Following the death of Carmen Flores, the lubricious Mexican star, Adela Cork buys her Hollywood house. Hoping to escape from the domineering Adela, her brother-in-law Smedley, who has lived with her since losing his money, searches the house for Carmen's legendary lost diary, in the belief that its scorching revelations about the sex life of her fellow stars will make him millions. He is helped and hindered by a safe-blowing butler, a pompous movie mogul, a posse of unemployed scriptwriters, and the redoubtable Adela herself. Fortunately, Adela's sister, 'Bill' Shannon, not for nothing nicknamed 'the Old Reliable', is on hand to ensure a satisfactory outcome.

David Hurles, known throughout the '70s and '80s as 'Old Reliable', documented the exotic and forbidden world of male hustlers. He was uniquely able to provoke and capture raw emotional responses from these dangerous men living on the fringes of society. Working in San Francisco and Los Angeles, two cities renowned for their beauty, glamour and disenfranchised American Dreamers, Hurles documented the drifters and grifters moving restlessly through America's hard underbelly. A documentary of youthful male ambition, his photos vibrate with assurance and dangerous sexuality.

Originally published in the U.K. by Herbert Jenkins, April 1951.