Best Old Hollywood Biographies - April 2024

I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses

Film and television actor and New York Times bestselling author Robert Wagner’s memoir of the great women movie stars he has known.   In a career that has spanned more than sixty years Robert Wagner has witnessed the twilight of the Golden Age of Hollywood and the rise of television, becoming a beloved star in both media. During that time he became acquainted, both professionally and socially, with the remarkable women who were the greatest screen personalities of their day. I Loved Her in the Movies is his intimate and revealing account of the charisma of these women on film, why they beca... [Read More]

• ASIN: 0525429115
• ASIN: 0525429115
• ISBN: 9780525429111
• Manufacturer: Viking

The Purple Diaries: Mary Astor and the Most Sensational Hollywood Scandal of the 1930s

One of Hollywood’s first scandals was nearly its last. 1936 looked like it would be a great year for the movie industry. With the economy picking up after the Great Depression, Americans everywhere were sitting in the dark watching the stars―and few stars shined as brightly as one of America’s most enduring screen favorites, Mary Astor. But Astor’s story wasn’t a happy one. She was born poor, and at the first sign that she could earn money, her parents grabbed the reins and the checks. Widowed at twenty-four, Mary Astor was looking for stability when she met and wed Dr. Franklyn Thor... [Read More]

• ASIN: 1682302997
• ASIN: 1682302997
• ISBN: 1682302997
• Brand: DIVERSION
• Manufacturer: Diversion Books

Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob

Hollywood Godfather is Gianni Russo's over-the-top memoir of a real-life mobster-turned-actor who helped make The Godfather a reality, and his story of life on the edge between danger and glamour. Gianni Russo was a handsome 25-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set her brother Sonny―played by James Caan―up for a hit. Russo didn't have to act―he knew the mob inside and out: from his childhood in Little Italy, where Mafia legend Frank Costello took... [Read More]

• ASIN: 1250181399
• ASIN: 1250181399
• ISBN: 1250181399
• Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press

The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont

*LA Times Bestseller**An Amazon "Best History Books of 2019 So Far" Pick*"Fascinating, dishy, and glimmering with insight." --Cheryl Strayed"A fabulously fizzy account." --Vanity Fair"I want to live inside this book!" --Taylor Jenkins ReidThe definitive history of Hollywood's most iconic, storied, and scandalous hotelFor ninety years, Hollywood's brightest stars have favored the Chateau Marmont as a home away from home. An apartment house-turned-hotel, it has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklore: 1930s bombshell Jean Harlow took lovers during her third honeymoon there; dire... [Read More]

• ASIN: 0385543166
• ASIN: 0385543166
• ISBN: 0385543166
• Manufacturer: Doubleday

In Pieces

In this intimate, haunting literary memoir and New York Times Notable Book of the year, an American icon tells her own story for the first time -- about a challenging and lonely childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful emotional legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother. One of the most celebrated, beloved, and enduring actors of our time, Sally Field has an infectious charm that has captivated the nation for more than five decades, beginning with her first TV role at the age of seventeen. From Gidget's sweet-faced "girl next door" to the dazzling com... [Read More]

• ASIN: 1538763028
• ASIN: 1538763028
• ISBN: 1538763028
• Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing

Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling through Hollywood History

True tales of celebrity hijinks are served up with an equal measure of Hollywood history, movie-star mayhem, and a frothy mix of forty cocktail recipes.Humphrey Bogart got himself arrested for protecting his drinking buddies, who happened to be a pair of stuffed pandas. Ava Gardner would water-ski to the set of Night of the Iguana holding a towline in one hand and a cocktail in the other. Barely legal Natalie Wood would let Dennis Hopper seduce her if he provided a bathtub full of champagne. Bing Crosby’s ill-mannered antics earned him the nickname “Binge Crosby.” And sweet Mary Pickford... [Read More]

• ASIN: 1565125932
• ASIN: 1565125932
• ISBN: 1565125932
• Brand: Algonquin Books
• Manufacturer: Algonquin Books

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

“Eugene Sledge became more than a legend with his memoir, With The Old Breed. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific—the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary—into terms we mortals can grasp.”—Tom HanksNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIn The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With the Old Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-century battles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitive oral history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge’s acclaimed first-person account of fighting a... [Read More]

• ASIN: 0891419063
• UPC: 884198659987
• ASIN: 0891419063
• ISBN: 0891419063
• Brand: Sledge, E. B./ Hanson, Victor Davis (INT)
• Manufacturer: Presidio Press

Harlow in Hollywood: The Blonde Bombshell in the Glamour Capital, 1928-1937

Scene 1: Harlean Carpenter comes to Hollywood. Scene 2: Hollywood creates Jean Harlow. Scene 3: Her legend lives forever. At last, the story of how Hollywood shaped a myth and determined a young woman's reality. A town, a remarkable town, became the backdrop for one of Hollywood's most incredible stories, a life rife with glamour, pleasure, power, and--in the end--utter sorrow. Her story lives in the pages and breathtaking pictures of Harlow in Hollywood. When Jean Harlow became the Blonde Bombshell, it was all Hollywood's doing. She was the first big-screen sex symbol, the Platinum Blonde,... [Read More]

• ASIN: 1883318963
• UPC: 884253522720
• ASIN: 1883318963
• ISBN: 1883318963
• Brand: Brand: Angel City Press
• Manufacturer: Angel City Press

Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood

New York Times Bestseller • Edgar Award winner for Best Fact CrimeThe 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—incl... [Read More]

• ASIN: 0062242199
• ASIN: 0062242199
• ISBN: 0062242199
• Brand: imusti
• Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel

