Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip [Paperback]

John Gilmore (Author), Jeff Lyons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 1997

A powerful chronicler of the American Nightmare through his gripping examinations of near-mythic Southern California murders (the Black Dahlia, Tate-La Bianca), John Gilmore now draws upon his personal experiences to turn his sights on our morbid obsession with Celebrity and the ruinous price it extracts from those who would pursue it. With caustic clarity and 20/20 hindsight, Gilmore unstintingly recounts his relationships with the likes of Janis Joplin, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Jane Fonda, Jean Seberg and Lenny Bruce on the way up and at the peaks of their notoriety. In baring his role in James Dean's attempts to push the bounds of sexual experimentation, Gilmore explores the actor's legendary fascination with speed and death. With hip, vivid prose, Gilmore describes his illuminating and often haunting first-hand encounters with Hank Williams, Ed Wood, Jr., Briggite Bardot, Sal Mineo, Eartha Kitt, Charles Manson, Jayne Mansfield, Vampira, Steve McQueen and many other denizens of the 20th century's dubious Pantheon.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Acclaimed internationally for his literary fiction, his hard-boiled true crime books and Hollywood memoirs, John Gilmore has a following that spans the globe from London to Tokyo, from Hong Kong to Hollywood. "John Gilmore is the quintessential L.A. noir writer..." Sydney Morning Herald.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Amok Books (August 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878923080
• ISBN-13: 978-1878923080
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "the quintessential L.A. noir writer," John Gilmore has been acclaimed internationally for his hard-boiled true crime books, his Hollywood memoirs and his biting, literary fiction. He is considered one of today's most controversial American authors, with a following that spans the globe from Tokyo, Paris and London, to his native Hollywood where he was friends with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. He traveled the road to fame in many guises before turning to writing: kid magician, painter, poet, actor in films, TV, and the New York stage, then screen-writer, B-movie director into a "bang 'em out alive," nine-day novelist. "Few like to look back at how they kept the pot boiling," Gilmore says. "For me it was an education--a turning point from frantic to be a movie star, to just letting the dog out of the cage."
After heading the writing program at Antioch's west coast university, Gilmore traveled and lectured extensively while creating an indelible mark in crime literature with Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia, described by Colin Wilson as "The best book on the Black Dahlia--in fact, the only readable book." After years of "being on the road," as he puts it, three times married, three times divorced and now single, he resides in the Hollywood Hills, expanding his body of work with a "lengthy, peculiar" novel, plus another unusual exploration into true-crime.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT BOOK, February 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip (Paperback)

I've read this book twice and each time I feel like I'm entering a time warp. I'm being transported back into the 1950's, the 1960's. I lived in Los Angeles during those years and this has captured every naunce that is LA in all its dubious glory. John Gilmore has seen the shadows and the spotlights as well. The book takes you all over, from Hollywood to New York, Paris, even Cairo, Egypt. I especially was drawn into Gilmore's relationship with the late actress Jean Seberg, who I always admired. He shows her as she has never been shown. At times this book is very strange, and very engrossing (see Janis Joplin, Jane Fonda, Brigitte Bardot... Gilmore has 'kissed' them all and gives us the dish). A tale of remarkable originality. Super highly recommened, and I can hardly wait for his next tome.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wilder than Fiction!, June 17, 2000

By 

Keith George - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip (Paperback)

The story in this book defies credibility. What are the odds that one person could get to hang with Errol Flynn, Dennis Hopper, and Sal Mineo, get drunk with Hank Williams and high with Lenny Bruce, talk about writing with Ed Wood, Jr., become cuckolded by Steve McQueen, have sex with Jane Fonda, Brigette Bardot, Janis Joplin,and James Dean AND be able to write like this?

Well, even if it isn't all true-- and I like to think it is, because there's very little here that's self-serving, and Gilmore rarely spares himself-- LAID BARE delivers much more than anyone has a right to expect from any one book. Reading it was like reading TROPIC OF CANCER for the first time, only the characters are Jack Nicholson, Roddy McDowell, James Dean, Jean Seberg, and so on. This is much more than Hollywood gossip. This is the human tragedy that we read gossip in order to infer, exposed completely by a master writer. Gilmore's prose is direct, honest, and muscular. His mastery of detail is astonishing, so much that the details might be a little too thick if this were a novel. However, when he writes about Janis Joplin-- her manner, her way of dressing, her scent-- the importance of his subject, the fact that she really did live, and the devestating fact that she is gone forever make every remebered detail precious, and Gilmore treats each of them with appropriate care.

So why isn't John Gilmore famous? From reading LAID BARE, I think the answer may be that he doesn't care about fame-- and that may be the reason why he survived so much insanity, to tell of so many who did not. I can't wait to read this book again, and to read anything by John Gilmore that I can get my hands on.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST BOOK ON HOLLYWOOD'S DARK SIDE, February 2, 2003

By 

Richard King (Los Angeles, Califronia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip (Paperback)

Or should I say Slide Side! I have never read a book about the "bad" "slide" "dark" side of Hollywood that comes anywhere near close to the REAL flip-side picture of behind-the-camera Hollywood as this one. John Gilmore is a teriffic writer who takes us through this myriad of real-life characters whose names we all know as well as our box of corn flakes. He opens up the lives and heads he writes about and allows us to see what makes them tick, drink, shoot up, bed-hop, turn upside down and inside out and fall from Heaven or kill themselves. All this through Gilmore's personal experiences, living alongside these individuals, sharing some of their good times as well as the tragic and pitiful times; James Dean, Brigitte Bardot, William S. Burroughs, Jayne Mansfield, Jane Fonda, Steve McQueen, Lenny Bruce, Jim Morrison of the Doors, Jean Seberg, Sal Mineo--the list goes on; people Gilmore has worked with, known, slept with, done drugs with (Gilmore's good ex-friend Dennis Hopper appears in one of the most detailed, tragic portraits of a life on the Hollywood down side); Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, etc., etc. This is the Hollywood/New York Bright White Way 1950's 1960's Broadway scene told with relentless vision and insight. Not one of those books that promises dish but doesnt deliver. Gilmore DELIVERS and you get seconds on dessert! Anyone WAY out there who especially digs Janis Joplin is in for a treat! Read the book if only for getting into Janis. The author was on A&E and I have read interviews and he mentions an autobiography/memoir in the works; in other words, a bigger, fatter tale to beat the rose-colored glasses of our illusions. I can hardly wait and I'm no masochist! LAID BARE must surely rub a lot of people the wrong way or make them mad as hell. That is where the relentlessness is most apparent in Gilmore's literature. He is one of the best writers alive today, if not one of the most controversial. This is a one of a kind book: you won't find this close-to-the-bone first-person kiss-and-tell realism anywhere else. Go for it!