Author: E.J. Stephens/Marc Wanamaker
Genre: History/Film
Hardcover; Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781531677138; 9781467132589
Arcadia Publishing
128 Pages
$26.99; $16.70; $9.99 Amazon
November 10, 2014
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The history of Hollywood is often seen only through the lens of major studios, forgetting that many of Tinseltown's early creations came from micro-studios stretched along Sunset Boulevard in an area disparagingly known as Poverty Row. Here, the first wave of West Coast moviemakers migrated to the tiny village of Hollywood, where alcohol was illegal, actors were unwelcome, and cattle were herded down the unpaved streets. Most Poverty Row producers survived from film to film, their fortunes tied to the previous week's take from hundreds of nickelodeon tills. They would routinely script movies around an event or disaster, often creating scenarios using sets from more established productions, when the bosses weren't looking, of course. Poverty Row quickly became a generic term for other fly-by-night studios throughout the Los Angeles area. Their struggles to hand on in Hollywood were often more intriguing than the serialized cliffhangers they produced.
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I love anything about old Hollywood. I own thousands of classic films, biographies of actors, studios, etc. I don't watch new movies as I don't think they are as good as those long past. In my opinion there will never be another Bogart, Cagney, Stanwyck -- or even someone like Charlie Chaplin, who revolutionized films.
This is the pictorial story of the first studios in Hollywood -- those on Poverty Row, where they changed hands constantly, silent films and serials being made daily, and cowboys waiting for their turn to be chosen for a western or two.
If you are interested in how film studios began, then this is the book. While it isn't high art, it isn't meant to be. But what it is, is showing us how everything began, where the studios were located, and even little tidbits of history that one might not have known about actors (or those who wanted to be). It's an interesting album of pictures that I have never seen before, and I found fascinating to see. Hollywood as it was when movies were churned out as fast as they could, trying to make actors stars and therefore fill the coffers of the producers and directors; and while it is a short book it has packed in a lot of history. Recommended.
More on the Authors: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4045873.E_J_Stephens
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