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Tinseltown
- Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Day of the Locust meets The Devil in the White City and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in this juicy, untold Hollywood story: an addictive true account of ambition, scandal, intrigue, murder, and the creation of the modern film industry.
By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies - including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
In a fiendishly involving narrative, best-selling Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to uncover the story of the enigmatic Taylor and the diverse group of people who surrounded him - including three beautiful, ambitious actresses; a grasping stage mother; a devoted valet; and a gang of two-bit thugs, any of whom might have fired the fatal bullet. And overseeing this entire landscape of intrigue was Adolph Zukor, the brilliant and ruthless founder of Paramount Pictures, locked in a struggle for control of the industry and desperate to conceal the truth about the crime. Along the way, Mann brings to life Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties: a sparkling yet schizophrenic town filled with party girls, drug dealers, religious zealots, newly minted legends, and starlets already past their prime - a dangerous place where the powerful could still run afoul of the desperate.
A true story recreated with the suspense of a novel, Tinseltown is the work of a storyteller at the peak of his powers - and the solution to a crime that has stumped detectives and historians for nearly a century.
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They called it Satan's Circus, a square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the 20th century, murder was so common in the vice district that few people were surprised when the loudmouthed owner of a shabby casino was gunned down on the steps of its best hotel.
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New York, N.Y
- By Robert on 07-11-07
By: Mike Dash
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Starmaker
- Life as a Hollywood Publicist with Farrah, The Rat Pack, & 600 More Stars Who Fired Me
- By: Jay Bernstein
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
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Revealingly candid, this Hollywood memoir is the story of Jay Bernstein, an entertainment industry fixture who helped launch and sustain the careers of many celebrities including Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers. From his childhood in Oklahoma City and his first job in a Hollywood mail room to the ownership of his own public relations firm and his work as a television producer, Bernstein’s life is chronicled in his own words.
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Very Entertaining
- By patrick on 09-27-15
By: Jay Bernstein
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The Devil's Gentleman
- Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The wayward son of a revered Civil War general, Roland Molineux enjoyed good looks, status, and fortune - hardly the qualities of a prime suspect in a series of shocking, merciless cyanide killings. Molineux's subsequent indictment for murder led to two explosive trials and a sex-infused scandal that shocked the nation. Bringing to life Manhattan's Gilded Age, Schechter captures all the colors of the tumultuous legal proceedings.
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A Book Without an Accompanying Wiki Page Is Always A Treat
- By Carolina on 02-27-17
By: Harold Schechter
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Hellhound on His Trail
- The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Hampton Sides
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man - whose real name was James Earl Ray -drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel.
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History Comes Alive
- By L. Lyter on 06-29-10
By: Hampton Sides
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Bombshell
- The Night Bobby Kennedy Killed Marilyn Monroe
- By: Mike Rothmiller, Douglas Thompson
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on secret police files, Marilyn Monroe's private diary, and never before published first-hand testimony, this book proves that Robert Kennedy was directly responsible for her death. It details the legendary star's tumultuous personal involvement with him and his brother, President John Kennedy, and how they sought to silence her. The new evidence and testimony is provided by Mike Rothmiller who, as a detective of the Organized Crime Intelligence Division of the LAPD, had direct access to hundreds of secret files on exactly what happened at Monroe's home on August 5, 1962.
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LA Confidential, Assassinations and Hollywood
- By grace on 12-29-22
By: Mike Rothmiller, and others
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A Very English Scandal
- Sex, Lies, and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment
- By: John Preston
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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As a member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Party in the 1960s and 70s, Jeremy Thorpe's bad behavior went under the radar for years. Police and politicians alike colluded to protect one of their own. In 1970, Thorpe was the most popular and charismatic politician in the country, poised to hold the balance of power in a coalition government. But Jeremy Thorpe was a man with a secret.
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Who knew?
- By Dorothy on 10-24-16
By: John Preston
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Almost Paradise
- The East Hampton Murder of Ted Ammon
- By: Kieran Crowley
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 22, 2001, handsome multimillionaire financier Ted Ammon was found bludgeoned to death in the magnificent East Hampton mansion he'd built with his beautiful - and volatile - wife, Generosa. She stood to make millions, but it wasn't the money that made Ted's friends suspicious: Generosa Ammon had a history of violent outbursts and bizarre obsessions.
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Wow! This was a fascinating story!
- By Lolly on 01-04-18
By: Kieran Crowley
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Gangster Squad
- Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
- By: Paul Lieberman
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Gangster Squad chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII. In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O’Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick....
