What Are You Reading

[Fading Fast]

Lizzie, i'm going to add that one to the reading queue. And, and I know you know this, Lindbergh so bought into his Aryan fantasy that he had a second family in Germany after the war (unbeknownst to most at the time it seems).

I've been reading my way through "Tinseltown" which I posted about before. While a bit sensational in its presentation, it does seem to do a reasonably documented research job on the William Desmond Taylor murder (although, still waiting of the author's conclusion of who did it). Also, it does hit on a lot of early Hollywood history, politics and business that, while I doubt you will learn much (with your extensive knowledge), is still fun to read about from another's perspective.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm looking forward to Tinseltown myself. Probably get to it later this summer.

It's interesting how Wallace approaches Lindbergh in this book -- while he paints Ford as a duplicitous, malicious, bald-faced liar in how he presented himself to the public versus the reality of his personal views, he seems to see Lindbergh as both delusional and epically stupid, a man who, by the late thirties, had come to believe that he actually *was* the demigod that the "hero" publicity surrounding his flight in 1927 had made him out to be. In other words, while Ford was, in Wallace's view, entirely a self-made monster, Lindbergh was a creature given power beyond his actual significance solely by the fame the media threw at him. Lindbergh professed to hate the press -- but without it, he was just another Midwestern right-wing crank.

 

[Harp]

James Salter's "A Sport and a Pastime". Probably the most erotic yet beautifully written novel on lust. None of your "Fifty Shades of Grey" rubbish.

Ever read his Burning The Days?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I have American Axis and it's quite a fascinating read. It's been a while since I read it but Wallace also seems to slyly suggest that production delays of the B-24 Liberator at Ford's Willow Run plant might have been... shall we say... inspired from on high. It's also interesting that Fritz Kuhn, head of the German-American Bund, had been employed by the Ford Motor Company as a chemical engineer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's fascinating how many times these particular people keep intersecting and cropping up, and somewhere Ernest Liebold always seems to be lurking in the background. The prewar Fascist fringe in America was huge -- there were over a hundred and twenty individual radical-right sects and movements by one count -- but it was also extremely incestuous, and a lot of these people were still turning up well into the fifties and sixties.

One revelation that was new to me was the fact that radio commentator Fulton Lewis Jr. -- a man known for his ultra-right sympathies -- was the connecting point between Lindbergh and the Mutual Broadcasting System. Mutual, for those who don't realize it, was controlled by the McCormick newspaper interests, which played a key role in organizing America First -- and Mutual always seemed to be the network giving Lindbergh's broadcasts the greatest attention. So much for "Jewish-controlled media." (Lewis, for his part, would crop up again in the fifties as one of Joe McCarthy's most reliable media shills.)

 

[Smithy]

Ever read his Burning The Days?

Got a signed copy and love it Harp

 

[TimeWarpWife]

...I've been reading my way through "Tinseltown" which I posted about before. While a bit sensational in its presentation, it does seem to do a reasonably documented research job on the William Desmond Taylor murder (although, still waiting of the author's conclusion of who did it). Also, it does hit on a lot of early Hollywood history, politics and business that, while I doubt you will learn much (with your extensive knowledge), is still fun to read about from another's perspective.

I read this last weekend and I'm amazed that little has changed in Hollywood in 93 years - drugs and overdoses, sex outside of marriage and with multiple partners, mulitiple marriages and divorces, homosexual relationships, children born of wedlock. The only change I can see is that instead of these things destroying a star's career back in the 1920s, now the public, for the most part, commends them for doing these things out in the open.

 

[Fading Fast]

I read this last weekend and I'm amazed that little has changed in Hollywood in 93 years - drugs and overdoses, sex outside of marriage and with multiple partners, mulitiple marriages and divorces, homosexual relationships, children born of wedlock. The only change I can see is that instead of these things destroying a star's career back in the 1920s, now the public, for the most part, commends them for doing these things out in the open.

I had similar thoughts. You almost felt - especially regarding Fatty Arbuckle - that the public (the regular guy or woman in the street) thought more like society does today - hey, let them do what they want to do off screen - and that it was a series of public leaders crusading for their view of morality that forced Hollywood to try (unsuccessfully in a lot of cases) to keep its behavior covert.

Be it business, sports, Hollywood, politics or the top of any group of people that accumulate a lot of wealth and power and the same behavior comes out. Some do more than others and it is accepted or denounced more or less at different times in history - but all the activities you mentioned have been going on in the wealthy and powerful classes since history started.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Drug addiction was absolutely rampant in America during the first two decades of the 20th Century -- especially opiates of every kind, which finally led to strict Federal regulation of their manufacture and use. It wasn't just Hollywood, either -- the cry for regulation and restriction came only after a lot of "nice middle class people" got hooked and then died from overdoses of morphine or heroin or paregoric or whatever other product the pharmaceutical merchants were pushing at the time.

The Arbuckle case was another good example of the contemptible filthiness of the Hearst press. Not only was Arbuckle's reputation defamed and destroyed for the sake of selling papers, so, too, was that of Virginia Rappe, the woman who died in that hotel room. Hearst made a fortune from the case, but like so much of his wealth it was disgusting blood money.

