In 1959, underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger blew the lid off the gossip industry with his book Hollywood Babylon. Not only did Anger tear off the veil covering the true stories behind celebrity scandals, he generously illustrated his book with rare photos of the crime scenes, showing celebs either in the process of being arrested or how they were discovered after committing suicide. The book rocked the film industry and all of a sudden a bad word in Walter Winchell's column no longer seemed scandalous. The book was reprinted many times over the years and remains a "must-have" in any film fan's library. Anger, whose gay-themed films caused scandals in their day, eventually wrote a sequel to the book in the 1970s and had planned to put out a third version of the book. He never got around to it and now authors Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince have decided to do it for him with a volume titled Hollywood Babylon: It's Back! which brings readers up to date on more recent scandals involving contemporary stars. Upon getting word of the new book, Kenneth Anger, who is terminally ill with cancer, was said to be so livid that he allegedly placed a curse on the authors. We'll take that one with a grain of salt, as it seems to be based on Anger's friendship with departed Satanic cult leader Anton LaVey. Nevertheless, the new book seems to carry on the spirit of Anger's original by giving the film industry the ultimate bitch-slap with stories that explore whether Lucille Ball was a hooker and alleging that Ava Gardner was addicted to visiting bordellos. (Lucky working girls!)
The publishers say the book's 1000 photos don't stint on both full male and female nudity - so, hey, there's something for everyone in the family! Don't forget, Father's Day is almost here and ol' dad would surely like this book more than that case of oil you were going to get him to keep his chainsaw lubed. Click here for more
Click here to order the new version of the book from Cinema Retro's Amazon store
Click here to order Kenneth Anger's original book
