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Related Resources

The following are some of my personal favorites, plus print or online publications I’ve found helpful. I’ll update this list here and there.

Print Resources

Fan magazine history: Film and entertainment scholar Anthony Slide’s Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers (2010), presents “the definitive history” of fan magazines, from their first appearance in the early 1900s through their heyday, decline and reinvention for “the People generation”.

Fan magazine compilations: Three books (now out of print but findable) present literal reproductions of feature articles from the pages of the major magazines: Martin Levin, Ed., Hollywood and the Great Fan Magazines (1970 and later); Barbara Gelman, Ed., Photoplay Treasury (1972); and Mark Bego, Ed., The Best of Modern Screen (1986).

Gossip columnists and feature writers: In addition to numerous books by and about the Big Three (Parsons, Hopper, and Winchell), it’s possible to find dishy memoirs (most of them out of print) by a number of folks, including Rona Barrett’s Miss Rona (1974), Earl Wilson’s The Show Business Nobody Knows (1971), Sidney Skolsky’s Don’t Get Me Wrong — I Love Hollywood (1975), and Jane Wilkie’s Confessions of an Ex-Fan Magazine Writer (1980).

Hollywood and film history: So many books! So little time! Here are a just few favorites: anything by the film scholar Jeanine Basinger; Sam Kashner and Jennifer MacNair, The Bad & the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties (2002); James Harvey, Movie Love in the Fifties (2001); and Jean Stein, West of Eden: An American Place (2016)

Online Resources

To my knowledge no other blogs or websites are specifically devoted to the Hollywood fan magazine. However, numerous sites focus on classic or vintage films, film stars, and/or Hollywood. A terrific place to start is the Classic Movie Hub (classicmoviehub.com), which accurately bills itself as “Your Classic Movie Community” and provides both original material and links to blogs, websites, and other resources.

  • “Get in orbit with the stars!” — tagline for “Pop Stars Are Poppin’!” Teen World
    “Pop Stars Are Poppin’!” Teen World
  • “Read the hottest, on the spottest news about your favorites here” — tagline for Armand Archerd’s “Star Close Ups,” Movie Stars
    “Star Close Ups,” Movie Stars
  • “All the lowdown on the hi-jinks of Hollywood’s fabled citizens” — tagline for “Dateline: Hollywood!” Screen World
    “Dateline: Hollywood!” Screen World
  • “Star secrets from coast to coast” — tagline for “Gossip,” TV Picture Life
    “Gossip,” TV Picture Life
  • “Put your eye right up to the key hole and take a peek at the flings the Hollywood stars want to hide from you” — tagline for “Hollywood Snooper,” Movie Tattler
    “Hollywood Snooper,” Movie Tattler
  • “Red hot gossip right off the griddle” — tagline for “Inside Stuff,” Inside Story
    “Inside Stuff,” Inside Story
  • “The column the stars read” — tagline for “Hotline to the Stars,” Movieland and TV Time
    “Hotline to the Stars,” Movieland and TV Time
  • “All the loudest whispers from our very own private ear!” — tagline for “Star Scoops,” Movieland and TV Time
    “Star Scoops,” Movieland and TV Time
  • “All the intimate details of life and love among Tinseltown’s exciting young celebs” — tagline for “Hollywood’s Younger Set,” Movie World
    “Hollywood’s Younger Set,” Movie World
  • “Who knows what goes on in the heart of Hollywood?” — tagline for “Pamela Mason Knows,” Photoplay
    “Pamela Mason Knows,” Photoplay
  • “Step right up to see the greatest collection of West coast wild-life ever assembled in one place!” — tagline for “Hot from Hollywood” gossip column, Movie TV Secrets magazine
    Movie TV Secrets magazine