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Vanity Fairs Hollywood
 
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Vanity Fairs Hollywood [Hardcover]

Graydon Carter (Author, Editor), Christopher Hitchens (Foreword)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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As everybody who's anybody knows (and the rest of us too), the most exclusive Hollywood party is Vanity Fair magazine's Oscar-night bash. Vanity Fair's Hollywood is like the ultimate movie party--and how inviting it all is! Flip through the thick, glossy pages and greet the greats of all ages. Lillian and Dorothy Gish share a spread with Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow. Ms. Deneuve, resplendent in scarlet, meet Mr. Valentino, in classy black and white. Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra, meet Liz Taylor as Cleopatra (and if it's not too catty, did you notice Claudette was better dressed?). The stunning photos are cleverly juxtaposed. Julia Roberts, posed naughtily in see-through undies in the water, is followed by a very properly attired Doris Day in a see-through skirt. Day holds six brightly dyed poodles by white leashes; the composition forms a visual rhyme with the six accusing fingers pointed at Peter Lorre in the next picture. The photo captions by Christopher Hitchens are as succinctly clever as Dorothy Parker, encapsulating entire careers in a punning paragraph. Even if you've seen a shot before, you learn things: in the most notorious still ever snapped at a Hollywood party--the one where Sophia Loren ogled Jayne Mansfield's voluminous bosom--Hitchens tells us the object of Loren's appalled regard was "the strategic dabs of makeup on [Jayne's] nipples."

Like any good party, this vast book offers sparkling talk as well as gobs of eye candy. The brilliant Peter Biskind evokes the '70s heyday of superagent Sue Mengers, D.H. Lawrence makes a stab at defining "sex appeal," Patricia Bosworth adds the patented VF dash of scandal in a piece on Lana Turner's gangster boyfriend's murder, and Hitchens gives a quickie history of the fabled Sunset Strip. Not everything rises to the august occasion: Carl Sandburg's poem about Chaplin and Clare Boothe Luce's snooty ode to Garbo are mostly of antiquarian interest. Most of the historic stuff is great (e.g., Fritz Lang directing a crowd scene in Metropolis), and the most austere cineaste should own this book. On practically every page, Vanity Fair's Hollywood dazzles. It's a keeper. --Tim Appelo

From Publishers Weekly

This lavish, photo-laden tour of Tinsel Town's history is coffee-table condensation of 87 years of Vanity Fair coverage of the Hollywood scene. Visually, it's a thrilling compendium of images that have defined not only the film industry and its workers but how the American public has understood them. Ranging from Edward Steichen's iconographic black-and-white portraits of Louise Brooks, Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg, and Gloria Swanson (which defined the "look" of Hollywood in its first half-century) to the contemporary and often shocking color photographs of Annie Leibovitz (of nearly everyone from Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta to Cate Blanchette and Johnny Depp)Dand peppered with shots by Bruce Weber, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Griege Hurrell and othersDthe book traces how these stars have come to embody pop mythologies of everyday life. The photos are interspersed among 13 (mostly short) essays by writers as diverse as Carl Sandberg, Patricia Bosworth, P.G. Wodehouse, Dorothy Parker, Peter Biskind and D.H. Lawrence, which range from the humorous to the illuminating. While serious film buffs will find nothing terribly new here, Vanity Fair's trademark mix of wit and style, chic and intelligence is guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. (Oct. 23)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great coffee table book!, Sep 26 2002
By 
Jennifer E. Williams (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Vanity Fairs Hollywood (Hardcover)
This book is filled with photographs and essays about Hollywood and its stars. There is a wide variety of photographs exhibited here. My only complaint would be that they are not set up in any kind of order. A picture of Jack Nicholson playing golf on one page and then turn the page to find a picture of Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I suppose they thought chronological or theme order would have been too predictable. My favorite photos are: Doris Day (p. 26), the essay and photo of Greta Garbo (pgs. 42-43), James Dean clowning (p. 47), Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren (p.158) the Malibu Beach drawing from 1933 (p.242), Sophia Loren (p. 247), Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney (p. 276), Loretta Young in 1935 and 1999 (pgs.292 and 293) and Olivia de Havilland (p. 310). As you can tell, my interests are toward vintage photos, but there are photos of today's celebs as well, such as Gwyneth Paltrow or Cameron Diaz and these are wonderful photos, too. The pictures in Vanity Fair are always unique and this is a great compilation.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough of the old stuff, Oct 31 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Vanity Fairs Hollywood (Hardcover)
While there were some great vintage articles and photographs, why are pages blown to show wastes like Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, and other I-make -money- because- of- my- looks and not acting ability "artists?" Many obscure silent and early talking stars could've and SHOULD'VE been included. But that's the way it is- nobody cares for the old. Makes a great coffee table book. Get this from the library. I was disappointed. I was done with it in one afternoon.
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4.0 out of 5 stars I love this book, Jun 22 2002
This review is from: Vanity Fairs Hollywood (Hardcover)
I have always loved movie books, and this one on the stars is great. The pictures are really fabulous, and I have spent hours looking through it and reading the text over and over again. My only disappointment is that there is not enough old Hollywood in the book. But, for new Hollywood photos and gossip, this is a primo tome.
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