"Vanity Fair's" Hollywood (ISBN 0500283249)

Amazon.com Review:
As everybody who's anybody knows (and the rest of us too), the most exclusive Hollywood party is Vanity Fair magazine's Oscar-night bash. Vanity Fair's Hollywood is like the ultimate movie party--and how inviting it all is! Flip through the thick, glossy pages and greet the greats of all ages. Lillian and Dorothy Gish share a spread with Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow. Ms. Deneuve, resplendent in scarlet, meet Mr. Valentino, in classy black and white. Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra, meet Liz Taylor as Cleopatra (and if it's not too catty, did you notice Claudette was better dressed?). The stunning photos are cleverly juxtaposed. Julia Roberts, posed naughtily in see-through undies in the water, is followed by a very properly attired Doris Day in a see-through skirt. Day holds six brightly dyed poodles by white leashes; the composition forms a visual rhyme with the six accusing fingers pointed at Peter Lorre in the next picture. The photo captions by Christopher Hitchens are as succinctly clever as Dorothy Parker, encapsulating entire careers in a punning paragraph. Even if you've seen a shot before, you learn things: in the most notorious still ever snapped at a Hollywood party--the one where Sophia Loren ogled Jayne Mansfield's voluminous bosom--Hitchens tells us the object of Loren's appalled regard was "the strategic dabs of makeup on (Jayne's) nipples." Like any good party, this vast book offers sparkling talk as well as gobs of eye candy. The brilliant Peter Biskind evokes the '70s heyday of superagent Sue Mengers, D.H. Lawrence makes a stab at defining "sex appeal," Patricia Bosworth adds the patented VF dash of scandal in a piece on Lana Turner's gangster boyfriend's murder, and Hitchens gives a quickie history of the fabled Sunset Strip. Not everything rises to the august occasion: Carl Sandburg's poem about Chaplin and Clare Boothe Luce's snooty ode to Garbo are mostly of antiquarian interest. Most of the historic stuff is great (e.g., Fritz Lang directing a crowd scene in Metropolis), and the most austere cineaste should own this book. On practically every page, Vanity Fair's Hollywood dazzles. It's a keeper. --Tim Appelo

Read in conjunction with Lynch's Mulholland Drive.:
A delicious, witty, immensely entertaining and amusing overview of the famous and talented of Hollywood. The photos are absolutely delightful as I imagine they would be by Edward Steichen,Herb Ritts, Irving Penn and (especially) Annie Leibovitz among (many) others. The photos seem to capture the nature of the subjects - Brando so anti glamour, Anjelica Huston so assertive, and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon on the closing page, half naked and in drag, so so ... they're just great subjects/actors. The illustrations are also great as is the prose by Dorothy Parker, P.G. Wodehouse and others. The only disappointment is that in paperback the binding is so fragile that the weight of the pages pulls the book to pieces. My copy has broken completely away from the covers, and not from any rough handling. In hardcover this is a five star enterprise, perhaps one of the best I have seen considering the thousands of books that are associated with that place.

Not enough of the old stuff:
While there were some great vintage articles and photographs, why are pages blown to show wastes like Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, and other I-make -money- because- of- my- looks and not acting ability "artists?" Many obscure silent and early talking stars could've and SHOULD'VE been included. But that's the way it is- nobody cares for the old. Makes a great coffee table book. Get this from the library. I was disappointed. I was done with it in one afternoon.

Vanity Fair's Hollywood:
This is truly a fantastic snapshot of Hollywood at it finest hour of every year that awards where given. Every movie goer should have this on thier coffee table.

I love this book:
I have always loved movie books, and this one on the stars is great. The pictures are really fabulous, and I have spent hours looking through it and reading the text over and over again. My only disappointment is that there is not enough old Hollywood in the book. But, for new Hollywood photos and gossip, this is a primo tome.

Great coffee table book!:
This book is filled with photographs and essays about Hollywood and its stars. There is a wide variety of photographs exhibited here. My only complaint would be that they are not set up in any kind of order. A picture of Jack Nicholson playing golf on one page and then turn the page to find a picture of Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I suppose they thought chronological or theme order would have been too predictable. My favorite photos are: Doris Day (p. 26), the essay and photo of Greta Garbo (pgs. 42-43), James Dean clowning (p. 47), Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren (p.158) the Malibu Beach drawing from 1933 (p.242), Sophia Loren (p. 247), Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney (p. 276), Loretta Young in 1935 and 1999 (pgs.292 and 293) and Olivia de Havilland (p. 310). As you can tell, my interests are toward vintage photos, but there are photos of today's celebs as well, such as Gwyneth Paltrow or Cameron Diaz and these are wonderful photos, too. The pictures in Vanity Fair are always unique and this is a great compilation.