Starmaker: The Autobiography of Hal B. Wallis
Starmaker: The Autobiography of Hal Wallis is a good insider's story of early Hollywood. Wallis' talks about his career as a high profile producer/film exec. with great candor. The reader never gets the impression that he is sugarcoating anything. Discussing his adversaries and difficult actors, Wallis pulls no punches. However, he is generous when talking about friends and those he admired.
Reading about the beginning of the film industry, following the shift to the west coast, you really get a sense of how exciting it was to be a part of what was, at the time, the rapidly growing, evolving youth-dominated new medium.
Wallis talks little about himself, focusing more on the icons he discovered or developed like: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Shirley MacLaine, Martin & Lewis and many others. He also chronicles the making of classic films like Little Caesar, Casablanca, Becket, Anne of the Thousand Days and True Grit.
If you want an unvarnished account of what it was like to be a movie producer during Hollywood's Golden Age, this is a good choice.
Jennifer Lafferty, author of
Anne of the Thousand Days: The and [book:Movie Dynasty Princesses: Irene Mayer Selznick and Edith Mayer Goetz Making of an Epic|46008082]
Reading about the beginning of the film industry, following the shift to the west coast, you really get a sense of how exciting it was to be a part of what was, at the time, the rapidly growing, evolving youth-dominated new medium.
Wallis talks little about himself, focusing more on the icons he discovered or developed like: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Shirley MacLaine, Martin & Lewis and many others. He also chronicles the making of classic films like Little Caesar, Casablanca, Becket, Anne of the Thousand Days and True Grit.
If you want an unvarnished account of what it was like to be a movie producer during Hollywood's Golden Age, this is a good choice.
Jennifer Lafferty, author of
Anne of the Thousand Days: The and [book:Movie Dynasty Princesses: Irene Mayer Selznick and Edith Mayer Goetz Making of an Epic|46008082]
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Jennifer K. Lafferty, author of Movie Dynasty Princesses, reviews a wide range of books and discusses various aspects of contemporary and classic literature.
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