The closet of Garden of Allah revealed

Book Reviewed: The Garden of Allah by Sheilah Graham

This is the inside story of a playground, and a hideaway for Hollywood elite in the golden era. This was dreamt, and brought to reality by the 1920s screen goddess, Alla Nazimova. Author Sheilah Graham, a well-respected newspaper columnist, also a resident at the sanctuary, gives us a firsthand look at what went on inside and outside the walls. She discusses the residents, the players who hung out, the domestic issues of the celebrities, the movies they were making, and the studio business in a lucid manner. She observes that in its 32 years of its existence, the Garden witnessed despair, drunkenness, marriages & divorces, sex & orgies, fights, suicides, robberies and murders. Well known nightclubs such as; Mocambo, Ciro's, Trocadero, and of course the Schwab's Drugstore were very close to the Garden. Schwab's was handy for celebs; Arthur Miller use to stop by late nights for sleeping medications for Marilyn Monroe.

The Garden had notable intellectuals like, Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, and Dorothy Parker. Leading men and women such as Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy and Kathryn Hepburn were residents. The 25 bungalows built around a swimming pool followed very little traditional rules. The party started at night and go into wee hours, and sometimes much later. Barrymore had a valet carry his portable bar, Tallulah Bankhead use to whiz by the pool fully naked and announcing to the crowd about her nudity; the fist fight between Bogart and his wife Mayo Methot was common. Bogart had a bodyguard to protect him and Lauren Bacall from the tempestuously physical Mayo Methot; John Carradine was chased by his wife Sonja around the pool; and altercation between Errol Flynn and Pat Wymore, and many other types of spectacles were common occurrences.

The dirty laundry is not aired openly like many books about Hollywood scandals. The author uses her discretion in exposing the juicy stuff in a respectable feminine fashion. For example; when writer Eddie Chodorov came to Hollywood in 1932, Kay Francis was the queen at Warner Brothers. He went up to call his mother from a party downstairs, but had entered the wrong bedroom, Kay Francis's bedroom. He apologetically said, "I came to call my mom." "Do it for Christ sake," she said in a drunken voice with an empty bottle of brandy in her hand. Then she said "Come here, kid" and she pulled him into bed. Much later, he called his mother, and she asked how he liked Hollywood, he said in an excited tone, "VERY MUCH." The expression says it all, the magic he found at Garden. Rudolph Valentino met Nazimova at the Garden in its early days. She introduced him to Jean Acker with whom he fell in love and married; and later she introduced Natasha Rambova who became his second wife much to the displeasure of Nazimova even though she was confirmed lesbian; and so were Jean Acker and Natasha Rambova. Pola Negri, another friend of Nazimova seriously fell in love with Valentino; she felt like a schoolgirl having a crush on her male teacher.

Director Johnny Farrow, husband of Maureen O'Sullivan had a snake tattooed near his thigh and it appeared to be emerging from his manhood. He used to show off in front of the ladies at the pool. He was the star at the Garden's swimming pool. Anita Louise, a blond and beautiful actress was a conversation piece at the Garden, and she use to swim in full makeup with every hair on her head in place.

When Mary Astor's personal diaries were published which described her trysts with writer George Kaufman, he moved to the Garden next door to Natalie Schafer, wife of actor Louis Calhern. He continued to show his prowess with Schafer when Calhern was away. The press followed wherever Kaufman went because the Astor's diaries were so hot.

Garden of Allah was heaven for folks who liked this life style. Whenever an "in" person of the crowd passed away at the Garden; there used to be a big party for the departed soul. For Bogart, the party lasted for three days, which indicates his popularity at the Garden

The story of professional foragers on mushroom trail

Book Reviewed: The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America by Langdon Cook

This book is about the mushroom pickers in the wild and it does not focus on cooking mushrooms. In fact much of the book describes the experiences of professional pickers known to the author. The interesting fact is that in the deep forest and steep mountains along Oregon, Washington and the West coast of Canada have naturally built an eco-system that is conducive for the growth of colorful parade of mushrooms. The heat, rain and humidity in this region have resulted in a fungal trail that has helped a strong commercial market, for wild mushrooms, to grow, and at the same time attracting more professional foragers. There is a large group of consumers willing to pay a pretty penny for these delicacies. The undocumented business in the Pacific Northwest has become a booming business. The pickers spend months at a time in timber communities with base camp ion Washington State's Olympic Peninsula and parts of Central Oregon and sell it to brokers, wholesalers and some restaurants. The buyers also put up their buying stands close to these bases. Exotic mushrooms are a great appeal for innovative chefs at well-known restaurants so that they can have shiny new product on their menu.

