Customer Reviews

Lost Hollywood

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

 

 

Maybe there is an updated edition with corrections, but why would any publishing house put out a book this riddled with errors in the first place?

David Wallace is in trouble even before the first chapter of "Lost Hollywood." The photo caption on a picture opposite chapter one is full of mistakes. I'm not sure that's ZaSu Pitts, and I question whether the photo is from "A Little Princess"--a movie in which Pitts played the downtrodden Becky, and this pic shows her in a cute pantaloon outfit with a parasol. At any rate, that movie was not directed by Mack Sennett, as the caption states (it was directed by Marshall Neilan) and although ZaSu P. was in "A Little Princess," it was not her first picture and, in fact, "A Little Princess" starred Mary Pickford. Pitts was always a character actress and never a film heroine as Wallace claims; and "Greed" was directed by Erich von Stroheim, not DW Griffith as Wallace would have us think. And this is just a photo caption! What a way to kick off a book.

For someone who lives in Los Angeles, Wallace also has a shaky grasp on LA geography. The city of San Pedro is described as Hollywood's "neighbor"--it must have taken hours to get from one town to the other in the silent era and it is not much better now. The Edendale studios were in Silverlake, not in Glendale (we're on page 6 at this point).

Does this guy not imagine that there are scores of people who know enough about Hollywood history to be apalled by the lack of easy research? This is a sloppy and innacurate piece of work and there is no excuse for it.

When I first visited Hollywood a few years ago, I was extremely disappointed that many of the sites I wanted to see (the Brown Derby, Schwab's, Ocean House, Pickfair, the Sunset Blvd. house) are no longer there -- long ago torn down by a town that has no respect for its own past. What makes this even more puzzling is the large number of tourists who flock to the movie capital every year. LOST HOLLYWOOD gave me the tour I wanted. It not only tells about the lost buildings, but about the people who lived and played there, and built Hollywood. Wallace shows a deep reverence for things past and tells Hollywood's story openly an honestly. The book is filled with little stories that amaze, surprise, and touch your heart (most especially Gene Tierney working at the Hollywood Canteen). I'd easily give it five stars, except that it really needs a lot more photos (and a better proof reader). There's also a caption that incorrectly cites D.W. Griffith as the director of Erich Von Stroheim's masterpiece, Greed (1925). Still, a superb book. Thank you, David Wallace! I am forever in your debt.

Being an avid Hollywood historian, I was eager to get this book about the history of Hollywood. While the writing is fast paced, and the author has a keen interest in history, I cannot stop finding mistakes that make me question the writer's committment to research: Fatty Arbuckle, for instance, was involved in a scandal at the St. Francis Hotel, not the Palace Hotel in San Francisco as reported here (and EVERY biography of Arbuckle mentions the St. Francis). The Alhambra (in the Valentino part) is in Granada, not Seville, Spain. Most historians believe William Desmond Taylor was gay, not "romancing both Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Mintner at the same time". Not to mention numerous typos that any self-respecting editor would have caught. This turns me off.

I hate to be cranky, but this is a rehash of creaky gossip in an attractive package. No original research going on here at all. If nobody's ever told you what 'Rosebud' really refers to, or that Valentino's grave was visited by a "mysterious lady in black" (gosh), this might be a good intro for you. Otherwise, if you'd rather not skate on the surface, may I point you elsewhere? Would that be okay? For LA architectural history, try Charles Moore's brilliant & reprinted "City Observed". For the sleaze, go with the font, Kenneth Anger. For an in-depth look at H'wood in the teens and 20's, I'd try Kevin Brownlow's "Parade's Gone By."

You know that famous "Hollywood" sign perched on its hill? Well, the view from my front window includes that hill's reverse slope. That back side has ... nothing, which is about all I knew of Hollywood's golden era despite the fact that I've lived in the environs of Los Angeles just about all of my adult life. From the vantage point of such abysmal ignorance, I found LOST HOLLYWOOD to be one of the more entertaining and interesting books I've read recently.

