Gaeta1 Treks Through Hollywoodland (with detours)

Well, trust me to not realize that you cannot edit a thread topic. I guess I need my name in my title. Whoops!
Starting a new thread for the year...

I had such a blast reading about the film industry last year that I want to continue on. So many books that I didn't get around to, like Lulu in Hollywood. I'll be reading novels that were made into movies, too. For instance, last year I watched "Capote", then read In Cold Blood, and then finally watched the movie. I'll be doing the same with Lolita this year. And you never know what serendipitous finds you might stumble onto, such as A Kim jong-il Production. The kidnapping of a top South Korean film star and director by the orders of a movie mad dictator ...amazing.

That book, however great, didn't even make my top 5 list. Here are my favorites:

1) Memo from David O. Selznick The guy was responsible for bringing Bergman and Hitchcock to the USA, and wrote 20 foot long telegrams to his stars. (Clark Gable had written into his contract that he didn't have to answer Selznick after 10PM.) Yes, uppers are amazing things.
2) Easy Riders, Raging Bulls A modern day classic, filled with astute observations and plain old cattiness. Excellent.
3) The Devil's Candy I hesitated before buying this one. A book on a failed movie--The Bonfire of the Vanities that almost no one remembers? It's a sympathetic (though sharp) account from a writer who was on site from start to finish, and a reminder that, even with the best of intentions, things can go terribly wrong. Bruce Willis is still hunting for Ms. Salamon.
4) The Parade's Gone By Kevin Brown managed to interview many of the pioneers of the silent film era before they died. A cornerstone of film history.
5) Friedkin Connection A huge surprise. I took a chance on an audiobook, since Friedkin sounded engaging, though I hadn't--at that time--seen any of his movies, and he was a big player in Biskind's book. A perfect combination of mea-culpa examination and let-me-tell-you-how-it-really-was settling scores. He does leave out his (ahem) messy personal life.

That's it. My first book of the year, alas, was not so hot.

1)
Orry-Kelly told Marilyn Monroe that Tony Curtis had a better--or at least more compact --rear end than she did. That didn't go over so well with the great MM!

So...my first book of the new year is a carryover audio book from last year. It's the memoirs ( found wrapped up in a pillowcase tucked into a closet!) of the Australian dress designer Orry-Kelly, who was the chief costume designer for Warner Brothers during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman were his muses--until he got into a power struggle with Jane Wyman, quit in a huff (he was always quitting in a huff), and then went on to win several Academy Awards as a freelancer. Here he is dressing Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like it Hot". Orry-Kelly And yes, he won an Academy Award for that film, too.

It should have been fascinating, right? Nope. Kelly admits in the book that he has no organizational ability when it came to writing, and that even his friends commented he tended to start with dessert and finish with soup in his letters. That's one way to put it. I felt like a mudlark sifting through the piles of name- dropping #$$% about long-dead socialites and discursive dronings on about the court fashions of England just to get to the few nuggets of gossipy gold and thoughtful discussions on how to make clothes that flatter the wearer--and also look good for the camera. In the epilogue Kelly reveals he had refused all editorial help to get his book in shape, and I doubt it would ever have been published if Gillian Armstrong ("The Piano", "My Brilliant Career") hadn't decided to film a documentary on her fellow Australian in conjunction with a show of his work at the Melbourne Museum of the Moving Image. (The show closes this week, so hop to it!)

Sigh. I have a bad habit of not stopping audiobooks that I've paid for but am not enjoying. I can abandon any other format. I wonder why that is? I would have preferred this as a kindle ebook with pictures of his sketches and finished clothing, but it is only available as an ebook in Australia (stupid international copyright laws) and can't be found in any other format in the United States. And so I let the book drone on...and on...And yet, once in a while, an anecdote would rise to the surface, making the listen (almost) worth my time. The twisted relationship with Cary Grant, whom he met when they were both very young in NYC. (Were they lovers? Who knows? But they fell out over money, which seems appropriate; Grant was a notorious tightwad.) And there is an indelible portrait of Monroe towards the end of the book that captures her personality better than the 500 pages of psychoanalyzing by Donald Spoto.

