Well-Hung Hollywood The Larger View (Penile Pertinence in Hollywood) Tarzan vs. Hollywood’s Most Seductive Latino Change Partners and Dance (Lex Barker vs. Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner vs. Arlene Dahl) Johnny Weissmuller and the Tarzan Yell Six Not-So-Apelike Ape Men Forrest Tucker -- Ride ‘Em, Cowboy (Hollywood’s Incorrigible Gunslinger) Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) Carried Two Bats The Man Behind the Rifle John C. Holmes King of Porn (Have Penis, Will Travel) The Wonderland Murders Bill Dakota, The Hollywood Star Dakota’s Letterbox Freddy Frank and His Monstrous Organ Jockstrap Awards to Hollywood’s Recent Contenders Today’s Victors in the Battle of the Bulge Testimonial from a Swedish Bombshell About Warren Beatty Don Johnson The Size of It Hollywood Confidential Richard Gere, Cindy Crawford, and All Those Rumors Joan Crawford’s Bisexual Husbands Bette Davis Fasten Your Seat Belt Ava Gardner Men, Matadors, and an Occasional Female Rita Hayworth A Fondness for Bisexual Men Bette Midler The Gay Man’s Diva Marilyn Monroe From Streetwalker to Legendary Goddess Dolly Parton a Lesbian? No, Not That! Surely Not! Elizabeth Taylor here’s Nothing Like a Dame! Mamie Van Doren She Even Seduced Rock Hudson Mae West Size Does Matter MM and Shelley Winters Roommates Who Swing? Sheen vs. Richards Hollywood’s Nastiest (Recent) Divorce In the 1930s, Lucille Ball (The Lucy We Loved) Was a Hooker The Secret Life of Lucy Ricardo Lucy’s Early Hollywood Adventures Screwing Around in Golden Age Hollywood Lucy Meets Ricky An Aging Lucy Says “Down with Love” Lucille at Twilight Lucy and Marilyn Gossip About Bob Mitchum Desi Arnaz and His Gay Caballero Gay, Holy, and Closeted Pope Paul VI Doin’ the Vatican Rag How Sir Winston Got “Musical” with Ivor Novello An Early Adventure of a Curious Sir Winston Whatever Happened to Judy Garland’s Body? Fan-Worship and Necrophilia in New York Judy and Her Monster Man Bordello-Hopping With Ava Gardner A Temptress Who Drove Sinatra to the Brink of Suicide “We Want Rudi in the Nudi!” (Rudolf Nureyev) A Star Portrays Another Star and a Legend is Born A Tribute to Nijinsky The Love of His Life (Erik Bruhn) Errol Flynn, Vietnam, & the Torture and Disappearance of His Son Sean Father & Son Swashbucklers on the Road to Hell The Sad Story of Cary Grant, His Troubled Millionairess, and His Beloved Lancelot An Heiress, a Movie Star, & a Million-Dollar Baby Bette Davis Offscreen Murderess Whatever Happened to Bette’s Mysterious 2nd Husband? (Off-screen murderess?) Rolling His Stones Getting Naked with Mick Jagger Mick Jagger Leaves No Stone Unturned Billy the Kid--Howard Hughes’s Toyboy The Aviator as Sexual Outlaw Schwarzenegger The Last Action Hero Do These Photographs Represent the Next President of the United States? Daniel Radcliffe’s Equus Most of Harry Potter’s Fans Denounced It as “Teenage Porn” Tony Randall Life in the Closet Isn’t Funny Secretly Gay Offscreen and Secretly Gay Onscreen, Too Gay Extortion How Rock Hudson Coped with Blackmail Live Fast, Die Young Elvis, James Dean, & Johnny Reb Rebel Without a Cause The “Chemistry” Between James Dean & Sal Mineo Was James Dean a Child Molester? Boulevard of Broken Dreams When Presley Went West To Mae West, That Is... Elvis and the Richest Woman in the World When Doris Duke Met Her Idol A Marilyn Monroe Quartet Another Year, Another President MM’s Fling With Ronald Reagan Dream Couple MM and Elvis.....Love Me Tender The Rape of Marilyn Monroe Goodbye Norma Jeane, Hello Marilyn Monroe When Titans Clash--The Night Jackie Confronted Marilyn Tomfoolery--The Saga of Tom Cruise, et al. Mission Improbable Cruise Control Putting the Moves on His Girlfriend in the Early 80s Box Office Poison Hollywood’s Most Hated Actor Is Tom Cruise Really a Top Gun? Ronald Reagan Junior’s Risky Business Tom Cruise Sues and Wins His Court Case Against a Gay Porno Star Penelope & Salma Latina and Gorgeous, but Gay? Ewan McGregor Letting it all Hang Out Those Bisexual Rumours About Jake Gyllenhaal McConaughey & Armstrong Call It a “Bro-Mance” Index |
