RKO in 1935." So LUCILLE BALL finished up at Columbia in the early 1950s and "landed" at RKO in 1935...? Huh? I don't think these authors or their editor went over this book very well to at least cleanup the contradictions and obvious errors. This could have been better, but instead, HOLLYWOOD BABYLON IT'S BACK makes BOZE HADLEIGH appear reliable.

38 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, May 28, 2008

By	Alan Light (Iowa City, IA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book to be a disappointment. The layout of the pages is very amateurish and ugly. The information tries to sound scandalous but after a while becomes repetetive and even dull. I found myself skipping page after page just to look at the photographs, many of which are of poor quality and seem to have been lifted from the internet, without credit (one of them is mine, that I took of Lucille Ball a few weeks before her death). Some photographs look like they were printed from poor washd-out photocopies. (In their defense, perhaps all they could find of certain rare photos were photocopies, and so decided to print poor versions instead of none at all.) As with the original Hollywood Babylon 1 and 2 by Kenneth Anger, don't rely on these books for facts or truth. What's in them is embellished, at the very least, for titillation. Whatever truth may be contained in these books is basically lost in the stew of rumors, half-truths and outright fiction. A shame, since it doesn't even result in a very good read.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars utter trash ( and not even good trash ), June 2, 2008

By	Michael Brennan - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It seems like this has been put together by a few internet kiddies and bitchy forum trolls in order to make ( surprise ) a quick buck.
Of course all their accusations run against people long dead but that's not the point - the artwork is pitiful, the photos of such pathetic quality that a 20 year old rolled up newspaper in the attic would give you better quality - the reliance of repeating age old stories and rumours we have all heard a 100 times before is unbelievable - as is the infantile language construction and abysmal editorial qualities used throughout.
I last saw a book as bad as this when in junior high working on a last minute class project after midnight.
save your money - spend ten minutes surfing through internet celebrity gossip sites like perezhilton etc - at least you won't have to part with your cash for the same tired old stories.
alternatively - camp out on a small mid west town street corner and listen to the interfering god fearing old biddies as they make their way to the Piggly Wiggly store - you'll have more fun and you'll hear the same old rubbish !