The Hollywood Book of Love : From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales [Paperback]

James Robert Parish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2003

An authoritative and humorous look at Hollywood's ever-changing take on love, romance, and marriage over the decades

From steamy silent classics like A Fool There Was to romantic musicals like Grease to epic schmaltz-fests like Titanic, Hollywood historian and bestselling author James Robert Parish provides a very personal (but quite factual) run-down on how the Hollywood dream factory has portrayed love, marriage, and divorce on the big screen. The Hollywood Book of Love reveals in an entertaining fashion how the attitudes and standards the audience absorbs from the movies influence their expectations in real-life relationships.

Writing with his trademark dry wit and rich knowledge of American movie history, Parish provides perceptive and amusing takes on 200 feature films and offers tantalizing sidebar factoids on everybody from Liz, Bette, and Bogie, to Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Nicole Kidman.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Fall in love--Hollywood-style--with this wild guide to romance on the big screen

If you're still waiting for bells to ring and sparks to fly, for fireworks to explode and waves to crash upon the shore every time you kiss that special someone, don't hold your breath: you've been bitten--and brainwashed--by the Hollywood love bug! From start-up to breakup, only on the silver screen is romance so unreal, and in this exhaustive encyclopedia you'll find enough smooches and schmaltz to take you from here . . . to eternity.

From Gone with the Wind to Dirty Dancing, from Bonnie and Clyde to Risky Business, from Father of the Bride to Divorce, American Style, Hollywood historian James Robert Parish gives you all the steam from the screen as he explores Tinseltown's obsession with love, romance, and heartbreak. Inside you'll find:

• A guide to Hollywood's top tales of romance, from "Young Love" to "Marriages on the Rocks"
• Dozens of black-and-white photos of your favorite lovebirds
• Funny, fact-filled plot scenarios of hundreds of Hollywood's greatest love stories
• Steamy sidebars that reveal the reality behind the reel
• Behind-the-scenes peeks at the love-lives of Hollywood's biggest stars, from Mickey Rooney, Woody Allen, and Josh Hartnett to Lupe Velez, Lana Turner, and Madonna

About the Author

James Robert Parish is a leading authority on show business and popular culture. He is a frequent guest on cable and network TV documentaries such as A&E's "Biography," E! Television's "Mysteries & Scandals," and the Discovery Channel's "Hollywood Bad Boys" special.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (May 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071402802
• ISBN-13: 978-0071402804
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,304,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have the privilege of doing work (i.e., writing books) that I thoroughly enjoy, so it is no real chore to be active on my book projects seven days a week. Doing research is much like being a detective, bringing as many elements of the subject's life to light and assessing how each piece fits into the puzzle of a celebrity's biography.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Irreverent guide to romantic movies, September 21, 2005

By 

Leslie Halpern (Central Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hollywood Book of Love : From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales (Paperback)

My copy of "The Hollywood Book of Love" has the subtitle "An Irreverent Guide to the Films that Raised Our Romantic Expectations." The line "From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales" appears on the back cover instead of on the front as the subtitle.

Actually, I prefer the irreverent guide subtitle because that seems to be Parish's main goal: to show how romantic movies from this (and previous) generations raised our romantic expectations to unrealistic levels. He provides highly entertaining examples of movies that create hopes for romance, sex, and love that cannot possibly be fulfilled in real life.

"The Hollywood Book of Love" works on many different levels. It provides a thorough guide book to romantic movies; it offers a behind-the-scenes look at many of the selected films; and it gives the reader some broad questions to consider about the gap between the illusion and reality of romantic love.

Leslie Halpern, author of Reel Romance: The Lovers' Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies and Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars insightful and well-researched, July 7, 2003

By 

Barry Saltzman (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hollywood Book of Love : From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales (Paperback)

James Robert Parish continues providing informative and entertaining accounts of different facets of Hollywood history. Peppered with off-screen anecdotes and details, he invites us to explore the differences between reel and real romance. And he succeeds admirably, because the book is fun to read and leads one to watch the films we're unfamiliar with. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A cynic's love for the movies, June 9, 2003

By 

watchit (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hollywood Book of Love : From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales (Paperback)

As if to honor the Hollywood community's off-screen attitude toward love and marriage, James Robert Parish's "The Hollywood Book of Love" operates on the belief that romance is something that lasts about as long as it takes to watch the movie itself. Here are over 150 films whose view of love ranges from lush to lousy and tempestuous to twisted. Each concise summary is burnished by Parish's skillful writing and ends with a zinger for our cynical times. Numerous sidebars enliven the text with sample dialogue, behind-the-scenes gossip, and historical perspective. Useful as a video guide as well as a survey course of movie mores since talkies, this book is something of a change of pace for Parish in that his commentary is more playful than he usually allows. The expected titles are here -- "Now, Voyager," "Gone with the Wind," and "Camille," for example -- but Parish also finds love in such unlikely places as "The Sea Wolf," "The Big Broadcast of 1938" and even "Kiss of the Dragon"! "The Hollywood Book of Love" -- which, if you believe the publisher and the movies, is heterosexual only -- emerges as a snazzy, year-round Valentine...with its fingers crossed. I only wish I'd thought of it first.