The Rise and Fall of the Hollywood Con Queen PDF Download

Author: Gist Hub
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, where dreams are born and fortunes are made, one man spun an intricate web of lies that ensnared some of the entertainment industry's brightest stars. Hargobind "Harvey" Tahilramani was a master of deception, a chameleon con artist who could impersonate Hollywood's elite with chilling accuracy. Posing as powerful producers, investors, and tastemakers, he exploited the hopes of countless aspiring actors, filmmakers, and industry professionals with promises of big breaks and lucrative deals that never materialized. From the glittering streets of Los Angeles to the bustling alleyways of Jakarta, this spellbinding chronicle follows Tahilramani's audacious rise amid Tinseltown's star-makers and power players. Gain an unprecedented look at the sophisticated tricks and manipulation tactics he used to dupe his victims out of their money, their self-confidence, and sometimes, even their dignity. But his reign of deception didn't go unchallenged. This real-life thriller takes you inside the globetrotting efforts of the investigative team determined to unmask Tahilramani and bring his con crashing down. It's a serpentine trail of lies, red herrings, and near misses that will keep you wondering how he evaded justice for so long. Meticulously researched and dramatically riveting, The Rise and Fall of the Hollywood Con Queen gives you a front-row seat to one of the most mind-blowing stings in entertainment history. Brace yourself for an odyssey into the dark underbelly of Hollywood ambition and the depths one man sank to power his insatiable need for control over his victims' dreams.

Author: Frederic Lombardi
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786434856
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
It could be said that the career of Canadian-born film director Allan Dwan (1885-1981) began at the dawn of the American motion picture industry. Originally a scriptwriter, Dwan became a director purely by accident. Even so, his creativity and problem-solving skills propelled him to the top of his profession. He achieved success with numerous silent film performers, most spectacularly with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Gloria Swanson, and later with such legendary stars as Shirley Temple and John Wayne. Though his star waned in the sound era, Dwan managed to survive through pluck and ingenuity. Considering himself better off without the fame he enjoyed during the silent era, he went on to do some of his best work for second-echelon studios (notably Republic Pictures' Sands of Iwo Jima) and such independent producers as Edward Small. Along the way, Dwan also found personal happiness in an unconventional manner. Rich in detail with two columns of text in each of its nearly 400 pages, and with more than 150 photographs, this book presents a thorough examination of Allan Dwan and separates myth from truth in his life and films.

Author: Scott C. Johnson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063036940
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Soon to be an Apple TV+ Docuseries! “This book is as engrossing as anything by Agatha Christie, as unsettling as a novel by Stephen King, and reported with a vigorous empathy that leaves Truman Capote in the dust. Scott Johnson’s courage, his relentless quest for the truth behind a set of brilliantly obscured cruelties, and his examination of the very fabric of psychopathy ultimately lead him to question how the appalling lies spat out by the Con Queen relate to the daily untruths required of us all. His narrative is further deepened by breathtakingly honest reportage about himself and his family, which led him to this radical investigation of a deformed mind. I cannot remember the last time I read anything with such breathless fascination.”—Andrew Solomon The spellbinding tale of an epic international manhunt for a psychopathic con artist who exploited the dreams of creators to steal dozens of identities and millions of dollars. Blending years of deep reporting with distinctive, powerful prose, Scott C. Johnson’s unique true crime narrative recounts the tale of the brilliantly cunning imposter who carved a path of financial and emotional destruction across the world. Gifted with a diabolical flair for impersonation, manipulation, and deception, the Con Queen used their skill with accents and deft psychological insight to sweep through the entertainment industry. Johnson traces the origins of this mastermind and follows the years-long investigation of a singularly determined private detective who helped deliver them to the FBI. Described by one victim as a “crazy, evil genius,” the Con Queen enacted one of the most elaborate scams ever to hit Hollywood—the perfect criminal, committing the perfect crime for our time. But for what purpose? And with what motive? Johnson’s unparalleled access to sources—including exclusive interviews with victims and never-before-heard recordings of the Con Queen—brought global attention to the scam, spurred law enforcement to act, and led Johnson himself to venture in search of the Con Queen. Journeying from Los Angeles to the United Kingdom to Jakarta, Johnson eventually came face-to-face with one of the most disturbing criminal minds in recent history, only to realize what chasing the Con Queen revealed about himself and his own troubled family history.

Author: S. Aronstein
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137124008
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Hollywood Knights examines Hollywood Arthuriana as political nostalgia offered to American viewers during times of cultural crisis: the red scare of the 1950s, the breakdown of traditional authority in the 1960s and 1970s, the turn to the right in the 1980s and the redemption of masculine and national authority in the 1990s. Its analysis of these films explores their proposal of an ideal past - an Americanized Camelot and a democratized chivalry - as the solution to the problems of a troubled present, a solution that will ensure prosperity in the homeland and a globally beneficial American authority abroad.

