Customer Reviews

The Columbia Story

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This edition is the "Revised Edition" of the Columbia Story, originally published in the 1980's and now out-of-print.
The original first edition of the book has a last entry of 1988 and this edition not only covers the same information, reprinted,
from the original edition,but continues into the Columbia Tri-Star Pictures Division era and includes entries for all of the short-
livied Tri-Star Division's productions as well as more recent Columbia releases or productions through 1998. So the First ed. is,
essentially, outdated as well as out-of-print. The Revised Edition also includes information listing the Oscars which Columbia
garnered and discusses films by genre at the end of the book. The index is excellent for anyone doing research as is the deliberate
chronological order of the book. Like all of the ten or more studio books, the Columbia Story has become quickly out-of-print
and inaccessible. All of the studio books are a treasury of information for anyone researching their respective productions, or
the history of American films in general. Like the others, The Columbia Story is a valuable resource covering the Golden Era of the
classic Hollywood narrative film and beyond. Like other studio books, the Columbia one begins with a general discussion of the
history of the studio up to the present; the present being about the end of the 1990's. Both the Columbia and Warners studio books
have been reprinted and extensively revised. Those covering the history and production of defunct studios such as RKO, United
Artists, MGM, and others, will probably never be revised or up-dated and have already become difficult to find collector's items.
One of the single exceptions, that I know of, is the superb Turner sponsored MGM history entitled "When The Lion Roars", an in-depth
history of that studio, and frankly more informative than studio histories like The Columbia Story which is more of a chronological
list of production output and credits than anything else. The early production stills, however, and the general researchable information,
make The Columbia Story a joy to read and have in one's collection. The true film buff probably would do well to collect as many of
the studio books as possible before they disappear from the marketplace entirely and forever. Amazon gives excellent leads to many
associate book stores, small dealers that may have back-stock of hard to find titles like this one. Even the used copies are disappearing
into private book collections; they are that useful for research into American film history.