Customer Reviews

Hollywoodland: Rich and Lively History About Hollywood's Grandest Era

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

 

 

As in his previous volume "Lost Hollywood," Wallace here does little more than recycle the gossip & rumors found in Kenneth Anger's "Hollywood Babylon." Much of it is fun reading - for example, it's always amusing to re-visit Mae West's witty one-liners - but the book is rife with factual inaccuracies and typos. Many of them - but certainly not all - have already been cited in other reviews. One correction I might add is that Herbert Stothart, not Max Steiner, was the film composer for "Wizard of Oz." After that sort of gaffe, it becomes difficult to trust Wallace's information (new to me) that "Oz" author L. Frank Baum designed the crown-like chandeliers that still hang in the dining room at the Hotel del Coronado. Wallace's assertion that "Citizen Kane" was "certainly the best" film music Bernard Herrmann ever composed would likely be disputed by most film music critics (the consensus would appear to favor "Vertigo"). The absence of even a single footnote and the lack of a bibliography are simply additional indications of a carelessly researched and poorly edited volume. Rather disappointing.

Despite Mr. Wallace's avowed claim to find the "truth behind the anecdotes," this book--just like his first on the subject (Lost Hollywood)--is nothing more than a series of mostly unsubtantiated Hollywood myths coupled with outright inaccuracies (e.g., Mr. Wallace indicates Jean Harlow as being the recipient of James Cagney's grapefruit-in-the-face in the famous "Public Enemy" scene--when, in fact, it was Mae Clarke), held together by numerous misspellings and typos. Only for the desperate! The dust jacket is nice, though.

It's disappointing that not one, but two books by this author, filled with inaccuracies, could find their way to publication. A glance through the chapter about Blondes relates the tired Jean Harlow/Christian Science/Evil Mother Jean story that first appeared in Irving Shulman's 1964 best selling, but totally made-up HARLOW, AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY. Mr. Wallace apparently missed both the excellent David Stenn and Eve Golden bios of Jean Harlow that were written in the early 1990's, which refute that legend based on hospital records and other 'minor' facts, etc.
If you are in the mood for salacious gossip unrooted in reality, read Kenneth Anger's books; they are 'classics' of this genre that will leave you howling and hungry for more, unlike copycats like HOLLYWOODLAND, which reminds one of stale bread.

While I believe Mr. Wallace is earnest, he is often inaccurate or incomplete. His chapters are thumbnail sketches based on rumor and his subject matter from the fictious life of a Hollywood [hopeful] to the fashion designers is pure fluff. How can you have a chapter on Hollywood fashion and not even mention Edith Head? Even an interesting chapter on one of the first African-American architects is made dull in Wallace's hands. The re-tread of old deaths like Thelma Todd and Paul Bern reads like a transcript of a conversation in a beauty salon. There is neither nuance in his writing nor sustenance to keep a reader turning pages. For true Hollywood history buffs, save your money. If you must read all you can on Hollywood, I suggest checking out your local library.

FOR those who really want to understand Hollywood,
I would suggest a much greater book on the subject,
a book about the town and the industry more than the
scandals. IT's HOLLYWOOD REMEMBERED by Paul Zollo.
I highly recommend it.

JF

"Hollywoodland" has alot of stories about the early history of Hollywood and the movie business. It goes into alot of the gossip and myths surrounding the start of film. I think it is a good book for anyone who wants a good overview of this. I don't think it was very well written. But if you are looking for an easy start to learning about Hollywood history, this would be a good book.

HOLLYWOODLAND indeed contains many facts, and many anecdotes, about the history of Los Angeles. Specifically, this book features the entertainment industry, basically treating this industry and the city in which it is centered as one and the same. The information offered by author David Wallace mostly dates back to the creation of the modern city of Los Angeles at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

HOLLYWOODLAND is an interesting and thought-provoking book which drops many of the industry's largest names, from studio heads such as Harry Cohn and Sam Goldwyn to directors such as Frank Capra and Victor Fleming. The stars are included, too, the greats of the first half of the Twentieth Century, such as Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Rudolf Valentino.

Neither are the scandals neglected. Jean Harlow's death is covered, and so is Jayne Mansfield's.

There are two significant problems with this book. One is that many of these famous stories, these allegations of the lesbianism of about a dozen of the greatest movie stars in history, are unsubstantiated.

The second problem is sloppy editing. This book is rife with typos; it reads as if it is an unedited first draft, or a draft transcribed directly from dictation without being proof-read. In one spot, the word that should have been "and" becomes "an." Throughout the volume, articles and prepositions are missing. The book was brought out by a reputable publisher, and it reflects poorly on that publishing house to release such an unprofessional work.

There's also a strange chapter with "a day in the life" of a fictious aspiring actress, c. 1925. The chapter serves little purpose other than to make a reader wonder whether this book even had an editor.

Still, for anyone with a curiosity about the early years of the film industry, HOLLYWOODLAND is a worthwhile book.

David Wallace is an extremely gifted writer and I am becoming a fan. While I am familiar with a lot of the material covered in this book, I couldn't help myself and just couldn't put it down. Even the familiar stories had a fresh feel and there were aspects to a lot of the stories which I was completely unaware of.
Wallace has managed to carefully research his topics and provide a lot of information for his readers. One of the more interesting cases in point was his examination of the Doheney murder/suicide (?) and its implications in regard to the Teapot Dome scandal.
Even with the dubious title of HOLLYWOODLAND which sounds like a cross between a scandal rag and a land development scheme (which in fact it was when originally used in the '20's to sell real estate in the Beechwood Canyon area), this book is an incredible combination of fact and urban legend.
This is a very nifty book and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! What makes Hollywoodland such a compelling read is the manner in which the writer has chosen to handle and develop his material. David Wallace's way with a good story is what makes this book a standout for me.

I found this book to be a shocking example of inaccuracies and falsehoods.

1. I seriously doubt that William Faulkner was only five feet tall. (p.33)
2. Ernie Kovacs was NOT the first choice to play Maggio (eventually played by Sinatra) in From Here to Eternity. Nor was he going to play on Broadway in The Rose Tattoo. That was Eli Wallace. (p. 80)
3. James Cagney shoves the grapefruit in Mae Clark's face in The Public Enemy, not in Jean Harlow's face.
4. Was the category Janet Gaynor won her 1929 Oscar for really called "Best Female Actress"? (p. 114) I wonder who won "Best Male Actress" that year?
5. On page 20, the author states as a fact that Carol Shelby murdered William Desmond Taylor. Could we have at least one sentence providing some evidence or proof?

The typos are amazing. Some women are "blonds" and others are "blondes." In two different paragraphs (pp. 143-44) in neighboring sentences, we get "aqueduct" and "acqueduct." Did Frank Capra really write the phrase "Noblisse Oblige" (p. 122)? "streamling"? (p. 190) Should we really call a man a "confidante"? (p. 75) Someone with a knowledge of how to use commas correctly should have repunctuated the manuscript.

If you want to read about the scandals of early Hollywood, read the Kenneth Anger books. If you want to read about the early history of the development of Los Angeles, there must be better books elsewhere. I cannot recommend this one at all.

David Wallace's book us far from being a definitive history, but it's a good place to start if you're interested in the history of the dream factory. Some of the stuff needs elaboration, some of it needs fact checking and all of it needs a good editor. In any case I had fun reading it.