Tweet Best Books on Hollywood Studios

Apologies if this topic has been covered before (and I'm sure it has, but I haven't found a thread on it through the search function).

I'm assembling a list of books to seek out that cover the histories of the Hollywood studios and major producers. I've gotten a few terrific books already, thanks in part to posts by Nitratevillians. Not looking for star bios yet - more along the lines of the business and production side of things. Since money is definitely an object, I'm hoping to get suggestions for the best ones to start with from the titles I've listed so far. I already have the big coffee-table books listing the year-by-year titles of the 8 majors (indicated by asterisks in the list below). Any that I may have overlooked?

Thanks for any advice!

M-G-M
* The MGM Story (Earmes)
MGM: When the Lion Roars (Hay)
MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot (Bingen, Sylvester, Troyan)
Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer (Eyman)
Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince (Viera)

PARAMOUNT
* The Paramount Story (Earmes)
Paramount Pictures and the People Who Made Them (Edmonds, Mimura)

TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX
* The Films of 20th Century-Fox: A Pictoral History (Thomas, Solomon)
The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography (Solomon)
Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck (Behlmer)
Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Last Tycoon (Mosley)
Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talking: A Biography of Darryl F. Zanuck (Gussow)

WARNER BROS.
* The Warner Bros. Story (Hirschhorn)
You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story (Schickel)
Inside Warner Bros. (Behlmer)

RKO
* The RKO Story (Jewell)
RKO: The Biggest Little Major of Them All (Lasky)

UNIVERSAL
* The Universal Story (Hirschhorn)
City of Dreams: The Making and Remaking of Universal Pictures (Dick)

UNITED ARTISTS
* The United Artists Story (Bergan)
United Artists, Volume 1, 1919-1950: The Company Built By the Stars (Balio)
United Artists, Volume 2, 1951-1978: The Company That Changed the Film Industry (Balio)

COLUMBIA
* The Columbia Story (Hirschhorn)
Columbia Pictures: Portrait of a Studio (Dick)
The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row: Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures (Dick)
King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn (Thomas)

Others

Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer (Taves)
Goldwyn: A Biography (Berg)
Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick (Thompson)
Memo from David O. Selznick (Behlmer)
When Hollywood Had a King: The Reign of Lew Wasserman (Bruck)
The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood (McDougal)


Books I've Read That Are Excellent:
* The American Film Industry (Balio)
* The Genius of the System (Schatz)
* Entertainment Industrialized (Bakker)
* (Orbis series) Movies of the Silent Years, 30s, 40s, etc. (Lloyd & Robinson)

I hope to get a couple of Douglas Gomery's books soon too.

PARAMOUNT
Mountain of Dreams (Leslie Halliwell) - this is little more than a collection of vintage 30s/40s pressbook/newspaper ads but is enjoyable although Halliwell's often condescending and hyper-critical comments are a turnoff.

COLUMBIA
Hail Columbia! (Rochelle Larkin) passable history on the studio, mainly discusses the films, quite a bit of photos in the book.

MGM
Thalberg - Life and Legend (Bob Thomas) very similar book to Hail Columbia! with lots of photos from MGM productions, more a bio of the studio during Thalberg's reign than a book about the man himself.
MGM Posters (Frank Miller) gorgeous full color coffee table book of MGM posters from the 20s to early 60s, mostly 30s-40s.
The MGM Story (James Robert Parish) don't have this one, as I recall it's mainly a "Films of" type book of the most famous MGM films.

UNIVERSAL
Universal Pictures (Michael Fitzgerald) very large book mainly consisting of credits to 1930-1975 Universal films although there are tons of photos in it, most of them quite large. Opening chapters are nice in discussing the various genres of the studio (horror, musical, comedies) as well as a biography section of the Universal stars, most of whom like Maria Montez, Deanna Durbin, Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, etc. are rarely written about elsewhere.

There's also a book on poverty-row studio Monogram Pictures that has been published though I don't have a copy and haven't seen it. I believe it was published by either McFarland or Scarecrow Press.

