raising hell

I have just finished reading 'An A-Z of Hellraisers' by Robert Sellers. He has written a few of these books, I wanted to get the 'Hollywood Hellraisers' one to read on hols, but didn't because it was 8 quid and I am a known tight arse, so SCORE when I found this one in a GQ book sale for a quid. Wheter it exists I don't know, butafter reading this I'd like to read a book that further details the female hellraisers, such as Tallulah Bankhead. Another favourite whose antics are reported in Sellers' book is Dorothy Parker, a jouralist who wrote for Vanity Fair. The woman is highly quotable:

"I like to have a Martini. Two at the very most. After three I'm under the table. After four, I'm under my host."

And when she was late to turn in her copy to her editor at The New Yorker becuase she was on her honeymoon she gave this excuse via telegram: 'Too fucking busy, and vice versa'.

And this is perhaps my favourite telegram from Dot. I think I will frame this and keep it on my desk at work:



I also enjoyed reading about the Wild West charcters; Roy Bean, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock and Poker Alice. When I was reading about them I thought, 'this should be a film', which is how I felt when I read bout Titanic Thompson (then 'Boardwalk Empire' came out and I felt slightly robbed, altohugh hes not actually in the series, many other 'characters' from his life are). It turns out OF COURSE that a film was made about Roy Bean in 1972, and the tv series 'Deadwood' features Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, oh well, great minds....