MY BOOKS
Over the years, my work has focused on tracing Hollywood’s luminous past—the stories that survive in marble, film, and memory. Each of these books reflects a deep fascination with the city’s hidden history: its cemeteries and sound stages, its dreamers and ghosts. From detailed biographies to cultural histories, these volumes explore how art, ambition, and mortality have always intertwined beneath the California sun. Together, they form an ongoing portrait of Hollywood itself—a place where the past never truly dies, it only changes its lighting.
RAMON NOVARRO
RAMON NOVARRO: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE SILENT FILM IDOL, 1899-1968; WITH A FILMOGRAPHY
Foreword by Kevin Brownlow
Ramon Novarro was Ben-Hur to moviegoers long before Charlton Heston. The 1926 film made Novarro--known as "Ravishing Ramon"--one of Hollywood's most beloved silent film idols. His bright and varied career, spanning silents, talkies, the concert stage, theater, and television, came to a dark conclusion with his murder in 1968.
This comprehensive work details both the private and public aspects of Novarro's life to return him to his rightful place in film history. Includes a complete filmography and numerous photos.
Review
“pieces together Novarro’s last moments in blood-stopping detail...captivating read...Ellenberger provides an exhaustive filmography...and makes a case for Novarro as a fascinating, frightening casualty of intolerance, self-destruction and fleeting stardom” ―Bay Area Reporter
MARGARET O'BRIEN
MARGARET O'BRIEN: A CAREER CHRONICLE AND BIOGRAPHY
Foreword by Robert Young
Among Hollywood's child stars are some talented children, normal and pleasant who find fame in film. Margaret O'Brien is one; her career began in 1941. The fresh-faced moppet quickly became a sensation and won the 1944 Academy Award for Outstanding Child Actress. As Adele in Jane Eyre (1944) and Beth in Little Women (1949), Margaret endeared herself to millions. Despite the strain of growing up on screen, O'Brien continues to perform today.
This reference work details O'Brien's remarkable and varied career on stage, screen, and television: it includes a biography and a complete listing of all her film, radio, stage, and television appearances, as well as references to her in magazines and newspapers. Each entry includes complete production information, as well as reviews and behind-the-scenes commentary. Included are forewords by Robert Young and O'Brien herself, who provided much of the information in this book. Dozens of photos, including many from O'Brien's personal collection, illustrate the text and show the varied stages of a career that includes both famous roles and famous friendships.
Review
“a complete career chronology...[will] keep her fans enraptured” ―Film Review
RUDOLPH VALENTINO
THE VALENTINO MYSTIQUE: THE DEATH AND AFTERLIFE OF THE SILENT FILM IDOL
Foreword by Eduardo Ballerini
The circumstances surrounding the death of legendary star Rudolph Valentino have been a constant source of fascination for admirers worldwide. This work examines every aspect of his passing, analyzing the circumstances and gathering information into one convenient source for the Valentino scholar and enthusiast.
The first part examines every moment of the last days of Rudolph Valentino, his illness and operation, the reactions of such intimates as Pola Negri, and all controversy such as riots, suicides, and fights over his funeral and estate. Part two gives tours of Valentino-related sites in New York, Hollywood and West Hollywood, downtown and suburban Los Angeles, and Beverly Hills, explaining each site's part in Valentino's history, giving quotes from the star and his associates about the place, and describing its present state. Part three consists of eleven appendices giving such information as the infamous "Pink Powder Puff" editorial and Valentino's responses, the medical diagnosis, operation on and treatment of the idol, tributes and eulogies, the list of mourners attending his funerals, his last will and testament, the summation of his estate, quotes about his death, references from newspapers, and a complete filmography.
Review
“meticulously researched...great detail” ―Alternative Film Guide
CELEBRITIES IN THE 1930 CENSUS
This directory provides an extensive listing of household information collected for over 2,265 famous or notorious individuals who were alive during the 1930 United States Census. Figures from the entertainment industry constitute the bulk of the material, but the work also includes census data for hundreds of scientists, athletes, politicians, criminals, cult figures, and religious leaders.
Entries includes the household members' birth and/or professional names, occupations, residential address, and an estimate of the homes' value or monthly rental fee. Each entry also offers a brief guide to finding the household's original census data through the National Archives microfilm. Several appendices provide overall population data from the 1930 Census, a complete list of the 32 questions originally included in the census questionnaire, and contact information for current National Archives and Records Administration locations.
Review
“valuable...fascinating...I simply couldn’t put it down; it was addictive reading” ―Classic Images.
