Hollywood: The Oral History

Bassinger, Jeanine and Sam Wasson. Hollywood: The Oral History. New York: HarperCollins 2022. Print.

First Sentences:

In 1969, the American Film Institute held the first of what would be an ongoing series of intimate conversations between Hollywood professionals and AFT conservatory students. These became the Harold Lloyd Master Seminars, named in honor of their very first guest....All are experts in their fields. They are the artists, the craftspeople, the producers, the salesmen. Some are famous, others obscure. They speak with the attitudes of their own time, but they speak with authority.


Description:

After books, movies are one of my favorite entertainments. From the black and white Silents to the latest Indy film, watching them with my wife is one of the highlights of any day (or night). So what could be better than reading a book about films as told by the people intimately involved with all aspects of the creation of that medium?

 

So along comes the the American Film Institute with a desire and the means to preserve the history of cinema as told by the people who lived it in all eras. From stars to directors, screenwriters, stunt people, and representatives from other film production, the AFI sat them down and recorded over 3,000 interviews starting in 1969.

 

Authors Jeanine Bassinger and Sam Wasson were given complete access to the transcripts of these seminars and assembled the discussions into their wonderful book of the origins of film, Hollywood: The Oral History

 

And who contributes opinions and memories to this history? Well, everyone who was/is anyone in the film industry. Over 300 seminar participants contributed. Starting with the hugest of starts, Harold Lloyd (silent comedian), and Hoot Gibson (silent film cowboy), Hollywood: The Oral History records the conversations between (among many others):

• Directors: Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Peter Bogdanovich, Orson Welles, George Cukor, King Vidor, Roger Corman, Ron Howard, George Lucas, Jordan Peele, Spike Lee, Francois Truffaut, and Billy Wilder; 

• Actors: Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Charleton Heston, Lillian Gish, Fay Wray (remember King Kong?), Henry Fonda,  Shirley MacLaine, and Natalie Wood; 

• Production members: Harry Warren (songwriter for "At Last" and 800+ other songs), Edith Head (costumer), Howard Strickline (publicist), and Fritz Lang (producer); 

• Writers: Richard Schickel (film historian), Arthur Knight (critic), Adele Rogers St. Johns, and Paul Mazursky. And so many, many more.

Seminars were organized in the book include topic such as, "The Silents," "Comedy," "Silent Directors," "Studio Workforce," "Packaging," "Monstors," and "The End of the System."

 

You can certainly read this book from page 1 to page 739, but you might prefer to just dip into section where you see a name or topic you know and immerse yourself in hearing experts casually talk about their memories, hopes, and frustrations of their film experiences. Kind of like eavesdropping on interesting conversations at a crowded party, drifting from group to group, only moving on when another conversation pulls you over. 

Here's some tidbits from the "Silent" section that I "overheard" to give an idea of the language, memories, and commentaries these professionals displayed:

[Harold Lloyd]:  We never had a script until we made a talking picture....I think we were one of the very first, even back in the old one-reel days, to start previews

[Gene Kelly]: Buster Keaton had a great influence on me. I certainly intuitively copied a lot of his moves...He was a complete genius, and there was a lot of dance inherently in his movements. They were balletic.

[Rouben Mamoulian, director]: First you had these cheap little nickelodeons that were nothing--amusement--you put a nickel in, and you see a ballerina dancing. Then a giant, D.W. Grittith, walks in, and with one film, Birth of a Nation, which could also be called 'birth of the art,' created a new fine art of film.

Lillian Gish (actress): When [D.W. Griffith] started taking close-ups, up in the office they said, "We pay for the whole actor."

[Melvin LeRoy, director and one-time silent film cameraman]: Cecil B. DeMille always said that I was the first one who invented soft focus...because I got everything out of focus.

I have so many more quotes, sections, and seminar participants I wanted to mention, but realized if anyone wasn't fascinated by the contents of this book by now, adding more details would probably not convince them.

 

But if you are a film buff or just enjoy learning great stories about the movies, or if you just delight in hearing the industry's phraseology, slang, and insightful references from the people who participated in or heard first-hand from colleagues about these events, then Hollywood: An Oral History is definitely for you. It is the best you will ever find in revealing the inside stories of the people, events, and machinations of all aspects of film-making.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Vance, Jeffrey and Suzanne Lloyd. Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian

Highly detailed biography of Harold Lloyd, his films, photographs, and the early silent era of movie-making. A must for anyone interested in oral and well-researched histories of the cinema  (previously reviewed here)