Brooks on Books: Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling Through Hollwood History by Mark Bailey and Edward Hemingway

This is a delightful and unique blend of vintage Hollywood history, gossip, and, yes, booze. I'm no expert on alcoholic beverages, and I thought the drinking content might dominate the text. However, much to my surprise, there is every bit as much pure movie gossip, including some outrageous stories. It's one of the most entertaining showbiz books I read in recent years.

You lushes know who you are, but I am not judging. I think I AM gonna judge old Hollywood, though, which consists of nothing but depraved drunkards. OK, I exaggerate a bit. And the tone of the book is decidedly on the lighter side of binge imbibing and chronic alcoholism. Still...sheesh!

The book divides Hollywood into 4 distinct eras, ending in 1979. Each mini-sized chapter begins with a profile of an individual--actor, screenwriter, director, etc.--and is "chased" with a look at a bar/lounge/some other place where drinks were imbibed. Often a cocktail recipe closes out the section. Hemingway provides brilliant illustrations while Bailey writes the witty and savvy text. Behind-the-scenes accounts of specific productions like Beat the Devil, loaded with anecdotes, make for amusing sidebars.

Yes, everything revolves around alcohol, but, wow, when we talk about movies and booze, we are covering a lot of ground. One way or another, most of the big names and faces in the history of the medium find their way into their book, whether they were alcoholics or not (and many were). You get all kinds of debauchery and bad behavior; a lot of it is hilarious, but some of it is quite sad, even tragic.

A lot of this is familiar to enthusiasts--stories include the trial of Fatty Arbuckle, the near-fatal car crash that forever altered Montgomery Clift's appearance, and Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio's ill-fated attempt to bust into a reputed dalliance of Marilyn Monroe's. Yet the telling of it all is concise and enlightening, and besides, there is a lot on here that is less familiar, at least to me.

There's Steve McQueen taking LSD with Mamie Van Doren, William Holden dangling from a 14th-floor windowsill, Charles Butterworth dressing in drag to enter the Garden of Allah, and Talullah Bankead wooing Johnny Weismuller. There are great mini-histories of long-vanished hotspots like Romanoff's and places that are still around in some form, like the Polo Lounge.

My guess is that the connossieurs out there won't need the recipes for the drinks (many of which were invented by figures in the book), but they will be amused by their origins and the details. The rest of us can sit back and enjoy this tour through the wetter side of filmdom, and if we are inspired to pick up an adult beverage, what's the harm? Apart from some of the terrible things that happen to people who drink too much in the anecdotes in the book?