BunnyR Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I really enjoy reading about the movie stars. What has been your favorite books? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelryan Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 There are many out there.Books about the Moguls,the stars,directors.Bear Manor is a good company."Classic Images" newspaper (Muscatine,Iowa) also has many suggestions.Currently reading The Life of Kay Francis but have read Thalberg,Victor Fleming,Frank(Sinatra) Mitchum,Cagney,bogart,and many more.The One about director Fleming is the best Ive ever read its called Victor Fleming,am American Movie Master. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredbaetz Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 A few others to read. Some may be hard to find: "All My Yesterdays" by Edward G. Robinson "Print the Legend- The Life and Times of John Ford" Also "Searching for John Ford' by Joseph McBride "If They Move, Kill 'Em" The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah" "Howard Hawks- The Grey Fox of Hollywood" "Growing Up in Hollywood" by Robert Parrish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SansFin Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I have now finished reading: Don't Mind If I Do by George Hamilton and William Stadiem. It is not a dish-dirt book. He tells of several actresses of the classic era. It is not an in-depth look at any person or studio or movie. Even his own movies are talked of only in the context of who he was bedding at the time and how its money affected his situation. I would recommend it solely because it is very personable and enjoyable to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BunnyR Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 I have just ordered the Victor Fleming book. I ordered 3 others but will not mention them because I hope I didn't order bad ones! Does anyone know if there has been a book written about Hollywood star's children? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredbaetz Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 One of the books I mentioned below is "Growing Up in Hollywood" by Robert Parrish. He started in silent films, he did some "Our Gang" comedies, aiming his peashooter ay Chaplin in "City Lights". Worked with John Ford in "The Whole Town's Talking" and " The Informer". After the war where he again worked for Ford, he directed his first film "Cry Danger" with Dick Powell and others such as "The Wonderful Country", "Fire Down Below" . He won an Oscar as film editor for "Body and Soul".. So if you can find it, I think you will have a good read.Check Amazon Books... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagladymimi Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Probably the best biography I have read is "On Sunset Boulevard" by Ed Sikov. It is about Billy Wilder and his life in the movies. He not only was an award winning director, he also wrote many of the scripts he directed. He actually was a writer, director, and producer. What I like about this book is the detail that it goes into about each of the movies he made. His movies are some of the best Classics that were ever made. Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Stalag 17, Sabrina, Double Indemnity, and Irma La Douce are just some of his hits. It also gives you particularly interesting information about the artists in Germany before WWII. I loved this book and cherish the works of Billy Wilder. Another good book is "The Dark Side Of Genius" about Alfred Hitchcock by Donald Spoto. In fact, I have read several biographies by Donald Spoto and would recommend any of them. The Hitchcock book also goes into all his movies in detail and like the Wilder biography, it deals with the whole movie making process. I counted 44 biographies and books about the stars, directors, etc. in my possession right now. There are countless others that I have lost track of, but I enjoyed reading them all. These are just 2 that I think are outstanding. There are so many good ones out there. I hope you can take your time and enjoy them all. One last thing I like to do is when I find a movie that is going to be on TCM, I go into their archives and pull up that movie. It will give you whatever they have on the making of that movie. The 'Notes" and "Articles" sections include a lot of details and trivia that you won't see anywhere else. When I read the article about Oklahoma, there was a nice little tidbit about Gloria Graham that I found interesting. I hope these suggestions help you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagladymimi Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I just ordered the Victor Fleming book. Can't wait to read it. Thanks for the recommendation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MontyC Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Jayne Mansfield's got some nice ones. As does Marilyn Monroe. Sopia Loren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDHarlow Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Hi!!! I'm new to TCM forums! My sister got me The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe and I adore it, if you're interested in her like before she was famous and her personal life outside of the studio then I recommend it, one of my all time favorites is Marlon Brando's songs my mother tought me I love it because I identify with his personal life and he is extremely honest, I bought that one after I saw The Godfather because I felt an impact by his performance there, Marilyn also has an "autobiography" sort of, the hard cover version is so beautiful it is a classic for me and feels like a