Hollywoodcrossroads of filmmaking, mythmaking, and politicswas dominated by one man more than any other for most of its history. It was William Randolph Hearst who understood how to use cinema to exploit the public's desire for entertainment and to create film propaganda to further his own desire for power. From the start, Hearst saw his future and the future of Hollywood as one and the same. He pioneered and capitalized on the synergistic relationship...

"The real story of Hollywood -- as told by such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Frank Capra, Katharine Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, Harold Lloyd, Jordan Peele, and nearly four hundred others -- reveals a fresh history of the American movie industry from its beginnings to today." --

"Who HQ rolls out the red carpet for Where Is Hollywood?--the film capital of the world. Developed in the 1880s by Midwesterners looking for a sunny winter getaway, Hollywood was a small housing development outside still-small Los Angeles. But everything changed in the early 1900s when filmmakers from New York flocked to the area, where they could make movies without having to pay Thomas Edison's patent fee. It didn't hurt that the weather was perfect,...

This book reveals the sinister true story of the Mafia in Hollywood. Crammed with legends, myths, murders, madness, mayhem, superstar tantrums, super-sexed starlets, power brokers and politics, it is an ambitious account of Hollywood's hidden history, from the rogue cops who took on the Mob on the streets of Los Angeles to the stars who became stars because Mafia Godfathers said they would. In The Dark Heart of Hollywood, seasoned crime and entertainment...

"An unforgettable novel from an award-winning author about an ambitious young agent's daring fight to protect blacklisted writers in McCarthy-era Hollywood and her passionate relationship with an African American journalist. Outraged by her grandfather's illicit affair with Empire Pictures' latest femme fatale, Roxanne Granville forsakes her position as Hollywood royalty and rejects the man who raised her, determined to strike out on her own. Backed...

"From Top Gun to Howard the Duck, Hollywood was never more excessive than it was in the 1980s. In the Moneywood era, the purse strings were not controlled by adults, but by pop culture cowboys who couldn't balance their own checkbooks but could fast talk the talent, snowball the Japanese, and explain their way out of Dodge when the grosses came in. Their know-nothing raging narcissistic personalities make Sam Goldwyn look professorial and some of...

The Cold War and the Golden Age of Hollywood meet in this story of the remarkable career of Boris Morros, film producer and Russian double agent. Boris Morros was a major figure in the 1930s and '40s. The head of music at Paramount, nominated for Academy Awards, he then went on to produce his own films with Laurel and Hardy, Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, and others. But as J. Edgar Hoover would discover, these successes were a cover for one of the most...

"As one of the most famous faces of silent cinema, Buster Keaton was and continues to be revered for his stoic expressions, clever visual gags, and acrobatic physicality in classics such as Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman. In this spirited biography, every aspect of Buster Keaton's astonishing life is explored, from his humble beginnings in vaudeville with his parents to his meteoric rise to Hollywood stardom during the silent era. Based...