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"Max Factor and Hollywood: A Glamorous History" by Erika Thomas

Thomas is a magazine writer and her book reads like a magazine article; I finished it in about an hour. Thomas actually delves far more into the history of the Max Factor building than the personal history of the make-up artist and creator. Factor's building, which once housed a salon and factory, is now the Hollywood Museum (TheHollywoodMuseum.com is an entertaining website). I recommend the book for its great photos from film historian Marc Wanamaker's collection. The photos range from the silent era (Nita Naldi) to the 70s (Debbie Reynolds, Jacklyn Smith).

"Circus of Ambition: The Culture of wealth and Power in the Eighties" John Taylor

This book includes a chapter on Hollywood in the Eighties. Taylor analyzes the films of Paramount producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, which include "Flashdance", "Top Gun", and "Beverly Hills Cop". Simpson, in particular, was famous for his outrageous pronouncements and when speaking to Taylor, he elucidated his feeling that "losers are boring". (Simpson was a victim of his own excess and died of a drug overdose in 1996.) It is fascinating to read Taylor's work in hindsight and see how right he was concerning the cultural and political currents in America.

"Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami" by Roben Farzad

This time the celebrity is a club and hotel - the Mutiny at Sailboat Bay. Oliver Stone modeled the Babylon Club in "Scarface" (1983) on this establishment. For a few years in the 80s, the Mutiny was a place where drug dealers, journalists, cops, and CIA agents mingled, plotted, and betrayed each other. Don Johnson partied at the Mutiny while Philip Michael Thomas moved into the adjoining hotel during the making of their television series "Miami Vice".

Farzad has some organizational issues and tends to repeat himself, but the book is an entertaining and informative snapshot of a specific time and place when people could become millionaires overnight.