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Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood
"You'll like Louis Mayer," Mary Pickford told Charles Foster in 1943. "He is from Canada, too." As Foster was soon to discover, Mayer was not alone: a great many of those who helped shape Hollywood into the movie capital of the world were Canadian.
Stardust and Shadows brings together the stories of 18 Canadians who were celebrities during Hollywood's formative years. Most of those profiled were known to Foster, and stories they told him about Hollywood's early days, enhanced by many years of research and interviews with other living performers and directors from the silent movie era, reveal a never-before-seen look at what the movie industry was really like in those early days.
This is Canadian history that has never been told, and many of the startling stories and secrets of Hollywood's past are revealed here for the first time.
Celebrities profiled:
May Irwin, Al and Charles Christie, Joe and Sam De Grasse, Marie Dressler, Allan Dwan, Florence La Badie, Florence Lawrence, Del Lord, Louis B. Mayer, Sidney Olcott, Jack Pickford, Mary Pickford, Marie Prevost, Mack Sennett, Douglas Shearer, Norma Shearer.
Stardust and Shadows brings together the stories of 18 Canadians who were celebrities during Hollywood's formative years. Most of those profiled were known to Foster, and stories they told him about Hollywood's early days, enhanced by many years of research and interviews with other living performers and directors from the silent movie era, reveal a never-before-seen look at what the movie industry was really like in those early days.
This is Canadian history that has never been told, and many of the startling stories and secrets of Hollywood's past are revealed here for the first time.
Celebrities profiled:
May Irwin, Al and Charles Christie, Joe and Sam De Grasse, Marie Dressler, Allan Dwan, Florence La Badie, Florence Lawrence, Del Lord, Louis B. Mayer, Sidney Olcott, Jack Pickford, Mary Pickford, Marie Prevost, Mack Sennett, Douglas Shearer, Norma Shearer.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Charles Foster
173 books96 followersCharles Foster is a Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. He is a qualified veterinarian, teaches medical law and ethics, and is a practicing barrister. Much of his life has been spent on expeditions: he has run a 150-mile race in the Sahara, skied to the North Pole, and suffered injuries in many desolate and beautiful landscapes. He has written on travel, evolutionary biology, natural history, anthropology, and philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 5 reviews
July 23, 2021
Wow. Where to start with this substantial piece of sensationalist fiction writing. Full of inaccuracies, partial truths and outright fabrications.
Too many to all mention. But here are some examples:
Much of the chapter on early silent star Florence La Badie promotes the conspiracy theory that Woodrow Wilson, while governor of New Jersey and then President of the United States was obsessed with La Badie. He stalked her on movie sets and arranged her murder when she rejected his attentions. Really ?
Foster quotes Louis B. Mayer on Greta Garbo page 198 "She must have been the biggest girl I ever saw in my life. She must have weighed 200 pounds, arms like hams...". Really ?
In the chapter on Joe and Sam DeGrasse, Foster maintains that Mary Pickford was unaware for years of a secret room in the basement of her Pickfair home, which she built with husband Douglas Fairbanks in 1918. The room was supposedly a fully equipped dental office where Sam DeGrasse (who was really a trained dentist prior to the movies) performed dental surgeries on Doug. Mary lived in the house for the rest of her life - but was only made aware of the existence of this secret dental room in her basement in 1943 ! Really ?
As mentioned by other reviewers there are absolutely no references or footnotes to back up the often outrageous "quotes" from major stars and directors (all conveniently deceased at the time of this being published in 2000).
This book does a major disservice to the people it purports to commemorate.
The books only value is providing a list of names of Canadians involved in the early motion picture business.
Look elsewhere for real information on these silent movie pioneers. A BIG disappointment - but fun to fact check.
Too many to all mention. But here are some examples:
Much of the chapter on early silent star Florence La Badie promotes the conspiracy theory that Woodrow Wilson, while governor of New Jersey and then President of the United States was obsessed with La Badie. He stalked her on movie sets and arranged her murder when she rejected his attentions. Really ?
Foster quotes Louis B. Mayer on Greta Garbo page 198 "She must have been the biggest girl I ever saw in my life. She must have weighed 200 pounds, arms like hams...". Really ?
In the chapter on Joe and Sam DeGrasse, Foster maintains that Mary Pickford was unaware for years of a secret room in the basement of her Pickfair home, which she built with husband Douglas Fairbanks in 1918. The room was supposedly a fully equipped dental office where Sam DeGrasse (who was really a trained dentist prior to the movies) performed dental surgeries on Doug. Mary lived in the house for the rest of her life - but was only made aware of the existence of this secret dental room in her basement in 1943 ! Really ?
As mentioned by other reviewers there are absolutely no references or footnotes to back up the often outrageous "quotes" from major stars and directors (all conveniently deceased at the time of this being published in 2000).
This book does a major disservice to the people it purports to commemorate.
The books only value is providing a list of names of Canadians involved in the early motion picture business.
Look elsewhere for real information on these silent movie pioneers. A BIG disappointment - but fun to fact check.
November 3, 2012
I've rarely been so frustrated with a Hollywood book as I am with this one.
Like Hollywood Babylon, some of the information is just flat out WRONG, and I'm wondering how Foster was able to get it published. It was published in 2000, fer crying out loud. The internet DID exist then, although it wasn't to the depth and breadth that it is now. If you live in Canada, visit the Margaret Herrick Library...something, just don't put out all this erroneous stuff and call it non-fiction.
Another danger sign? None of the material in it is sourced, unlike a book such as David Stenn's bio of Clara Bow, where just about every fact is corroborated by a list in the back of interviews, letters, articles, census records, etc.
The story of Marie Prevost alone in here is a tragedy. So much incorrect data, from an unreliable source (her HALF sister, not her full sister). The only reason I'm giving it two stars is because there is a little good information. You simply have to verify the rest of it using multiple sources.
Like Hollywood Babylon, some of the information is just flat out WRONG, and I'm wondering how Foster was able to get it published. It was published in 2000, fer crying out loud. The internet DID exist then, although it wasn't to the depth and breadth that it is now. If you live in Canada, visit the Margaret Herrick Library...something, just don't put out all this erroneous stuff and call it non-fiction.
Another danger sign? None of the material in it is sourced, unlike a book such as David Stenn's bio of Clara Bow, where just about every fact is corroborated by a list in the back of interviews, letters, articles, census records, etc.
The story of Marie Prevost alone in here is a tragedy. So much incorrect data, from an unreliable source (her HALF sister, not her full sister). The only reason I'm giving it two stars is because there is a little good information. You simply have to verify the rest of it using multiple sources.
September 18, 2014
An absolutely wretched book. No citations for sources, full of innuendo and outright errors. (Wrong names, birth dates, retirement dates, pregnancies, filmography errors, etc.) If you want to learn about Canadian performers in Hollywood, look elsewhere. This book is useless for research.
September 2, 2017
Excellent
Displaying 1 - 4 of 5 reviews