Recommendsday: Books about Hollywood

After writing about some Hollywood-set fiction yesterday, I thought this week might be a great opportunity for a round up of some of the Hollywood-set or related non-fiction I’ve read over the years. This has got a couple of things that I’ve not mentioned before, but also some that have been to a greater or lesser extent.

Let’s start with one of those new things: I read Shawn Levy’s The Castle on Sunset a couple of years ago, but I can’t find that I really wrote much about it here, so I can rectify that now. This is a history of the Chateau Marmont, possibly the most famous hotel in Hollywood, used by generations of stars for all sorts of things. Depending on your age you may remember it as where John Belushi died, or the hotel Lindsay Lohan got kicked out of – and both of those are in this, along with a lot more.

I’ve reorganised this bookshelf since this picture was taken, but there are a few here that might be of interest. Helen O’Hara’s Women vs Hollywood look at female pioneers in the early days of the movies and how women were then pushed out. I don’t know what it’s not on this shelf, but if you want Golden Age Hollywood of a similar era to Loretta, then Karina Longworth’s Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood which focuses on the women pursued by the millionaire movie mogul from the 1920s through til the 1950s. And from a similar era there is Trumbo about the screenwriter who was blacklisted in the communist panic.

There are loads of books about individual stars too. I remember Gerald Clarke’s Get Happy about Jusy Garland as being pretty good, but it’s been closer to 15 years than ten. And I don’t know where my copy is but J Randy Taraborrelli’s The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe was a good read when I read it even longer ago – I wonder how it holds up! Taraborrelli has a fair line in Kennedy-related books, some of which I keep meaning to get hold of, because we all know I like a good book about that particular dysfunctional family. He’s also written about Elizabeth Taylor – who is another frequent books subject. I’ve read Furious Love about her relationship with Richard Burton, Elizabeth and Monty about her friendship with Montgomery Clift – and I’ve got Kate Anderson Brower‘s biography on my to read pile too.

And then there’s the other stuff I want to read – Laurence Leamer’s Hitchcock’s Blondes – which came out last year, just as the adaptation of his book about Capote’s Women was appearing on streaming services. I’ve got another Marilyn book on the kindle too – this time about Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn. I also want to read Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman’s history of the Academy Awards and Katie Gee Salisbury’s Not Your China Doll about Anna May Wong.

Happy Wednesday!