1) Your book has generated a buzz within the Entertainment Industry? Are you also publishing nude pictures? America’s journalists during Hollywood’s “golden age” were in the grip of strong censorship machines whose rules were enforced by legal precedents (liability issues) and prevailing standards of “decency.” Newspaper editors prided themselves on distributing “All the news that’s fit to print.” And revelations about the sexual underground of Hollywood was not considered anything fit to print. Especially since Hollywood’s movie factory was churning out films boosting American morale during the darkest days of World War II, Korea, and the Cold War. Our intention involved producing a book where the wide, sweeping overview of scandals would be presented like a time- line, or “continuum” that began in the 1930s and culminated in some of the modern-day upsets that have gripped America’s media machine. Yes, there is an overview of some recent brouhahas involving modern stars—but those overviews are (at least by me) viewed as contemporary episodes within the larger context of a scandal-soaked overview . A “bookend” to a larger context. We’re bemused by the fact that many publications are focusing more or less exclusively on the importance of our coverage of recent Hollywood events….. Frankly, about a zillion tabloids have already covered each of our contemporary stories perhaps better than we did. Nude pictures of hundreds of celebrities have been repeatedly splashed all over the internet, as many voyeurs fully realize already. Our skill, if you like, has involved placing "old-but-new-again" scandals into perspective with "new-but-growing-old-fast" scandals as an overview of America’s changing definitions over the past 85 years of Sin, Exhibitionism, and Sexuality. Yes, there are some nude photos in this book. But they’re a lot tamer than what you can buy in any porno magazine around the corner, and a LOT tamer than what's being blasted across the Internet every millisecond. The real value of this book involves new information about scandals past, and as such, we present it to the reading public as a saucy but harmless historical recitation of old-but-new-again sensationalism. And, if I dare say it, the stories really are interesting.... with a repertoire of anecdotes for a lifetime of indiscreet dinner party dialogues. 2) All the things in the book are true stories or also urban legends? We’ve been very careful to print the stories with their sources built into the text. “The Truth” is an elusive chimera which even major mainstream publications struggle to define. We’re not presumptuous enough to try to define “The Ultimate Truth” (only God in Her Wisdom can do that….LOL) Our job as reporters is to present an alternative view of Hollywood history—the view from behind the camera as it was discussed by hipsters in the entertainment industry with the tacit agreement that what they were saying would not be printed by the contemporary press. There are a lot of reports about what was gossiped about during drunken dinner parties in the Hollywood Hills between, say, 1935 and today. Our goal at Blood Moon involves resurrecting, to the best of our abilities, these stories and “oral histories” without making claims that the tales are ironbound or irrefutable, or the kind of thing that might be re-printed by the Encyclopedia Britannica. They are, however, to the best of our abilities, the printed version of previously unprintable stories whose truth as been reasonably well documented to the best of our abilities as journalists. Were we in bed with these movie stars, as part of a threesome, when various boudoir indiscretions were taking place? Absolutely not. Have we laid out what the rumors were as described by credible sources (usually first or secondhand, in some rare instances thirdhand?) Yes. And have scattered OTHER publications mentioned these episodes in other printed sources? YES. In some cases we’re breaking new ground. In other cases, there’s already a body of printed sources backing up our claims. We are not re-inventing the wheel—we’re merely functioning to our best abilities as reporters. 