Gentlemen, Blondes & Monroe

Two nights ago I watched “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" for the first time. I can’t believe I had never seen it. Then I wake up the following morning and it’s Marilyn Monroe’s 92nd birthday! #kismet

Coming Soon...

In 1942, a 16-year-old Norma Jeane Baker avoids being shunted to yet another foster home by marrying her 21-year-old neighbor, James Dougherty - a merchant marine soon to be stationed on Catalina Island. Dougherty moves his young bride to an apartment overlooking Avalon Harbor. The future Miss Marilyn Monroe spends the next year and a half living as a housewife, 22 miles off the coast of California. To be continued...

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A Case of the Gays

In 1956, Natalie Wood goes to the Academy Awards with Tab Hunter, her co-star in "The Girl He Left behind” - Hunter will go on to leave all girls behind when he comes out in his 2005 autobiography, “Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star.” Reports of Hunter’s alleged romances with Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood are strictly fodder for studio publicity departments. As Wood and Hunter embark on a well-publicized yet fictitious romance, promoting his apparent heterosexuality while promoting their films, insiders develop their own headline for the item: "Natalie Wood and Tab Wouldn't."

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L.A. Zine Fest

L.A. Zine Fest was a blast. I brought 200 copies of Dead in Hollywood with me and I sold out! How did that even happen?!?! A big thank you to everyone who stopped by our table and a humongous thank you to the good folks at L.A. Zine Fest. I am overwhelmed by the support! Tabling at LA Zine Fest was a goal of mine when I started Dead in Hollywood exactly one year ago and I did it! I'm feeling so inspired. I can't wait to see where the next year takes us!

River 4 Ever

River Phoenix (Dead in Hollywood - Issue #4)

On Halloween Eve in 1993, River Phoenix joins his friends at Johnny Depp's Viper Room (8852 Sunset Blvd.) Phoenix makes his way to the club's restroom around 1AM to do some drugs with several of his drug dealer friends, when one of them would offer him a hit of heroin. It was pure-grade Persion brown. Almost immediately after snorting the heroin, Phoenix begins trembling and shaking violently. He then turns to one of his friends and vomits. Another of his friends decides that it's a good idea to give him a valium to calm him down." 

Dead in Hollywood: Stalked (Issue 7)

Grab a copy - or three - of Dead in Hollywood: Stalked in our store (link above) or stop by LA Zine Fest this Sunday and pick up some copies! 

Three women stalked to their deaths.

In 1985, 18 year-old Rebecca Schaefer wakes up in her West Hollywood apartment to the news that 13-year-old peace activist, Samantha Smith, has died in the Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 plane crash. Schaefer could not have known that this tragedy will lead to her untimely death in 1989.

On October 30, 1982, Dominique Dunne is strangled by her ex-boyfriend, John Sweeney, in the driveway of her West Hollywood home. She lapses into a coma and never regains consciousness. Dunne dies five days later. Sweeney is convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Dunne's death and serves three and a half years in prison. Dunne is 22 years old when she dies.

Former Los Angeles Raiders cheerleader, Linda Sobek, turns to a career in modeling and has moderate success posing semi-nude in magazines like “Truckin’.” In November of 1995, it looks like Sobeck’s luck is about to change for the better. Aspiring photographer, Charles Rathbun, on assignment for “Autoweek,” contacts Sobek from a payphone and asks her if she will pose for an upcoming issue. A month earlier, Sobek had given Rathbun her business card at an automotive show in Las Vegas and tells him… to keep her in mind for modeling jobs.

 

 

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Battle of North Hollywood (Issue #7)

This past Saturday we found ourselves in North Hollywood.  We stopped to pay our respects to the Bank of America on Laurel Canyon. It was the scene of one of the longest and bloodiest shootouts in American police history - changing forever how police dealt with bank robberies. I didn't know much about the North Hollywood Shootout - aka the Battle of North Hollywood - when I started researching the heist for issue #7.5 of Dead in Hollywood. The story is insane. I found myself staying up till 3AM watching the helicopter footage of the siege online.  Get a copy of the zine above in the store. 

The Body Model: Linda Sobek

Linda Sobek hits her stride as a “body model,” specializing in swimwear layouts, calendars, beer posters, and car magazines. She poses for Playboy and the Fredrick’s of Hollywood catalogue. “Linda was making it really big, staying really busy,” says L.A. calendar producer Roy Morales - theres such a thing as a calendar producer? Sobek lands a small part on the TV show “Married with Children.” She's hoping it’ll be her big break. Aside from her looks, Sobek's success is owed in big part to her dedication and professionalism. It is precisely because of Sobek’s reputation for being responsible and level-headed that her family begins to suspect that she might be in danger when she misses her costume fitting for "Married with Children.” Linda's story will be chronicled in the upcoming issue of Dead in Hollywood: Stalked.

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