SCANDALS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Based on Petersen's column on the Hairpin, SCANDALS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD is a collection of shocking clashes and controversies from Hollywood's Golden Age, featuring notorious personalities including Judy Garland, James Dean, Jean Harlow, and more.

ASCANDALS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD is a compulsively readable and fun romp through Hollywood’s scandalous past, with as much sex, drugs, drama, and heartbreak as a good film. Pulling little-known gems from the archives of film history, Petersen reveals eyebrow-raising information, including:

- The smear campaign against the original It Girl, Clara Bow, started by her best friend;
- he heartbreaking story of Montgomery Clift’s rapid rise to fame, the car accident that destroyed his face, and the “long suicide” that
followed;
- Fatty Arbuckle’s descent from Hollywood royalty, fueled by allegations of a boozy orgy turned violent assault;
- why Mae West was arrested and jailed for “indecency charges”
- and much, much more.

Part biography, part cultural history, these stories cover love, sex, drugs, illegitimate children, illicit affairs, and botched cover-ups. But it’s not all just tawdry gossip in the pages of this book. The stories are contextualized within the boundaries of film, cultural, political, and gender history, making for a read that will inform as it entertains. Based on Petersen’s popular column on the Hairpin, SCANDALS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD is sensationalism made smart.

Anne Helen Petersen is a professor of film and media studies at Whitman College. She received her PhD from the University of Texas. In addition to writing the “Scandals of Classic Hollywood” column for Hairpin, she maintains a blog called “Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style.”