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Nothing Like the movie
- By KEITH on 02-21-13
By: Paul Lieberman
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Incendiary
- The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling
- By: Michael Cannell
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before the specter of terrorism haunted the public imagination, a serial bomber stalked the streets of 1950s New York. The race to catch him would give birth to a new science called criminal profiling. Grand Central, Penn Station, Radio City Music Hall - for almost two decades, no place was safe from the man who signed his anonymous letters "FP" and left his lethal devices in phone booths, storage lockers, even tucked into the plush seats of movie theaters.
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16 Years NYC Held Hostage
- By in1ear (John Row) on 04-27-17
By: Michael Cannell
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American Brutus
- John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies
- By: Michael Kauffman
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 21 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In American Brutus, popular historian Michael W. Kauffman delivers a history that reads more like a best-selling novel. This definitive masterwork dispels commonly held myths and reveals the truth about John Wilkes Booth. Luring Southern sympathizers into a “noble” presidential kidnapping, Booth stunned his puzzled pawns by murdering Lincoln. From Booth’s early life and acting career to his escape and death, this meticulously researched book re-examines it all using a wealth of primary sources.
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Good content ruined by bad narrator
- By Gioacchino on 06-25-13
By: Michael Kauffman
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A Man of Honor
- The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno
- By: Joseph Bonanno
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Joseph Bonanno found his future amid the whiskey-running, riotous streets of Prohibition America in 1924, when he illegally entered the United States to pursue his dreams. By the age of only 26, Bonanno became a don. He eventually took over the New York underworld, igniting the "Castellammarese War", one of the bloodiest Family battles ever to hit New York City.
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A must read
- By E. Orlando on 05-03-17
By: Joseph Bonanno
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Picky, Picky!
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From former screen legends who have faded into obscurity to new revelations about the biggest movie stars, Valderrama unearths the most fascinating little-known tales from the birth of Hollywood through its Golden Age. The shocking fate of the world's first movie star. Clark Gable's secret love child. The film that nearly ended Paul Newman's career. A former child star who, at 93, reveals her #metoo story for the first time. Valderrama unfolds these stories, and many more, in a volume that is by turns riveting, maddening, hilarious, and shocking.
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City of Nets
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In 1939, 50 million Americans went to the movies every week, Louis B. Mayer was the highest-paid man in the country, and Hollywood produced 530 feature films a year. One decade and five thousand movies later, the studios were faltering....
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Disjointed and flawed
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Riveting journey
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Dark City expands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that illustrate the mythic landscape of the imagination. It's a place where the men and women who created film noir often find themselves dangling from the same sinister heights as the silver-screen avatars to whom they gave life.
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Good overview, summary of the genre
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Hollywood Horrors
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Fun yarn suffers from clinkers.
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It was an explosion that reverberated across the country—and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.
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very interesting popular history
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Do yourself a favor - listen at a faster speed
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Since 1929, Hollywood’s brightest stars have flocked to the Chateau Marmont as if it were a second home. An apartment building-turned-hotel, the Chateau has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklore: where director Nicholas Ray slept with his 16-year-old Rebel Without a Cause star Natalie Wood; Jim Morrison swung from the balconies; John Belushi suffered a fatal overdose; and Lindsay Lohan got the boot after racking up nearly $50,000 in charges in less than two months. Much of what has happened inside the Chateau’s walls has eluded the public eye - until now.
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Was enjoying it until...
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On a cold December morning in 1936, swathed in mink and sparkling jewels, she was inexplicably found lifeless in another man's car. Hazel Champagne had been a beautiful, glamorous Hollywood starlet rising from the silent filmmaking era into a new dark genre called "noir". Over the course of his investigation into her death, her admirer and high-powered agent, Eddy Shaw, was left wondering if he really knew Hazel at all. The narrative harkens back to the days when detective Philip Marlowe prowled the streets of Los Angeles in search of clues. It was a world of male dominance where women were...
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In Bogie & Bacall, William Mann offers a deep and comprehensive look at Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and the unlikely love they shared. Mann details their early years—Bogart’s effete upbringing in New York City; Bacall’s rise as a model and actress. He paints a vivid portrait of their courtship and twelve-year marriage: the fights, the reconciliations, the children, the affairs, Bogie’s illness and Bacall’s steadfastness until his death. He offers a sympathetic yet clear-eyed portrait of Bacall’s life after Bogie.
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Alienates key demographic by being over-the-top biased against Lauren Bacall
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The Genius of the System
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At a time when the studio is making a stunning comeback, film historian Thomas Schatz provides an indispensable account of Hollywood's traditional blend of business and art. Working from industry documents, Schatz traces the development of house styles, the rise and fall of careers, and the making - and unmaking - of movies, from Frankenstein to Spellbound to Grand Hotel. The Genius of the System gives the definitive view of the workings of the Old Hollywood and the foundations of the New.
