Hollywood Babylon

Written by former child actor Kenneth Anger, who grew up to be a leading filmmaker, Hollywood Babylon is a deliciously juicy read that is just packed to the brim with gossip and celebrities, stars of the Golden Age of cinema. Filled with stars, deaths, drugs, sex, glamour, and gore, it’s an incredible work that you simply cannot put down! 

From the very beginning, the lives of Hollywood stars have been glamorous, but also gory. Hollywood Babylon delves into the deep, dark, and best kept secrets of Hollywood. From political movements that crushed careers, to suspected murders and foul play, to sex scandals and marital dramas, to lavish and dramatic celebrity suicides. Hollywood Babylon has it all, and is the everyday gossiper’s most spectacular dream. This, right here, is what is missing in today’s society. 

What Hollywood Babylon is, is a gossip magazine that is actually a book. If we modernised it with scandals from well-known celebrities from modern society and placed it in front of a teenager, they would be completely hooked and, in the process, discover what a joy reading a book can be! Kenneth Anger had everything right! 

It occurred to me, whilst reading this book, that the private lives and “scandals” of modern society are almost nothing compared to what went on behind Hollywood’s closed doors in the Twenties all through to the Sixties. Sure we hear about stars beating up their wives or having it off with loads of other women, but some of the shit that went as far back as the Twenties was just awful! Take what Fatty Arbuckle did to that poor Virginia Rappe; he pretty much got her drunk and then raped her. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she died from injuries sustained through the act. It’s awful! And then there was all that Communist fear and political movements that completely shattered the careers of such talented artists. Reading stuff like this really opens your eyes to the world and what kind of stuff happens out there. Not only that, but you learn things about people you love that you were happier not knowing: Take the two years of Hell that Charlie Chaplin suffered when he was married to Lolita. 

Filled with delicious scandals, written with biting attitude, and armed with black and white photographs of the stars and the events entailed, Hollywood Babylon is a fantastic read filled with sex, drugs, politics, stars, murder, rape, and every other form of scandalous pleasure. It’s also a wonderfully easy read, no joke, you can through this book in a day.