"Vanity Fair"'s Hollywood Book

Vanity Fair's Hollywood is the ultimate book on Hollywood. Vanity Fair was launched in New York in 1914, and originally chronicled the gossip and glamour of Hollywood in its heyday, photographing and celebrating the likes of Valentino, Garbo, Howard Hughes, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Cary Grant--the list is stellar and endless. Relaunched in 1983, the magazine faced a very different version of Hollywood, but with photographers of the calibre of Annie Leibowitz and Helmut Newton, the magazine has vividly captured what Gore Vidal calls "a metaphor for all the chaotic time that we had served in the twentieth century". Vanity Fair's Hollywood is a remarkable photographic essay of one of the western world's most fascinating industries, Hollywood, chronicled by one of its most glamorous magazines. Chosen by current Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the book contains hundreds of photographs and 14 essays that "trace nearly a century of Hollywood power and glory, myth and mystery", including written contributions by D.H. Lawrence, Dorothy Parker and P.G. Wodehouse. But what defines this extraordinary book is its photographs. From Cecil Beaton and Edward Steichen to Annie Liebowitz and Herb Ritts, here are iconic images of the 20th century, from Sophia Loren regarding Jayne Mansfield's cleavage, to Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dragging up one more time in front of Annie Liebowitz in 1995. Absolutely everyone who is anyone is in this book, and what a book it is. --Jerry BrottonRead More