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


From Publishers Weekly
This lavish, photo-laden tour of Tinsel Town's history is coffee-table condensation of 87 years of Vanity Fair coverage of the Hollywood scene. Visually, it's a thrilling compendium of images that have defined not only the film industry and its workers but how the American public has understood them. Ranging from Edward Steichen's iconographic black-and-white portraits of Louise Brooks, Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg, and Gloria Swanson (which defined the "look" of Hollywood in its first half-century) to the contemporary and often shocking color photographs of Annie Leibovitz (of nearly everyone from Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta to Cate Blanchette and Johnny Depp)Dand peppered with shots by Bruce Weber, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Griege Hurrell and othersDthe book traces how these stars have come to embody pop mythologies of everyday life. The photos are interspersed among 13 (mostly short) essays by writers as diverse as Carl Sandberg, Patricia Bosworth, P.G. Wodehouse, Dorothy Parker, Peter Biskind and D.H. Lawrence, which range from the humorous to the illuminating. While serious film buffs will find nothing terribly new here, Vanity Fair's trademark mix of wit and style, chic and intelligence is guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. (Oct. 23) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Vanity Fair has, from the start, made Hollywood its stomping ground. For its readers, this star-studded book encapsulates a century of the movie mecca's glory, glamour, and scandal. Garbo and Grant, Tracy and Hepburn, Fairbanks and Pickford, Taylor and Burton, the Gishes and the Barrymores rub shoulders with today's cinematic giants in an incomparable collection of luminous images, classic essays, and delightful caricatures from the archives of Vanity Fair from as far back as 1914. Surrveying the brightest stars, moguls, directors, and writers, Vanity Fair's Hollywood is a stylish and definitive focus on timeless glamour, mythic beauty, and unquenchable celebrity.


About the Author
Vanity Fair is the acknowledged authority on Hollywood, celebrity, and entertainment. Graydon Carter is a winner of the National Magazine Award.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Our Review
For as long as there have been moving pictures, there have been movie junkies: those of us sitting spellbound in theaters, basking in the glow of the big screen. An equally fascinating pastime for many has been watching the "real" lives of actors and actresses play out like scripts before our eyes, with all the drama and glamour of their latest box-office project. There is no better place to indulge these habits than between the pages of Vanity Fair's Hollywood, a lavish new collection of photographs, illustrations, and essays culled from legendary Vanity Fair magazine.

The list of celebrities, past and present, that grace the pages of Vanity Fair's Hollywood is extraordinary -- to even begin to name them would take up pages (but if you must know, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin, Robert De Niro, Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise, and Madonna are just a few). However, even more stunning than this lineup of stars is the quality of the images presented in the book. Priceless moments are captured by renowned photographers such as Edward Steichen, Herb Ritts, and Annie Leibovitz. Gorgeous illustrations are rendered by art luminaries such as Miguel Covarrubias, Robert Risko, and David Cowles.

More than just a photographic jaunt through Tinseltown, Vanity Fair's Hollywood also chronicles Hollywood history through written pieces. Gems include a 1918 send-up of the "damsel in distress" cliché by Dorothy Parker, a luminous 1932 profile of Greta Garbo by Clare Boothe Brokaw Luce, an extensive piece on uüberagent Sue Mengers written by Peter Biskind, and a startlingly modern (for 1929) rumination on the power of sex appeal by D. H. Lawrence. Other contributors are gossipmonger Walter Winchell, Patricia Bosworth, Christopher Hitchens -- who also supplied the captions for each photo -- and Dominic Dunne.

Vanity Fair's Hollywood, according to Graydon Carter's introduction, was five years in the making. Clearly a labor of love, it pays magnificent homage to the movies, the people who make them, and the glorious world they inhabit. And above all, it achieves the same end as the best movies do, offering its audience a breathless, heady look inside a world that is as fleeting as a dream.

--Karen Burns

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Vanity Fair has, from the start, made Hollywood its stomping ground. For its readers, this star-studded book encapsulates a century of the movie mecca's glory, glamour, and scandal. Garbo and Grant, Tracy and Hepburn, Fairbanks and Pickford, Taylor and Burton, the Gishes and the Barrymores rub shoulders with today's cinematic giants in an incomparable collection of luminous images, classic essays, and delightful caricatures from the archives of Vanity Fair from as far back as 1914. Surrveying the brightest stars, moguls, directors, and writers, Vanity Fair's Hollywood is a stylish and definitive focus on timeless glamour, mythic beauty, and unquenchable celebrity.

Author Biography: Vanity Fair is the acknowledged authority on Hollywood, celebrity, and entertainment. Graydon Carter is a winner of the National Magazine Award.

SYNOPSIS

Hailed as "the ground zero of modern iconography," Vanity Fair magazine has kept an ever focused eye on Hollywood. In this volume, the editors of Vanity Fair present a century of Hollywood power, glory, glamour, myth, and mystery. The definitive book of its kind, Vanity Fair's Hollywood is an incomparable collection of classic photographs, essays, and caricatures depicting film stars and the motion-picture industry -- directly from the pages of Vanity Fair.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This lavish, photo-laden tour of Tinsel Town's history is coffee-table condensation of 87 years of Vanity Fair coverage of the Hollywood scene. Visually, it's a thrilling compendium of images that have defined not only the film industry and its workers but how the American public has understood them. Ranging from Edward Steichen's iconographic black-and-white portraits of Louise Brooks, Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg, and Gloria Swanson (which defined the "look" of Hollywood in its first half-century) to the contemporary and often shocking color photographs of Annie Leibovitz (of nearly everyone from Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta to Cate Blanchette and Johnny Depp)--and peppered with shots by Bruce Weber, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Griege Hurrell and others--the book traces how these stars have come to embody pop mythologies of everyday life. The photos are interspersed among 13 (mostly short) essays by writers as diverse as Carl Sandberg, Patricia Bosworth, P.G. Wodehouse, Dorothy Parker, Peter Biskind and D.H. Lawrence, which range from the humorous to the illuminating. While serious film buffs will find nothing terribly new here, Vanity Fair's trademark mix of wit and style, chic and intelligence is guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. (Oct. 23) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Internet Book Watch

Vanity Fair's Hollywood draws from the magazine's photo archive to reveal a century's worth of Hollywood images, choosing over 290 of its photos and pairing them with notable writers for added impact. A beautiful visual and verbal history of Hollywood results, suitable for art libraries and coffee tables alike. Well detailed in its essays, Vanity Fair's Hollywood is weightier and packed with information.

Richard Corliss - Time

This is the ultimate Hollywood picture history, convincing us that stars had faces then and, glory be, sill do.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Like a pair of splendid Art Deco bookends...now brought together in a single volume...a kaleidoscope of startling images and urgent voices... — Gore Vidal

Here is a remarkable gallery of personal moments and uninhibited vanities captured forever... — Steven Spielberg

Vanity Fair's Hollywood recreates this powerful sensation. Its striking, beautiful photographs-of the icons of the studios' golden age... — Martin Scorsese

A completely stunning tour of Hollywood's past and present. — Cameron Crowe

This book is a dynamic reflection of the period and its personalities through the eyes of some great photographers. — Tom Cruise

Every page tops the one before . . . You want it to never end. Vanity Fair's evocation of Hollywood is dazzling. — Barry Diller