Hollywood Horrors

Hollywood Horrors

Author: Andrea Van Landingham

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-11-01

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1493060082

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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.


Murder in Hollywood

Murder in Hollywood

Author: Charles Higham

Publisher: Terrace Books

Published: 2004-11-15

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0299203638

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For more than eighty years, the famous unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor, the legendary bisexual film director, has generated debate and controversy. Now, best-selling author Charles Higham has solved the crime. Higham uncovers the corruption and intrigue of Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties—and the film industry moguls’ complete domination of the city’s authorities. When it was discovered that a famous star of the day had probably killed Taylor, a massive cover-up began—from the removal of crucial evidence to the naming of innocent people as killers—which has continued until now to protect the truth. Murder in Hollywood goes beyond the killing to unearth unknown details about the life of Taylor before his arrival in Hollywood, as well as the stories and histories buried by the crooked authorities and criminals involved the case. The author’s exclusive interviews with the culpable star, his unique possession of long-vanished police records, and the support of the present-day Los Angeles county coroner—who examined the evidence as if the murder had taken place now—have ensured a hair-raising thriller. Charles Higham successfully presents the most plausible and convincing solution yet to the mystery. In the process he paints a vivid portrait of Hollywood in the 1920s—from its major stars to its bisexual subculture. The result is a compelling answer to a long-standing mystery and a fascinating study of a place, and an industry that, as today, let people reinvent themselves. Murder in Hollywood is more extraordinary than any crime of fiction and more exciting than any action adventure movie.


An Oxford Murder

An Oxford Murder

Author: G. G. Vandagriff

Publisher:

Published: 2019-10-17

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781699886991

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A stylish 1930's mystery set in Oxford with a love triangle, a murder, and a cast of eccentric suspects.Fans of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane will love this tale! "Vandagriff's atmospherics are first rate. She amazes me."--Anna Stone. After Miss Catherine Tregowyn, poet, and Dr. Harry Bascombe, her bête noire, discover a body in the Somerville College chapel, they are declared suspects in a murder inquiry. How can they prove their innocence? The pair decide they must launch their own investigation into the strangling of Oxford don, Agatha Chenowith. But working as a team will not be easy. Their relations are anything but cordial. It is not long before they uncover motives aplenty. Apparently, Dr. Chenowith was not at all what she seemed. As the surprises about the victim's secret life multiply, they are awash in a sea of suspects. Into this scenario sails the former love of Catherine's life as he returns from Kenya. Is she going to give Rafe another chance to break her heart? He convinces her to give him a six-month trial, and eager to show his worth, he joins in the investigation. Rafe offers to fly Catherine and Harry in his de Havilland six-seater to the Isle of Man where they must pursue a lead. Inevitably, Rafe and Harry square off in a battle for Catherine's affections. Meanwhile, playing detectives proves to be a dangerous pursuit. Catherine and Harry shortly embroil themselves in a plot much larger than mere murder. No one wants to hear their theory, however. It contains truths too painful to contemplate. And it makes Catherine and Harry's lives expendable.


True Hollywood Noir

True Hollywood Noir

Author: Dina Di Mambro

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781492338857

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2014 IPPY Bronze Medal Award. A tantalizing mixture of classic Hollywood nostalgia and true crime, True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murder, featuring 100 rare photographs, is suspenseful, entertaining, and eminently readable. Uncover true stories of mystery and murder in a dozen different chapters featuring William Desmond Taylor, Thomas Ince, Jean Harlow, Thelma Todd, Joan Bennett, Lana Turner, George Reeves, Gig Young, Bob Crane, Natalie Wood, Robert Blake, and Mickey Cohen. Included in the cast of characters of this book are Johnny Stompanato, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and Charlie Chaplin. And find never before told mob stories about Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill, and a host of notorious underworld figures. From 1922 until 2001, explore some of Filmland's most fascinating mysteries, scandals and murders true Hollywood noir lived by the players behind the scenes. Each chapter dissects the various theories in each case, but it is up to you to make up your own mind. From the West Coast mob and city corruption intertwining with Hollywood mysteries on and off the screen, to the plots of noir films pulled from actual happenings in the underworld, get the stories behind the stories, the darker images playing out in living color behind the silver screen. While most of the actors featured here met with untimely tragic deaths or notorious misfortune coloring the remainder of their lives, the talent of these highly creative individuals and the legacy they've left us gives them a timeless immortality.


