Hollywood Babylon

HOLLYWOOD BABYLON

AUTHOR: Kenneth Anger

PUBLISHED: 1959

Hollywood Babylon is a book by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger which details the sordid scandals of many famous and infamous Hollywood denizens from the 1900s to the 1950s. 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."

Originally published in French in 1959 by J.J. Pauvert (Paris, France) as Hollywood Babylone, the first U.S. edition of Hollywood Babylon was published in 1965 by Associated Professional Services of Phoenix, Arizona. A second U.S. edition was published by Simon and Schuster and released in 1975 after a series of copyright conflicts.

The book details the stories of Hollywood stars from the beginning of film in the 1910s to stars of the 1960s including stories about Lupe Vélez, Rudolph Valentino, Olive Thomas, Thelma Todd, Juanita Hansen, 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.