Audiobook9 hours
Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema
Written by Anne Helen Petersen
Narrated by Romy Nordlinger
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Believe it or not, America's fascination with celebrity culture was thriving well before the days of TMZ, Perez Hilton, Charlie Sheen's breakdown, and allegations against Woody Allen. And the stars of yesteryear? They weren't always the saints that we make them out to be.
Part biography, part cultural history, the stories contained in this book cover the stuff that films are made of: love, sex, drugs, illegitimate children, illicit affairs, and botched cover-ups. Based on Anne Helen Petersen's popular column on the Hairpin, Scandals of Classic Hollywood is sensationalism made smart.
Part biography, part cultural history, the stories contained in this book cover the stuff that films are made of: love, sex, drugs, illegitimate children, illicit affairs, and botched cover-ups. Based on Anne Helen Petersen's popular column on the Hairpin, Scandals of Classic Hollywood is sensationalism made smart.
Author
Anne Helen Petersen
Anne Helen Petersen is an author and journalist who writes about culture, celebrity and feminism for Buzzfeed News. She received her PhD from the University of Texas. She is the author of Scandals of Classic Hollywood, and Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud is her second book. She lives in Brooklyn.
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Reviews for Scandals of Classic Hollywood
Rating: 3.391891891891892 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
74 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An enjoying and thoughtful book dissecting on major Hollywood scandals from the golden age of cinema and how they reflect on the social mores and fears of the times. I would have enjoyed a few more recent stories to explore whether and how things have changed since the era of a few powerful gossip columnists being drip-fed stories by studios, but there's a lot to like here anyway. Petersen's writing hits the perfect balance between pulpy pop and thoughtful academia and the stories she's chosen have broad appeal both as classic Hollywood gossip and as thoughtful sociology.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this book to be readable but I was disappointed in the lack of depth. Petersen spent very little time explaining the culture and expectations of the societies in which these celebrities lived. Without this explanation, the stories did not seem all that scandalous.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5When I learned this book was born was born from blog posts, it made sense. The book very much reads like a series of blog entries would. This book never really hit the sweet spot for me. It was too academic to appeal to the side of me that wants the prurient details of various stars' scandals. On the other hand, it was not academic enough to function as a critical analysis of that period of movie history. That doesn't mean the book isn't well written. It just wasn't for me.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I spent an entire evening awhile ago devouring all of Anne Peterson's Scandals of Classic Hollywood blog posts, so when I saw she had a book I was super psyched. She's written it in the same approachable, non-academic yet intelligent manner as the original posts, which made for a great read. The chapters are brief, making it easy to read a chapter or two on a lunch break. I was obsessed with Classic Hollywood as a teen, but Peterson frames her narrative in a way that makes the subject matter easy to understand even if you've never seen a film in Technicolor. I also learned lots! Recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Picked up this book as a diversionary reading experience. I was not disappointed. The stars of course are dated as advertised but the stories are interesting and remind us of how particularly social mores have changed over the years and how some have remained the same. Not a great deal of new info to be gleaned on some of the characters covered but the author had an engaging style of writing that made this a page turner.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People looking for a Hollywood Babylon-style selection of vicious rumors and urban legends will be disappointed with Scandals of Classic Hollywood. Instead of simply retelling the scandalous stories most people already know, the book looks at how scandals were spun to make and break careers. Petersen’s scholarly approach is interesting, but it won’t be to everyone’s tastes.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5As an avid lover of all things classic Hollywood, this book was nothing I haven't heard or read before. The book seemed well researched, as her use of quotation marks would show, but they honestly pulled me away from the enjoyment of the reading. I would recommend this book to anyone else who loves old Hollywood or someone interested in how the tabloids have shaped and broken some great actors.Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53.5 starsIt’s been years since I read a Hollywood scandals book. While well acquainted with early Hollywood, ie. Fatty Arbuckle etc., there were some things I wasn’t aware of. Speaking as one who delights in the stars and movies from Hollywood’s Early and Golden eras SCANDALS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD is both entertaining and enlightening. In contrast to my prior, admittedly limited, reading Ms. Petersen gives more background and details beyond the salacious and titillating. She leads up to the scandal putting it in context with the individual’s personality. In terms of the effect the incident or behavior has on a career, fans, etc..it’s framed by society’s morals, values, and expectations of that celebrity. The latter is the aspect that gave me the most food for thought, how handlers/publicists would spin these lapses of better judgment or bad behavior to make them acceptable or forgivable. In a sense these scandals say as much about society as they do the actors. Fascinating standpoint. Before SCANDALS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD I had never heard of Anne Helen Petersen or Hairpin. Checking out her column is now on my must do list.SCANDALS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD is an entertaining, fun, and palatably revealing look at us wrapped in the actions of others. Reviewed for Manic Readers & Miss Ivy’s Book Nook
