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City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s
Otto Friedrich · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorEasy Riders, Raging Bulls
Peter Biskind · 506 pages
"Easy Riders, Raging Bulls vividly chronicles the exuberance and excess of the times: the startling success of Easy Rider and the equally alarming circumstances under which it was made, with drugs, booze, and violent rivalry between costars Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda dominating the set; how a small production company named BBS became the guiding spirit of the youth rebellion in Hollywood and ho
Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War
Mark Harris · 511 pages
Traces the World War II experiences of five legendary directors including John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra and George Stevens to assess the transformative impact of the war and period beliefs on Hollywood. By the author of Pictures at a Revolution.
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
Mallory O'Meara · 368 pages
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood
Neal Gabler · 502 pages
"From noted film critic Neal Gabler comes a provocative, original, and richly entertaining group biography of the Jewish immigrants who founded and came to dominate the American film industry. These men--Adolph_Zukor, Carl Laemmle, Louis B. Mayer, the Warner brothers, Harry Cohn--created an image of America out of their own idealism, a vision that proved so powerful that it ultimately came to shap
West of Eden: An American Place
Jean Stein · 343 pages
"An epic, mesmerizing oral history of Hollywood and Los Angeles by the author of the contemporary classic Edie; Jean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book Edie : American Girl, an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol 'superstar' Edie Sedgwick. Now, in West of Eden, she turns her lens toward the city Sedgwick came from--Los Angeles--and a mythic cast of fortune hunters a
The Parade's Gone By...
Kevin Brownlow · 577 pages
Passing in review here is the silent film era and Mr. Brownlow has done a splendid job of vitalizing the past through interviews and personal research. Most of this material has never seen print before and the filmophile will go wild over reminiscences such as Joseph Henabery's (who assisted Griffith on Intolerance). And the snaps: Garbo who loved watching talking pictures in reverse but refused t
Adventures in the Screen Trade
William Goldman · 425 pages
Includes an idea-to-film production case study of his short story, Da Vinci.
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood's Golden Age
Robert J. Wagner, Scott Eyman · 262 pages
The legendary actor and best-selling author of Pieces of My Heart offers a nostalgic look at Hollywood's golden age, touring favorite hotspots and exploring period business practices before the advent of paparazzi culture and high-powered agents.
A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940
Victoria Wilson
"Fifteen years in the making, the first volume of the full-scale astonishing life of one of our greatest screen actresses whose career in pictures spanned four decades beginning with the coming of sound--the first to delve deeply into Stanwyck's rich, complex life and to explore her extraordinary range of eighty-eight motion pictures, many of them iconic; her work, her world, her Hollywood through
The Kid Stays in the Picture
Robert Evans · 480 pages
An autobiographical account of the life and times of Robert Evans, Hollywood producer who worked on Love Story, Rosemary's Baby, The Godfather, Marathon Man, Chinatown The Cottonwood Club and many other films.
Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman
Sam Wasson · 260 pages
A closeup examination of Blake Edwards' classic film, Breakfast at Tiffany's, winner of two Oscars.
The Star Machine
Jeanine Basinger · 608 pages
Film studies authority Basinger gives us an entertaining look into the "star machine," examining how, at the height of the studio system, from the 1930s to the 1950s, the studios manufactured star actors and actresses. She shows us how the machine worked when it worked, how it failed when it didn't, and how irrelevant it could sometimes be. She gives us the "human factor," case studies focusing on
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Lawrence Wright · 448 pages
"Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative skills to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology: its origins in the imagination of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard; its struggles to find acceptance as a
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
Stephen Rebello · 224 pages
Shares a behind the scenes look at how "Psycho" was made, despite studio opposition, and includes interviews with the cast and crew.
Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood
William J. Mann · 528 pages
Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to unpack the story of the enigmatic William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, and the diverse cast that surrounded him before he was murdered in 1922-- including three beautiful, ambitious actresses, the ruthless founder of Paramount locked
Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud
Shaun Considine · 457 pages
Explosive, exhaustive and unsparing, the inside, tell-all story of the celebrated, long-term feud of Hollywood's two greatest screen legends, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.
The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks
Nicole LaPorte · 504 pages
LaPorte goes behind the hype to reveal how Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg joined forces to create DreamWorks.
You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again
Julia Phillips · 645 pages
Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System
Sharon Waxman · 448 pages