GIANT LOVE by Julie Gilbert (Pantheon)
One doesn’t read most film books to savor the prose. This one stands out from the crowd because Gilbert is an exceptionally good writer. She is the great-niece of Edna Ferber, the subject of the book, and knew her well. I fell in love with Giant Love and devoured it over several days’ time. The first portion of the text is a summary of Ferber’s long and productive life as an author and playwright. After experiencing anti-Semitism as a girl growing up in the Midwest she incorporated elements of intolerance into almost everything she wrote—think of the drop of Negro blood at the climax of Show Boatand the treatment of Mexicans in Giant. The second part of the book details Ferber’s immersion in Texas life and her desire to dramatize everything she observed in her vast novel Giant. Having dealt with Hollywood studios before, she became an active participant in its screen adaptation, forming a corporation with director George Stevens and executive Henry Ginsberg. Extensive quotes from journals, letters and other communiques reveal what a difficult and exacting person she could be. Yet she was not immune to masculine charm and had interesting and unexpected relationships with both Stevens and his budding star, James Dean. Giant Love is a great read and will remain a valuable resource in the years ahead.
COLLECTING LAUREL & HARDY by Danny Bacher and Bernie Hogya (Schiffer)
I was asked to write a foreword to this book and once I browsed through it in pdf form I happily agreed. But I wasn’t prepared for the beautifully produced hardcover book that constitutes the finished product. What a bounty for fans of Stan and Ollie: hundreds upon hundreds of photos showing how many toys, products and knickknacks have been produced over the last ninety-some years. The authors also include costumes worn by L&H, samples of autographed photos and letters, and personal memorabilia. It is a fabulous array spotlighting the comedy duo whose distinctive fat-and-skinny appearance made them a magnet for caricature—ranging from amateur to expert (I’m thinking of Al Hirschfeld, in particular). I am proud to be associated with this volume and devastated to report that coauthor Danny Bacher passed away quite suddenly in December at the age of 48. This book is just one part of his legacy.
This whopping, 406-page volume is one you wouldn’t want to drop on your foot. In addition to its heft, it offers a savvy chronicle of the studio founded in the silent era by brothers Harry and Jack Cohn, and an imposing gallery of production photos from Sony’s archives and the collection of Marc Wanamaker (including the studio’s original library of stills which Marc rescued from the dumpster years ago). The result is a virtual tour of both the Columbia lot, which still stands at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, and the much-used ranch, which has been built over in Burbank. The combination of words and pictures, focusing on the years from 1920 to 1960, is evocative of the scrappy studio that Harry Cohn ruled over with an iron fist until his death in 1958.
Clearly a labor of love on the part of an established film historian, this valuable volume traces Great Britain’s gradual embrace of talkies and its attendant growing pains. Packed with details and anecdotes, and filtered through Brown’s dry sense of humor, this will surely be the last word on the subject. It is generously illustrated with rare photos and advertisements, and there is scarcely a page that doesn’t offer new tidbits of information for fans and scholars alike. Not surprisingly, an entire chapter is devoted to the making—and remaking—of Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail, which Brown estimates is a 68% talking picture. With a colorful cast of characters including Anthony Asquith, Sean O’Casey, and Anna May Wong, Silent to Sound codifies a vital chapter in the history of British filmmaking.
HOLLYWOOD ON THE SANTA MONICA BEACH by Marc Wanamaker and Arthur C. Verge (Arcadia)
The latest paperback volume in Arcadia’s “Images of America” series presents scores of fascinating photos reflecting the enduring popularity of California’s sun-drenched coastline. To quote from the Introduction, “The Gold Coast gained its name and fame in the early 1920s, when the Santa Monica Land and Water Company sold 30-foot beach frontages along the not-quite-mile-long oceanfront from the foot of California Avenue to San Vicente… (laying) the foundation for a movie colony on the beach.” The pictures in this highly informative book date back to 1875 and provide a rich history of the seaside development through the building of the Santa Monica Pier to the construction of weekend homes for the likes of Louis B. Mayer and William Randolph Hearst. Like the other books in this ongoing series, this one is fun to browse or dive into, like the waters of the Pacific.
ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS and HOLD THAT GHOST BY RON PEAUMBO (The Universal FilmiPirerate Series / Bearmanor Media)
These welcome newcomers to the MagicImage series of books that editor Philip J. Riley began some years ago are formatted the same way as the others, with informative essays and oodles of production photos followed by the actual shooting scripts. TROPICS includes an introduction by Chris Costello, Lou’s daughter, and GHOST has a foreword by Robert Rinaldo, son of the co-screenwriter Frederic Rinaldo. (Ghost includes an eight-page draft/outline of the 1941 comedy which was then called ‘Oh, Charlie’ by the team’s longtime writer John Grant, who knew every classic burlesque routine by heart.)
In many ways One Night in the Tropics is the more interesting of the two, because it was based on a novel called Love Insurance by Charlie Chan creator Earl Derr Biggers. It also marked Bud and Lou’s screen debut, with the bonus of music by Jerome Kern (and lyrics by Dorothy Fields), “topping his Roberta and Show Boat,” as it proclaims in the original pressbook. Palumbo is generous with details about the production, which had a typically bumpy road to completion. Hold That Ghost was A&C’s third starring movie, which Universal had playing in theaters just months after their smash starring debut in Buck Privates. It remains one of their all-time best. Author Palumbo is the authority on this comedy team and his background research is exhaustive and impeccable. Abbott and Costello devotees will want to own both these nicely printed 8 ½ X 11 paperback volumes.
STUMBLING INTO FILM HISTORY by Lon Davis (BearManor Media)
Timing in life is everything. I learned that long ago, and so did Lon Davis, who has written a number of film books and produced a documentary about Francis X. Bushman. He was fortunate enough to meet and befriend such Hollywood veterans as Beverly Bayne (Mrs. Bushman), Larry Fine, Baby Peggy (Diana Serra Carey), and Babe London. Because he started out as a kid, like me, he now has a lifetime of memories to share, which he does in this engaging book. And if some of the experiences mirror those of you who started pursuing film history as a hobby in your adolescence, there’s a good reason: we were around just in time to meet and mingle with some bona fide pioneers.
RABBI BURNS by Aben Kandel (Felix Farmer)
Long out of print, this welcome reissue of a 1931 novel about Jews in Los Angeles was supposedly inspired by Rabbi Edgar Magnin, who commandeered the funds to build the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. But it spends more time exploring various Jewish “types,” including the beautiful (and highly assimilated) daughter of a capitalist who turns the rabbi’s head. The word portraits are vivid and specific. By opening a Hungarian restaurant, one immigrant has insinuated himself into the community at large. A man who publishes a weekly Jewish newspaper sees himself as a Hearst-in-the-making. The rabbi’s attractive secretary is so repressed that she can’t admit her feelings for her boss, even to herself.
Sex plays a major role in almost all the characters’ lives and decisions. And if Rabbi Burns raises more questions than it answers, it does capture the color and flavor of Jewish life in Los Angeles at a well-defined moment in time. Discussions of anti-Semitism, “Americanized” Jews who have erased all vestiges of the Old Country, etc. At present it is only available from Book Soup.
SONNY BOY by Al Pacino (Penguin Press)
This doesn’t have the feel of a typical movie-star autobiography. It reads as a candid, genuine memory time-trip. As a kid Pacino would amuse his family by miming to Al Jolson records while hanging out with rowdy kids who became his pals on the streets of the South Bronx. All of them died young because of drugs, while Sonny Boy (as he was nicknamed) discovered the incredible power of theater. That was his ticket out of tenement life and he seized it. As he explained to a fellow actor early on, “You wanted to succeed; I had to.” He reveals as much as he can articulate about his thought process when approaching a role: if he can’t get a handle on the character he won’t take it on. It may be one line of dialogue or a detail of description that sparks that unpredictable connection. He is demanding of his directors and insists on continuing to shoot a scene until it’s as good as it can be. He still seeks challenges to his art and craft and bares himself in this fascinating memoir. It proves that among other things, Pacino is a helluva good storyteller.
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