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163 reviews for:
Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema
Anne Helen Petersen
3.53 AVERAGE
163 reviews for:
Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema
Anne Helen Petersen
3.53 AVERAGE
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Hollywood has always banked on its stars and their stories as a promotional tool, so heavily that when actors openly diverge from their public personas it often causes backlash among the public.
Especially in the first half-century of Hollywood, stars were marketed with particular stories and personas, often as false as their on-screen ones. It made them more recognizable and more interesting. In this book, the author posits that many of its scandals are thus marked by how stars veered away from the persona that the public believed they had, and that when stars navigated scandals successfully it was because they had managed to revert to that persona or to expand it.
I thought this was a well-argued thesis and liked how the author dove into why particular personas were chosen and what they said about the zeitgeist of the time at large. The writing was chatty and accessible without drowning out its academic points. I also liked that the author showed us the different ways in which stars with similar personas and scandals reacted, letting us see why some overcame the blow to their reputations whilst others sank.
However, I did wish the author went more in-depth on the stories she told – I felt like more detail and analysis could have been brought out easily. I also wished that she had done more to link the various stories to each other and compare and contrast the themes, both within and without the categories she’d divided them into.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Sexual violence
dark
informative
fast-paced
This book’s content is interesting, but I found it to be written in a rushed, incomplete way that made the scandals and stars forgettable to me. I saw another reviewer compare the chapters to wikipedia pages, which I agree with. And I love Wikipedia pages! But, I hoped for a deeper dive into the scandals, or a more comprehensive view of classic Hollywood, than what is provided.
A good summation of the most popular stars in Hollywood. Though not always the most scandalous, still a good profile of the key players in the Golden Age.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I absolutely adore this book, and still think about it over a year later. Anne Helen Petersen is so incredibly talented and intelligent. Can't wait for her next book.
Meh…It wasn’t really that scandalous. The author left out a lot of key details that are present in other books in this category, that would’ve made it more interesting.
I found the book extremely boring. But, “momma didn’t raise no quitters!”; so I did finish it.
I found the book extremely boring. But, “momma didn’t raise no quitters!”; so I did finish it.
This book’s content is interesting, but I found it to be written in a rushed, incomplete way that made the scandals and stars forgettable to me. I saw another reviewer compare the chapters to wikipedia pages, which I agree with. And I love Wikipedia pages! But, I hoped for a deeper dive into the scandals, or a more comprehensive view of classic Hollywood, than what is provided.
informative
fast-paced