An account of Hollywood in the 1950s - arguably America's most flamboyant, prosperous, yet paranoid decade. Its typical publication was "Confidential" magazine, "the most scandalous scandal magazine in the history of the world" whose lens on Hollywood was the window to America's collective fears and fantasies: race, communism, sex, homosexuality, criminality and mistrust of most basic institutions. Hollywood in the 1950s was a bizarre juxtaposition of high and low culture, a place where the sublime paid tribute to the ridiculous. Yet for all their seeming banality, mainstream Hollywood films also dealt with challenging issues such as race ("The Defiant Ones", "Imitation of Life", "Baby Doll"), sex ("Some Like It Hot", "Rebel Without a Cause"), anti-Semitism ("Crossfire"), drug abuse ("The Man With the Golden Arm"), mental illness ("Cobweb", "Lust for Life"), and the possibility of nuclear annihilation ("On the Beach", "Kiss Me Deadly"). This book explores the decade that helped shape the Hollywood of today.

The Bad and the Beautiful : Portraits of Hollywood in the Fifties

Jennifer MacNair

Sam; MacNair Kashner

Humor & Entertainment

Time Warner Paperbacks*

<p>A vivid portrait of power, fame and sex in 1950s Hollywood, from the rise of tabloid journalism to the making of legendary film icons.</p>

The Bad & the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties

Sam Kashner

Movies

Konecky&Konecky

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Books by Jennifer MacNair