Years ago, I acquired a sale-price copy of The Warner Brothers Story, a year by year listing of everything that studio put out. It was part of a series covering all the major studios; several years later I picked up The Universal Story, then more recently The RKO Story. Last year I added another volume, John Douglas Eames’ THE PARAMOUNT STORY.
I love these books. For one thing they’re perfect reading when I have only a few spare moments — there’s no narrative arc, nothing complicated, just a bunch of synopses and photos, so they’re easy to browse. I also find them easier and simpler to search than a website covering the same material. Plus there’s something fascinating in watching the studio history unfold, from obscure silent films I’ve never heard of —
— through films of the 1930s and 1940s I know as classics —
— through films I saw in theaters when they first came out.
There’s also the fascinating trivia (fascinating to me, anyway). Learning that Neil Hamilton, whom I knew solely as Commissioner Gordon on the Adam West Batman, had a film career. Realizing how popular Western writer Zane Grey once was (huge number of adaptations). Getting a list of films that sound really cool, even though my To Be Viewed list is already humongous.
A fun read, in short. Back to regular movie reviews next week!
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Do any of those books talk about writers? It would be interesting because Mary O’Hara (My Friend Flicka and others) wrote for the silents and was also a story doctor for them. I’d have to look at her memoir to see if she mentions which studio, but she *was* part of the Hollywood scene for a while. Might have been under her first husband’s name, Perrott.
They identify the writers but usually don’t go into any great detail about them.