Book Review: Hollywood: The Oral History by Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson

Hollywood: The Oral History

by Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson (791.43 Bas)

 

As the authors say, in their introduction, this book is compiled from interviews conducted by the American Film Institute, beginning in 1969, with individuals from across the spectrum of movie-making. Basinger and Wasson were given total and unprecedented access to all of the the AFI’s Harold Lloyd seminars, oral histories, and complete archives, featuring more than 3000 guest speakers and almost 10000 hours of conversation.

 

The authors then pulled quotes and organized them into thematic chapters: Beginnings, Comedy, Silent Directors, Silent Actors, Sound!, Studio Heads, Studio Style, The Studio Workforce (itself broken in ten sub-chapters), The Product, The End of the System, Identity Crisis, New Hollywood, The Creep Up, The Deal, Packaging, Everybody’s Business, and Monsters.

 

This book makes for absolutely fascinating reading but it is also a bit stop-and-go. Anyone who is interested in the history of movie-making here in the United States should find much of the content of this volume essential reading. However, at the same time, it doesn’t make for fast-flowing reading, as the voices jump back and forth between people you recognize and people from the industry that you may never have heard of.

 

I ended up loving Hollywood: The Oral History, while at the same time wishing that it was a video documentary, so I could have actually seen the individuals as they were being interviewed. None-the-less, a marvelous book on Hollywood and film-making history! Nearly every page has some nugget of information I never heard about before!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way by Myrna Frommer, though it deals with stage productions rather than film.)

 

( publisher’s official Hollywood: The Oral History web site ) | ( Wikipedia page for Jeannine Basinger )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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