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A Textbook on Old Hollywood
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In 1930, William Haines was Hollywood's #1 box-office draw - a talented, handsome, and wisecracking romantic lead. Off screen, however, protected by a careful collaboration between studio and press, he was openly gay with reporters and studio chiefs alike. Here is Haines's virtually unknown story - rich with detail, revelations, and scandal - about silent movies and talkies; his lover Jimmie Shields, and their fifty-year relationship.
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The Hollywood Studios
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Hollywood in the years between 1929 and 1948 was a town of moviemaking empires. The great studios were estates of talent: sprawling, dense, diverse. It was the Golden Age of the Movies, and each studio made its distinctive contribution. But how did the studios, "growing up" in the same time and place, develop so differently? What combinations of talents and temperaments gave them their signature styles?
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The reader falls quite short of the book
- By Eleanor on 07-20-09
By: Ethan Mordden
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Harlow in Hollywood
- The Blonde Bombshell in the Glamour Capital, 1928-1937
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In her short decade in Hollywood, Jean Harlow created a new genre of movie star - her fans idolized her for her peerless image, her beautiful body, and her gorgeous façade. Harlow in Hollywood is the story of how a town and an industry created her, a story that's never been told before. In this book, renowned Harlow expert Darrell Rooney and Hollywood historian Mark Vieira team up to present the most beautiful - and accurate - book on Harlow ever produced.
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A quick listen
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Music Tales
- The Originals: Volume 1
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Story
Moby, the biggest selling electronica artist in history, ponders the question: why did so many people hate my guts? His surreal new documentary Moby Doc documents his brutal childhood, his rise and fall from pop stardom, and the drugs and booze that nearly did him in. Andrew Goldman interviews “Master of Chaos” music manager Allen Kovac, who shares all the grisly details of managing Mötley Crüe, Meatloaf, Duran Duran … and Richard Marx.
By: Andrew Goldman
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The Big Goodbye
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Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston.
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This book is cursed
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What listeners say about Tinseltown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Steven
- 01-08-15
Everybody's a dreamer...
...and everybody's a star. So the Kinks song goes, so does this book. Excellent history of Hollywoodland and the movie business circa early 20s via a cross-section of the lives of a variety of movie folk, both high status and lowly. And there is a murder mystery to boot. The has-beens and never-weres-and-never-gonna-bes live, work, and walk among the elites and other successful players and this is the tension William Mann excellently illustrates. He makes great use of the vernacular of the times via the letters, diaries, newspapers and other contemporaneous sources. It's like reading/listening to "Day of the Locusts" by Nathaniel West. Highly recommend to fans of early Hollywood and early 20th century US history and for murder mystery buffs.
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- Мартин
- 11-29-14
New info on an old case
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Absolutely! It gives us a glimpse into a different era and how the heavy fisted hand of Hollywood controlled the are that is today Los Angeles, just as they did back then.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Probably Taylor himself. He remade himself and reinvented himself and was a success but who killed him will forever remain a mystery
Which character – as performed by Christopher Lane – was your favorite?
Mary Miles Minter
If you could give Tinseltown a new subtitle, what would it be?
"How little things change". Many of the things described in this book, drug abuse, abortions, suicides etc etc are still par for the course in Hollywood. Things change but stay the same.
Any additional comments?
No but it is a good book and if you are unfamiliar with the Taylor/Tanner case, it is an excellent story and one worth listening to.
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50 people found this helpful
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- Wendy
- 02-08-15
Dreams and Desperation in Early Hollywood
Would you listen to Tinseltown again? Why?
Absolutely! What did I miss? Before Tinseltown I had no real knowledge of the Silent Film Era or it's stars. What a fascinating time. The book is detail filled with a glimpse inside the lives of of the earliest movie stars.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The sadness and desperation of a career that didn't quite reach the expected heights and the elderly years of a forgotten star. It's sobering to learn of the later lives of the early screen stars that could not or did not transition to talkies. If we aren't able to adept, progress passes us by and we are forgotten.
Any additional comments?
The book was not only about a real life murder mystery but to me also a cautionary tale about change and adaptability.
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35 people found this helpful
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- Book Dad
- 12-28-14
Excellent on Hollywood history
If you are a devotee of Hollywood history, then you will appreciate this meticulously researched and engaging examination of the murder of director William Desmond Taylor and the era in which it took place.
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30 people found this helpful
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- Cynthia
- 09-16-15
The House of Lies
I drive on Alvarado Street in Los Angeles a lot. I've got business west out to Santa Monica, and it's much better than the diabolically designed 110 that cuts through downtown Los Angeles. Alvarado, especially close to MacArthur Park, has been rough as long as I can remember. There's a permanent indoor Swap Meet selling 5 T-Shirts for $10 and a dozen pairs of synthetic athletic socks in a bundle held together with sticky labels and little black plastic hangers for $5. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health runs a large mental health clinic in the neighborhood, attracting the frightening and the frightened.
