In the foreword to his social history Friedrich freely admits that all the information in it has been published before, but he goes on to say that the book's value lies in the range of coverage: "If ... Read full review

Friedrich (1929-1995) was a journalist and cultural historian. In City of Nets, he covers the last decade in which movie moguls like Louis B. Mayer and Cohn Brothers ruled like kings over actors, writers, and union members. They reigned in collusion with gangsters, journalists, and other unsavory types. The attraction is that Friedrich combines his knowledge gleaned from reading about 500 books about Hollywood with his strong interest in the German expatriate community in SoCal. So, we can read juicy gossip and hilarious Movie Land anecdotes, plus about the responses to California by civilized people like the Mann Brothers Thomas and Heinrich, Brecht, and Schoenberg. Overall, because I learned much figures such as Preston Sturgis and Billy Wilder I recommend it, though by the end of its 500-some pages I was flagging, wearied by The Tinsel Town Without Pity. Or brains. Or taste. Or integrity.