Lobster mushroom is an orange delicacy. It is meaty and silky in texture when sautéed slowly and tastes like lobster meat. In fact it has become a staple in high-end restaurants. Most pickers operate illegally unseen by the forest rangers. A single forager can pick up to 200 pounds of mushrooms. Some pickers operate legally with a single permit that would be good at all national forests. Chanterelle with its signature egg yolk color is abundant. The global market for the mushrooms is more than a billion dollars.

This is an interesting book to read, but this is not for cooking enthusiasts. You don't find any recipe or even a picture of the mushroom discussed in this book.

The fascinating history of the studio-era and pre-code Hollywood

Book Reviewed: Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code by Mick LaSalle

This is a fascinating book that discusses the movies produced during pre-code period of 1929-1934 and evaluates the impact it had on the careers of Hollywood's leading ladies. The movies of Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo are extensively discussed along with many other leading ladies and how it impacted the studios and the Hollywood culture. Shearer was a smiling subversive and her most characteristic film is the Divorcee and Riptide in which she portrays as woman of questionable morals in spite of being married. In Divorcee (1930) she has an affair with her husband's best friend after she finds out that he cheated on her. Her roles explored women's feelings about love, and sex with honesty. Greta Garbo’s Mata Hari, Camille, and Two Faced woman were also similar in character and spirit. Garbo’s Queen Christina explored bisexuality; that was the most daring examination of gender and sex the studio system ever produced. The author observes, despite some daring stuff and no matter how far off from the societal values, Garbo’ s movies had touching Christian allegories to assert divine faith that enriches the power of love and passion

Dorothy Mackaill, a hard drinking Ziegfeld Follies girl turned actress, was a strong contender of the roles of Jean Harlow in early 1930s, analyzed the effect of war on Hollywood and its portrayal women's sexual freedom as a logical change in values and none of the old taboos can affect them. Shearer began working with director Monta Bell; he shaped her career like Josef Von Sternberg did for Marlene Dietrich, and G.W. Pabst for Louise Brooks. Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich, were also in top of the pack. They were like Lindberg for speed. From New York stage, came ladies like Claudette Colbert, Barbara Stanwyck, Ann Harding, Bette Davis, and Kathryn Hepburn. Marlene Dietrich was imported from Germany by Paramount Studios as an answer to MGM's Greta Garbo.

Ruth Chatterton in the movie Female, hires young men for her firm, uses them for sexual pleasure, and then let them go. Constance Bennett played a poor girl who slept her way through to become rich in the movie, Easiest Way; she gives birth to a baby out of wedlock in Born to Love; and in Bed of Roses, she slides into the oldest profession. The most outrageous movie is the Common Law where she leaves her live in lover and becomes a nude model. Carole Lombard becomes a kept woman in "Summer in the Sun" to lead a luxurious life style. In Faithless, Tallulah Bankhead turns to the oldest profession when her husband becomes ill and incapable of supporting the family. All movies produced at the height of Great Depression. Ironically, some of these examples were the real life stories of the 1920's stars like Barbara La Marr and Louise Brooks who lurked into poverty. Cecil DeMill's Sign of Cross breached the boundaries of faith which annoyed the Catholic Church and Christian conservatives where in Claudette Colbert plays Nero's wife Poppeae and losses her lover to a Christian woman (Elisa Landi), and she is humiliated by pagans and aroused in a dance that contains lesbian like overtures.

In many pre-code movies women got away with murder. Most notorious example is the Ricardo Cortez. Loretta Young shoots Cortez in Midnight Glory; Kay Frances does the same in 56th Street, and poisons Cortez in Mandalay; and Dolores Del Rio stabbed Cortez in Wonder Bar. He also gets shot by Helen Twelvetrees in Bad Company and by Anita Louise in The Firebrand. Marjorie Rambeau kills blackmailer Arthur Hohl in A Man's Castle and Sally Eilers kills gigolo Ivan Lebedoff in cold blood. Ruth Chatterton kills a woman, Clair Dodd, a Broadway star for stealing her husband.

The code had significant effect on the work of many stars who built their career around uninhibited and honest portrayal of love, marriage, and womanhood. But this was not tolerated in the code era, consequently Ruth Chatterton, Constance Bennett, Miriam Hopkins, Ann Dvorak, Madge Evans, Glenda Farrell and Kay Frances faded. The code damaged stateside popularity and made Joan Blondell less important. Mae West also faded into the horizon. Ann Harding left Hollywood and triumphed on stage in London. Bernard Shaw, a caustic critique of marriage, said that Harding was the best for the role of Candida. By the end of 1942, Garbo was 36 and Shearer 40 had passed their final phase of movie business.

This book is brilliantly written and contains well researched materials. There are some rare pictures of 1930s stars, and I especially liked the pictures of Greta Garbo, Mae Clarke and Dorothy Mackaill; they are simply gorgeous.