The Alvarado Court Apartments, where director William Desmond Taylor was murdered more than 90 years ago, are long gone. There's a new Dollar Tree on the block now, and that signaled a kind of low rent gentrification of the neighborhood. There's no marker showing where Taylor died, no hint of the courtyard where his valet ran screaming after discovering the cold body of the employer he adored. The service station that figured so prominently in the first few hours of the investigation is, as best as I was able to reconstruct, where the 99 Cent Store (NOT the same as the Dollar Tree) is now.
Los Angeles/Hollywood is a thin veneer over an unforgiving, murderous past. If the land isn't trying to kill with fire, drought or earthquake, friends, neighbors and lovers may suddenly unsheath a hunting knife, load a shotgun or aim a Mercedes SUV down a crowded street. William J. Mann's "Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood" (2014) chips away the fiction of a kinder, gentler 1920's Silent Film Era. Taylor's 1922 murder has never been solved. Mann carefully reconstructs the lives of the 3 leading suspects, and comes to a resolution. I'm not convinced that the person Mann names actually killed Taylor, but it's s great bit of investigative work.
There was a parallel history with the crime: the history of censorship in Hollywood. "Tinseltown" discusses the development of the Motion Picture Production Code and the integral role of former Postmaster Will Hays in establishing and implementing the program. The often competing and sometimes complementary roles of movie magnates Adolph Zukor and Marcus Loew - and their interest in burying all scandal, not just Taylor's death - were a major part of the book. I'd be happy to read/listen to any Mann books just about Hays, Loew or Zukor.
The narration was well paced and made for a good listen.
The title of the review is from a 1916 film directed by Taylor.
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20 people found this helpful
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- Flavius Krakdaddius
- 04-04-17
Murder at the Dawn of Hollywood
This was one of those books in which my interest never flagged. Although the murder mystery is entertaining, what I found most compelling about "Tinseltown" was how vividly it depicted the fledgling movie industry circa 1920. This is an era I knew nothing about, but Mann tells so many stories from the era (including the tragic story of "Fatty" Arbuckle among others) that I've come to have a better appreciation of the times. This book is full of scandal and skulduggery, but also with warm & decent characters. The final chapters detail the lives of many of the principle characters in the years following the scandal--I found this very satisfying.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Jim
- 03-08-15
A Nasty Place . . . But Keep That Fact Quiet
I thoroughly enjoyed this book while being wary of its total accuracy. Some events—in the very first chapter, notching up Robert Herron's death as suicide for instance—have alternate explanations with evidence backing them up; Mr. Mann never acknowledges alternatives. In addition, the author "speaks" what his characters are thinking, and forefronts his own take on their personalities (albeit with historical justification). Truthfully, I didn't find such quirks a problem as long as I was aware of them. They made for a smooth, flowing narrative with few historical gaps or breaks, and a fun read. The book's originality is its in-depth description of William Desmond Taylor's murder as a blackmail shakedown gone wrong. As the narrative unwinds, Mann biographizes the presumed perpetrators recently come to light. I bought this book cheap for some reason but it deserves better than to lay on the bargain table. If not already acquainted with dog-eat-dog early Hollywood this serves as a good eye-opener. Mr. Mann catches the atmosphere of wide-spread vice and personal desperation masterfully. I say, buy it.
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- John M. ONeal
- 07-04-18
Perfection when it comes to story-telling!
The one downside to Tinseltown is that the writing, the narration, and the production values of this terrific audible production now set a new standard that few are likely to live up to. William J. Mann does a brilliant job of capturing Hollywood in the twenties by activating all five senses and thus bringing each and every player in this captivating story to life and thus unquestionable immortality. This real-life murder mystery has been explored numerous times in different forms of media, but Mann even manages to uncover yet another potential possibility in this yet to be solved mystery. Christopher Lane's narration is flawless, and he thus keeps you hanging on every word; of course, everyone depicted in this story has a motive for murder, and so it is not hard to hook the listener. This is a must-have masterpiece! Pure genius at its best!!
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- Liz
- 02-26-18
Proof of truly bad behavior at the very beginning
What made the experience of listening to Tinseltown the most enjoyable?
The information in this book was fascinating and very sad. That such a place who creates such dreams can also be the origin of such nightmares makes me torn. Torn because I love movies, but the people who are involved with the, both then and now seem to pay an awful price.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
I would change nothing, truth is what it is and it needed to be said.
Which character – as performed by Christopher Lane – was your favorite?
I enjoyed his performance of all of them.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When the actress whose mother was so desperate to keep her virginal subjected her to an abortion. It disgusted me that a mother could be so very greeded as to do that to her own daughter.
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- Jonathan I. Rosenblatt
- 06-16-17
Much ado
A book that should have been an article. Sometimes felt like I was watching (or hearing) grass grow.
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5 people found this helpful