I like to think of my book True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders as “Turner Classic Movies (TCM)” meets the “Investigation Discovery Channel”. This book combines my two main passions classic movies and mysteries.
My love of reading started early. I still think it is the world’s healthiest escape. I’ve spent heavenly hours reading about Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly and others. My earliest memory of this was in the sixth grade when I’d take movie star biographies out of the library during the summer. I also bought “Nancy Drew” books so there you have the combination of mysteries and movie stars. It seems I’ve been training for True Hollywood Noir my entire life. I remember reading a book about George Burns at 11 years old. I have no idea why now. I was a very strange child. All of my life, I’ve watched classic movies and television shows preferring them to more recent fare.
Just out of high school, I started writing magazine articles for Hollywood Studio Magazine, a movie nostalgia magazine. I was a lot more interested in Carole Lombard than Madonna. My first book, written in my twenties, is a collection of interviews with TV stars of the fifties and sixties.
Both of my books consist of stand-alone chapters about different actors. It’s easy to skip around to whom you are most interested in. Usually, the writing process for me starts by transcribing tapes and getting together all of my interview quotes. I then “marathon” watch the actor’s films to get a sense of that individual and take some notes. That part I love. Then comes the most painful part, being faced with my nemesis…the blank page. I pace around; play with my beautiful cat, anything to procrastinate the most difficult part…the first sentence. This can go on for hours and usually takes place in the middle of the night when the house is quiet. However, once the first sentence comes…. I’m on my way. Sometimes relaxing helps. Both of my book introductions came to me in the bathtub where I had pen and paper nearby. Aspiring writers, I definitely advise pen and paper. Tape recorders and IPADs can be very dangerous when in the tub!
Book Synopsis
True Hollywood Noir uncovers true stories of Hollywood’s most fascinating mysteries, scandals and murders in a dozen different chapters featuring William Desmond Taylor, Thomas Ince, Jean Harlow, Thelma Todd, Joan Bennett, Lana Turner, George Reeves, Gig Young, Bob Crane, Natalie Wood, Robert Blake, and Mickey Cohen. Included in the cast of characters of this book are Johnny Stompanato, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and Charlie Chaplin. And there are never before told mob stories about Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill, and a host of notorious underworld figures. Each chapter dissects the various theories in each case, but it is up to you to make up your own mind. From the West Coast mob and city corruption intertwining with Hollywood mysteries on and off the screen, to the plots of noir films pulled from actual happenings in the underworld, get the stories behind the stories, the darker images playing out in living color behind the silver screen.
Author Biography
Dina Di Mambro is a film historian and award winning entertainment writer who has worked as a research consultant for A&E Biography and "E!" Entertainment Television. As a journalist, she has interviewed such luminaries as Glenn Ford and Shirley MacLaine. As Dina-Marie Kulzer, she authored Television Series Regulars of the Fifties and Sixties in Interview, consisting of twenty-two interviews with classic television stars.
