Palm Springs Babylon — Ray Mungo

Something about the slow-burning sun and the easy lifestyle of Hollywood's notorious desert haven has nurtured a scrumptious history of cardinal sins, both public and private. From philanthropists to actors-in-waiting, Ray Mungo's Palm Springs Babylon is the compilation of these burning secrets, complete with damning photographic evidence and merciless documentation.

From Clara Bow's sexual appetite and voracious Jim Bakker's denials of promiscuity, to the rich veins of gossip to be mined from the Betty Ford Center, any gossipmonger or film buff will thrill to this lurid social history of Hollywood arcana. Witness zaftig Fatty Arbuckle stand trial for the grisly murder of a starlet; the egos of the powerful, the famous, and the purely eccentric locking horns; and the flamboyance and controversy, past and present, surrounding this florid and flourishing community.

Palm Springs Babylon is a secret history of this Hollywood playground at its best-its sleaziest, most corrupt, and most deliciously indecorous-in short, at its height of glamour.