3) Will you tell us a few stories about modern stars that you featured in your book? We’ve been interested in the way various mainstream publications have handled their overviews of this book, what they’ve chosen to emphasize. The first section of this book is rather raunchily entitled “Penile Pertinance in Hollywood—Size Does Matter.” It lays out the argument that male beauty, and male sexual allure has been as important for commercial salesmanship as female beauty, and female sexual allure. And whereas women’s breast size has been the “safer” way to grab an audience’s attention ‘lo these many years, the unstated truth is that the appeal of the male appendage is now openly discussed at bars throughout (liberal) America as easily as breast size. Tales about modern stars? I dunno. The book will provide those anecdotes in their appropriate, source-documented contexts, but frankly, those insights into modern stars are NOT the most intriguing aspect of what’s in this book. And it's not the first time many of these particular anecdotes have been presented to the printed medium. The merit of this book lies in its ability to present an entire “anthology” of scandal which runs like a timeline through eras of Hollywood that are a lot more riveting than what’s going on in Hollywood today. But without some insight into present-day Hollywood, the book would not have its sense of historical overview and timeline continuity. 4) How long did it take you to write this book? I am the junior writer of this title, the “enabler,” if you like, who helped in a thousand practical and morally supportive ways to make the book a touchable, marketable reality. The real genius behind these texts and the historian behind many years of research is Darwin Porter. (Incidentally, he is a well-known travel writer who has described, within Frommer’s Italy, the touristic wonders of Italy since the title’s inception, through many years and many updated annual editions. Many restaurant and hotel owners throughout your country are familiar with his work, as it has encouraged business to their establishments from thousands upon thousands of North American readers for longer than I care to admit.) Darwin is the respected author of at least five major biographies, four of which have been serialized by major newspapers of the UK (The Sunday Times and The Mail on Sunday) and Australia (The Australian and Women's Weekly). The research for Darwin’s “opus” began when he was in his early 20s as an entertainment columnist for The Miami Herald, during the era when Miami rivaled Las Vegas as a show-biz mecca. So during the compilation of interviews for these major, full-length biographies, dozens of other “situations” became apparent—“situations” which were not suitable for presentation in a full-length book. Blood Moon kept stuffing filing cabinets with additional information about various celebrity indiscretions—information which was at the time peripheral to the immediate goal of producing full-length biographies about, among others, Katharine Hepburn, Howard Hughes, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, and Michael Jackson. And about a year ago, we decided to compile an anthology of something like 50 different chapters about, say, 70 different Hollywood “embarrassments.” Those were the origins of this book. And research on the topic has, in a strange way, been one of the motivating factors of Darwin Porter’s life. He is virtually obsessed by the subject of fame in America— and has been studying it and compiling information about it since he was a cub reporter back at the Miami Herald. 5) What's the difference between this new Hollywood Babylon and the old one? Kenneth Anger’s book was published in Paris in the late 1950s, since its revelations were considered too hot, and too libelous, for any American publisher to distribute at the time. They were edited and reprinted in America in 1976, and later editions emerged a few years later. They’re still enjoying a slow but steady ongoing sale on Amazon.com. The concept of Hollywood as a “sink of iniquity,” and the allegory of Hollywood as “An American Babylon” is certainly not new, and pre- dated Kenneth Anger. Actually, the concept of Babylon as a centerpiece for Sin is as old as the Bible. We acknowledge Kenneth Anger’s book as a “takeoff point” for our own (newer) book, but he was not involved in its creation or production in any way. We have, we think, produced an updated view of Hollywood as Babylon. And in comparison to what’s in our book, the older version in comparison looks downright demure. 