The Gang That Shot Up Hollywood: Chronicles of a Chronicle Writer (Vol. 1)

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Grady Harp, August 24, 2011 (view all comments by Grady Harp)
Hooray for Hollywood! Hooray for John Stanley!!!!!,

THE GANG THAT SHOT UP HOLLYWOOD deserves to be on the bestseller list for folks who love the inside stories of Hollywood. John Stanley has ploughed the riches of Hollywood for over thirty years as a reporter and entertainment writer for the jazzy Pink Section of the San Francisco Chronicle as in that role he has garnered more friendships and trusted affiliations with the oldies but goodies stars that were the icons of Hollywood in the good old days. This hefty book is full of photographs of many of the most famous men and women of the silver screen as well as the almost greats who now in retrospect are interesting oddities for re-evaluation. But these stories are not the summation of a career of reporting on the entertainment industry - far from it. Stanley has gathered the facts form his files and then has taken those factual entries and then expanded on them in up to date interviews - or just creative fantasy writing (after all, the subject is the make believe world of Hollywood where gossip is as sacred as fact.

But get ready for some heady information form Stanley as he interviews the Clint Eastwood few of us know - the complete saga of Dirty Harry. There are chapters on James Stewart, Karl Malden, Chuck Norris, Robert Mitchum and so many other stars that explore the untold truths about them all. Stanley's technique of writing is so immediate he makes feel as though we are in on the interviews. He takes excursions into the whole story of Iwo Jima (and incidentally John Wayne!) in a way that few other writers have dared to venture and that section alone is worth the rice of the book - Hollywood mixed with reality in a flammable manner that makes reading this journal like picking up an historical novel! In discussing Robert Mitchum we discover that Stanley know both Robert and his brother John and explains the mysteries that surround the incarceration of Robert due to Drugs.....who knew....?

And Stanley doesn't desert the ladies. Here are extended stories about the beauties such as Lauren Bacall, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Russell and the less known but at times more talented Ida Lupino, Marie Windsor, Colleen Gray, the puzzle of 'Baby Doll' Carroll Baker, Anne Francis, Evelyn Keyes (remember her?) - sharing the influence these queens had on the men around them and the use of them as flags for the cinema.

Stanley carried a show called 'Creature Features' for six years int he San Francisco area and on these shows he interviewed such a spectrum as Ray Bradbury, Vincent Price, Roger Corman, Leonard Nimoy and, incidentally, Arnold Schwarzenegger! Tasty tidbits, these. it is this additive mixture to his book that makes Stanley's views of 'Hollywood' and the characters and caricatures that represented that glossy stock that makes this photoalbum cum memoir so engrossing. This is a trip down memory lane, rich in humor and excitement and a LOT of surprises about actors we all thought we knew so well.

Grady Harp

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780940064133

Publisher:

Creatures at Large

Subject:

Film - General

Author:

Stanley, John

Subject:

Film and Television-Reference

Edition Description:

Trade Paper

Series Volume:

Chronicles of a Chro

Publication Date:

20111131

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Language:

English

Pages:

212

Dimensions:

11 x 8.5 in