Tinseltown

Tinseltown

Author: William J. Mann

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-10-14

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 0062242229

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New York Times Bestseller • Edgar Award winner for Best Fact Crime 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 tale 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 ascendency 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, bestselling Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to unpack the story of the enigmatic Taylor and the diverse cast that 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, 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.


Bad Company

Bad Company

Author: Steve Wick

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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Each had what the others wanted, and before Roy Radin's decomposed body was found in a dry creek, Laney Jacobs, Robert Evans, and Radin, seemed destined for a successful partnership.


Hollywood Homicide

Hollywood Homicide

Author: Kellye Garrett

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide

Published: 2017-08-08

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0738753009

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Winner of the 2018 Anthony Award for Best First Novel Winner of the 2017 Agatha Award for Best First Novel Also a Lefty Award Winner and a Barry Award-Nominated Title The Surprise Hit of the Season! Actress Dayna Anderson's Deadly New Role: Homicide Detective Dayna Anderson doesn't set out to solve a murder. All the semifamous, mega-broke actress wants is to help her parents keep their house. So after witnessing a deadly hit-and-run, she pursues the fifteen grand reward. But Dayna soon finds herself doing a full-on investigation, wanting more than just money—she wants justice for the victim. She chases down leads at paparazzi hot spots, celeb homes, and movie premieres, loving every second of it—until someone tries to kill her. And there are no second takes in real life. Praise: "[A] winning first novel and series launch...Garrett writes with humor and insight about the Hollywood scene. Readers will look forward to Day's further adventures."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A smart, sassy debut, introducing an appealing protagonist with amusing friends."—Library Journal (starred review) and Debut of the Month "Veteran TV writer Garrett uses her Cold Case experience to inform her debut, which sets up more than one charming character and isn't afraid to go cynical on all things LA."—Kirkus Reviews "Funny, lively characters populate this new Detective by Day series...this will be an entertaining entry into the amateur sleuth genre."—RT Book Reviews "Fun, smart, endearingly flawed, and impressively determined, Dayna Anderson is a heroine readers will fall in love with...I relished every unexpected twist and turn of this highly entertaining mystery!"—Kyra Davis, New York Times bestselling author


Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Author: Rod Lurie

Publisher: Pantheon

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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In this riveting, fast-paced account of the flip side of the Hollywood dream, investigative reporter Rod Lurie gives readers the keenest direction to date of the Hollyburbs, the seedy environs of Glitter City where small-time predators and prey dream of being players, only to find that they have been fleeced.


City of Bones

City of Bones

Author: Michael Connelly

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2002-04-16

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 0759527628

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When a dog unearths evidence of a murder in the Hollywood Hills, Detective Harry Bosch must tackle a cold case that sparks memories he's tried to forget. On New Year's Day, a dog finds a bone in the Hollywood Hills -- and unearths a murder committed more than twenty years earlier. It's a cold case, but for Detective Harry Bosch, it stirs up memories of his childhood as an orphan. He can't let it go. As the investigation takes Bosch deeper into the past, a beautiful rookie cop brings him alive in the present. No official warning can break them apart -- or prepare Bosch for the explosions when the case takes a few hard turns. Suddenly all of L.A. is in an uproar, and Bosch, fighting to keep control, is driven to the brink of an unimaginable decision.


Severed

Severed

Author: John Gilmore

Publisher: Amok Books

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 187892317X

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This new edition of the L.A. noir classic is released just in time to accompany the Brian De Palma film.