 

[Fading Fast]

Drug addiction was absolutely rampant in America during the first two decades of the 20th Century -- especially opiates of every kind, which finally led to strict Federal regulation of their manufacture and use. It wasn't just Hollywood, either -- the cry for regulation and restriction came only after a lot of "nice middle class people" got hooked and then died from overdoses of morphine or heroin or paregoric or whatever other product the pharmaceutical merchants were pushing at the time.

The Arbuckle case was another good example of the contemptible filthiness of the Hearst press. Not only was Arbuckle's reputation defamed and destroyed for the sake of selling papers, so, too, was that of Virginia Rappe, the woman who died in that hotel room. Hearst made a fortune from the case, but like so much of his wealth it was disgusting blood money.

The '80s backlash against drugs came from, IMHO, a reaction of people to loosing their sons, daughters, bothers, sisters and friends to drugs in the '60s and '70s. While everything takes on a political tone eventually, I thought the '80s backlash was generated by - as Lizzie relates happened in the early part of the 20th Century - middle class people exhausted from losing their family and friends. I know in my neighborhood - very "Wonder Years" like - by the end of the '70s, there was a strong anti-drug message coming out as too many families lost children to drugs (either they died - we had a few of those - or they derailed their lives for a long time).

 

[2jakes]

In 2013, a 15 yr. old from a "middle-class" family that I know,
died from drug overdose.
According to this link, 100 Americans die of drug overdose each day.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ZGcBRsrUC7E2ABw&bvm=bv.92885102,d.aWw&cad=rjt

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Shrine of the Silver Dollar," by journalist John L. Spivak. Published in 1940, this is a contemporaneous look at the activities of Father Charles E. Coughlin, with a specific emphasis on how and by whom his work was being financed -- much of it in contravention of both secular and ecclesiastical law -- and where, exactly, all that money was going. Those who think the phenomenon of broadcast evangelists fleecing their flocks to the skin was a '70s and '80s thing would be shocked to see how thoroughly the Political Padre had developed that art.

 

[jamespowers]

"The Shrine of the Silver Dollar," by journalist John L. Spivak. Published in 1940, this is a contemporaneous look at the activities of Father Charles E. Coughlin, with a specific emphasis on how and by whom his work was being financed -- much of it in contravention of both secular and ecclesiastical law -- and where, exactly, all that money was going. Those who think the phenomenon of broadcast evangelists fleecing their flocks to the skin was a '70s and '80s thing would be shocked to see how thoroughly the Political Padre had developed that art.

There is nothing new under the sun.

 

[MisterCairo]

"A Better Quality of Murder" by Ann Granger. Part of a series of historical mysteries, set in London, mid-late 1800s.

 

[Touchofevil]

Sam Eastland's, "The Beast in the Red Forest."

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Aces of the Republic of China Air Force (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 126)
by Raymond Cheung

 

[Fading Fast]

Just finished "Tinseltown" by William J. Mann. While mainly about the William Desmond Taylor murder in Hollywood in the early '20s, it also looks at early Hollywood in general. I've posted about this book as I was reading it, so I'll only say to things: (1) while a bit sensational, it does real it in overall and seems to present a thoughtful view and worth the read if the subject interests you at all and (2) after Lizzie reads it, I'm looking forward to her opinion of the author's conclusion of who did it (I won't give his conclusion away here, but I thought his argument was compelling but not fully convincing).

 

[HadleyH]

Last night I managed to finish my Olga Romanov bio... and strangely that same day I learnt that the author of the book died, his name was Ian Vorres, he was like 90 years old and he was a friend of the Gran Duchess in Toronto. Sad

What will I read next.....I have so many books in my library to choose from.... that alone will take days.

Oh well.

For the airplane I might take any book....that will be easy.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Just finished "Tinseltown" by William J. Mann. While mainly about the William Desmond Taylor murder in Hollywood in the early '20s, it also looks at early Hollywood in general. I've posted about this book as I was reading it, so I'll only say to things: (1) while a bit sensational, it does real it in overall and seems to present a thoughtful view and worth the read if the subject interests you at all and (2) after Lizzie reads it, I'm looking forward to her opinion of the author's conclusion of who did it (I won't give his conclusion away here, but I thought his argument was compelling but not fully convincing).

Last night I managed to finish my Olga Romanov bio... and strangely that same day I learnt that the author of the book died, his name was Ian Vorres, he was like 90 years old and he was a friend of the Gran Duchess in Toronto. Sad

What will I read next.....I have so many books in my library to choose from.... that alone will take days.

Oh well.

For the airplane I might take any book....that will be easy.

I read the abovementioned Tinseltown on the plane to and from Florida. And next year I might be taking a cruise to the Bahamas.

 

[DNO]

Last night I managed to finish my Olga Romanov bio... and strangely that same day I learnt that the author of the book died, his name was Ian Vorres, he was like 90 years old and he was a friend of the Gran Duchess in Toronto. Sad

What will I read next.....I have so many books in my library to choose from.... that alone will take days.

Oh well.

For the airplane I might take any book....that will be easy.

Is she buried here in Toronto?