Seduction by Karina Longworth

Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood by Karina Longworth
Release Date - November 13, 2018

Publisher Website - Harper Collins Canada

Publisher Social Media - Twitter/Facebook/SavvyReader/Frenzy
Pages -  560 pages
My Rating - 5/5
**borrowed from library**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

In this riveting popular history, the creator of You Must Remember This probes the inner workings of Hollywood’s glamorous golden age through the stories of some of the dozens of actresses pursued by Howard Hughes, to reveal how the millionaire mogul’s obsessions with sex, power and publicity trapped, abused, or benefitted women who dreamt of screen stardom.

In recent months, the media has reported on scores of entertainment figures who used their power and money in Hollywood to sexually harass and coerce some of the most talented women in cinema and television. But as Karina Longworth reminds us, long before the Harvey Weinsteins there was Howard Hughes—the Texas millionaire, pilot, and filmmaker whose reputation as a cinematic provocateur was matched only by that as a prolific womanizer.

His supposed conquests between his first divorce in the late 1920s and his marriage to actress Jean Peters in 1957 included many of Hollywood’s most famous actresses, among them Billie Dove, Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Lana Turner. From promoting bombshells like Jean Harlow and Jane Russell to his contentious battles with the censors, Hughes—perhaps more than any other filmmaker of his era—commoditized male desire as he objectified and sexualized women. Yet there were also numerous women pulled into Hughes’s grasp who never made it to the screen, sometimes virtually imprisoned by an increasingly paranoid and disturbed Hughes, who retained multitudes of private investigators, security personnel, and informers to make certain these actresses would not escape his clutches.

Vivid, perceptive, timely, and ridiculously entertaining, Seduction is a landmark work that examines women, sex, and male power in Hollywood during its golden age—a legacy that endures nearly a century later.

I have always been interested in movies and by extension Hollywood. I have been fascinated by what is considered 'golden age Hollywood' and the time of the studio systems. I credit the You Must Remember This podcast with feeding that fascination and helping me gain a much wider Hollywood education. Karina Longworth's book feels a lot like her podcast. It has the same tone, and sharp writing along with the details that make her podcast spark the way it does.

The research in both this book and the podcast are impeccable. Longworth takes care to ensure accuracy and includes sources and verification where available. Most importantly, however, is the inclusion when certain things are hearsay or rumours. The research really is what makes this book what it is, and you can tell that the author is just as fascinated by the subject matter as the reader will be.

The women in this story are, most of the time, more important than Howard Hughes to the story that Karina is telling. She makes sure the spotlight is on a few of these ladies who were Howard's loves. She paints a portrait of each of the ones spotlighted here, and makes you feel like they are not just an extension of this man and his story. She is, in fact, using him to tell the stories of these women. It's a nice change to say the least.

This book viewed through the current #metoo lens paints Howard Hughes has a sort of predecessor to the Harvey Weinstein's out there. Not in the exact same way, but Howard found young women and took advantage of their desire to be actresses. He found them when they were vulnerable and manipulated them. Most of them would never even step foot on a movie set. The bright spots in this repetitive cycle are the women who managed to break free of Howard's influence.

Howard Hughes's single minded focus seemed to be showing as much of an actress as he absolutely could in a movie above and before anything else. Longworth calls him 'the consummate tit-man' and that felt so accurate after I finished this book. It should, perhaps, therefore come as no surprise that he wasn't terribly good at making movies. He had a knack for finding talent, but only successfully launched the careers of a few women. Most of those women made it in spite of Hughes, and not because of him. The stories of Jean Harlow and Jane Russell are both perfect examples of this and were both fascinating to read.

Those who have listened to Longworth's multi episode series dedicated to the many loves of Howard Hughes will be delighted to know that the material is not just a direct copy of that series. There are elements that are woven into the narrative of the book, but this is a more in depth look at both the ladies and Howard himself. It offers a comprehensive look at his life in a way the podcast series just couldn't.

As much as Hughes is painted as a man with flaws who treated women (and those around him) horribly, there is a touch of sympathy reserved for the end of his story. Hughes ended up a recluse who probably had a few undiagnosed medical conditions (both physical and mental) brought about by various factors of the life he lived. Longworth is careful to paint everyone in a more complex light, and trusts the reader to make up their own minds about everyone involved. Nobody is a pure saint, or all sinner.

If you love this book I highly recommend checking out the You Must Remember This podcast (and vice versa). It is made for anyone who is fascinated by Hollywood, but in particular, Howard Hughes. A man who is remembered as many different things, and this book focuses on all of it - the good and the bad. It also gives a voice to the many women whose lives he stormed into in a way that I hadn't come across before.