Dennis McDougal | |
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Born | Pasadena, California | November 25, 1947
Occupation |
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Genre | non-fiction, fiction, biography |
Notable works | Privileged Son, Bob Dylan |
Website | |
www |
Dennis McDougal (born November 25, 1947) is an American author and newspaper journalist. He has been called "L.A.'s No. 1 muckraker." [1] His book, Privileged Son, was described as "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los Angeles or modern-day newspapering" by The New York Times . [2] A native of Southern California, he lives near Memphis, Tennessee.
McDougal is originally from Pasadena, California. After attending public school in the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood, he received a bachelor of arts degree in English from University of California, Los Angeles, where he later earned a master's degree in journalism.
From 1967 to 1969, McDougal was on active duty with the Naval Reserves. He served aboard the U.S.S. Annapolis in the South China Sea. [3] In an interview with blogger Luke Ford, McDougal recalls his experience, much of which formed the basis for his first fiction novel The Candlestickmaker , published in 2011:
...The captain of our ship had a predilection for taking the recruiting slogan – join the Navy and see the world – seriously. We'd go out and do our 30–60 days tossing messages back and forth from the mainland to Hawaii and then we'd go on R&R. We did that a lot. He took us all over the Far East. [4]
Before turning his attention full-time to writing books in 1993, McDougal reported on the glitzy and occasionally corrupt aspects of Hollywood as a staff writer for ten years at the Los Angeles Times , while previously working as a staff writer for The Riverside Press-Enterprise (1973–77) and The Long Beach Press-Telegram (1977–1981). From 2002 to 2006, he worked as a contributor for The New York Times.
In 2007, the controversy surrounding his book Privileged Son: Otis Chandler And The Rise And Fall Of The Los Angeles Times Dynasty—the newspaper McDougal once worked for—was discussed in an interview with McDougal on NPR's Morning Edition . [5] The New York Times in a review called McDougal's book "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los Angeles or modern-day newspapering." [2]
Between books, McDougal was a producer for CNN during the O.J. Simpson trial, where he was responsible for tracking down witnesses, relatives, and acquaintances for interviews as well as documents and public records for use on camera as the trial unfolded.
A longtime contributor to TV Guide , [6] McDougal's last piece covered the murderous saga of actor Robert Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley. [7] [8]
In 2014, Turner Publishing Co. released McDougal's biography of Bob Dylan, Dylan: The Biography. Perfect Sound Forever magazine wrote that "McDougal answers many questions about Dylan's life and times and provides insight about it. [9]
In 1982, McDougal was awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University and spent a year teaching and studying in Japan and Canada, as well as at the Palo Alto campus. [10]
He has earned more than 50 honors, including a 1984 National Headliner Award [11] and several Associated Press awards. [6]
As of 2023, McDougal is the author of 13 books: [12]
Robert Towne was an American screenwriter and director. He started writing films for Roger Corman, including The Tomb of Ligeia in 1964, and was later part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking.
Robert Blake, billed early in his career as Mickey Gubitosi and Bobby Blake, was an American actor. He was best known for starring in the 1967 film In Cold Blood, playing the title role in the late 1970s television series Baretta, and playing the Mystery Man in the 1997 film Lost Highway.
The Los Angeles Times is a regional American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles area city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States, as well as the largest newspaper in the western United States. Owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by California Times, the paper has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes.
Dorothy Buffum Chandler was an American philanthropist. She is known for her contributions to Los Angeles performing arts and culture.
Luke Carey Ford is an Australian/American writer, blogger, and former pornography gossip columnist.
Lewis Robert Wasserman was an American businessman and talent agent, described as "the last of the legendary movie moguls" and "arguably the most powerful and influential Hollywood titan in the four decades after World War II". His career spanned nearly eight decades from the 1920s to the 2000s; he started working as a cinema usher before dropping out of high school, rose to become the president of MCA Inc. and led its takeover of Universal Pictures, during which time Wasserman "brought about changes in virtually every aspect of show business". In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. Several years later, he spoke of his ongoing work at Universal to Variety, saying, "I am under contract here for the rest of my life, and I don't think they would throw me out of my office—my name is on the building."
Norman Chandler was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1945 to 1960.
Joanna Barnes was an American actress and writer.
Christian Devi Brando was an American actor who was one of the eleven children of actor Marlon Brando, and the only one Brando had with his first wife, former actress Anna Kashfi.
Bonny Lee Bakley was the second wife of actor Robert Blake, who was her tenth husband. Bakley was fatally shot while sitting in Blake's parked car outside a Los Angeles restaurant in May 2001.
Casey Wasserman is an entertainment executive and sports agent executive who owned the now defunct Arena Football League team the Los Angeles Avengers. He headed the successful Los Angeles bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics and became president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee.
Glynn DeMoss Wolfe was an American Baptist minister and hotel owner who resided in Blythe, California. Wolfe is best known for allegedly having the largest number of monogamous marriages, having married 31 different times, although one of his marriages was annulled and several remain unconfirmed.
Harry Chandler was an American newspaper publisher and investor.
Joseph Scott was a prominent British-born attorney and community leader in Los Angeles, California. His service to the community was so varied and important that he earned the nickname "Mr. Los Angeles."
Many Black Dahlia suspects, or persons of interest, have been proposed as the unidentified killer of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the "Black Dahlia", who was murdered in 1947. Many conspiracy theories have been advanced, but none have been found to be completely persuasive by experts, and some are not taken seriously at all.
Jean Babette Stein was an American author and editor.
The Rock Store is a restaurant in Cornell, on Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles, California. It is popular with motorcyclists and celebrities.
Mary Murphy is an American television personality, print journalist and author. She was an on-air correspondent for The Insider and a news producer at Entertainment Tonight. Murphy is also a senior lecturer at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She has been a contributor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, USA Weekend Magazine, the New York Post and The Hollywood Reporter. Murphy has been on the staff of the Los Angeles Times and New York, Esquire, and TV Guide Magazines.
Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most Heinous Murder Spree of the Century is a non-fiction book by investigative journalist and American author Dennis McDougal published in 1991 by the Hachette Book Group. McDougal was an investigative reporter for the Long Beach Press-Telegram assigned to cover the case when Kraft was arrested. At the time Angel of Darkness was released, McDougal was working as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
Gary McLarty was an American stunt performer and stunt coordinator for film and television. His abilities earned him the nickname "Whiz Kid" in Hollywood.