The Hollywood Studios, Ethan Mordden
The Hollywood Studios, Ethan Mordden
1 Rating(s)
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

The Hollywood Studios
House Style in the Golden Age of the Movies

Author: Ethan Mordden

Narrator: Barrett Whitener

Unabridged: 12 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2009

Synopsis

Hollywood in the years between 1929 and 1948 was a town of moviemaking empires. The great studios were estates of talent: sprawling, dense, diverse. It was the Golden Age of the Movies, and each studio made its distinctive contribution. But how did the studios, growing up in the same time and place, develop so differently? What combinations of talents and temperaments gave them their signature styles? These are the questions Ethan Mordden answers, with breezy erudition and irrepressible enthusiasm, in this fascinating and wonderfully readable book. Mordden illuminates how the style of each studio was primarily dictated by the personality, philosophy, and attitudes of its presiding moguland how all these factors affected the work and careers of individual actors, directors, writers, and technicians, and the success of the studio in general.

About Ethan Mordden

Ethan Mordden is a recognized expert on American musical theater and the author of When Broadway Went to Hollywood, Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre, Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s, Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s, Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s, and On Sondheim: An Opinionated Guide. His writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. His numerous books include friendly introductions to opera and film, as well as five collections of short stories chronicling gay life in New York City. He lives in Manhattan.

Reviews

Goodreads review by W.

Whew, this is one dense textbook. It takes me back to college, squirreled away in a distant carol, working hard to digest each page. Yes, this book is packed with content. It’s an extensive history of the Hollywood studio system. But it’s also geared to analysis, not facts. The text highlights each......more

Goodreads review by Brenden

We talk a lot about how works of art can feel dated and "not age well." The same is true of history and criticism. "The Hollywood Studios" by Ethan Mordden is a prime example of how a text can fail to serve a next generation of readers. Published in 1988 and feeling more like something written in th......more

Goodreads review by Michael

The premise of this book is that each of the studios that made A pictures had it own style distinct for the most part from the others. It is an interesting idea and Mordden makes his case well. He allows that on occasion studio 1 made a film like those made by studio 2, but his argument seem general......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List