Alternative content

Testimonials

"The Midnight Palace is the premiere Classic Hollywood website!"
-Casey LaLonde
Grandson of Joan Crawford

image

image

Stepin Fetchit:
The First Black Superstar

Stepin Fetchit

Book Reviews
Written by Gary Sweeney   

Biographies and books pertaining to Classic Hollywood are like a window into the reality behind the characters. The actors and actresses have become so revered over time that it's easy to forget how vulnerable they were. We feel that books are a vital part of understanding the era and we will review those we read on this page.

A

A Cast of Killers

A Star is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration

Alma Rubens: Silent Snowbird

Audrey Hepburn - An Elegant Spirit

B

Barbara Stanwyck - A Biography

C

Cary Grant - A Biography

Century Girl - 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis

Chaplin - A Life

Charles McGraw - Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy

Chasing Carole

Clark Gable - Tormented Star

D

Dark Victory - The Life of Bette Davis

Don't Wear Silver in the Winter

E

F

Florence Lawrence - The Biograph Girl

G

George Raft - The Man Who Would Be Bogart

Googies - Coffeeshop to the Stars

H

Harpo Speaks!

Howard Hughes - The Untold Story

I

J

Joan Blondell - A Life Between Takes

K

Kate - The Woman Who Was Hepburn

L

Love, Lucy

Lucy at the Movies

M

Mrs. Ziegfeld: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke

My Judy Garland Life

N

O

Olive Thomas - The Life & Death of a Silent Film Beauty

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: From the Secret Files of Harry Pennypacker

Otto Preminger - The Man Who Would Be King

P

Paul Bern: The Life and Famous Death of the MGM Director and Husband of Harlow

Q

R

Reluctant Witness - Robert Taylor, Hollywood and Communism

S

Silent Movies - The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture

Star Machine, The

Staying Up Much Too Late...

T

U

Under the Rainbow...

V

W

Wallace Reid - The Life & Death of a Hollywood Idol

WAMPAS Baby Stars: A Biographical Dictionary, 1922-1934, The

X

Y

Z

 

Add comment



Refresh

 Harlow in Hollywood...

Jean Harlow. The name resonates. Platinum Blonde. Blonde Bombshell. The labels applied by press agents during Harlow's seven-year career carry a charge 70 years later. An actress who died in 1937 has currency in 21st-Century culture. Harlow's films make new fans, whether in revival theaters, on cable television, or on DVD. Vintage Harlow photographs sell for as much as $14,000, and camera negatives for as much as $50,000. Chat room fans debate the cause of her husband's suicide and that of her own death. The movies' first blonde sex symbol has become a legend. In fact, Harlow is the very prototype of all the blonde icons who have followed, from Marilyn Monroe to Jayne Mansfield, an original blueprint for glamour and tragedy. In this, the centennial year of Jean Harlow's birth, Harlow expert Darrell Rooney and Hollywood historian Mark Vieira team to present the most beautiful -- and accurate -- book on Harlow ever produced. With more than 280 images, Harlow in Hollywood makes a case for Harlow as an Art Deco artifact in an iconic setting. Harlow in Hollywood is the first book devoted to both the Harlow image and the city that spawned it. Click HERE to order!