AUDIOBOOK
About
The Day of the Locust meets The Devil in the White City and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in this juicy, untold Hollywood story: an addictive true account of ambition, scandal, intrigue, murder, and the creation of the modern film industry.
By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies-including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
In a fiendishly involving narrative, bestselling Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to uncover the story of the enigmatic Taylor and the diverse group of people who surrounded him-including three beautiful, ambitious actresses; a grasping stage mother; a devoted valet; and a gang of two-bit thugs, any of whom might have fired the fatal bullet. And overseeing this entire landscape of intrigue was Adolph Zukor, the brilliant and ruthless founder of Paramount Pictures, locked in a struggle for control of the industry and desperate to conceal the truth about the crime. Along the way, Mann brings to life Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties: a sparkling yet schizophrenic town filled with party girls, drug dealers, religious zealots, newly minted legends, and starlets already past their prime-a dangerous place where the powerful could still run afoul of the desperate.
A true story recreated with the suspense of a novel, Tinseltown is the work of a storyteller at the peak of his powers-and the solution to a crime that has stumped detectives and historians for nearly a century. Title Info. Dedication. "The Luckiest Man Alive"
Prologue: A Cold Morning in Southern California
Part One: Suspects, Motives, and Circumstances. Chapter 1 A Man Called Creepy
Chapter 2. Babylon
Chapter 3. Three Desperate Dames
Chapter 4. The Orator
Chapter 5. A Race to the Top
Chapter 6. Mabel
Chapter 7. Gibby
Chapter 8. Mary
Chapter 9. Rivals and Threats
Chapter 10. Good-Time Girl
Chapter 11. Locusts
Chapter 12. The Maddest Woman
Chapter 13. Impudent Things
Chapter 14. Dope Fiends
Chapter 15. Greater Than Love
Chapter 16. The Sex Thrill
Chapter 17. Prying Eyes
Chapter 18 . So This Is What Is Going On
Chapter 19. Five Thousand Feet of Immorality
Chapter 20. Bunco Babe
Chapter 21. Among the Lions
Chapter 22. Depravity
Chapter 23. Questions of Loyalty
Chapter 24. A Cluster of Calamities
Chapter 25. A Product of the Gutters
Chapter 26. Riding for a Fall
Chapter 27. Bad Checks
Chapter 28. The Highest Possible Standards
Chapter 29. On Edge
Chapter 30. A Work So Important
Chapter 31. A Ghastly Strain
Chapter 32. A House in the Hills
Chapter 33. Last Day
Chapter 34. A Shot
Part Two: Hunting, Hustling, and Hiding. Chapter 35. The Dead Man on the Floor
Chapter 36. Reactions
Chapter 37. King of the Cops
Chapter 38. The Moral Failures of One Concern
Chapter 39. "Do You Think that I Killed Mr. Taylor?"
Chapter 40. Powder Burns
Chapter 41. Evidence Found
Chapter 42. Dames Even More Desperate
Chapter 43. The Need for Vigilance
Chapter 44. Taking Him for a Fool
Chapter 45. Mr. Hays Goes to Work
Chapter 46. The Morbidly Curious
Chapter 47. Her Own Boss
Chapter 48. No Time to Talk
Chapter 49. A Great Injustice Has Been Done
Chapter 50. A Question of Motives
Chapter 51. A Company of Outlaws
Chapter 52. The Savior
Chapter 53. The Sky's the Limit
Chapter 54. The Spirits Speak
Chapter 55. Last Chance
Chapter 56. Evidence Missing
Chapter 57. Trigger Happy
Chapter 58. A Cold-Blooded Business
Chapter 59. No Happy Endings
Chapter 60. Raising Capital
Chapter 61. A New Man on the Job
Chapter 62. Unfair Competition
Chapter 63. Trapped Like Rats
C
By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies-including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
In a fiendishly involving narrative, bestselling Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to uncover the story of the enigmatic Taylor and the diverse group of people who surrounded him-including three beautiful, ambitious actresses; a grasping stage mother; a devoted valet; and a gang of two-bit thugs, any of whom might have fired the fatal bullet. And overseeing this entire landscape of intrigue was Adolph Zukor, the brilliant and ruthless founder of Paramount Pictures, locked in a struggle for control of the industry and desperate to conceal the truth about the crime. Along the way, Mann brings to life Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties: a sparkling yet schizophrenic town filled with party girls, drug dealers, religious zealots, newly minted legends, and starlets already past their prime-a dangerous place where the powerful could still run afoul of the desperate.
A true story recreated with the suspense of a novel, Tinseltown is the work of a storyteller at the peak of his powers-and the solution to a crime that has stumped detectives and historians for nearly a century. Title Info. Dedication. "The Luckiest Man Alive"
Prologue: A Cold Morning in Southern California
Part One: Suspects, Motives, and Circumstances. Chapter 1 A Man Called Creepy
Chapter 2. Babylon
Chapter 3. Three Desperate Dames
Chapter 4. The Orator
Chapter 5. A Race to the Top
Chapter 6. Mabel
Chapter 7. Gibby
Chapter 8. Mary
Chapter 9. Rivals and Threats
Chapter 10. Good-Time Girl
Chapter 11. Locusts
Chapter 12. The Maddest Woman
Chapter 13. Impudent Things
Chapter 14. Dope Fiends
Chapter 15. Greater Than Love
Chapter 16. The Sex Thrill
Chapter 17. Prying Eyes
Chapter 18 . So This Is What Is Going On
Chapter 19. Five Thousand Feet of Immorality
Chapter 20. Bunco Babe
Chapter 21. Among the Lions
Chapter 22. Depravity
Chapter 23. Questions of Loyalty
Chapter 24. A Cluster of Calamities
Chapter 25. A Product of the Gutters
Chapter 26. Riding for a Fall
Chapter 27. Bad Checks
Chapter 28. The Highest Possible Standards
Chapter 29. On Edge
Chapter 30. A Work So Important
Chapter 31. A Ghastly Strain
Chapter 32. A House in the Hills
Chapter 33. Last Day
Chapter 34. A Shot
Part Two: Hunting, Hustling, and Hiding. Chapter 35. The Dead Man on the Floor
Chapter 36. Reactions
Chapter 37. King of the Cops
Chapter 38. The Moral Failures of One Concern
Chapter 39. "Do You Think that I Killed Mr. Taylor?"
Chapter 40. Powder Burns
Chapter 41. Evidence Found
Chapter 42. Dames Even More Desperate
Chapter 43. The Need for Vigilance
Chapter 44. Taking Him for a Fool
Chapter 45. Mr. Hays Goes to Work
Chapter 46. The Morbidly Curious
Chapter 47. Her Own Boss
Chapter 48. No Time to Talk
Chapter 49. A Great Injustice Has Been Done
Chapter 50. A Question of Motives
Chapter 51. A Company of Outlaws
Chapter 52. The Savior
Chapter 53. The Sky's the Limit
Chapter 54. The Spirits Speak
Chapter 55. Last Chance
Chapter 56. Evidence Missing
Chapter 57. Trigger Happy
Chapter 58. A Cold-Blooded Business
Chapter 59. No Happy Endings
Chapter 60. Raising Capital
Chapter 61. A New Man on the Job
Chapter 62. Unfair Competition
Chapter 63. Trapped Like Rats
C