Hollywood: The Oral History

By: Jeanine Basinger, Sam Wasson

Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon, Marni Penning

The real story of Hollywood as told by such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Frank Capra, Katharine Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Harold Lloyd, and nearly four hundred others, assembled from the American Film Institute’s treasure trove of interviews, reveals a fresh history of the American movie industry from its beginnings to today.

From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of what it was like to work in Hollywood from its beginnings to its present day. Gleaned from nearly three thousand interviews, involving four hundred voices from the industry, Hollywood: The Oral History, lets a reader “listen in” on candid remarks from the biggest names in front of the camera—Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Harold Lloyd—to the biggest behind it—Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele, as well as the lesser known individuals that shaped what was heard and seen on screen: musicians, costumers, art directors, cinematographers, writers, sound men, editors, make-up artists, and even script timers, messengers, and publicists. The result is like a conversation among the gods and goddesses of film: lively, funny, insightful, historically accurate and, for the first time, authentically honest in its portrait of Hollywood. It’s the insider’s story.

Legendary film scholar Jeanine Basinger and New York Times bestselling author Sam Wasson, both acclaimed storytellers in their own right, have undertaken the monumental task of digesting these tens of thousands of hours of talk and weaving it into a definitive portrait of workaday Hollywood.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Hollywood, an insdes guide

so informative
didnt want it to end
the readers were excellent
a must listen

Wow!

I’ve read a ton of books about the movies. But I learned more about filmmaking and its history from this book than any other.

An important documentary work, limited by its general purpose

As a student and teacher of film history, this book is quite valuable and important. As a piece of entertainment, it might not hold enough excitement for a casually interested reader.

Fine history, but...

Hollywood: The Oral History provides a valuable service by bringing forward the attitudes of people who worked in American film during the glory years, prior to the 1950s when things went south. It provides a fine picture of how many of the people working there thought and felt about the system and its product. What the reader/listener thinks about these things is not the book's concern. Nor should it be. The performance, however, is marred by the persistent mispronunciation of many of the people's names. It may seem a small thing, but it is disrespectful. Lastly, the title should refer to "An Oral History," not "The." Still, as this is about the golden years of Hollywood for which hyperbole was a primary food source, the title's exaggeration of its books importance should be expected.

Many mispronounced names

I thought the narrators did a great job to bring this material to life, The performance is marred by mispronounced names, such as Charles Loft-ton and Vin-cent-tay Minelli. Somehow, Edmund Goulding becomes "Edie".