Long Beach, CA -- (SBWire) -- 05/15/2014 --While the golden age of Hollywood was steeped in glitz and glitter, it was also a rampant playground for the West Coast Mob and city corruption. When these two worlds collided, Hollywood and history were left with a string of bold mysteries and murders. For the first time in over two decades, new information about a dozen of these incidents has come to light, via a compelling new book.
‘True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders’ is the work of Dina Di Mambro, who takes readers on an engrossing trip through the darker side of Hollywood nostalgia, with never-before-published interviews and photographs surrounding the mysterious deaths of some of the golden age’s greatest stars.
Synopsis:
A tantalizing mixture of classic Hollywood nostalgia and true crime, True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders, featuring 100 rare photographs, is suspenseful, entertaining, and eminently readable. Uncover true stories of mystery and murder in a dozen different chapters featuring William Desmond Taylor, Thomas Ince, Jean Harlow, Thelma Todd, Joan Bennett, Lana Turner, George Reeves, Gig Young, Bob Crane, Natalie Wood, Robert Blake, and Mickey Cohen. Included in the cast of characters of this book are Johnny Stompanato, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and Charlie Chaplin. And find never before told mob stories about Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill, and a host of notorious underworld figures. From 1922 until 2001, explore some of Filmland’s most fascinating mysteries, scandals and murders true Hollywood noir lived by the players behind the scenes. Each chapter dissects the various theories in each case, but it is up to you to make up your own mind. From the West Coast mob and city corruption intertwining with Hollywood mysteries on and off the screen, to the plots of noir films pulled from actual happenings in the underworld, get the stories behind the stories, the darker images playing out in living color behind the silver screen. While most of the actors featured here met with untimely tragic deaths or notorious misfortune coloring the remainder of their lives, the talent of these highly creative individuals and the legacy they've left us gives them a timeless immortality.
“I wanted to get to the bottom of these cases, and give all evidence to readers through a gripping series of transcripts and biographies,” says Di Mambro, whose work won the bronze in the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards. “In recent years there have been deathbed confessions from the accused and new information given on the record from those who knew each individual and could be involved in their cases. It hopefully provides an entertaining new twist to cases that have dominated popular culture and the media for decades.”
Continuing, “As well as the hundreds of hours of research I conducted, trawling through thousands of documents, I was also privileged to have the opportunity to print a never-before-published interview with legendary gangster Mickey Cohen’s right-hand man, shedding light on a number of mysteries and murders that have gone unsolved. In all, this is a great book for any film buff, historian or crime literature enthusiast.”
To date, the book has garnered rave reviews. For example, Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “In Hollywood, murder and mystery are par for the course, and in this fascinating true crime compendium, Di Mambro explores a host of famous scandals—some as old as the movie industry itself. Sex, drugs, and money have always had incendiary consequences in Hollywood, and Di Mambro provides backstories of some of Hollywood's most sordid affairs—the death of Gig Young, the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley, and many more—inviting readers to make up their own minds about what really happened.”
Kirkus Reviews adds, “Truth is wilder than fiction in this fast-paced journey through 80 years of Hollywood mayhem. The lives of many Hollywood celebrities were as dark and twisted as the plots of their noir films; sometimes, they even died in a noir-ish explosion of violence.”
‘True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders’ is available now: http://amzn.to/1jfqgC8.
For more information, visit: http://www.classichollywoodbios.com.
About Dina Di Mambro
Dina Di Mambro is a film historian and award winning entertainment writer who has worked as a research consultant for A & E Biography and E! Entertainment Television. While still in her teens, she began writing for Hollywood Studio Magazine and other publications. As a journalist, Mambro has interviewed celebrities such as Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine and Dyan Cannon. Under her married name, Dina-Marie Kulzer, she authored Television Series Regulars of the Fifties and Sixties in Interview, which features interviews with classic television stars such as Angela Cartwright, Barbara Eden, Gary Owens, Paul Peterson, Rose Marie, Connie Stevens, Ray Walston and Julie Newmar. More of Di Mambro’s work may be found at http://www.ClassicHollywoodBios.com.
