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Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood Hardcover – October 14, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“The book’s power derives not just from piecing together the clues and analyzing motives; Los Angeles is very present as well.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A stellar and gripping true-crime narrative . . . An engrossing and comprehensive look at the birth of the motion picture industry and the highs and lows it faced in the early 1920s . . . Mann has crafted what is likely to be a true-crime classic.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))
“Sex! Drama! Scandal! If you have the slightest curiosity about the dark purple scars of Hollywood history, this is the go-to book you cannot miss. . . Epic and fabulous—every page is haunting, every chapter a film noir. I was up all night.” (Rex Reed)
“William Mann fires on all cylinders in this fascinating real-life crime story that has stumped film fans since 1922. A page-turner with incredible research and prose double-boiled, Tinseltown is a whodunit tour de force, revealing the dark heart of Hollywood.” (Patrick McGilligan, author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light)
“A gripping true-crime story that encompasses a colorful period in film history . . . Mann seamlessly weaves the details of the murder investigation, witnesses and newspaper accounts into the rich history of early film . . . Mann masterfully captures the zeitgeist of Hollywood in its early days.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“[A] gripping true-crime narrative. . . . Mann expertly juggles the various threads of the narrative to a satisfying conclusion that is sure to please both true-crime and film-history enthusiasts.” (Booklist)
“Mann spins this yarn with all the suspense and intrigue of a Dashiell Hammett novel. From beginning to end, the engrossing true tale will keep you guessing.” (Out Magazine)
“Massive, exhaustively researched, endlessly fascinating . . . It’s a gripping ride with innumerable twists and turns and scenarios . . . If you love a good mystery and vintage Hollywood lore—which doesn’t read much differently than current Hollywood lore—I recommend Tinseltown without reservation.” (Liz Smith)
“For folks interested in true crime and the heyday of Hollywood, this book is a match made in a rather sinister version of heaven.” (Living Read Girl)
“A stellar and gripping true-crime narrative . . . An engrossing and comprehensive look at the birth of the motion picture industry and the highs and lows it faced in the early 1920s . . . Mann has crafted what is likely to be a true-crime classic.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))
“Sex! Drama! Scandal! If you have the slightest curiosity about the dark purple scars of Hollywood history, this is the go-to book you cannot miss. . . Epic and fabulous—every page is haunting, every chapter a film noir. I was up all night.” (Rex Reed)
“William Mann fires on all cylinders in this fascinating real-life crime story that has stumped film fans since 1922. A page-turner with incredible research and prose double-boiled, Tinseltown is a whodunit tour de force, revealing the dark heart of Hollywood.” (Patrick McGilligan, author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light)
“A gripping true-crime story that encompasses a colorful period in film history . . . Mann seamlessly weaves the details of the murder investigation, witnesses and newspaper accounts into the rich history of early film . . . Mann masterfully captures the zeitgeist of Hollywood in its early days.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“[A] gripping true-crime narrative. . . . Mann expertly juggles the various threads of the narrative to a satisfying conclusion that is sure to please both true-crime and film-history enthusiasts.” (Booklist)
“Mann spins this yarn with all the suspense and intrigue of a Dashiell Hammett novel. From beginning to end, the engrossing true tale will keep you guessing.” (Out Magazine)
“Massive, exhaustively researched, endlessly fascinating . . . It’s a gripping ride with innumerable twists and turns and scenarios . . . If you love a good mystery and vintage Hollywood lore—which doesn’t read much differently than current Hollywood lore—I recommend Tinseltown without reservation.” (Liz Smith)
“For folks interested in true crime and the heyday of Hollywood, this book is a match made in a rather sinister version of heaven.” (Living Read Girl)
From the Back Cover
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 Association—a 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 him—including 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.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By
Agatha Christie
TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on July 26, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Vine Customer Review of Free Product
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"The 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." The preceding blurb for this book is fairly accurate except for "untold Hollywood story". The murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor (née William Deane Tanner) has been told before, but I doubt if many people have heard it unless they are into true crime and early Hollywood. Sidney Kirkpatrick's book A Cast of Characters in many ways presents the same story, but this book is in my opinion is better. Better how, you might ask? This book, while based on fact, takes a true story and blends it with a story of early Hollywood and other sensationalistic sad stories and comes off as factual with overtones of a really compelling work of fiction. The victim in short order, does a disappearing act on wife and child and assumes a new identity in sunny LA where nothing is dark or distasteful except its residents. He becomes a prominent director in the burgeoning film industry, gains a certain level of respectability and prominence until he turns up with a bullet hole in his cold corpse in his LA home. The cast of characters include a virginal movie heroine on the ascendency of what seemed to be a promising career, a drug addled screen comedienne of note, a stage mother, a shady butler, and many more disreputable types hiding in shadows or behind big desks at the studios.
The author William Mann is an excellent writer and researcher. I can personally attest to this because I've read his other books and that's precisely why I grabbed Tinseltown up when offered by Vine.Read more ›
The author William Mann is an excellent writer and researcher. I can personally attest to this because I've read his other books and that's precisely why I grabbed Tinseltown up when offered by Vine.Read more ›
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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By
D. Matlack
VINE VOICE on August 4, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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I really enjoyed this book. It read like an Elmore Leonard novel in that it kept making me think of L.A. Confidential - both the book and the movie, with its Noir atmosphere. And early Holly Wood History is fascinating, the struggle to produce the illusion of glamor was a full time job and with the reality of the many actors and actresses being of fairly low breeding with drugs and alcohol running rampant the pretense was nearly impossible to maintain.