The social climbing. The terrible anger fueled by alcoholism and by being forced to mask his homosexuality less he be categorized as one of those"minty" types. It made for a very uncomfortable reading experience. But I'll be smiling when I watch "Some Like it Hot" again, knowing Kelly told Marilyn that fingers were to be used to point out what French pastry you'd like to have, and not to be used against people. He also told her to put on some underwear.

Enjoy "Casablanca", "An American in Paris", "Jezebel" and the many other movies this greatly talented man helped make so wonderful. But skip this book.

Two Stars

Very interesting reading project about the film industry! I'd really like to read Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. A few years ago I read Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris, which takes a look at the five films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1968 (including The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde, two of my favourite films). Harris argues that this year represented a change in American films, as Hollywood shifted from the black and white movies of the 1940s and 50s, and into the very different world that was the 1970s. It was an excellent book, if you're looking for another one to add to your film industry list!

Good luck with your reading. Fascinating project. I loved Easy Riders Raging Bulls, and went on to read several other Biskinds (none of which were anywhere near as good imho!). I've read some lovely novels set in the world of silent films (including one about the first Asian actor, which I would highly recommend if only I could remember the title). I've started Mark Cousins' book The Story of Film - if you haven't come across him he's a documentary maker and critic -and I really like the way he writes about film history.

Cait : Read Harris's book last year. I really liked it--and it helped get me through a traumatic trip to see the parents!

Charl: I watched Cousin's series while at the gym. I did love the first part, but I am afraid he got a bit off track towards the end. I'm not so crazy about CGI monstrosities, either, but ignoring the elephant in the room does not help matters. I thought he was especially strong with silent movies.

I have been debating whether to read Biskind's other books, especially the one on the rise of the indies, but your comment echoes what I have heard; "Easy Riders" is his best work.

I've replaced the other thread with this one in the Threadbook, so folks using those links will get sent here.

>7 gaeta1: I'll be watching for his going off piste at the end then!

I've been having fun trying to work out which novel I read about an early silent film star - from the good reads description, I think it might have been The Age of Dreaming. Looking at the descriptions of the novels she's written, I now want to read her others though. I also loved Filmish, a graphic tour through film history.

Oh, Great, Charl. Added to the list. I've heard of Filmish, but not the other one.

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2) 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Yeah, it might be cheating, since it's really a compendium, but I swear I read it cover to cover last year--that is, when my teenage son wasn't swiping it for his own use. And as any selection made by just two individuals of the best of the best, there are going to be some complaints. Wait--"Wings" didn't make the cut? Are you kidding me? The good thing, though, is the authors revise every other year, so they will cut new movies once the shouting has died down--and they are willing to rethink older movies, too. That's good, because while finishing up my next book, Five Came Back, I have definite complaints about which one of the famous "propaganda" movies should have been included, and it sure wasn't "The Battle of San Pietro". I will be dropping them a line.

I did discover my love of silent movies through this book. You really do get into a hypnotic trance after a while with a pre-talkie.

I'm up to 387 films, so I have a long way to go--and I'm using the combined list of all 6 additions.

Thanks for visiting my thread. Checking into yours and dropping a star.

Your Hollywood theme sounds like it has got you hooked! I tend to get on to a topic and not be able to
let it go for about 4 books or so, the latest being survival at sea books. I started with 2 non fiction shipwreck stories in the Sub -Antarctic, and topped it off with Pincher Martin, a fictional account of being a castaway. Next up for me is a NF book about the various non-scientific uses science is put to in these modern times.

>12 thornton37814:

Thanks, Maybe we can find some cookbooks together. My goal is to use one of my many (too many) cookbooks once a week.

>13 LovingLit:. Thanks, Iread. I can't say I have read a survival at sea book except for Moby Duck. My husband, though, loves the wreck of the Whale Ship Essex. Too bad the film is not supposed to be so great. I did try to read Jamrach's Menagerie until I realized it was based on the Essex...cough, cough...and how do these stories of guys on a boat often end up?Have not yet read Life of pi. It actually fits my challenge, as there is a movie tie-in. It's a flexible challenge.