Table of Contents
Cast of Characters ix
Part I Hollywood Before Hell's Angels, 1910-1928
Introduction: The Ambassador Hotel, 1925 3
Chapter 1 Hollywood Babylon 11
Chapter 2 The Many Mrs. Hugheses 24
Chapter 3 No Town for a Lady 43
Part II Billie and Jean, 1928-1936
Chapter 4 The Girl with the Silver Hair 63
Chapter 5 A Body Like a Dustpan 80
Chapter 6 A Cock vs. the Code 95
Chapter 7 "A Bitch in Heat" 116
Chapter 8 The Bombshell Implodes 132
Part III Hepburn and Rogers and Russell, 1932-1940
Chapter 9 The Woman Who Lived Like a Man 145
Chapter 10 Box-Office Poison 162
Chapter 11 A Love Nest in Malibu, a Prison on a Hill 175
Chapter 12 A New Bombshell 188
Part IV Life During Wartime, 1941-1946
Chapter 13 The New Generation 203
Chapter 14 "The Goddamnedest, Unhappiest, Most Miserable Time" 218
Chapter 15 Divorce, Marriage, and Rape Fantasy 232
Chapter 16 Disappearing Act 247
Chapter 17 An American Hero 262
Chapter 18 A Mogul and His Crows 280
Part V Terry, Jean, and RKO, 1948-1956
Chapter 19 Marriage, Howard Hughes-Style 299
Chapter 20 "Mother" and a Male Idol 318
Chapter 21 The Morals Clause 341
Chapter 22 Rivalry at Fox 357
Chapter 23 "A Movie Studio Filled with Beautiful Girls Who Draw Pay but Seldom Work" 378
Chapter 24 Underwater 396
Part VI Hughes After RKO
Chapter 25 Playacting 413
Chapter 26 Prisoner 426
Chapter 27 From Vegas to the Grave 440
Epilogue: Life After Death 453
Notes on Sources and Acknowledgments 469
Bibliography 473
Filmography 489
Notes 493
Index 521