Hollywood Horrors

Murders, Scandals, and Cover-Ups from Tinseltown

By: Andrea Van Landingham

Narrated by: Cindy Piller

The name “Hollywood” conjures up fantastical images of bright lights, glamorous dreams, and impossible riches. From its humble beginnings as a ranch sprawling northwest of Los Angeles in the late 1800s, Hollywood has spanned lifetimes as a factory of dreams, a dazzling place where all things are possible.

This collection of stories takes you on a journey into the golden age, illuminating the space between the airy fantasy and the gritty reality of life in Hollywood. In a transient city where nothing lasts, thousands of stories have taken place in their time here. From the offscreen debauchery of the silent era, to countless dramatic and mysterious deaths, to the sinister past lives of world-famous LA landmarks, vestiges of Hollywood’s checkered past can still be found all over the city.

With generations of Tinseltown’s luminaries living and working under the sunny guise of paradisal prosperity, their real stories reveal the sordid underbelly lurking directly beneath the surface. A dangerous collusion between the studios, the press, the mob, and the LAPD forms an impenetrable behind-the-scenes network of corruption, power and control, where the truth is always up for sale. A network in which the most glamorous and well-known figures are merely players in this elaborate charade. It’s magical and gritty, it’s ugly and dirty, it’s the land of dreams...it’s Hollywood.

©2021 Andrea Van Landingham (P)2021 Rowman & Littlefield

Movies and Murder

Get an inside look into some of the lives of Hollywood's most notorious stars. This book deep dives into the lives and misdeeds of many of Hollywood's glittering stars of the golden age. Well rounded, and well written, this book will keep you engaged throughout.

Very detailed, and interesting

Some of the stories I was familiar with. But some of them were new to me. Great listen

Interesting

Doesn’t seem to have any info other than what I’ve heard all these years. Still, an enjoyable listen.

The details in the stories

I love the way the reader went into all the different personalities. I thought it was very good. Some of the stories were just a retailing of much that we know but a very good listen overall:)

Awesome stories

Really great insight and stories into past debacles in Hollywood. Enjoyed every second of this book.

Eye Opening!!!

This is a really great book!!! I've heard some of the stories covered before, Fatty Arbuckle and The Black Dahlia to name a few, but there were many I never knew about, and as crazy as it sounds I've passed some of these locations before and never would have imagined they had a history behind them!! The stories kept me engaged and wanting to hear more, and the narration was excellent!!! Highly recommend to those wanting to hear more about old Hollywood and/or true crime

Really interesting store with underlying personal agendas

I purchased this, expecting to hear some good stories about old Hollywood and mysteries. I got that plus the whole lot of poor poor women stuff that we tend to hear more about today. however, the author seems convenient to ignore the fact that there were as many female predators as there were male predators . after a while narrative, gets tiresome  and of course, there is the Elizabeth Short story that every single tragic Hollywood tale has. However, there are some redeeming qualities to this most everything in the book I knew, but there was some things that I just learned, which was worth the money.

Review

This was an excellent performance of some tired old stories. Nothing seems to have been added through research to the folklore of some of the more commonly told American movie business stories. Maybe there's nothing left to tell twenty some odd years into the 21st century that hasn't been told a thousand times before. If that's the case a talented author might consider moving in new directions.