Talking Pictures: With the People Who Made Them

by Sylvia Shorris (Editor), Marion Abbott Bundy (Editor)

Producers, screenwriters, gaffers, camera operators, key grips, soundmen, and scriptgirls - with a list of behind-the-scenes movie makers that reads like a Busby Berkeley roll call, Talking Pictures presents a lively, firsthand view of Hollywood from the bottom up. The nearly forty interviews collected here chronicle the Golden Age of Hollywood, when major movie studios produced some of America's favorite films.

By hearing firsthand about the machinations of Hollywood moguls like Louis B. Mayer and Darryl Zanuck, we learn how studios were run and how decisions about movies were made. From lesser known players we see how informal Hollywood was, how easy it was to get a job, how crucial a role nepotism played, and how careers were open to craftsmen and con men alike. Seven years in the making,

Talking Pictures is a unique behind-the-scenes look at the movies and the people who make them, and a tribute to the remarkable men and women responsible for captivating American audiences in a way that may never be seen again. 

372 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1994

Reviews

[Nathan Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

At a glance this cold easily look like a fairly typical piece of Hollywood stenography, a potentially sentimental remembrance of the Dream Factory in its golden years -- and look, far be it from me to deny the fun of such things -- but in fact while this is another oral history of the studio era, it's unique in that it's primarily told by below-the-line figures (a couple of directors and onscreen performers slip through, but mostly lesser-known ones), each of whom receives their own chapter and an interview that's been edited into narrative form. Not all of the pieces are equally illuminating but several are, and the book managed to get completed at just the right moment before the majority of the relevant generation died off. Shorris and Bunday were individually known for their politically conscious nonfiction works and this actually allows some of that passion to bleed through, especially within the interview with Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, who only occasionally lets his guard down in his memories of how race affected his career, and with a sit-down with an anonymous former assistant to a top executive, whose memories chillingly call ahead to the Weinstein scandal. This is more a collection of tidbits than a book, but it does present a surprisingly helpful and illuminating portrait of the "day to day" elements of a magical, filthy business.

[Ray Quirolgico · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of memories as told in short interviews from the people who were involved in making movies through Hollywood’s golden age of studios, and interestingly focused on all the creatives and supporting artists and administrators (not the actors). Overall, could have been strengthened with more editorial organization or reflective analysis to pull the recollections together.