Republic Pictures
Republic Confidential
The Pictures, Vol. 1
The Players, Vol. 2

If you're interested in Selznick, 'David O. Selznick's Hollywood' by Ronald Haver is another one to clear space in your bookcase for (a LOT of space ... it's a very big book!)

"Picture" by Lillian Ross, about the making of John Huston's Red Badge of Courage, looks into MGM politics and backstabbing c. 1950. There's a particularly vivid and hilarious description of a meeting in Louis B. Mayer's office, with the great man holding forth about his views and values.

As a general overview, perhaps for someone new to the history I think Joel Finlers THE HOLLYWOOD STORY might be useful, having a section for each of the majors. I still refer to it occasionally.

many thanks to all for the replies - they've been added to my list. Looking forward to any further comments or recommendations, if you've got 'em.

[Christopher Jacobs]

You've probably already read it, but a must-read is Benjamin Hampton's "History of the American Film Industry from its beginnings to 1931" (originally published as "A History of the Movies" back in 1931), which is very heavily about the business end rather than the creative side or some sort of critical survey like most histories.

Has anyone yet mentioned Terry Ramsaye's A Million and One Nights? You list Douglas Gomery, I have Shared Pleasures and The Hollywood Studio System, and have not yet felt compelled to get rid of either during a Zen Master attack. There can be no higher praise.

Although it's not film history per se, I particularly like Gomery and Allen's Film History: Theory and Practice.

A fantastic reference is the two volume work THE STORY OF CINEMA by David Shipman.

There's also this book on the Hal Roach Studios. It's very good and covers a lot of the business end.

http://www.amazon.com/A-History-Hal-Roa ... 605&sr=1-1

Thank you very much for all the recommendations. This really helps. After many years, I'm finaly getting around to finishing my Masters Degree in history. Not entirely sure what the Thesis will be, but I'm probably going to expand an earlier (but limited) research project on the history of the cinemas in my home town. But aside from that, I'm discovering the history of the business side of the entire industry to be absolutely fascinating.

A classic movie fan since I was a kid, I've of course always recognized the studio logos as they came up and associated them with genres or individual pictures: MGM had that extra class and was the premier silent studio, Warners meant crime, Universal meant horror or Abbott and Costello, RKO meant Astaire-Rogers and Citizen Kane. I knew the names Mayer and Thalberg and Selznick and Goldwyn and Zanuck and others, but didn't really understand their real significance. But it turns out the history of the studios and producers is as complicated and interesting as that of the great politicians and generals. Not to mention why cinemas screened what they did - and who made (or lost) money in the end.

And it makes watching the movies even more fun. Turner Classic Movies is a real national treasure here in the U.S. And with Netflix, the small independent DVD labels, and the (sometimes maligned) new manufactured-on-demand DVD release programs, we have an accessibility to the movies themselves that nobody has ever had before. I really hope folks appreciate that, despite the fact that [film of your choice] may still be unavailable.

Anyway, thanks again for the additional suggestions on book titles - most of which I hadn't come across through my searches.

And thanks also to the folks behind the Media History Digital Library - never heard of The Film Daily Yearbooks before, and most volumes they haven't digitized yet are available through inter-library loan. A wonderful source of information.
http://mediahistoryproject.org/" target="_blank" target="_blank

Obviously there's a lot yet to read, but the Tino Balio-edited THE AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY and Thomas Schatz's THE GENIUS OF THE SYSTEM are standouts…and I think I've only found the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks again.


Bob Meyer

Has anyone here mentioned City of Nets by Otto Friedrich? It's quite a while since I read it but I remember it being quite good on Hollywood in the 1940's.

Has anyone here mentioned City of Nets by Otto Friedrich? It's quite a while since I read it but I remember it being quite good on Hollywood in the 1940's.

It's a good read, but I'd say it's more a social portrait of Hollywood than strictly a book on studios. Peter Biskind takes a similar approach in his books, and if you like those, you'll like 'City of Nets'.