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Helen Petersen wrote her PhD dissertation about the cultural significance of gossip magazines, so it is only fitting that her first book, Scandals of Classic Hollywood is an attempt to "help rescue gossip, the study of stars, and scandal from the cultural wastebasket." To do so, she retells the stories (some familiar, some long forgotten by all but dedicated film buffs) of Hollywood's earliest and mid- period stars, with an eye toward revealing how the studios, fan magazines, and gossip columns worked together to make or break actors' careers.For example, "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford and the dashing actor Douglas Fairbanks had an extramarital relationship before they divorced their respective spouses and married each other. Had the public seen their relationship a sordid tale of infidelity, their reputations would have been destroyed and their careers may well have been over. However, magazines like Photoplay promoted their romance as the inevitable triumph of true love, and Pickford and Fairbanks emerged from the threat of scandal more popular than ever. On the other hand, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was not so fortunate. In one of Hollywood's first major scandals, he was implicated in the death of Virginia Rappe, an actress who died under mysterious circumstances in his hotel room. Even though Arbuckle was eventually cleared in court, the gossip press continued to associate his name with orgies and debauchery. His career never recovered.Petersen reviews these and other film-star scandals with obvious affection for the bygone era of "Old Hollywood," when movie stars seemed to embody everyone's hopes, dreams and fears. It must have been a lot of fun for her to peruse the old gossip sheets she lists as her sources. Despite the author's academic credentials, the text is never weighed down by grad-school jargon or pompous theorizing. If you, too, would like to revisit the days when movie stars really were larger-than-life figures, you may enjoy this book.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5One word blah. I got this as an early review copy which is nice. But this book fails to meet it's sensational title. There are scandals per se but not by today's standards. The author has done extensive research and that shows in her book but nothing new is discussed. She does a good job of what she set out to do and show how the studios controlled their stars in the early part of the 20th century. However as the book got closer and closer to modern times it really became more about the authors opinions then anything else. She mentions in her acknowledgements at the end that this started out as a series of articles for a magazine and it does read that was as well.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Anne Helen Petersen's Scandals of Classic Hollywood mines familiar territory. All of the usual suspects are here, from Fatty Arbuckle to James Dean.But Petetrsen puts her material in context, against the backdrop of Will Hays, the Legion of Decency and other attempts to impose an external moral structure on an art form.She also includes extensive notes, including the reactions of fabled gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper to films and stars of the day.Petersen is a lively writer and, while there isn't much new here, she presents these scandals and romances in "volumes'' with titles like "Broken By the System'' that link her chapters in an overall theme.Her chapter on Bogie and Bacall has special poignancy with the recent death of Lauren Bacall.This book is a fun read and a good entry point for anyone interested in the history of "Old Hollywood.''
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If you're a fan of classic Hollywood, you've probably already heard/read all of these stories; however, it is interesting and worth reading since this is more from the angle of how the studios controlled the spin. It is in chronological order starting with the very early days of movie-making through the 50s, i.e. Mary Pickford through James Dean. As someone said, it makes you want to go watch classic old movies.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you are interested in American sexual and social mores, pop culture in the 20th century and grew up "mad about movies", you will love this book.There are no "new" stories, but in the chronological order in which Ms. Petersen tells them, they from Pickford and Fairbanks in the first chapter to the last chapter about James Dean, with many favorites in between we not only get a good overview of Hollywood and the studio system, which is no more and how Americans viewed their screen idols from the 1920s through the 1950s. All the names and most of the stories were not unfamiliar, but the author did get research and got as close to the "real" truth as anyone can.I kept thinking, "one more chapter", but had to keep reading to the end. The lives of the golden age stars were not all fun and games, but news was spun by studio pr men with the help of gossip columnists and the outrage of the censors of the time.There are many interesting items of which I was unaware and some that I knew that turn out to be not so correct.I would love to have a long conversation with the author and learn more about Hollywood "royalty" other than the ones she profiles.As I said a must for all those who love movies and social commentary about the 20th century.