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Seduction
Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughess Hollywood | Karina Longworth
13 posts | 10 read | 14 to read
In this riveting popular history, the creator of You Must Remember This probes the inner workings of Hollywoods glamorous golden age through the stories of some of the dozens of actresses pursued by Howard Hughes, to reveal how the millionaire moguls obsessions with sex, power and publicity trapped, abused, or benefitted women who dreamt of screen stardom. In recent months, the media has reported on scores of entertainment figures who used their power and money in Hollywood to sexually harass and coerce some of the most talented women in cinema and television. But as Karina Longworth reminds us, long before the Harvey Weinsteins there was Howard Hughesthe Texas millionaire, pilot, and filmmaker whose reputation as a cinematic provocateur was matched only by that as a prolific womanizer. His supposed conquests between his first divorce in the late 1920s and his marriage to actress Jean Peters in 1957 included many of Hollywoods most famous actresses, among them Billie Dove, Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Lana Turner. From promoting bombshells like Jean Harlow and Jane Russell to his contentious battles with the censors, Hughesperhaps more than any other filmmaker of his eracommoditized male desire as he objectified and sexualized women. Yet there were also numerous women pulled into Hughess grasp who never made it to the screen, sometimes virtually imprisoned by an increasingly paranoid and disturbed Hughes, who retained multitudes of private investigators, security personnel, and informers to make certain these actresses would not escape his clutches. Vivid, perceptive, timely, and ridiculously entertaining, The Seducer is a landmark work that examines women, sex, and male power in Hollywood during its golden agea legacy that endures nearly a century later.
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Worldforreading
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Ready for #24in48, my favorite reading marathon. Here are the stacks I'll be pulling from, the ones on the left I have audiobooks for and the ones on the right are books I am behind on reviewing or really excited to get to. I'll probably get to the audiobooks first, from previous readathons I've had the most success with those. Happy reading to all participating 😊

BookFreakOut I have Gideon the Ninth too and really want to get to it soon. Don't know if it'll be during the readathon, I usually do about 20 hours of audio during these weekends. 5y
Worldforreading @BookFreakOut It's one of my most anticipated but I am waiting for when I can sit with it for a long stretch. I agree regarding audio. Most of my hours are from listening as well. 5y
22 likes2 comments
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Verity
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Pickpick

The writing style is definitely more on the scholarly/wordy side than the popular nonfiction but this is a very comprehensive and well researched. If you‘ve listened to Longworth‘s podcast you‘ll recognise some stuff but by no means as much as I expected. There‘s a parallel to the podcast in that I find her voice hard to listen to but the information so fascinating that I put up with it - this is heavy going but so interesting I coped!

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Verity
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Current nonfiction read, courtesy of the library (because I don‘t buy hardbacks)

12 likes3 stack adds
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Lauren.Archer
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Next up, there is something about Howard Hughes that always intrigued me.

inthegreensandblues Nice pants!🍷👍 5y
kyesertener I love You Must Remember This podcast, didn't even realise she wrote books too! 5y
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Expandingbookshelf
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Pickpick

No one is better at Hollywood history than Longworth, and she imbues the book with a deep empathy for what women in 20th century Hollywood had to do to survive (without excusing their bad behavior). By looking at Howard Hughes, we are able to see a microcosm of Hollywood as a whole. I really liked this book! I hope Longworth writes another book soon, but until then I‘ll just binge her “You Must Remember This” podcast. Again.

Weaponxgirl Ohh I didn‘t know there was a podcast too 5y
mreads Cute cookies ❤ 5y
Expandingbookshelf @Weaponxgirl it‘s called You Must Remember This. Her series about Charles Manson and Hollywood is FASCINATING 5y
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Amie
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Pickpick

As a devoted fan of Longworth's podcast "You Must Remember This," I was eager to read this book and was not disappointed. The writing is accessible to any casual fan of Hollywood history, although the length of the book and depth of detail requires a deeper interest level. The book is factual and not sensationalized. I found every bit of it fascinating.

I received this advance copy from Library Thing Early Reviewers.

Amiable Oh, I like that podcast, too! I loved the season about the Manson Family. 5y
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balletbookworm
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Pickpick

I‘ve been a fan of Karina‘s podcast You Must Remember This for a while so I was really excited to see that she had a book coming out about Howard Hughes. While I was not shocked that he was a completely gross, controlling predator, particularly of young women, I was surprised that he was a really bad businessman/filmmaker. “Classic” Hollywood had a lot of garbage hiding under rocks and Karina shines a very strong light on one particular corner.

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slothandtabby
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Friday night. Cat on my lap, film history in my hands. It‘s been a hard second half of the year but this is the sort of thing that makes life seem way less bleak.

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Brie
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Pickpick

Part film history, part biography of the millionaire/aviator/movie mogul/notorious womanizer Hughes, Longworth deftly weaves together a story covering the Golden Age of Hollywood to the collapse of the studio system, and even touches on the sexist systems still in place today. I‘d recommend this book to fans of classic Hollywood movies/stars and Longworth‘s podcast “You Must Remember This.”

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Purplerosiepage
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I love Longworth‘s You Must Remember This podcast-Well researched, fascinating, sometimes forgotten stories of “ Hollywood‘s first century.” This book is focused on Howard Hughes and his entanglements. Fans of You Must Remember This will recognize some material, but the stories are told well enough that they are worth rehearing.

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Brie
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Two shiny new books. I‘m so excited to read both of these! #TBR 📚

vivastory The Beastie Boys book is amazing! 5y
britt_brooke I loved the Beastie Boys Book!! 5y
Brie @vivastory @britt_brooke I‘m so excited for that one! Hopefully it lives up to my hype haha. I‘ve been flipping through it and I already love it. 5y
50 likes3 comments
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Amie
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I won this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers and it arrived in the mail today. I can't wait to read this!

rubyslippersreads Sounds fascinating. 5y
41 likes1 comment