People Will Talk

by John Kobal

A leading film archivist's interviews with forty-eight legendary actors, directors, choreographers, designers, and photographers are accompanied by a selection of photographs from his extensive collection

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In

728 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

John Kobal was an Austrian-born British based film historian responsible for The Kobal Collection, a commercial photograph archive related to the film industry.

Reviews

[Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoDtN...

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great volume of Hollywood history from the very beginning. I loved the comments Kobal makes throughout the book, particularly how he keeps the inaccuracies of the interviewee's facts in, but makes little footnotes addressing them. It shows how well he knows his stuff, and gee, does he know a whole lot!

One learns that the first real Hollywood legend he met and was hooked by was Marlene Dietrich, in the introduction, whereby she whisked him off to her hotel suite after a performance and dinner party upon learning that he had nowhere to stay for the night.

"Marlene Dietrich put me to bed on the couch in the living room, covered me with blankets, and I fell asleep with baskets of flowers at my head and more at my feet, so that I must have looked like a corpse laid out in state."

Kobal writes in a very easy to read prose while relating his experiences with these Hollywood personalities, and they come alive across the pages one reads. The interviews intersect, as people recall similar events which may or may not contradict each other. It's a remarkable presentation of how facts are so often twisted in Hollywood and people attempt to take credit for more things than they deserve. Powerful studio heads of MGM, Paramount etc appear frequently, and directors such as Lubistch, Cukor and Von Sternberg. Kobal also includes valuable interviews with Hollywood photographers, George Hurrell and John Engstead.

It is interesting to note that while Dietrich was not one of Kobal's interviewees, she makes many appearances throughout the entire book through subjects' recollections of Hollywood (the interviews were carried out in a period across the 1960s through the 1970s), showing how prominently she featured and influenced pop culture. Bette Davis (whose interview was not included) and Joan Crawford appear rather freqently too. There are also varied references to Garbo, along with Dietrich. One can personally deduce who were the most influential stars of the past era by these references.

A recommended read for any Old Hollywood fan's bookshelf.

[Graceann · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Kobal compiled his conversations with more than 40 film industry luminaries, from the very famous (Mae West, Katharine Hepburn) and the less well known (June Duprez, Jack Cole). Directors, choreographers, actors, photographers; Kobal doesn't just concentrate on one aspect of the art of film. There are some people who could have been skipped, simply because their stories were told more fully elsewhere, and others who are welcome simply because of the rarity of the experience of hearing from them.

For all of this, however, these are very much "interviews," as opposed to personal conversations. These people are practices at the art of telling what they want you to hear and nothing more. Many of the conversations have the feel of a press release. For instance, Joan Fontaine completely poo-poos the idea that she and her sister don't get along (despite photographic evidence to the contrary), but then writes her own rather scathing memoir, several years after her interview with Kobal, discussing exactly that fact.

Also, it was impossible, at least for me, to read more than two of these interviews at a time without them running together. This is more of a reference volume, to be dipped into on occasion, rather than a compulsive read that you can't put down. If I tried to binge-read (which is one of my favorite ways to indulge), it didn't take long before I couldn't remember who said what.

All in all, I'm glad I read it, but I can honestly say that I remember very little from the first interviews in the book, and even the final one is already fading a bit from my memory. It just didn't stick with me as I hoped it would, despite my basic enjoyment of the content as I was reading it.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Kobal was one of the great archivers of Hollywood history, offering his knowledge and enthusiasm up for like-minded cinephiles in a series of both nonfiction books and photographic collections from the early days of Hollywood. As his name is mostly associated with photography, it is no surprise that the most interesting and informative interviews in People Will Talk involve photographers, who talk at length about what it was like to work with certain stars and what components went into making a star portrait. On the whole, all of the interviews in People Will Talk are similarly enjoyable reads, even if they ultimately don’t amount to much. Kobal makes it clear that this collection of interviews simply means to comment on a time in history that involved a particular brand of star–these being the personalities that have paved the way for our modern celebrities. As an evocation of a time gone by, it is appropriately nostalgic, with enjoyable passages for fans of stars like Ida Lupino, Joan Blondell, and Tallulah Bankhead. Those looking for something more academic or informative should look elsewhere.

[David]

This one took a long time. Hollywood gossip, scandal, backbiting, is not to me, as it is to some, the very breath of life. This is one of many books I inherited from my friend Ian, who worked the majority of his life in the industry. I tend to prefer the sections which deal with how specific challenging scenes were staged/shot, the technical aspects of film-making in the 1925-55 era. But there is no doubt that throughout the 700+ pages, this book is, for author John Kobal, a genuine labour of love. His interviews (mostly in the 60s and 70s) with Hollywood personalities (mostly of the 20s-40s, but as recent as Kim Stanley, active in the 80s) show the true adulation of an eternal fan, no matter how sophisticated or intelligent such a fan might literally be.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book of interviews with various Hollywood film personalities conducted by John Kobal in the 1960s, ‘70s and early ‘80s. I read through this hefty volume slowly, usually picking up an interview between other books, starting in early 2019 and finally wrapping up near the end of 2025. It mostly focuses on famous actresses although there are a few interesting detours, such as the two ladies who appeared as chorines in dozens of ‘30s and ‘40s musicals.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books about old Hollywood. Kobal conducted a serie of interviews with people who lived the Hollywood dream - actors, directors, technicians, etc. The result is fascinating because everybody talks in a candid, honest, revealing way that helps create a diverse painting of the movie industry during its so-called Golden Age. A must-read for anyone interested in movies.