And Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood

Totally opened up a world I was unfamiliar with. Amazing picture of the men behind the beginnings of film. The politics involved between competitors is similar to today's politics....the secrets, the lies, the scandal. And in the end, none of it matters.

This was an exciting adventure and needs to be made into a movie (OK - tell me it already is a movie and I completely missed it.) Fascinating real people right out of a Hollywood who-dun-it. Hated to see the story end.

The book was very interesting. I did not think that Hollywood was so drug ridden as early as the 20's. Today seem's to be just as scandalous as then but, with more sophistication. The money always wins and it has'nt changed. A good read and Mann is a good writer, I am looking forward to reading more of his books.

Super interesting read. I'm surprised this hasn't been made into a movie (irony!) as it reads like a screenplay. I couldn't put it down and loved all the history and fun facts about the film industry and the secrets within.

TINSELTOWN is a fine book. It reads like a novel, but tells its story in fascinating way. I read CAST OF KILLERS years ago, and this version of the William Desmond Taylor murder reads fresh and clear. The recreation of times and the period are spot on. Recommended.

I have long been interested the Wm D. Taylor murder case, and all the fabulous surrounding other's in the Silent Era, they were quite amazing! They lived with total abandonment, as if there would be no tomorrow but there was!

Seems to take forever to ready but really enjoyed all the history of old Hollywood. Seems like the drug problem was an issue even back them. To think that the murder was never actually solved was intreguing.

For Hollywood buffs , especially the silent era, this is a great book. Unless you're a silent era buff, you won't recognize most of the names of the big stars. But they were the biggest and richest stars and they spent their time and money partying, doing drugs, sleeping around, kissing up to the early movie moguls and oh yeah, making a few silent flickers.
This book follows a still as yet unsolved murder in Tinseltown of a famous actor/director, Desmond Taylor. The book vividly describes the times, the setting, the players. There are good photos and good research. Since the murder is still unresolved the author does make his speculations at the end as to "who dunnit".
The book also gives a great history of the atmosphere surrounding Hollywood in the 1920's ; so much so that at times the murder seems irrelevant. But that doesn't detract from the book. It just makes it juicier.
I would highly recommend this book from the murder mystery aspect, the historical Hollywood perspective, and some glittering stars that are now long, long forgotten.

This book starts out fast. It's maybe even riveting: a Hollywood film producer is murdered in his own home. There's unrequited love. Three suspicious women are implicated. We've got narcotics, homosexuality, lots of secrets, cover-ups, conspiracies and, naturally, corrupt LA cops. Then there's silent film comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle caught up in a wild drunken sex party in San Francisco and a woman is killed, or murdered; who knows? Three trials, two hung juries and one acquittal later he's blacklisted from ever working again. On top of all that, running in the background, but conspicuously "in-your-face", is the motion picture industry as it was in the 1920s: monopolies, alleged anti-trust violations, censorship, Christian moral vigilantes, prohibition, sex, drugs, hot jazz, more sex and even more drugs. And then came the Great Depression, political spin, Wall Street and government regulation. And this is all in the first half of the book!

Unfortunately, after that, the story-telling gets old and slows down in the mud. The narrative takes a turn for the worse, much like the loose morals of Max Sennett's Hollywood. There's only so much that can be written about an unsolved murder mystery. The story begins to drag along in the minutia of, albeit interesting, but generally unrelated crimes of people stranded on the outside of the industry looking in on the success of others more lucky than they are. So the violence against poor Billy Taylor gets lost in clouds of cigar smoke from movie moguls making backroom deals, and chain-smoking nicotine addicts who are little more than small-time thugs trying to fleece the rich.

But it's all marginal to the murder "who-done-it" of Taylor. For example, the legal battles between a couple of New York film tycoons have nothing to do with the murder itself, nor do strong-arm tactics of blackmailers and hustlers guilty of trying to make ends meet at the expense of innocent people, that is, if anyone in this book can be said to be truly innocent, including the alleged victims. Regrettably, the author uses up a lot of time and space writing about this story in typical tabloid style. (It's a fairly big book, 483 pages, with a few b&w pictures). If I had to characterize the book it would be "true-detective-meets-dark-noir-meets-Hollywood Reporter-meets-the-Inquirer". I'd recommend it for anyone having equal parts mild interest and time to waste.

This was intended for a special audience....someone who likes movie history; otherwise, you would need a scorecard to know the players. Most of them are long forgotten by the general public. An interesting revelation about the Hollywood that verifies the popular idea of its behaviors

entertaining story about the silent film era, and how it was rife with scandal. Interesting characters that kept me guessing until the end. The story came to an abrupt end though. I feel like the ending could have been written better.

This was a fascinating read. It's the second book my husband and I have read on the subject of this murder and this one was, by far, the better one. It does a terrific job of describing the silent era and the characters of that era.

Great book. I read a Cast of Killers, which deals with the same murder and is also very good, but this book is kind of an update and goes into a lot more detail. Anyone interested in the beginning days of Hollywood, with a real life murder mystery, should enjoy this book. Well done!