8 For any film buff, whether you’re an amateur or a seasoned vet, the questions you most often ask yourself are: Where do I begin? And what’s next? The history of Hollywood calls back to the late 19th century, which means there’s over a century of people, events, and stories to dig yourself into. And a new book from the writers and film historians Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson shares the diverse stories of over 400 people in the industry. Hollywood: The Oral History (768 pgs., Harper, 2022, $37.50) gives a singularly true account of Hollywood as told from the perspectives of hundreds of different people. Basinger and Wasson culled the records of the Los Angeles-based American Film Institute for the transcripts to the Harold Lloyd Master Seminars, a series of conversational lectures from Hollywood experts and insiders across different fields. The lecture series featured recognizably big names from people still working today, such as George Clooney, Jane Fonda, Spike Lee, Jack Nicholson, and Quentin Tarantino. But there were also acclaimed directors and talent from the past, including director Bernardo Bertolucci, comedian Lucille Ball, filmmaker Shirley Clarke, costume designer Edith Head, and director Vincente Minneli. The list doesn’t stop there, as the book also features many behind-the-scenes big shots, from studio executives and producers to agents and art directors. Basinger is a film historian, a former professor at Wesleyan University, and a trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute. She has authored several books, including scholarly works and general audience books on film and the history of Hollywood. Sam Wasson, who was a student of Basinger’s at Wesleyan, is the author of six books, including his most recent one, The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, which was also reviewed in the pages of VideoAge’s August/September edition in 2020. Both Basinger and Wasson bring an expert level of knowledge and experience that shows in how they structured the oral history. Hollywood collages together the various voices of its speakers. It’s a book that doesn’t ask you to read it all at once. Of course, the diligent reader can plunge through the 700plus pages of anecdotes, but the form of the book seems to encourage casual reading — a few pages here, a few pages there. Basinger and Wasson have organized the book into chapters that revolve around certain themes and topics, such as how careers began, the silent film era, the end of the studio system, and so on. But within each chapter, there is usually little narrative continuity, with each speaker offering commentary and short, amusing tales that last only a few paragraphs. The book’s design is such that different people share their experiences at various lengths, and then Basinger and Wasson include a quippy one-liner or joke from another person. For example, after passages from executives on the role of producers, the authors of the book inserted a witticism from Geoffrey Shurlock, the former director of the motion picture Association Production Code: “They used to say a producer was a man who knew what he wanted but couldn’t spell it.” The book begins with “Beginnings”, a hodgepodge of Hollywood greats relating how they got their start in the business. So you have Raoul Walsh — director, actor, and founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — saying he was a terrible actor. There’s Fritz Lang, the Austrian filmmaker best known for the silent sci-fi movie Metropolis, recommending running away from home, like he did. A few individuals talked about entering show biz after World War I, such as the American cinematographer George Folsey and the French-Serbian cinematographer Paul Ivano, both of whom seemed to just find themselves with jobs as if by accident, forgetting the expression that in Hollywood overnight success takes 15 years. One of the most striking chunks of the book is a chapter devoted to the studio workforce. Here, the book features the voices of the producers, the directors, the cameramen, the writers, the editors, the costume designers, the composers, the art directors, and so on. This section also includes Basinger herself. “To understand how the studio system worked, it’s necessary to consider all these various departments, the jobs on the payroll. What was the definition of each job? The level of responsibility? Each department had a definition, whether they abided by it or not”, Basinger says. “The way each department grew — and operated — is the true story of Hollywood.” Hollywood is an intimidating tome both in its heft and scale. At over 750 pages, requiring some heavy lifting, the book is thoughtful and light-hearted. As show biz encompasses over 100 years, huge spans of time are covered in the book — but because there are so many different people to hear from, each person brings a lifetime of details and specificity to paint as full a picture of Hollywood as possible. Basinger and Wasson have made the reading experience accessible and engaging for the most devoted Hollywood connoisseur, as well as the eager newcomer to Hollywood history. At times, the book’s organizational scheme may have the reader wishing for more context on who is speaking, and from which time period he or she is speaking from. But Hollywood: The Oral History will lead anyone to explore new paths and littleknown reminiscences in the vast story of Tinseltown. Film historians Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson sift through the archives of the American Film Institute and make an enormous contribution to the history of Hollywood. A Toast to Hollywood: A New Oral History Features 400-Plus Talent and Execs April 2023 Book Review By Luis Polanco “To understand how the studio system worked, it’s necessary to consider all departments... The way each department grew — and operated — is the true story of Hollywood.”
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