Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-223) and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- 1. The real estate of crime : the Black Dahlia dumped by the side of the road -- 2. Mobsters and movie stars : crime, punishment, and Hollywood celebrity -- 3. Hollywood confidential : crime and punishment in postwar Los Angeles -- 4. Hollywood's last lonely places : the sad, short stories of Barbara Payton and Marilyn Monroe.
Summary:
"The history of Hollywood's postwar transition is framed by two spectacular dead bodies: Elizabeth Short, AKA the Black Dahlia, found dumped and posed in a vacant lot in January 1947 and Marilyn Monroe, the studio era's last real movie star, discovered dead at her home in August 1962. Short and Monroe are just two of the many left for dead after the collapse of the studio system, Hollywood's awkward adolescence during which the company town's many competing subcultures--celebrities, moguls, mobsters, gossip mongers, industry wannabes, and desperate transients--came into frequent contact and conflict. Hard-Boiled Hollywood focuses on the lives lost at the crossroads between a dreamed-of Los Angeles and the real thing after the Second World War, whose reality was anything but glamorous"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.