6) Why did you write this book? Why do you think gossip and sex scandals are so important in our society now? I sometimes refer to Blood Moon’s corporate mission as an attempt to amplify America’s cultural history with additional information about its cultural roots, specifically as they relate to the history of its entertainment industry. We don’t intend a full-out war with the Hollywood press and publicity machine (they’re simply too rich and too deeply entrenched). We do propose, however, that the information we bring to the light of publication should be presented in conjunction with the older, more traditional texts. For example, it is highly doubtful that Grace Kelly was a virgin when she married Rainier of Monaco. But a recent biography of Miss Kelly (we're NOT referring, by the way, to the very fine recent biography by Wendy Leigh) asserted that she WAS a virgin, and in some journalistic outlets of America, the biography was applauded as 1) historically accurate, and 2) that the book “upheld American values,” and that it respected “cherished Hollywood standards.” ICK!!! UGH!!. Americans are increasingly hip and increasingly cynical about media and publicity. And Darwin Porter is deeply committed, as part of his literary “opus” to exposing his body of research to the world as a “correction” of those bourgeois and safe standards upon which part of America’s moral code was built. For the record, we adored Grace Kelly. She was a magical actress, she had a fascinating life and she did a bang-up job as a force for good within Monaco. But she was NOT A VIRGIN when she married Rainier, despite the reams of publicity that the media machine produced at the time of her wedding. Ironically, details about the REAL life and pain and temptations she faced are vastly more interesting than the candy-cane versions pumped out by the Hollywood press and PR machine. Thus derives, we believe, the allure of this book we’ve produced. Thus the passion from readers who are responding on some deep emotional level to the authenticity of what we’re publishing. The information we’ve published is indeed lurid and raunchy. (Are those words necessarily pejorative in the new Hollywood? London’s Sunday Times used those words as praise for Darwin Porter’s 2007 biography of Marlon Brando (Brando Unzipped) They referred to that book as “Lurid, raunchy, perceptive, certainly worth reading….and one of the best show-biz biographies of the year.” Allow me to emphatically stress the following points: It is not our fault that these supremely sexy, supremely attractive public figures talked dirty, acted lurid, and were in some cases raunchily exhibitionistic and promiscuous within a context where they were for the most part protected from public exposure. It is not my job to clean up the reports we’ve—in our roles as historians and journalists—collected ‘lo these many years. It is not our fault that some American libraries and school districts would reject these reportages as “too earthy” or “too sexually provocative” for placement on their shelves. America is in the midst of a sometimes violent cultural war , and many aficionados of the old Hollywood—hell-bent on preserving a certain kind of image—want these revelations suppressed. We hope that the world will see this presentation of “new but old” information as a valid contribution. And it is my hope that the lurid aspects of our work will be tolerated because of the insights which our books provide about “the way it was” for Hollywood historians and movie buffs. 7) Tell me something more about you and the other author... Long time friends and partners Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince have been jointly collaborating on the creation and production of books since they met in 1982. An ongoing columnist and radio commentator, Darwin was instrumental in the formation of what is now America’s foremost travel guidebook series (The Frommer Guides, now an imprint of the travel division of John Wiley & Sons Publishers) since the late 1960s, and has remained a prominent player ever since. He has been assisted since 1982 by Danforth Prince, a former reporter at the Paris branch of The New York Times. In 1997, Dan established The Georgia Literary Association, an organization devoted to the distribution of works by otherwise obscure southern writers, and in 2004, he established Blood Moon Productions, Ltd., winner of several prominent literary awards for its revelations about the undercover lives of American celebrities. And although Blood Moon does NOT specifically define itself as a gay or lesbian press, it publishes an annual and much-respected Guide to Gay and Lesbian Film, the world’s only published overview of each previous year’s GLBT films from around the world. |
