Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Tinseltown
Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood | William J. Mann
12 posts | 16 read | 13 to read
Who killed Billy Taylor, one of Hollywood's most beloved men?For nearly a century, no one has known.Until now.In the early 1920s, millions of Americans flocked to movie palaces every year to see their favorite stars on the silver screen. Never before had a popular art so captured the public's imagination, nor had a medium ever possessed such power to influence. But Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of lurid, headline-grabbing tragedies, including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the handsome and popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Associationa legendary crime that has remained unsolved since 1922.Now, in this fiendishly involving narrative, bestselling Hollywood chronicler William Mann draws on a rich host of sources, many untapped for decades, to reopen the case of the upstanding yet enigmatic Taylor and the diverse cast that surrounded himincluding three loyal ingenues, a grasping stage mother, a devoted valet, a gang of two-bit thugs, the industry's reluctant new morals czar, and the moguls Adolph Zukor and Marcus Loew, locked in a struggle for control of the exploding industry. Along the way, Mann brings to life Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties: a sparkling yet schizophrenic town filled with party girls and drug dealers, 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 re-created with the thrilling suspense of a novel, Tinseltown is the work of a master craftsman at the peak of his powers.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
Bookgoil
post image
Pickpick

I don‘t often read nonfiction but when I do I seem to read interesting ones. Tinseltown was an amazing book, I didn‘t realize the early years of Hollywood were so crazy and the murder mystery was really something else. I loved learning about the women surrounding the death of this man and finding out more about this time period.

blurb
Cinfhen
post image

#MOvember A few books/ audios I own about #Hollywood that I‘m considering for #Booked2020
All are #NF 🌟💫❤️🌟💫

Bklover The Lady from the Black Lagoon looks good. Like maybe a NF that reads like a F. 😉 5y
batsy I want to read Black Lagoon and the Eve Babbitt too! 5y
Cinfhen I‘m excited because I have lots of good options @batsy @Bklover 5y
kaysworld1 Where can I find the list of books for #Booked2020 I want to do I challenge next year 😘 5y
79 likes1 stack add5 comments
blurb
Macnjen
post image

Current read, interesting so far.

blurb
tdrosebud
post image

I always loved the tinsel my grandma put on her tree, helping her do so was even more fun. #tinseltown
#seasonsreadings @vkois88 @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Beautiful!! I love it!! 6y
tracey38 Growing up, we always put tinsel up on our tree. But since I've been on my own, with dogs, I just can't deal with them getting into it. But I still love the look of it. 6y
18 likes2 comments
blurb
GripLitGrl
post image
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks ❤️❤️ 6y
45 likes1 comment
blurb
AmberWB
post image

I had no idea what to post for #tinseltown. And then I saw this. 😁😁
#seasonsreadings
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @vkois88

BarbaraTheBibliophage 🤣🤣🤣 6y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 😂😂😂😂 6y
Slajaunie 🤔😹😹😹 6y
See All 7 Comments
tracey38 Oh kitty... 😂😂😂 6y
saresmoore Bahahaha! 6y
EH2018 🤣🤣🤣😹 6y
43 likes7 comments
blurb
TheSpineView
post image
Erofan 😍 6y
Eggs Gorgeous 6y
See All 7 Comments
vkois88 Beautiful 😍 6y
JanuarieTimewalker13 Wow! Where is that? 6y
TheSpineView @JanuarieTimewalker13 Not sure. I found it on an app I use. It is pretty isn't it. 6y
77 likes7 comments
blurb
OriginalCyn620
post image

Whilst online shopping, I came across this on the Target website...I think I need this mug in my life!
#seasonsreadings #tinseltown

julesG 😍😂😂 6y
RadicalReader @OriginalCyn620 lovely mug need more holiday inspo items around 6y
MaleficentBookDragon Great mug. 6y
56 likes4 comments
blurb
EadieB
post image

Who remembers this?

These trees were popular in the United States from 1958 until about the mid-1960s. The tree is made of aluminum, featuring foil needles and illumination from below via a rotating color wheel. The aluminum Christmas tree was used as symbol of the commercialization of Christmas in the highly acclaimed and successful 1965 television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, which discredited its suitability as holiday decoration.

EadieB Day 6 - #Tinseltown #seasonsreadings (edited) 6y
Samplergal I do! My aunt Mary had one and as a 6 yr old I coveted it. 😂 6y
tournevis My mother had that tin tree which she threw out. 6y
See All 13 Comments
jillannjohn My mom had one that she kept way too long. 😂 6y
TNbookworm I do! I loved the color wheel! 6y
EadieB @Samplergal @tournevis @jillannjohn @TNbookworm Well now they are collector‘s items and also in museums. (edited) 6y
Maewyn My mother went through a lot of trouble to get one again around 2000. It might have gotten set up once. 6y
Susanita A Baltimore staple: https://youtu.be/naO2KRjaMNU 6y
Eggs My parents got this and were so excited but I was resistant-I wanted a real tree 😖 6y
EadieB @Susanita Thanks I enjoyed that! 6y
EadieB @Eggs My mom and dad loved our tree. They said it was very easy: just take it out of the box and plug in the color wheel and you are all set. Oh and they used to put all light blue balls on the tree. I hated that thing. Loved it when the wheel got stuck on a color. Almost started a fire! (edited) 6y
Eggs Hahaha 🤣😂 6y
TheSpineView My Aunt had one! Years ago, of course! 6y
81 likes13 comments
blurb
Landslide
post image

Day 6: While Google searching for #tinseltown I came across this poster for an 80s movie with the same title and I love it!

#seasonsreadings
@vkois88
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Beautiful ❤️❤️❤️ 6y
10 likes1 comment
blurb
Dpotter
post image

A great day to start reading a new book! 😎📖
Murder, morphine, and madness at the dawn of Hollywood 🎬
#potterspicks #truecrime #history #hollywood

36 likes2 stack adds
blurb
stacybmartin
post image

Finishing up this nonfiction audiobook during this morning's #labsoundtrack. Ugh, Hollywood was (and probably still is, lol) so dirty!

M-D From the biographies I've read yep. 8y
49 likes2 stack adds1 comment