MIRIAM HOPKINS
MIRIAM HOPKINS: LIFE AND FILMS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL
Miriam Hopkins (1902–1972) first captured moviegoers' attention in daring precode films such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), The Story of Temple Drake (1933), and Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise (1932). Though she enjoyed popular and critical acclaim in her long career―receiving an Academy Award nomination for Becky Sharp (1935) and a Golden Globe nomination for The Heiress (1949)―she is most often remembered for being one of the most difficult actresses of Hollywood's golden age. Whether she was fighting with studio moguls over her roles or feuding with her avowed archrival, Bette Davis, her reputation for temperamental behavior is legendary.
In the first comprehensive biography of this colorful performer, Allan R. Ellenberger illuminates Hopkins's fascinating life and legacy. Her freewheeling film career was exceptional in studio-era Hollywood, and she managed to establish herself as a top star at Paramount, RKO, Goldwyn, and Warner Bros. Over the course of five decades, Hopkins appeared in thirty-six films, forty stage plays, and countless radio programs. Later, she emerged as a pioneer of TV drama. Ellenberger also explores Hopkins's private life, including her relationships with such intellectuals as Theodore Dreiser, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein, and Tennessee Williams. Although she was never blacklisted for her suspected Communist leanings, her association with these freethinkers and her involvement with certain political organizations led the FBI to keep a file on her for nearly forty years. This skillful biography treats readers to the intriguing stories and controversies surrounding Hopkins and her career, but also looks beyond her Hollywood persona to explore the star as an uncompromising artist. The result is an entertaining portrait of a brilliant yet underappreciated performer.
Review
"A compelling actress who was equally at home in heavy dramas and sophisticated comedies, Miriam Hopkins is due for rediscovery, and this book may serve as a linchpin. With pages of sources to verify his extensive research, Ellenberger has tried to bring the public and private Miriam Hopkins to life in this welcome biography."―Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
ANITA PAGE
ANITA PAGE: A CAREER CHRONICLE AND BIOGRAPHY
with co-author Robert Murdoch Paton
Foreword by Randal Malone
Anita Page (1910-2008) first captured attention near the end of the silent film era in such classics as While the City Sleeps (1928) with Lon Chaney, The Flying Fleet (1929) with Ramon Novarro, and her own favorite, Our Dancing Daughters (1928) with Joan Crawford. In a relatively short career, Page enjoyed critical acclaim. She appeared in the first full-sound movie to win Best Picture, The Broadway Melody (1929).
With a foreword by her close friend, actor Randal Malone, this reference work is the first to fully detail Page's remarkable career, including a biography and a complete listing of all her films, along with her one stage appearance and her returns to the limelight in later years.
Entries provide complete production information, reviews and behind-the-scenes commentary. Dozens of photos and revealing anecdotes complete a portrait of a fascinating yet underappreciated performer.
Review
“Fans of Anita Page will certainly want to snap this up, [and] the book will also appeal to followers of motion picture history in general, especially of the silent era.”―David C. Tucker, Gale Storm: A Biography and Career Record
COMING SOON...
CEMETERY OF THE IMMORTALS: THE HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD FOREVER
Foreword by Tyler Cassity
“Cemetery of the Immortals” is a sweeping chronicle of Hollywood Forever Cemetery—the city’s oldest surviving burial ground and the final resting place of its legends. Blending meticulous research with narrative grace, the book uncovers the stories behind the marble facades and moss-covered crypts: silent-era stars, forgotten pioneers, and dreamers who helped build the myth of Hollywood itself.
From the studio moguls who shaped an empire to the chorus girls who vanished from the screen, Cemetery of the Immortals traces the rise, fall, and afterlife of the entertainment industry through the one place where all its stories converge. Illustrated with rare photographs and grounded in first-hand archival work, it is both a history and an elegy—a meditation on fame, memory, and the way Hollywood continues to script its own immortality.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Thank you for exploring these books and the stories within them. Each was written with the hope of preserving a piece of Hollywood’s fragile past—the voices, faces, and dreams that time nearly erased. I continue to research, write, and uncover new histories, and I invite readers who share this fascination with memory and cinema to join me on that journey. After all, Hollywood’s story is still being written—one forgotten reel, one weathered headstone, one rediscovered name at a time. --Allan R. Ellenberger
What we do
We celebrate Hollywood—past and present. Through history, biography, and review, this blog explores the people, films, and places that shaped the dream factory, preserving its stories while connecting them to today’s entertainment world.