Hollywood Digs: An Archaeology of Shadows

In Hollywood Digs, veteran film and television writer Ken LaZebnik unearths shards of film history that have rarely seen the light of day. Here is the romantic and tragic saga of Jock Mahoney, legendary stuntman and Hollywood's thirteenth Tarzan; F. Scott Fitzgerald, toward the end of his life, living in a cottage on the Encino estate of film butler Edward Everett Horton; Micky Moore, who spent eighty-four years in the industry, first as a child actor with Mary Pickford and later as the fabled second-unit director of Raiders of the Lost Ark.More than sixty duotone photographs include two large galleries by Hollywood master Leigh Wiener. They accompany the author's deft and idiosyncratic portraits of Hollywood luminaries including Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Al Jolson, Milton Berle, George Burns, and Harpo Marx.Ken LaZebnik gives readers an insider's look at how Hollywood works, sharing his own experience of success and failure. He excavates hidden histories of the famous and near-famous. Told with wit and compassion, Hollywood Digs finds treasures amid the dust. "These essays are wonderful untold histories behind the people, places, and movies of Hollywood. Ken LaZebnik is a gentle soul with an eye for story and a gift for words, which makes it amazing that he's ever had a day of work in this town." - Brian Rooney, journalist and editor, TheRooneyReport.com