William Desmond Taylor's "unsolved" murder happened right in the middle of a series of shocking Hollywood deaths, all young with a brief unsavory history behind them. Three actresses whose young disorganized lives revolved around him, a jealous and paranoid Movie mogul, Adolph Zucker doing everything he can to control the situation - thus hindering the investigation and making payouts right and left one might argue that Taylor's demise was his greatest piece of art. And the cast of possible suspects and their motives will have the reader reflecting back to Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" thinking maybe they ALL did it. Because if William Desmond Taylor's life and career tells us anything, even trying to be the good guy in Hollywood is destructive.
Overall, I found this book impossible to put down, I so very much enjoyed the gossip and watching the carefully constructed lies peel away and found the dirty truths to be riveting. Having this true crime novel unravel in the fashion of a down and dirty mystery novel just made it better.
William Desmond Taylor's "unsolved" murder happened right in the middle of a series of shocking Hollywood deaths, all young with a brief unsavory history behind them. Three actresses whose young disorganized lives revolved around him, a jealous and paranoid Movie mogul, Adolph Zucker doing everything he can to control the situation - thus hindering the investigation and making payouts right and left one might argue that Taylor's demise was his greatest piece of art. And the cast of possible suspects and their motives will have the reader reflecting back to Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" thinking maybe they ALL did it. Because if William Desmond Taylor's life and career tells us anything, even trying to be the good guy in Hollywood is destructive.
Overall, I found this book impossible to put down, I so very much enjoyed the gossip and watching the carefully constructed lies peel away and found the dirty truths to be riveting. Having this true crime novel unravel in the fashion of a down and dirty mystery novel just made it better.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By
wogan
TOP 100 REVIEWER on October 1, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Vine Customer Review of Free Product
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William J. Mann writes a detailed investigation concerning all who were near or implicated in the murder of William Desmond Taylor president of the Motion Picture Directors Association. One good point in his favor is that he does not make up dialogue. He uses reports of what was actually said. His details and telling uses much minutia - giving the background and character of the many people that surrounded Taylor
At places the story jumps, he will tell about an incident, but not fully and then go on with the narrative and the character's background and habits and then jump back to what the exact subject was in the first place. The riddles of the case are slowly unraveled and the crime, in the end "is solved" by a dying woman's confession. Other than that there is still no real evidence.
We also learn something about the early film industry, especially the rivalry between Adolph Zukor and Marcus Loew. The morality of much of Hollywood during these years of the new motion picture industry is explained.
This is a book that has much detail and description of many relatively unknown Hollywood personalities. Those who want to learn about the new motion picture industry in 1920 and a crime that was huge news, but forgotten in later years might enjoy reading this book.
At places the story jumps, he will tell about an incident, but not fully and then go on with the narrative and the character's background and habits and then jump back to what the exact subject was in the first place. The riddles of the case are slowly unraveled and the crime, in the end "is solved" by a dying woman's confession. Other than that there is still no real evidence.
We also learn something about the early film industry, especially the rivalry between Adolph Zukor and Marcus Loew. The morality of much of Hollywood during these years of the new motion picture industry is explained.
This is a book that has much detail and description of many relatively unknown Hollywood personalities. Those who want to learn about the new motion picture industry in 1920 and a crime that was huge news, but forgotten in later years might enjoy reading this book.
Thank you for your feedback.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By
Jojoleb
VINE VOICE on September 29, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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Scandal, sex, secret lives, coverups, drugs, murder, blackmail, outlandish parties, and stars behaving badly sure sound like the hallmarks of our modern-day superstars. But long before the deaths of Natalie Wood, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G, and Marylin Monroe and long before the shenanigans of Mel Gibson, Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and their ilk, trouble was brewing in Tinseltown.
As William J. Mann attests to, in his brilliant book, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, the stars were wreaking havoc in Hollywood from its very beginnings. Mann's book vividly recounts the unsolved murder of film director William Desmond Taylor in 1922, and follows the trails left by three significant women in his life.
Mary Miles Minter, Mabel Normand, and Margaret 'Gibby' Gibson were all movie actresses and were all connected to Taylor at the time of his death. They, and their host of colorful associates, were all considered suspects at the time. Taylor and each of these woman all had their own checkered pasts and secrets that Mann brings to life in his thorough history that reads like a thriller.
Along with the murder mystery, Mann serves up an excellent and detailed description of the nascent film industry. Although it is difficult to imagine at this point, the jump from nickelodeons to movie theaters led to an explosive growth in the business of motion pictures. Similar to the .com boom in the late 1990s, this business was speculative but offered the potential for astronomical profit for those who succeeded. Those who succeeded, however, became incredibly wealthy. And the very wealthy always have a need to protect their investments.Read more ›
As William J. Mann attests to, in his brilliant book, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, the stars were wreaking havoc in Hollywood from its very beginnings. Mann's book vividly recounts the unsolved murder of film director William Desmond Taylor in 1922, and follows the trails left by three significant women in his life.
Mary Miles Minter, Mabel Normand, and Margaret 'Gibby' Gibson were all movie actresses and were all connected to Taylor at the time of his death. They, and their host of colorful associates, were all considered suspects at the time. Taylor and each of these woman all had their own checkered pasts and secrets that Mann brings to life in his thorough history that reads like a thriller.
Along with the murder mystery, Mann serves up an excellent and detailed description of the nascent film industry. Although it is difficult to imagine at this point, the jump from nickelodeons to movie theaters led to an explosive growth in the business of motion pictures. Similar to the .com boom in the late 1990s, this business was speculative but offered the potential for astronomical profit for those who succeeded. Those who succeeded, however, became incredibly wealthy. And the very wealthy always have a need to protect their investments.Read more ›
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