The Glamour Factory: Inside Hollywood's Big Studio System

by Ronald L. Davis

Overview

In its heyday Hollywood’s big studio system mirrored the corporate ideology that catapulted the United States into economic prominence. By the mid-1920s power was consolidated into four major studios: Metro-Goldyn-Mayer, Paramount, Fox, and Warner Bros., all appropriating the assembly line approach of the Detroit automobile manufacturers. The Glamour Factory is the story of the motion picture business, told with the help of hundreds of insiders—from stars, directors, and producers to stuntmen, hairstylists, makeup artists, and publicists—who watched and contributed to the industry while magic was being made. Much of this story is drawn from the Southern Methodist University Oral History Collection on the Performing Arts, which the author founded.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806160306
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	03/29/2018
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Ronald L. Davis was Professor of History at Southern Methodist University, where he was Director of both the Oral History Program on the Performing Arts and the De Golyer Institute for American Studies. He has written many books on the performing arts in America, including the best-seller Hollywood Anecdotes.

Editorial Reviews

Anyone who has ever doubted that filmmaking is a collaborative craft should consider Davis's (history, Southern Methodist Univ.) book. Under the studio system of Hollywood's Golden Age, making movies was a business based on assembly line-like production, with many departments contributing to the finished film. Drawing primarily from the oral history collection on the performing arts at SMU, Davis uses the recollections of former employees to illustrate this process. Each chapter is devoted to a specific department or an aspect of film production and how it was handled. Use of quotes from both famous and unknown people adds freshness and authority. Davis successfully proves that filmmaking during Hollywood's Golden Age was far from glamorous and that those involved considered it a business rather than art. For serious film collections.-- Marianne Cawley, Kingwood Branch Lib., Tex.

Library Journal

This history of the Hollywood film industry draws primarily on taped and transcribed interviews with director, actors, and others--from the Southern Methodist University Oral History Collection on the Performing Arts, which the author founded in 1972 and continues to direct. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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