• ASIN: B01M5IJM2U
• ASIN: B01M5IJM2U
• Manufacturer: Washington Square Press

Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer

Lion of Hollywood is the definitive biography of Louis B. Mayer, the chief of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer -- MGM -- the biggest and most successful film studio of Hollywood's Golden Age. An immigrant from tsarist Russia, Mayer began in the film business as an exhibitor but soon migrated to where the action and the power were -- Hollywood. Through sheer force of energy and foresight, he turned his own modest studio into MGM, where he became the most powerful man in Hollywood, bending the film business to his will. He made great films, including the fabulous MGM musicals, and he made great stars: Garbo... [Read More]

• ASIN: 0743204816
• ASIN: 0743204816
• ISBN: 0743204816
• Brand: Brand: Simon n Schuster
• Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster

Hollywood's 10 Greatest Actresses: Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, and Joan Crawford

*Includes pictures. *Includes a unique introduction of each actress. *Includes quotes by the actresses about their lives and careers. *Includes bibliographies of each actress for further reading. In 1999, the American Film Institute released its list of the 50 greatest Hollywood stars of the 20th century, and selecting the 10 best actresses out of the bunch was certainly a tall task. The competition was so stacked that women like Ginger Rogers, Grace Kelly and Rita Hayworth were not even among the Top 10. So who were the Top 10 women selected by the AFI? Aside from being one of the most rec... [Read More]

• ASIN: 1494789043
• ASIN: 1494789043
• ISBN: 1494789043
• Manufacturer: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Hollywood Collection: Gary Cooper The Face of a Hero

• ASIN: B005JI0OWM
• ASIN: B005JI0OWM

Forbidden Hollywood: The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934): When Sin Ruled the Movies (Turner Classic Movies)

Filled with rare images and untold stories from filmmakers, exhibitors, and moviegoers, Forbidden Hollywood is the ultimate guide to a gloriously entertaining era when a lax code of censorship let sin rule the movies.Forbidden Hollywood is a history of "pre-Code" like none other: you will eavesdrop on production conferences, read nervous telegrams from executives to censors, and hear Americans argue about "immoral" movies. You will see decisions artfully wrought, so as to fool some of the people long enough to get films into theaters. You will read what theater managers thought of such craftin... [Read More]

• ASIN: 0762466774
• ASIN: 0762466774
• ISBN: 0762466774
• Manufacturer: Running Press Adult

My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood

In the 1940s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was at the epicenter of the film world. Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and Elizabeth Taylor were only a few of the many stars under contract at the studio. The author, Claude Jarman Jr., takes us from his discovery in a small school in Nashville, Tennessee, through his life among the movie elite. After receiving a special Academy Award for his performance in The Yearling in 1946, he remained at MGM until 1950 when the arrival of television savaged the studio and the star system. He appeared in ten additional films, including playing the so... [Read More]

• ASIN: 1640036679
• ASIN: 1640036679
• ISBN: 1640036679
• Manufacturer: Covenant Books

Rebel without a Crew : Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player

Describes the making of "El Mariachi" and distribution

• UPC: 438287
• Rating: 4.0

Meghan : A Hollywood Princess

A biography of the American actress discusses her early life, acting career, humanitarian work, and her relationship with Prince

• UPC: 399577244

Hollywood Babylon : The Legendary Underground Classic of Hollywood's Darkest and Best Kept Secrets

Recalls the tragic fates of many movie stars who believed in the dream factory called

• UPC: 446530
• Rating: 4.125

From Old Hollywood to New Brunswick - eBook

Imagine receiving a mysterious invitation from Charlie Chaplin, doing jigsaw puzzles with Marilyn Monroe, having a heart-to-heart with Jack Kennedy, or being kissed by Greta Garbo. All of these and more are the sensational memories

• UPC: 810548676

Diary of a Rich Man's Kid : Old Hollywood, World Leaders, Movers & Shakers, and One Boy at the Center of It All!

Charles C. Pettijohn, Jr. has met the notable and the notorious, the famous and the infamous. From a childhood surrounded by the stars of Old Hollywood to a career in the golden age of television

• UPC: 30169613

Meryl Streep, Hollywood's Favorite Actress (Hyperink's Best Little Book Series) - eBook

ABOUT THE BOOKThe kind of talent possessed by American actress Meryl Streep comes along once or twice in a century. Taking her place among legendary greats like Lawrence Olivier and Marlon Brando, Streep reminds audiences

• UPC: 668495142

Best in Hollywood : The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

In actor James Best's autobiography, he writes, "You can share with me the Golden Age of Hollywood, when movies had unequaled World Class. Now solidly in my eighties, I'm one of the few living actors

• UPC: 157940705

Lesbianism in the Starlets of Old Hollywood Featuring Tallulah Bankhead, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Billie Holiday, and More

Lesbianism in the Starlets of Old Hollywood Featuring Tallulah Bankhead, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Billie Holiday, and More Height : 0.36 In Length : 9.69 In Width : 7.44 In Weight : 0.69

• UPC: 970507895

The Essential Writer's Guide : Spotlight on Kage Baker, Including the Analysis of Best Sellers Such as Mendoza in Hollywood and the Empress of Mars,

The Essential Writer's Guide

• UPC: 170062165

The Essential Writer's Guide : Spotlight on John Scalzi, Including His Education, Analysis of His Best Sellers Such as Old Man's War, the Ghost Briga

The Essential Writer's Guide: Spotlight on John Scalzi, Including His Education, Analysis of His Best Sellers Such as Old Man's War, the Ghost Briga Height : 0.42 In Length : 9.69 In Width : 7.44

• UPC: 523063866