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| Hollywood Babylon IT'S BACK! Volume One The hottest compendium of inter-generational scandal in the history of Hollywood. By Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince ISBN 978-0-9748118-8-8 Hardcover. 408 pages and about a thousand photos. $24.95 ***** All the scandal previously unfit to print! LURID but unknown scandals from Hollywood's Golden Age, as well as shocking rundowns of today's scandals-in-the-making. From the Golden Age of beautiful bombshells and handsome hunks to today's sleaziest, most corrupt, and most deliciously indecorous but still glamorous hotties |
For decades, there’s been speculation that somebody, somewhere, would produce an updated version of Hollywood Babylon, perhaps even more notorious than the first two volumes compiled a half-century ago by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger. For pop culture fanatics, his books became an underground legend. Anger’s original version had to be published in Paris, as it was too hot for America at the time. But beliefs about celebrities, sexuality, and morality have changed radically since then. New waves of narcissists, exhibitionists, and looney toons have invaded the entertainment industry. The gossip industry has transformed America into a nation of voyeurs. By today’s standards, Anger’s spin on Babylon looks downright demure. With a respectful nod to those long-ago statements by Kenneth Anger (who, incidentally, was not involved in the production of this book) Blood Moon is proud to release another Hollywood Babylon, in this case more shocking and more scandalous than before. Within this first volume, we visit Babylon as well as Sodom and Gomorrah. And we don’t deal just with Hollywood’s Golden Age— we zero in on some present-day brouhahas as well. Buyer beware: The scandals exposed within this book are not for the faint-of-heart. You might not think of the old pinups in quite the same way after reading this edition. Those offended by male movie stars dropping trou for offscreen cameras should stick to Alice in Wonderland. It’s true: We’re not shy about male nudity, or even female nudity. Today, nudity in films is commonplace. Anyone with a computer can see Colin Farrell, for example, performing cunnilingus on a Playboy beauty, or showing off his ten-inch pecker. In the past, the porno films made by major movie stars (including Joan Crawford and Sylvester Stallone) were enveloped in a sense of secrecy and, perhaps, shame. Today, what would previously have been defined as pornography regularly makes its way onto the screen. Within this book, Blood Moon daringly applies the gossipy reportage of today to the tabloid scandals of yesterday—think Confidential Magazine on amphetimines with access to the Internet. Breast measurements of Hollywood bombshells are being widely publicized. Even the mainstream press has gotten more graphic. Time Magazine has even published the length (in inches) of Hugh Grant’s penis. Scandal is not limited just to events within America. Within this edition of Hollywood Babylon, it goes global. As such, we visit the Vatican boudoir of a former pope and his male lovers. And we document Sir Winston Churchill’s onetime sexual liaison with Britain’s most handsome actor. There’s more. Revealed for the first time are stories about James Dean, the child molester; Bette Davis, offscreen murderess; Errol Flynn, the incestuous father; Ava Gardner, the part-time lesbian; and Marilyn Monroe’s involvements with Jackie Kennedy and Elvis Presley. We’ll even tell you about what happened to Judy Garland’s body before it was finally laid to rest. And for those size queens out there, both male and female, we’ll reveal the past and present-day winners of the Heavy Jockstrap awards. Hollywood celebrity biographer Darwin Porter and former New York Times reporter Danforth Prince take you on a roller-coaster ride through the scandals of yesterday and today. An early reviewer referred to this book as “A movieland massacre, followed by an autopsy with a scalpel whose cutting edge is coated with Lucretia Borgia’s poison.” It’s about The Good, The Bad, and the Fabulous. To those who love her, Hollywood was and is a gossipy, mendacious (Big Daddy’s word), and whorish place that remains captivating despite the passage of time. In this, an updated new spin on Hollywood as Babylon, it’s depicted at its sleaziest, most venal, and most deliciously unseemly. Rock Hudson said it all: “In Hollywood you can keep a mistress, or a boyfriend, maybe both. You can go gay, bi-, or pan-sexual. Just don’t tell anybody and don’t get caught. What do you expect when you bring the world’s most beautiful people together in the same town?” |