In twenty-three chapters, journalist-author David Wallace takes the reader as far back as the 1870's to begin his narrative, most of which focuses on the evolution of the Tinseltown movie industry, its stars, and associated glitz from around 1911 through the glory years of the 20s, 30s, 40s, and into the 50s. Each chapter has its own stand-alone topic, e.g. Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, the arrival of "talkies", the Hotel Hollywood, the studio contract system, the Hollywood sign, gossip mongers Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, the stars' cars, the stars' yachts, the Cocoanut Grove, the Hollywood Canteen, and Schwab's drugstore. Much of the volume's diversion value lies in the fascinating, sometimes titillating, trivia it contains. Did you know that womanizer Errol Flynn's custom-built Packard had a passenger seat that became a bed at the touch of a button, and the license plate read "R U 18"? Or that New York opera star Geraldine Farrar was paid two dollars per minute of daylight for every day she was in Hollywood filming "Carmen"? Or that the fake palm trees in the Cocoanut Grove were leftover props from Valentino's film "The Sheik"? Or that Paulette Goddard got the female lead in "North West Mounted Police" after slapping her bare foot on director DeMille's desk knowing it would appeal to his foot fetish?

My only criticism of LOST HOLLYWOOD is that it cries out for more pictures. True, there's a relevant period photo at the beginning of each chapter, but it just isn't enough. At 188 pages in paperback, it's a book I was compelled to read in a single day, reluctantly wasting time on other nuisance activities like my job, sleeping and household chores. Is LOST HOLLYWOOD a masterpiece? Nah! It's simply great fun.

I opened this book with high hopes, reaching the photograph opposite Chapter 1. It purported to be taken in 1917 of Mack Sennett, directing Zasu Pitts in "The Little Princess." Well, no. It is Mack, I will grant you, but he never directed Mary Pickford's "The Little Princess", and the lady in the photograph is unmistakably Mabel Normand. (The film, by the way, is "The Extra Girl" and no, it was not filmed in 1917!) Of course, everyone can make a mistake, so I turned to another page. There was the Alvarado duplex where William Desmond Taylor met his death: alas, identified as the Brentwood house where Sharon Tate was killed. Ye Gods, did the book not have an editor? Did the editor not have a pulse? A tired rehash of unsubstantiated gossip, this book has some wonderful (but misidentified) photos, and nothing to suggest that we should trust the author. Read Brownlow, find the Kobal collection, but by all means, steer clear of this one.

David Wallace's work is an absorbing account of the sights and sounds of Hollywood's golden age from its silent beginnings to the classics of the talkies. Intriguing anecdotes abound; stories of the Hollywood Bowl, Rudolph Valentino's infamous love trysts and a somber tale of an actress who leaped off the "H" letter of the Hollywood sign to her death, among many others. Unfortunately, the book is filled with errors; one photo claims to be of Zasu Pitts (with Mack Sennett), when in fact, it is his star/lover Mabel Normand. Many films are documented with their wrong release years, and actors are credited with scenes from incorrect films (Claudette Colbert's bath in asses' milk from "Sign of the Cross" is credited to her other epic "Cleopatra"). I was also amazed that the book failed to mention the recent discovery of DeMille's lost city from his 1923 version of "The Ten Commandments", which was discovered in nearby Hollywood sand dunes. Nevertheless, "Lost Hollywood" is a good read and should prompt the reader to go beyond its source for more detailed (and more correct) information.

Yes, this book does have a few good stories to tell, but I was truly upset by the book's summary as it was usurped from the Museum of Neon Art's neon tours of Los Angeles. Almost word for word, Wallace has taken the Los Angeles history lesson of the tour's guide and used it for himself without citation or proper credit. This fact has diminished the value and integrity of the book and I cannot recommend it.

I guess I got the edited version, because I noted none of the errors that have plagued previous versions. I thought this book was a fairly well-written, intelligent tour of "Old Hollywood." It does focus mainly on the Hollywood of the 20's, but the last chapter is a real knockout. Worth the cover price in iteself. Like the other reviewers, though, I would have liked to have seen more pix. I would also like to see more descriptions of some of the stars' homes. As a graphic designer I give the cover and book design an A --definitely added to my enjoyment. Great job, David and Liz!

A new edition of the book came out in March and it seems to have fixed all the photo caption errors mentioned in the earlier reviews. That being said, it is quite an informative book on the early days of Hollywood and is filled with some great photos.