Hollywood East: Louis B. Mayer and the origins of the studio system

by Diana Altman

How did the business of movies grow? Who were the people who made it grow? What innovative twists did mobsters Al Capone and Willie Bioff add? Hollywood East tells the story of how the movies evolved as a business-a business controlled from the Eastern seaboard. As Diana Altman notes, "Hollywood was a pretty face but New York was the heart and lungs." Most film historians concentrate on the Hollywood studios and treat the New York side as an unimportant annoyance to the creative geniuses of Hollywood. In fact, New York ran the whole show, and the geniuses were merely employees as far as New York was concerned. Many of the elements of film art and technology were developed in the East. The screen test was an eastern innovation. James Stewart, Joan Crawford, Ava Gardner, and many other unknown actors who became stars got their start in the Fifty-fourth Street Manhattan studio where MGM screen tests were shot. Hollywood East is the story of Louis B. Mayer from his days as a theater owner in New England through his tenure as studio head at MGM, through his dismissal from the company bearing his name. It is the story of William Fox, the avaricious founder of Fox News (1919), the mightiest newsreel company, and Fox Film which eventually merged with Twentieth Century. At one time Fox sought to control the entire film industry and had a net worth of $100 million. Sent to prison for bribery, he sank into such obscurity that the New York Times referred to him as "the late William Fox" while he was still alive. It is the story of Marcus Loew, the benevolent ruler of the country's largest theater chain. It is the story of Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn, Cecil B. DeMille, and other pioneers. It's all here: how the stars emerged, how the public relations mills did their jobs, how the moguls put aside their rivalries when they were threatened by adverse publicity. Many of the photographs in the book are from the one-of-a-kind collection of the author's father.

338 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Diana Altman is the author of Hollywood East: Louis B. Mayer and the origins of the studio system (Carol Publishing, ’92) a nonfiction book still quoted in movie star biographies and books of film history. She was a guest on TV’s Entertainment Tonight. Her award-winning novel In Theda Bara’s Tent (Tapley Cove Press, 2010) was described as “sophisticated storytelling” by Library Journal and as “enthralling” by PW. Her novel We Never Told was given a 5-star review on Booklist and was compared to Wally Lamb. Kirkus said, “Altman’s writing is thoughtful and articulate...The author speaks with sophistication and style about the experiences of American women in the recent past." The editor of the literary journal Trampset, Scott Neuffer, said, “Diana Altman is a brilliantly clever novelist. Her short stories have appeared in Trampset, The Notre Dame Review, StoryQuarterly, Cumberland River Review, and The Sea Letter. Articles have appeared in the New York Times, Yankee, Boston Herald, Forbes, and elsewhere. Diana is a member of PEN, The Author’s Guild, and the Women’s National Book Association. She’s a graduate of Connecticut College and Harvard University and lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done. Chock full of info starting in Haverhill Mass with Louis B Mayer

[Greta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the intent of this book was to focus on the East Coast end of the business in the studio era through the person of Louis B.
Mayer. Since he was located on the West Coast, it seems rather a flawed premise. The book meanders about, often with irrelevant details, and I caught it in quite a few minor errors. On the plus side, it gives fuller account than i've seen before on the Bioff scandal and is the first book i've read that treats Anita Stewart sympathetically in her dealings with Mayer and Vitagraph, but given the level of research in the rest of the book, i'm not confident in her accounts