This Was Hollywood: Forgotten Stars and Stories

Turner Classic Movies

By: Carla Valderrama

Narrated by: Carla Valderrama

Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

In this one-of-a-kind Hollywood history, the creator of Instagram's celebrated @ThisWasHollywood reveals the forgotten past of the film world in a dazzling visual package modeled on the classic fan magazines of yesteryear.

From former screen legends who have faded into obscurity to new revelations about the biggest movie stars, Valderrama unearths the most fascinating little-known tales from the birth of Hollywood through its Golden Age.

The shocking fate of the world's first movie star. Clark Gable's secret love child. The film that nearly ended Paul Newman's career. A former child star who, at 93, reveals her #metoo story for the first time. Valderrama unfolds these stories, and many more, in a volume that is by turns riveting, maddening, hilarious, and shocking.

Drawing on new interviews, archival research, and an exhaustive library of photographs, This Was Hollywood is a compelling and visually stunning catalogue of the lost history of the movies.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Carla Valderrama (P)2020 Running Press Adult

Critic reviews

"Carla Valderrama genuinely loves Hollywood history, as you can tell from every page of this book. Her enthusiasm is matched only by her determination to back up her stories with good, old-fashioned research. I learned a lot from This Was Hollywood and you will, too." (Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian)

Great story, unworthy narration

Fascinating, compelling stories. Valderrama appears to be able to do research. The writing style could be more polished, less self consciously dramatic, but it is serviceable. But please Ms V, spring for a narrator who doesn’t sound like a Brownie Scout reading for the Thanksgiving cantata. And check on the correct pronunciation of possessive proper nouns ending in a sibilant.

This was a very interesting book!

This book was exciting and well written. Honestly, I didn't think I would like it. I was wrong!

Bad reader. Some tasty tidbits, sad ends.

Reader sounds like she’s reading high school graduation speech . Turning every “n’t” into a double D.
I Was hoping there would be more familiar supporting actors covered. there are some but there is a lot about near-misses and their grim descents afterward. .

Enjoyed this book

Interesting stories from an earlier Hollywood and a good narrator.
If you like a bit of history give a listen.

Great story, narrator can’t pronounce names

Enjoy the story, and all in all I give it five stars for the story, and the narrator is bright and chipper, but her inability to read names correctly leaves something to be laughed at. Can’t believe editors didn’t catch the multiple odd name pronunciations.

Fascinating read about

I enjoyed this in it's entirety. well written and the details of each short story held my attention completely. Im not particularly sensitive to mispronouncing...but the reader substitutes "D" for "T". padent (patent) liddle (little) and it takes a little time to overlook it and not focus on it.

Great!!!

Great book for anyone interested in old Hollywood.The author did a great job reading it

Loved the content but...

Loved the inside stories. Very interesting and informative. That said I wish a little more attention had been paid to the pronunciation/enunciation of words, particularly those with a T in them. Books are “written” not “wridden.” A “patent” can be issued but I’m not sure a “padent” can. I appreciate the hard job it must be to read a book out loud for the rest of us to enjoy. That said, if issues like this bother you be forewarned before you purchase this book.

Wonderful

I look forward to more This was Hollywood. I’m not a movie buff but found the content on known and unknown Hollywood people ver interesting. A previous reviewer said narration interfered. I did not find it to be a problem.

Very Interesting

I really liked this book. Perhaps one reason I like it is because I am 78 years old and I can remember seeing a lot of the stars and things she talks about in movies I saw when I was young. Us old folks tend to like things that are nostalgic. The content is very good/interesting and she did a good job of narrating it. Good job Carla.