The authors, Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson, were granted "access to the AFI's Harold Lloyd Seminars, oral histories, and complete archives . Then there is Gene Kelly, the man who put brawn into modern musical masculinity, confessing that he would love to have had the boneless body of Buster Keaton: “I often wish I did. What we are seeing slowly created is the Studio system being created again as Netflix and Prime Video set up their own studios. At the very least, here is testimony by over 300 industry professionals, some of whom made silent movies and are now dead, others of whom are Steven Spielberg and Jordan Peele. Some of these areas were not as interesting as others, and I seldom recognized the names of the people working some of the behind the scenes jobs- so I confess to having skimmed some sections.

What emerges are chapters that feel like a series of panel discussions involving some 368 named Hollywood filmmakers in dialogues concerning subjects ranging from various forms of film formats; genres and technologies, the art; craft and personalities of various studio personnel, the rise and fall of the Hollywood studio system to today’s “product,” covering more than one hundred years of American film history. But the idea that movies are no longer about making art when its now easier than ever for anyone to make a movie than its ever been, allowing artists that wouldn't have had a chance in earlier eras to get a film made can do it all by themselves is just stupid. But the idea that the only way to make good movies was under the studio system where 4 or 5 studios monopolized every aspect of movie making was somehow better and produced better product than any other time in moviemaking history is idiotic. Know that these are interviews, and people don't always tell the complete truth in interviews, but whether they are or aren't being honest with us, the material is fascinating. Adding the year the person was interviewed wouldn't have taken up that much space, and it would've done the reader a great service.There seemed to be a consensus that he tried to help Garland, if for no other reason than her financial value to the studio. Home to William Golding, Sylvia Plath, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sally Rooney, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Max Porter, Ingrid Persaud, Anna Burns and Rachel Cusk, among many others, Faber is proud to publish some of the greatest novelists from the early twentieth century to today.

What wasn't so great was the way the interviewees talked about the studio system and the studio heads and producers. Movie fans may get lost in the technical details offered up by costume designers, cameramen, editors and cinematographars, just to name a few. Yes, I know this was probably an expensive book to produce and it's a long work, but spend the money, Harper, and provide an index. To make matters even trickier, the rules were applied differently in each state, with the result, says Blanke, that “you never recognised the picture you had made from one state to another. Perhaps future books could be dedicated to specific topics covered in HOLLYWOOD, offering, for example, a more in-depth look at the years before television, when movies were the only game in town.

So reading about all the processes and steps of making movies from those who actually did it was great.

The editing involved in “transcribing” these comments from hundreds of actors, producers, directors and camera people --- literally anyone who had a connection to the industry --- to make the reader believe that these figures were sitting down together over a drink to dish the dirt is amazing. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). The authors have reviewed many interviews from people in the industry, extracted paragraphs of interest, then organized these by topic (e.Hollywood: The Oral History covers the history of Hollywood from the Silent era up to the 21st century. Two caveats: you have to be very familiar with Hollywood's history to recognize many of the "speakers", and there is no index provided.

To access you ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. The stars and directors are the ones who get the most attention (and money), but it takes a village, to use the phrase.

I didn't know how little I cared what Mervyn LeRoy or Bronislau Kaper thought about anything until reading this book. First off, the intro claims that events told by their participants are necessarily more true and generally superior, but anyone even remotely familiar with oral histories knows that this just isn't the way it works. The award-winning costume designer Edith Head (1897-1981) describes getting a foot in the door by showing a portfolio of drawings that weren’t hers. It's just a bit mentally draining to read constant complaining about how the industry, and thus the country, is falling apart. I pictured these old-timers telling us about the classic days of Hollywood, and I felt like I was in good hands.