Author: Anna Siomopoulos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415882931
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
This book argues that Hollywood melodramas of the Depression era engaged the political ideas underlying the welfare state policies of the New Deal. These ideas expanded the boundaries of the public realm and the purview of the government, such as liberal empathy, consumer citizenship, the refeudalization of the state, and minimal economic redistribution.

Author: Philip L. Reichel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440860157
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 860

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Book Description
A definitive resource for understanding such far-reaching and often interconnected crimes as cyber theft, drug trafficking, human smuggling, identity theft, wildlife poaching, and sex tourism. While many international corporations have benefited from the global economy and distribution of information, globalization has also had serious negative consequences. This important reference work offers students and general readers a critical understanding of how technology, governments, political unrest, war, and economic strife contribute to an increase in global crime. This A–Z encyclopedia covers key people, events, and organizations and includes key documents that will help readers to understand the numerous problems created by the many transnational crimes that are growing in severity and frequency around the world. Entries address perpetrators and their methods; victims; who really profits; and law enforcement responses. In addition to cyber theft and sales of weapons and narcotics, the set provides a detailed look at global crimes not typically covered, such as corruption, fraudulent medicine, illegal sports betting, organ trafficking, maritime piracy, trafficking in cultural property, and wildlife and forest crime. Although some historical events and people are included, the focus is on recent and contemporary topics.

Author: Frederick G. Vogel
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476611572
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Only one year after the presentation of the first Academy Awards on May 16, 1929, two musicals joined the select group of five films nominated for Best Picture. One, The Broadway Melody, won the award, and since then, 37 additional musicals have received Best Picture nominations. Of those, nine have won the award. This book covers all 39 Hollywood musicals nominated for Best Picture. It explains why each film was nominated and why the winners won, points out the influences that guided the productions, and discusses these films' influences on succeeding films. Plot descriptions are provided, along with facts about the acting, direction, choreography, and orchestration; complete cast and production credits; and comments from critics.

Author: Eron Rowland
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN: 9781455613540
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
"Varina Davis is a lady in any event," Southern women of the aristocratic circles of Washington told the war correspondent of the London Times who had been sent to the National Capital to report all the news he could gather concerning the secession of the Southern States from the great American Union. There was a finality in their tones and manner as if the fact settled the whole question and right of secession. And being such perfect ladies themselves, who could be a better judge of what it took to be one. . . . They further informed him that Varina was popular and had friends and social influence in Washington, adding with pursed lips that she belonged to the set they called �nice people�; not like �such people� as he had seen in the White House. Thus Mrs. Jefferson Davis was described to one who, with piqued curiosity, was soon to meet her as the First Lady of the Southern Confederacy. . . . But Varina Howell Davis came proudly to her high station. She was not without a due understanding of its significance, nor was she without the feeling that she, in some degree, deserved the distinction." --from Chapter I In this volume, Mrs. Rowland has written a charming and accurate historical narrative of the Southern Confederacy in which the wife of Jefferson Davis plays a part that holds and fascinates the reader. The narrative, written in an easy, yet frank and forceful style, denotes the work as an important contribution to American biography.

Author: Alex Palmer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493018906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The true story of John Duval Gluck, Jr., who in 1913 founded the Santa Claus Association, which had the sole authority to answer Santa's mail in New York City. He ran the organization for 15 years, gaining fame for making the myth of Santa a reality to poor children by arranging for donors to deliver the toys they requested, until a crusading charity commissioner exposed Gluck as a fraud. The story is wide in scope, interweaving a phony Boy Scout group, kidnapping, stolen artwork, and appearances by the era's biggest stars and New York City’s most famous landmarks. The book is both a personal story and a far-reaching historical one, tracing the history of Christmas celebration in America and the invention of Santa Claus.

Author: Tim Wu
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307594653
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
A New Yorker and Fortune Best Book of the Year "A must-read for all Americans who want to remain the ones deciding what they can read, watch, and listen to.” —Arianna Huffington Analyzing the strategic maneuvers of today’s great information powers—Apple, Google, and an eerily resurgent AT&T—Tim Wu uncovers a time-honored pattern in which invention begets industry and industry begets empire. It is easy to forget that every development in the history of the American information industry—from the telephone to radio to film—once existed in an open and chaotic marketplace inhabited by entrepreneurs and utopians, just as the Internet does today. Each of these, however, grew to be dominated by a monopolist or cartel. In this pathbreaking book, Tim Wu asks: will the Internet follow the same fate? Could the Web—the entire flow of American information—come to be ruled by a corporate leviathan in possession of "the master switch"? Here, Tim Wu shows how a battle royale for the Internet’s future is brewing, and this is one war we dare not tune out.