Book Review
The volume has been reviewed in Booklist, which libraries use to make buying decisions.
This treat for Hollywood history buffs offers a look at some of the movie capital’s most interesting locations and the stories connected with them.
Here’s Gower Gulch, a former wheat and barley farm that became the site of Hollywood’s first stage set. Here’s the corner of Sunset and Hollywood boulevards, where D. W. Griffith made “The Birth of a Nation,” and Whitley Heights, where you could once find the homes of Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd. And here’s S. Alvarado Street, where director William D. Taylor was the victim of one of Hollywood’s most perplexing unsolved murders. Wallace, who’s written about Hollywood celebrities for 20 years, knows his material inside out, and he writes in a light, lively style.
The book could use a lot more illustrations, but this lack is balanced by the wealth of little-known information. Unlike the sleazy Hollywood Babylon series and its numerous imitators, Wallace’s account is respectful to the men and women who built the movie industry. A fine addition to the literature of Hollywood.
— David Pitt