About the Book:

City of Nets is the dazzling story of Hollywood during the decade of its greatest success is a social and cultural history of the movie capital's golden age. Subtitled A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's, its cast includes actors, writers, musicians and composers, producers and directors, racketeers and labor leaders, journalists and politicians in the turbulent decade from World War II to Korea.

What people say:

"What happened in these ten years is as rich and colorful a story as can be imagined and Friedrich has more than done it justice ... in a narrative that is often funny and remarkably even-handed.... [A] must for movie buffs and a rewarding read for everyone else." — Publishers Weekly

"A 'City of Nets is what Mr. Friedrich calls Hollywood in the title of his new social history, borrowing from Bertolt Brecht's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny — a city of liberation and license stretched like a net to snare whatever passes.... Mr. Friedrich's intelligent prose makes for fascinating reading." — The New York Times Book Review

"City of Nets offers a distinctly Brechtian vision of Hollywood.... By mixing enjoyable gossip about the stars' personal lives and behind-the-scenes maneuverings with a shrewd look at the film world's often unsavory industrial underpinnings, Friedrich gives us a much clearer understanding of Hollywood's reciprocal relationship with American reality." — Village Voice

About the Editor:

Otto Friedrich (1929-1995) was a journalist and cultural historian. At one time editor of the New York Daily News and an essayist for Time magazine, he was the author of nine books, including City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's.