Hooray for Hollywood
Jul. 8th, 2014 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vamysteryfanOf All the Gin Joints by Mark Bailey, illus. Edward Hemingway.
I’m not quite sure what I think about this book. There are short 2-4 page “chapters” on different actors, stories about various Hollywood hangouts, both closed and current, and 40 cocktail recipes. After reading the book, I don’t want to drink any of them. I might have overloaded by reading the bios in quick succession. I think it was supposed to make me nostalgic for the golden days of Hollywood but instead it just made me sad. So much wasted time and talent is chronicled here. I think movie buffs will probably enjoy it, or people who like their Hollywood stories with a touch of schadenfreude. It is well-written and I liked reading the background stories about some of the famous Hollywood restaurants and hotels. Probably for liability reasons, they only included dead actors, but that was a touch macabre for me. The drawings were nice. Making them all slightly askew was an even better touch. Everyone had Tallulah Bankhead eyes, even the men.
Life at the Marmont: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Legendary Hotel of the Stars–Chateau Marmont by Fred E. Basten
Now I know why I read Of All the Gin Joints - it was so I would recognize more of the names in Life at the Marmont. It’s part celebrity gossip and part Hollywood history. From the days of the talkies to Johnny Depp and Lady Gaga, pretty much every actor and writer stayed there. We also learn quite a lot about the staff, most of whom worked there for decades. The book has an almost claustrophobic focus on life at the Marmont and doesn’t discuss what went on afterwards in guests’ lives. That’s especially jarring when it comes to Rita Hayworth, Vivian Leigh, and Sharon Tate. The book also stops at 1987, with only a brief afterword to update the Marmont’s status. I could wish that, with the reissue, more information had been added for the last 25 years. Still, if you’re at all interested in movie history, this is a good book to read.
Twee: The Gentle Revolution in Music, Books, Television, Fashion, and Film by Marc Spitz
This book is extensively researched. The author attempted to tie together various music, books, films, and fashion into a “Twee” movement based in certain geographic areas, involving notions of whimsy, romance, gentleness, and some amateurishness. He wants to see Twee as a movement to a kinder, gentler America. His basic concept didn’t work for me. I found the analogies labored and the categories not defined enough to be persuasive. He drew in too many disparate elements to try to make his argument but didn’t unify them. I don’t see many similarities between Brooklyn, Portland, and London or Glasgow. To me the very word twee is derogatory and I don’t think he succeeded in redefining it. It did succeed in intriguing me into looking into a few of the music groups and films he mentioned but I don’t think that saved it.
I’m not quite sure what I think about this book. There are short 2-4 page “chapters” on different actors, stories about various Hollywood hangouts, both closed and current, and 40 cocktail recipes. After reading the book, I don’t want to drink any of them. I might have overloaded by reading the bios in quick succession. I think it was supposed to make me nostalgic for the golden days of Hollywood but instead it just made me sad. So much wasted time and talent is chronicled here. I think movie buffs will probably enjoy it, or people who like their Hollywood stories with a touch of schadenfreude. It is well-written and I liked reading the background stories about some of the famous Hollywood restaurants and hotels. Probably for liability reasons, they only included dead actors, but that was a touch macabre for me. The drawings were nice. Making them all slightly askew was an even better touch. Everyone had Tallulah Bankhead eyes, even the men.
Life at the Marmont: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Legendary Hotel of the Stars–Chateau Marmont by Fred E. Basten
Now I know why I read Of All the Gin Joints - it was so I would recognize more of the names in Life at the Marmont. It’s part celebrity gossip and part Hollywood history. From the days of the talkies to Johnny Depp and Lady Gaga, pretty much every actor and writer stayed there. We also learn quite a lot about the staff, most of whom worked there for decades. The book has an almost claustrophobic focus on life at the Marmont and doesn’t discuss what went on afterwards in guests’ lives. That’s especially jarring when it comes to Rita Hayworth, Vivian Leigh, and Sharon Tate. The book also stops at 1987, with only a brief afterword to update the Marmont’s status. I could wish that, with the reissue, more information had been added for the last 25 years. Still, if you’re at all interested in movie history, this is a good book to read.
Twee: The Gentle Revolution in Music, Books, Television, Fashion, and Film by Marc Spitz
This book is extensively researched. The author attempted to tie together various music, books, films, and fashion into a “Twee” movement based in certain geographic areas, involving notions of whimsy, romance, gentleness, and some amateurishness. He wants to see Twee as a movement to a kinder, gentler America. His basic concept didn’t work for me. I found the analogies labored and the categories not defined enough to be persuasive. He drew in too many disparate elements to try to make his argument but didn’t unify them. I don’t see many similarities between Brooklyn, Portland, and London or Glasgow. To me the very word twee is derogatory and I don’t think he succeeded in redefining it. It did succeed in intriguing me into looking into a few of the music groups and films he mentioned but I don’t think that saved it.
