Hollywood Babylon  

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Hollywood Babylon (1959) is a book by Kenneth Anger which details the sordid scandals of many famous and infamous Hollywood denizens from the 1900s to the 1950s. It was originally published in 1959 by J.J. Pauvert (Paris, France) as Hollywood Babylone. Anger wrote a sequel, Hollywood Babylon II, in 1984. First published in the US in 1965, it was banned ten days later and would not be republished until 1975. Upon its second release, The New York Times said of it, "If a book such as this can be said to have charm, it lies in the fact that here is a book without one single redeeming merit."

Contents

The book details the stories of Hollywood stars from the silent era to stars of the 1960s including Charles Chaplin, Lupe Vélez, Rudolph Valentino, Olive Thomas, Thelma Todd, Frances Farmer, Juanita Hansen, Mae Murray, Alma Rubens, Barbara La Marr, and Marilyn Monroe. Hollywood Babylon also featured chapters on the Fatty Arbuckle–Virginia Rappe scandal, the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the Hollywood Blacklist, the murder of Sharon Tate, and the Confidential magazine lawsuits.

Many of Anger's claims have been called into question and debated since the book's initial publication. However, Hollywood Babylon's place in the history of Tinseltown cannot be denied, nor can Anger's influence on filmmakers such as John Waters, Vincent Gallo and Paul Morrissey (the director of Andy Warhol's later movies). Despite the book's popularity — it has been a perennial best seller since it was first published — Anger has been criticised for his lurid exposition, wild allegations, spurious anecdotes, rumor, innuendo, and minor plagiarism.

Some readers are offended by Anger's choice graphic and shocking images, particularly the photographs depicting the body of Carole Landis after her suicide, Bugsy Siegel's bullet-ridden corpse, Lupe Vélez in her coffin, Thelma Todd's body after her mysterious death and the scene of the traffic accident which killed Jayne Mansfield.

What was apparently the first U.S. edition of Hollywood Babylon was published in 1965 by Associated Professional Services of Phoenix, Ariz. The volume was a 95-cent paperback that bears little resemblance to the more familiar later editions. Instead of being divided into chapters, the text runs continuously. Many of the photographs in later editions, such as the disarrayed suite in the St. Francis Hotel in the Virginia Rappe/Fatty Arbuckle chapter, do not appear in the 1965 edition. A second U.S. edition was published by Rolling Stone's Straight Arrow Press and distributed by Simon and Schuster, released in 1975 after a series of copyright conflicts.

The 1965 edition opens:

Hollywood was not yet a dirty word in 1916. It was just a junction of dirt roads, a solitary "Mission-style" hotel, some claptrap bungalows scattered in the orange groves, and the startling apparation of a Babylon orgy in full swing in the sunshine, smack on Sunset Boulevard.

The current edition opens:

WHITE ELEPHANTS — the God of Hollywood wanted white elephants, and white elephants he got — eight of 'em, plaster mammoths perched on mega-mushroom pedestals, lording it over the colossal court of Belshazzar, the pasteboard Babylon built beside the dusty tin-lizzie trail called Sunset Boulevard.

Subjects in the first volume (current edition)

• the drug-related death of Olive Thomas and subsequent scandal surrounding Jack Pickford;
• the drug addictions of Juanita Hansen, Alma Rubens and Barbara La Marr;
• the alleged sexual masochism of Mary Nolan;
• the statutory rape charges and subsequent trial of Errol Flynn and how it might have been ;
• the mysterious death of film producer Thomas Ince aboard the yacht of William Randolph Hearst;
• the extra-marital affair of Mary Astor with playwright George S. Kaufman as told through her diary;
• the career declines of Mae Murray, Pola Negri, Louise Brooks, Marie Prevost and John Gilbert;
• the relationships of Rudolph Valentino;
• the lesbianism of Alla Nazimova;
• Erich von Stroheim's on-set difficulties;
• the relationship between William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies;
• the Fatty Arbuckle-Virginia Rappe scandal;
• the drug-related deaths of Wallace Reid, Judy Garland, and (allegedly) Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer;
• the shotgun marriages of Charlie Chaplin to Mildred Harris and Lita Grey plus the Joan Barry paternity scandal;
• the murder of William Desmond Taylor and the damage it caused to the careers of Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter;
• the suicides of Lupe Vélez, Carole Landis, Peg Entwistle, Gwili Andre, Albert Dekker, Lou Tellegen, Bobby Harron, Max Linder, George Sanders, and Clara Blandick;
• Mae West and the censors;
• the alleged promiscuity and mental instability of Clara Bow;
• the rise and fall of Frances Farmer and her appalling treatment in mental institutions;
• the homosexuality of Ramon Novarro and his subsequent murder by male prostitutes;
• the mysterious deaths of Thelma Todd and Marilyn Monroe;
• the death of gangster Bugsy Siegel by the hands of Lucky Luciano and Siegel's moll Virginia Hill, and the death of Lana Turner's lover Johnny Stompanato at the hand of Turner's teenage daughter Cheryl Crane;
• the decline and death of Jayne Mansfield (who is featured on the book's cover in the 1975 publication);
• the death of Lewis Stone of a heart attack after chasing boys who were throwing rocks at his house;
• the suicide of Jean Harlow's second husband, Paul Bern (accompanied by nude pictures of a pre-stardom Harlow);
• the Hollywood Blacklist;
• the murder of Sharon Tate by Charles Manson;
• the Confidential magazine lawsuits.

