The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar [Hardcover]

Gail Kinn (Author), Jim Piazza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Film buffs will celebrate the arrival of this definitive book on the Academy Awards: it is the biggest and best look at movie-making's winners from the 1920s to today. great stories; actors, actresses and directors at the pinnacle of their careers; the winners; who should have won; deserving films that did not get nominated; fascinating film facts; an inside look at film history spanning 75 years; The book contains a comprehensive list of all the nominations and winners for each year, and includes more than 500 movie stills. Each award ceremony is captured on a four-page spread filled with fascinating features, quotes from the movies and Oscar moments. More fun because it is completely unauthorised, the book also explores the gaffs and glorious moments from the award ceremonies, plus educated opinions about the winners and losers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

GAIL KINN has conceived and edited a wide range of film books, among them, Screwball: The Great Romantic Comedies, Hollywood at Home: The Photographs of Sid Avery, The Zanucks of Hollywood, The Scorsese Picture by David Ehrenstein, The James Dean Scene and Those Lips, Those Eyes. She is the author of Be My Baby. She lives in New York City.

JIM PIAZZA is a screenwriter and playwright whose writings about the media as well as his personal essays have appeared in The Village Voice and Out magazine. He has also been a script analyst for Columbia, Fox and Paramount Pictures. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 330 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishing Inc (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157912240X
• ISBN-13: 978-1579122409
• Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 10.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,016,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Inexcusable mistakes, February 21, 2003

By 

Christopher Kirbabas (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar (Hardcover)

While I am always excited when a new Oscar book is published this is a book that you probably shouldn't get too excited over. While there are some interesting parts about this book the very simple fact that they get the most basic facts wrong is inexcusable. Estelle Parsons has only won 1 Oscar, not 2. There are other such mistakes like that. It just made me wonder how many other mistakes there are in the book that I didn't catch. There are some admirable aspects to this book, but wait until this book is in the $10 book bin to buy it.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Book however with several errors, December 28, 2002

By 

Rhett Bartlett (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar (Hardcover)

Don't get me wrong this was an enjoyable book, the layout extremely impressive, and , considering I have a lot of books on The Oscars, this one managed to keep my interest. However I am concerned about some glaring mistakes throughout the book, which to me devalues the book when it comes to settling arguments. Errors which include the book stating that Katherine Hepburn has won 8 oscars!, it incorrectly identifies Walter Brennan as Wallace Berry, says the Helen Hayes won in her screen debut then a few years later notes that Gale Sondergaard becomes the first person to win an Oscar in her debut film. As well as that it notes the Laurence Olivier is the only person to direct himself to an Oscar, totally ignoring the fact that Roberto Benigni did it in 1998. As I said an enjoyable book but be wary with the facts. Not worth the 60-70$ price range, but still a nice buy.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars JAW-DROPPING ERRORS THROUGHOUT, March 19, 2003

By 

Mr. The P (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar (Hardcover)

Well, it's a nice big book and there are great pictures. But this book is filled with amazing and laughable ERRORS.

Most Spectacularly:

West Side Story Oscar Winner for Best Supporting Actress RITA MORENO is identified as CHITA RIVERA. Pg 144

In a blurb about JUDY HOLLIDAY, in the section about her Oscar Win for Born Yesterday, the book tells us that Madonna lists Holliday as one of her biggest influences and that Holliday recorded many great jazz albums with many jazz greats. HELLO? Madonna is talking about BILLIE HOLLIDAY. Pg 99

Trust me, this is JUST THE TIP OF THE ICE BERG is this ERROR-RIDDEN book. What is fascinating is that this book made it to press at all with these GLARING mistakes.

Who wrote this book? What could possibly be wrong with them? These mistakes aren't typos - the are major errors committed by someone who obviously came to film study by way of sheep grazing.

Fascinatingly wrong, but by no means a reliable reference. I feel completely cheated, but mysteriously entertained.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?