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50 Books to Understand Hollywood
What is Hollywood? an idea? place? Between them?
What if it was a spicy cocktail? It exudes one whiff of magic accompanied by a huge splash of disappointment, a shot of romance, an ounce of heartbreak, and maybe a tablespoon or two of comedy.
The great thing about this cocktail, then, is that anyone can ask for it: the aspiring actor, director, cinematographer, videographer, screenwriter—all eager to capture a piece of the human experience and gain recognition.
Writers also enjoy taking a sip of this magical beverage. Over many decades, they have reshaped it, highlighting its liminal quality through stories of dashed hopes, discord, and controversy.
In advance of our annual Festival of Books, Times Entertainment & Arts editors embarked on a project to answer the question “What is Hollywood?” By finding the 50 best Hollywood writers of all time.
The list, compiled from a survey of experts in the worlds of publishing and entertainment and written by regular contributors to The Times' film and book coverage, explains the cocktail's appeal and why so many order it again and again, despite its sour taste.
“These 50 titles compare Hollywood to an assembly line, a criminal enterprise, a high-seas expedition, and much more,” my colleague Matt Brennan wrote.
Give our rankings a look. Did we leave your favorite Hollywood writers off the list? What's on your ultimate Hollywood bookshelf? Tell us in this survey by Monday, April 15.
Until then, here are some books that reframe and debunk Hollywood glamor:
(The Times may receive a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
#39: “Toms, Cones, Mulattos, Mammies, and Bucks”
At the time of its publication in 1973, Donald Bogle's novel was the only text to examine American cinema's systematic stereotypes of black characters as the “servile slave,” the “mixed-race savage,” or the “violent black savage.”
“Bogle’s book was practically the birth of the field,” wrote Chris Vognar, a freelance culture writer and former Nieman Fellow for Arts and Culture at Harvard University.
“[The book] He also sought to rescue the humanity of these artists who usually had no other choice but to play the roles assigned to them.
No. 9: “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls”
It's hard to pinpoint the greatest year in Hollywood. But 1974 was a safe bet: The Godfather Part II, Scenes from a Marriage, and Chinatown were released.
Peter Biskind's novel offers an addictive, encyclopedic account of the people behind 1974 being such a remarkable year in American cinema history.
If you're looking for tales of the screenwriters who made these “great pictures” possible, you may be disappointed. Because, as David Kibben, author of The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewriting of the History of American Cinema, writes, Biskind “adheres to the pernicious and pervasive auteur theory, which insists that even directors who do not write are the ‘authors’ of their films.”
No. 1: “Play it like it is”
Joan Didion's novel is a sophisticated study of a decadent Hollywood, saturated with “fake movies, predatory, hired men and predators,” as Matt writes. “The most remarkable aspect of Didion's portrait is not the harsh precision with which it displays filmmaking then, but the clarity with which it corresponds to filmmaking now.”
If your agent doesn't attend an important meeting or you attend an exclusive party as a guest star, you've already encountered the broken Hollywood of Didion's novel.
Biggest stories of the week
OJ Simpson on trial for murder in Los Angeles.
(Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images)
OJ Simpson dies
Coachella 2024
Translator Shohei Otani scandal
Home prices in SoCal
More big stories
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First column
The First Column is the Times' home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here's a great piece from this week:
(Allen J. Chapin/Los Angeles Times)
Santa Monica luxury towers, HOA fees, and alleged theft: Where did the millions go? A battle to restore the HOA board of the Ocean Towers luxury condominium co-op eventually uncovered millions of dollars in alleged fraud and caught the attention of the California Department of Justice.
More great reads
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For your weekend
Holy Basil Thai Restaurant, located in downtown and Atwater Village, serves dishes like classic Thai omelette, au kai jiao, and shrimp in yellow curry, inspired by different cultures.
(Stephanie Prego / Los Angeles Times)
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In one of Los Angeles' biggest money heists ever, how much did the thieves steal? Plus nine other questions from our weekly news quiz.
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Defne Karapatour, colleague
Kevinisha Walker, multi-platform editor
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