The Sound of Silence: Conversations With 16 Film and Stage Personalities Who Bridged the Gap Between Silents and Talkies

by Michael G. Ankerich

Marion Shilling began her career as a silent film ingenue for MGM and later went on to become one of the top heroines in Westerns of the 1930s. Stage actress Esther Muir made the transition from Broadway to Hollywood just as talkies became popular. Hugh Allan was a leading man in the last years of the silents only to leave the film business in 1930 because of the uncertainty surrounding his transition to sound films and his disgust with studio politics. These three performers and thirteen others (Barbara Barondess, Thomas Beck, Mary Brian, Pauline Curley, Billie Dove, Edith Fellows, Rose Hobart, William Janney, Marcia Mae Jones, Barbara Kent, Anita Page, Lupita Tovar, and Barbara Weeks) reminisce here about Hollywood and the movie business as it made the transition from silents to talkies. For the stage actors, sound films were a natural move. Some of the silent actors were not so fortunate, often finding the studios reluctant to use their talents. These men and women, most in their seventies and eighties, provide a unique look at a crucial period in film history.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In

260 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Terri Librande · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oral history done well.

If understand you see a silent film fan of have an interest in film of any kind, this book is worth reading.

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When there is no one left to remember, it is my hope that books like Broken Silence and The Sound of Silence will serve as a bridge to the past, to the days that made up the most illustrious period in the history of Hollywood.”

Each chapter is devoted to a celebrity and the interview is written like a magazine article as opposed to a transcript of the conversation. This allows Ankerich to fill in the gaps and provide his own style to the book. Unfortunately it does not result in many direct quotes or a distinct feeling that you got to know the subject.

“I always said there are the starlets who dance on one leg and then the other, and manage to make a living in between them. I was never one of them.” —Barbara Barondess

The actors profiled in this book are Hugh Allan, Barbara Barondess, Thomas Beck, Mary Brian, Pauline Curley, Billie Dove, Edith Fellows, Rose Hobart, William Janney, Marcia Mae Jones, Barbara Kent, Esther Muir, Anita Page, Marion Shilling, Lupita Tovar, and Barbara Weeks.