Hollywood The Oral History, Jeanine Basinger
Hollywood The Oral History, Jeanine Basinger
20 Rating(s)
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Hollywood: The Oral History

Author: Jeanine Basinger, Sam Wasson

Narrator: Timothy Andrés Pabon, Marni Penning

Unabridged: 28 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 11/08/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

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.

About Jeanine Basinger

Jeanine Basinger is the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, founder and curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, founding Chair of the Film Studies Department, and a recipient of Wesleyan’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She is the author of Silent Stars, which won the National Board of Review’s William K. Everson Prize, and The Star Machine, which won the Theatre Library Association Award. She is a trustee of the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute, a member of Warner Brothers Theatre Advisory Committee at the Smithsonian Institute, and a former member of the Board of Advisors of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. She also served as advisor to Martin Scorsese’s film foundation project, The Story of Movies. She lives in Middletown, Connecticut.

About Sam Wasson

Sam Wasson is the author of seven books on film, including the New York Times bestsellers Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern American Woman; The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood; and Fosse. With Jeanine Basinger, he is the coauthor of Hollywood: The Oral History. He lives in Los Angeles.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Heidi on March 15, 2025

A glorious and fairly powerful look at the history of filmmaking and Hollywood. Hundreds of first person interviews strung together by categories. If you name a leading director, producer, actor or technical filmmaking genius— they’re in here. If it’s not their interview, it’s one legend talking abo......more

Goodreads review by Melanie THEE Reader on April 21, 2024

4.5 stars A dense read, but an informative and necessary one for cinephiles. Well-researched and you can tell that the authors are both knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subject matter. Within these 730+ pages you get the full history of motion pictures; from silent films to "talkies,” from th......more

Goodreads review by Andy on January 29, 2023

First, the good: This is a tremendous set of AFI interviews with directors, producers, stars, cinematographers, composers, you name it. It's a wealth of information from the people who were involved in American cinema from the very beginning until now. Know that these are interviews, and people don'......more

Goodreads review by Jim on March 27, 2024

Brilliant compendium of quotes from the creators of the Hollywood film industry is vastly entertaining and informative, though BEWARE of the audiobook version. The male narrator mispronounces some 60% of all the names—many of them very famous names. But the book itself is superb.......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on November 07, 2022

Authors Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson wrote an epic history book that covers every aspect of Hollywood. They went over more than tens of thousands of hours of interviews to write the most accurate account of this industry as they could. This book has everything any movie buff could ever want: you......more