Scandals of Classic Hollywood by Anne Helen Petersen

Sorry for the week of missed blogging! I had some personal things going on (which you can read about here), which resulted in me barely touching my computer, much less blog.

But, today, I'd like to talk about Scandals of Classic Hollywood, one of the books that I've managed to get and read from NetGalley (Hi NetGalley! If you read this, I'd really appreciate a function that sends emails to me BEFORE my books are archived. I've missed out on a load of books because I didn't log in to check every day).

Now, I have to state upfront that I have not read anything from this author before (I admit, I peeked at Goodreads, and it appears she's a popular blogger). I didn't even know what I expected from this book when I requested it. So, with that in mind, I enjoyed this book. It wasn't exactly about 'scandals', as we think of scandals nowadays, but more on how classic Hollywood used to so deftly manipulate the public and the news.

The author has grouped these scandals into six 'volumes', with themes such as "six angry men", "old loves", "twilight of the idols" and others. Each theme is meant to show one aspect of classic Hollywood, and a preface to each volume explains just what the author wants you to know.

Only the first and fourth volumes actually covered "scandals" that were incidents. Things like Bogart and Bacall's romance, Fatty Arbuckle's fall from grace and so on. The rest of the scandals felt more like mini-biographies, telling you exactly how Hollywood interfered with the lives of their stars.

If you like reading about old Hollywood stars but don't know where to start, or don't know anything about this, this would probably be a good starting book. Plus, there are pages and pages of references that you can hunt down.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.