Tweet Great new movie book . . . .

I recently bought "The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop," which is of course a pictorial history of the hand-painted Hollywood backdrop. Go to www.amazon.com/Art-Hollywood-Backdrop-Karen-Maness to view.

Anyone who loves movies will LOVE this book. In addition to being a wonderful "peek behind the curtain" at the how and why of backdrops, it's also a fascinating look at Hollywood's Golden Age, with tons of rare and probably previously unpublished photos and other material about some of Hollywood's unsung and often unknown craftspeople.

The book retails for $100 and sells for $62 on Amazon. It is a top quality hardcover, with a library binding and good quality paper, all in a heavy-duty slipcase. Definitely well worth the bucks! Just know that it is an oversize book and probably won't fit in your bookcase, but don't leave it out on the coffee table, it's too good for that! SETH

Your link didn't work. This one should:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/194139308X/

Thanks, Paul, for fixing the link. SETH

Thanks, I ordered that. I've always been a fan of this sort of thing... the backdrops in natural history museum dioramas too. I look forward to this book.

Thank you, SethB, for posting this.

I received this book from Amazon yesterday. thanks for the tip! It's great. Nice big pictures. Just what I wanted.

I received this book from Amazon yesterday. thanks for the tip! It's great. Nice big pictures. Just what I wanted.

Me too. Ditto.

Glad I could pass it on, and glad you liked it. It's always amazing what you find when you're not looking for something! SETH

Has anyone seen the book on Art Direction? Is that as good?

I have not seen the book, but some of the comments on Amazon seem to indicate that it's mostly pictures and not too much text --- not enough text, in some readers' opinions. Whether that's good or bad, especially with a book about art direction, is hard to say. But some folks were looking for more information than was apparently provided in the book.

I guess you could always order the book and then return it if you didn't care for it, but the shipping charges both ways probably could amount to a fair portion of the purchase price. SETH

I have not seen the book, but some of the comments on Amazon seem to indicate that it's mostly pictures and not too much text --- not enough text, in some readers' opinions...

Boo hoo. Could they not tell from the description that it was a huge, heavy book, and not one you could comfortably rest in your lap to pore over lengthy text? That instead, its size allowed for reproduction of large photographs and illustrations, the kind you'd leaf through while the book was resting on, oh, I don't know, a coffee table, perhaps?