| Hollywood Babylon-It's Back, Volume One TABLE OF CONTENTS (Just so you know what the fuss is about) |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Blood Moon announces Hollywood Babylon—IT’S BACK!, an anthology of indiscretion compiled from the entertainment industry of yesteryear and today. In comparison, it makes the original Hollywood Babylon, by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, look almost demure. Hollywood Babylon, IT’S BACK is unlike any other book on Hollywood ever written. Permeated with humor and beautifully written by one of America’s leading celebrity biographers, it contains revelations which have always been known to a select 500 or so ultimate Hollywood insiders, but never confided to the general public, and never before committed to print. The following quotes derive from its co-author, Darwin Porter, whose earlier works have included such critically acclaimed exposes as Brando Unzipped; Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel; Hepburn (Katharine the Great) and The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart “The tabloid treatments of today go way beyond what was permissible during Hollywood’s Golden Age. We’ve taken a deep breath, borrowed a trick or two from the paparazzi, and compiled these carefully documented anecdotes through the filters of a post-millennium psyche. What emerges is a sweeping—- and we think, amusing—human drama based on 85 years of Hollywood indiscretion.” Are there equivalencies in celebrity behavior between “the Golden Age” and today? “Ego, greed, betrayal, sexual excess, and exhibitionism never go out of style. The Judeo-Christian world is aware of the associations of ancient Babylon with the ongoing phenomena of Hollywood’s ‘in-your-face’ debauchery. And with that in mind, we’ve deliberately focused on the concept of Hollywood depravity as an embarrassment of riches for this ‘anthology of embarrassments.’” Were the scandals of Hollywood in the 40s as juicy as those produced in recent years? “Definitely yes. But because the libel laws were stricter, many of the best stories never got published, despite the fact that most of them were well-known to at least 500 or so Hollywood insiders. We've documented the evolution of what America accepts as entertaining then and now, and we’ve compared the seamy side of American icons as appreciated by our grandparents to the American icons of 2008. For example, Lucille Ball's status as an American role model was, ‘till now, virtually impeccable. But despite her hard-scrabble past and her occasional lapses in virtue, she was a virtual saint compared to some of the lesser divas of today.” Have the scandals of Hollywood gotten juicier since the Golden Age? Not necessarily. But the entertainment industry's penchant for voyeurism, narcissism, and exhibitionism go back deeper and longer into the fabric of America’s history and subconscious than many readers ever would have thought possible. And bringing those scandals of yesterday back for the insights they provide into the evolution of the American experience is what this book is all about. |
In May of 2008, a respected member of the Italian Press cited an urgent rush to get information about this title into an upcoming edition of her publication. Here are the questions she asked, with our answers to those questions: |
| She's rushing to buy her copy of Hollywood Babylon Because IT'S BACK! |
| About BABYLON Click on the link (to the immediate right) for a view of one of the authors of this book babbling on about the compilation of this book.. Lights! Camera! Click! |
| Hollywood's Babylonian Whore (above) as depicted by Fritz Lang. |
Coming Soon (in May of 2010) Volume Two of Blood Moon's BABYLON Series Featuring an all-new roster of scandals Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again! ISBN 978-1-936003-12-9 |
| WHAT THE CRITICS SAID "You know, everyone thinks Hollywood is a cesspool of epic proportions today, but please! It's always been that way. And if you love smutty celebrity dirt as much as I do (and if you don't, what's wrong with you? Ya got morals or something?), then have I got a book for you!" The Hollywood Offender This monumentally exhaustive collection of sins, foibles, failings, and sexual adventures is the ultimate guilty pleasure--and publisher Blood Moon pledges that it's merely volume one." Books to Watch Out For |