Chapter headings

The Purple Dawn; The Clutching Hand; Fat Man Out; Panic at Paramount; Hays Fever; Good Time Wally; Champagne Baths; Heroin Heroines; The New Gods; Charlie's Nymphs; Lo: Lita; William Randolph's Hearse; Rudy's Rep; The Dirty Hun; Hollywood Headlines; Clara's Beaux; Saturn Over Sunset; Drastic Doubts; Enditalls; Babylon Babblers; Monster Mae; Diary in Blue; Death Garage; In Like Flynn; Who's Daddy? Sugar Daddy; Daughter of Fury: Frances, Saint; Chop-Suicide; Mr. Bugs Comes to Town; Red Tide; Peep Show Peccadillos; Con Game; Blood and Soap; Hollywoodammerung.

Hollywood Babylon II subjects

• the murder/suicide of Gig Young;
• the decline of James Dean leading to his death and his alleged bisexuality;
• a variety of Hollywood orgies, suicides, and debauchery;
• the Black Dahlia murder;
• Busby Berkeley's off screen escapades, including the drunk driving incident;
• the murder case against Paul Kelly;
• Tijuana bibles spoofing celebrities;
• the sad downfall of homosexual actor William Haines;
• Alcoholism and drug abuse galore;
• the statutory rape case against Alexander Pantages;
• nude photos of a pre-stardom Joan Crawford;
• Loretta Young and Clark Gable's illegitimate child.

Criticisms

Exploitation

Film historian Kevin Brownlow has repeatedly criticized the book citing Anger as saying his research method was "mental telepathy, mostly." The book featured graphic images such as the scene of the traffic accident which killed Jayne Mansfield, and a shot of Lewis Stone lying dead in his driveway right after he had his fatal heart attack. It also published excerpts from Mary Astor's diary graphically detailing her affair with playwright George S. Kaufman.

Falsehoods

Although many of Anger's claims have been denounced as untrue since the book's initial publication, it is responsible for many oft-quoted urban legends. For example it claimed that Clara Bow slept with the entire USC football team – including a young John Wayne – a falsehood which has been debunked several times. Bow's sons considered suing Anger at the time of the book's second release.

The book also said that Lupe Vélez was found drowned in her own vomit with her head down a toilet after she committed suicide by swallowing more than 500 sleeping tablets. There was no basis to the story; in 2013 the first publication of a death photo showed Vélez had been found on her bedroom floor.

Hollywood Babylon is also the source of the rumor about a sexual relationship between Ramon Novarro and Rudolph Valentino. Although Novarro was gay, there has never been any proof that he and Valentino were anything more than acquaintances. In a 1962 interview, Novarro stated that he met Valentino "only once". Anger also claimed Novarro had died with an Art Deco dildo – a gift from Valentino – shoved down his throat. No such gift existed and nor was such an object found at the crime scene.

Sequels

Hollywood Babylon II was published in 1984. It was greatly expanded in format but was not as well received as the first book. It covered stars from the 1920s to the 1970s. Though slightly more accurate, the book still suffers from the same troubles as the first.

Anger stated for years he intended to write a Hollywood Babylon III, and in a 2010 interview he told that it had been finished but was placed on hold, explaining, "The main reason I didn't bring it out was that I had a whole section on Tom Cruise and the Scientologists. I'm not a friend of the Scientologists." In 2008 a third book, titled Hollywood Babylon: It's Back!, was written by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince and had no participation or association with Anger. Anger was reportedly so upset he placed a curse on the authors (Anger is a self-proclaimed magician of the school of Thelema).

Full text[1]

See also

• Babylon, a 2022 film by Damien Chazelle depicting a fictionalized 1920s Hollywood that takes inspiration from claims featured in this book.
• Gossip
• Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren at Romanoff's in Beverly Hills
• Hollywood Babylon (Nigel Finch documentary) (1991)
• Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars