Hollywood: The Oral History

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An oral history culled from thousands of interviews conducted by the American Film Institute, "Hollywood" provides lots of anecdotal material but could use a little contextual material to back up what often descends into mere chatter. But something about the relaxed setting — peer to peer, with no scholar-with-a-theory, journalist, critic ( eww) or pop-culture blogger asking questions, hankering to publish the answers embellished by descriptions of the talker’s wardrobe or salad-eating habits — has resulted in a trove of direct, un-self-conscious observations about the times and ways in which these pros worked. Perhaps future books could be dedicated to specific topics covered in HOLLYWOOD, offering, for example, a more in-depth look at the years before television, when movies were the only game in town. Don’t break stride for killjoy contemporary questions of race, gender, socioeconomics and unconscious editorial bias in the shaping of historical narrative and maybe it is. Especially because half of the last chapter was people repeatedly saying that "No one knows what is going to be successful.

First off, the intro claims that events told by their participants are necessarily more true and generally superior, but anyone even remotely familiar with oral histories knows that this just isn't the way it works.HOLLYWOOD has the cliched “something for everyone,” but for me the most interesting part of the book was the chapter on “The Studio Workforce. Don't get me wrong I love golden age Hollywood movies, there are many timeless classics from that era.

Then there is Gene Kelly, the man who put brawn into modern musical masculinity, confessing that he would love to have had the boneless body of Buster Keaton: “I often wish I did. It’s a fascinating look at the creative processes that went into bringing this medium to the public.There’s a section on the coming of the Hays code in the late 1920s – that censorious set of rules designed to purge Hollywood of its incipient bathtub-gin sleaziness. Fay Wray, who in 1933 squirmed in the sweltering paw of King Kong, is happy to reflect that at least now the studios have air conditioning, which is a complete joy and a wonderful protection against that eternal, necessary sun.

Director Billy Wilder: “There are times when I wish we still had it (censorship) because the fun has gone out of it, the game you played with them. Anyone who was (or still is) anyone, from Harold Lloyd to Barbra Streisand, has had their brain hoovered and the results transcribed and deposited in the AFI’s vaults for safekeeping.But it was still really interesting reading about the early days of filmmaking, and how it transitioned into the studio system. There is, however, an obvious flaw in the authors' approach: the AFI's interviewees are – by definition – history's winners; as a result they are overwhelming complimentary about people such as the studio executives, whereas those who were trampled or ruined by Mayer et al remain voiceless. And the result is a fat, showbiz-nerd-satisfying tome with something for every showbiz-nerd taste: on-set stories, technical details, funny anecdotes about actors, the echoes of studio executives kvetching and various people complaining about critics. Basinger and Wasson have gathered figures critical to the film industry's development far beyond mere stars (think directors, some producers and a raft of technicians/artists) who made it all work. The material in the book – gathered over the decades by the American Film Institute – has never been published before, has never been heard before.

Faber Members get access to live and online author events and receive regular e-newsletters with book previews, promotional offers, articles and quizzes. All the film scholars (and even non-film scholars who are simply inquisitive) I know are up in arms over the book's lack of an index. The intention behind Basinger and Wasson’s cutting-and-pasting is to produce the impression that all these interviewees are in the same room at the same time, bouncing off one another. The quotes are quite interesting and give the reader a lay of the land during various periods in Hollywood over the years.

My favorite sections were about the old studio system and all the actors and actresses connected to the studios. The size of this book was intimidating, but once you dive in, you’ll see that these authors needed to cover so much ground within this industry that this book size was necessary. Photograph: Palace Nova Eastend View image in fullscreen The man who put brawn into modern musical masculinity … Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain. Those who are more familiar with Garland's history may disagree, but I found these recollections convincing.