collectors edition, that one is called My story with Ben Hecht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGMWBRKO Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I can hardy wait for this one: http://www.tcm.com/this-month/movie-news.html?id=472252&name=RKO-Radio-Pictures-A-Titan-is-Born Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 MGM, Thanks for the heads up on the new book about RKO. I know the author, Richard Jewell (he was my favorite teacher when I was in college) and have his previous book on the studio, *The RKO Story*. Looking forward to reading this one! REDHarlow, There are other books on the studio history such as *Here's Looking at You, Kid* (The Warners Bros studio), one on Columbia Studio as well as Paramount and MGM. There is a new book devoted to the MGM backlot, *Hollywood's Greatest Backlot* that was written by a couple of studio archivists and is filled with lots of pictures and history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDHarlow Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Hi!! thanks!!! I recently got the Casablanca box set and I loved the making and it comes with cards of letters by the studio which were really interesting so I would love to read the ones you suggested!!!! Do you know any other interesting books involving Marilyn Monroe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagladymimi Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Thanks Izcutter for these suggestions - they all look really good. I think it will be interesting to get a different take on the biographies of the studios versus the stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredbaetz Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Dale, You suggested the Hollywoods Greatest Backlot last year and my son got it for my birthday. You were right it is a terrific read and I just got "Victor Fleming An American Movie Master" and almost finished reading it. An A+ Bio........ Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Roy, Glad you enjoyed both books. Bet the MGM backlot book brought back lots of memories for you! Other books you might enjoy are the ones by John Bengston on Los Angeles locations used in Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd silents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviesrgr8 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I highly recommend *People Wll Talk* by John Kobal. It is wonderful. Also, the Milton Berle bio is great... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EveryOscarEver Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe is by far the best film book I have ever read. Aside from giving you an outstanding background on the life and films of Billy Wilder, it will also give you great insight as to how one master (Wilder) and one very talented filmmaker (Crowe) view movies. I read the book as I was starting college, and it permanently changed the way I view films. Also, though I haven't read the book, I will also praise Richard Jewell, the author of the new book on RKO. He was a professor of mine in college, and is perhaps the most knowledgeable individual on film history that I have ever met. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 > He was a professor of mine in college, and is perhaps the most knowledgeable individual on film history that I have ever met. EveryOscar, As one of his former students (and biggest boosters), can I ask, when were you at SC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagladymimi Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Dear EveryOscarEver, Sounds like you had a great film background from college. Did you stay in the business? And I will get the Richard Jewell book - really want to more about RKO background. Thanks for the recommendation. Mimi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagladymimi Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 People Will Talk is one of my favorite films. I first saw it when I was young. There were actually two films starring Jeanne Crain: People Will Talk and Pinky. I saw both probably in the late 50's or early 60's on TV. Then I didn't hear or see anything about either one for years until FMC started showing them about 4 yrs. ago. They were about controversial subjects - maybe that is why they weren't shown on TV for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosebette Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 "Errol and Olivia" by Robert Matzen. He explores both their careers and their relationship. It has loads of great pictures, especially some wonderful candids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jh33 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Harlow in Hollywood by Darrell Rooney and Mark Vieria Is a great book on Harlow and Hollywood during the 1930's. Alot of great photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EugeniaH Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I highly recommend *People Wll Talk *by John Kobal. I just got this book in the mail on Saturday and it's one of the best movie books I've read in some time. This author has interviewed many of the greats, from the 1920s through the 1950s: people like Swanson, Gish, Brooks, Mae West, Hepburn, Dunne, Stanwyck, Milestone, Crawford, Hurrell, McCrea... a total of 41 people in all! The book is laid out in interview format (questions/answers), so the personalities of the stars come through. Kobal's comments are intelligent and incisive. I don't know if it is still in print - I got it through amazon. I second and third moviesgr8's suggestion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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