The Hollywood Studios [Hardcover]

Ethan Mordden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1988

Hollywood in the years between 1929 and 1948 was a town of moviemaking empires. The great studios were estates of talent: sprawling, dense, diverse. It was the Golden Age of the Movies, and each studio made its distinctive contribution. But how did the studios, ''growing up'' in the same time and place, develop so differently? What combinations of talents and temperaments gave them their signature styles? These are the questions Ethan Mordden answers, with breezy erudition and irrepressible enthusiasm, in this fascinating and wonderfully readable book. Mordden illuminates how the style of each studio was primarily dictated by the personality, philosophy, and attitudes of its presiding mogul--and how all these factors affected the work and careers of individual actors, directors, writers, and technicians, and the success of the studio in general.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The studio system in Hollywood was doomed once the Supreme Court decided in 1948 that the same companies that created movies could not legally control their exhibition, forcing studios to divest their theater chains. That decision inaugurated a series of changes limiting studio contributions primarily to the financing and marketing of pictures. What was lost? Much more than the simple star-making machinery one associates with the studio era, as this entertaining, informative volume makes clear. Performing arts writer and novelist Mordden (The Hollywood Musical, etc.) ably demonstrates that each studio had its own distinctive style, deriving from the esthetic affinities of the moguls who ran them, the idiosyncrasies of their contract artists and the ways they distributed power among the studios' various creative departments. Mordden makes an amiable and authoritative guide as he tours readers through the studios of the 1930s and '40s, pointing out the hallmarks of the major housesthe MGM musical, the Paramount sex comedy, the Warner crime drama and more. Written with a flair and clarity that will delight even the casual movie lover, this study is a refreshing and convincing alternative to the auteurist approach to film history. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Movie studios, originally small, nameless, faceless factory-like operations, grew and were shaped along stylistic lines. Focusing mainly on Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, Fox, RKO, and Universal, Mordden's highly readable text discusses actors, directors, and producers and explains how and why each specific house style was nurtured and developed. Written with wit by an expert, this book gives more insight and perspective to the rise of the studios than such books as John Douglas Eames's The Paramount Story ( LJ 12/85). One snagit lacks an index. Recommended for all film collections. Arthur Bargar, Milford P.L., Ct.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 387 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (May 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394554043
• ISBN-13: 978-0394554044
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #797,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvellous read, December 3, 2009

By 

Miss Yoka (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Studios (Paperback)

If you're a fan of good movies (that's silents to the golden age for we in the know), this book offers a valuable overview of the old Hollywood studios and those who made them work (or not).

Always insightful, this book helps you realize why a certain film could only have been made by a certain studio, and clearly distinguishes the style of one studio from the next. Author Ethan Mordden writes so knowledgeably and entertainingly that you slow your reading pace down, just to make the pleasure last longer. Although written in a highly conversational tone (what books aren't these days?), Mordden considers his reader to be an active film viewer (i.e. "I hear murmurs in the house -- isn't 'Lady in the Dark' a musical? Not after Paramount got hold of it."). His apt criticism of Lewis Stone as MGM's all-American father ("How many of you, boys and girls, had a judge for a father?"), is a refreshing change from the far too many authors who merely rehash common facts in order to publish a film book with their name on it. Mordden respects his reader's film knowledge much more than that.

You may not agree with his opinion of certain films/directors/producers etc., but this book does what a good book on film ought to do, which is make you dash to your dvd/vhs collection and pull out a film to remind yourself of a particularly good scene or actress (or soundtrack). He describes cinematic moments in a suitably visual manner (you can almost see the smoke wisp away from Bette Davis's revolver in "The Letter") and his often witty analysis creates laugh aloud moments ("Screwball comedy, at heart, is about having money and fun. Warners is against both."). This is a very enjoyable read.

Any filmbuff would be pleased to have this in their reference library, whether to round out their knowledge of the studio systems or to make them appear just a bit more witty to their film-loving friends. Recommended.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Literate and Informed Guide to What Movie Studios Used to Be, June 2, 2010

By 

Michael Shepley (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hollywood Studios (Paperback)

In an era in which MGM musicals are released on Warner Home Video; in which Selznick International films are co-released by MGM and 20th Century-Fox Home Video; in which early Paramount films are owned by Universal -- and at a time when no one young really knows or cares about a studio identity, particularly when present-day movies are preceded by a stunning handful of corporate logos -- this is an invaluable guide to how the old movie studios had their own personalities and styles.

Mordden really defines the identities of the studios, even though his writing can be precious and sometimes irritating. As a boomer who was introduced to the 1950s films of 20th Century-Fox on NBC-TV's "Saturday Night at the Movies" in the 1960s, I became a rabid Fox fan. Yet Mordden opened my eyes to a whole new way of viewing the studio and its output. And I was caught off guard (and almost persuaded) by his preference for Paramount as the best studio of all.

Studios meant something, and the films we see largely on Turner Classic Movies are the products of those specific places and their crazy, charismatic leaders. Do we know or care who has produced or distributed "Twilight" or "Sex and the City 2"? We'll never see the likes of these studios again, and Mordden's book -- along with other key volumes -- will be an invaluable tool in remembering them.

16 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars who's in the house?, January 19, 2001

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hollywood Studios (Hardcover)

This charmingly study of the Hollywood studios explains that it was the personality and taste of the moguls that determined the house styles of both the kind of films made and the artists who made them. Mordden is particularly good in analysing at length certain films that exemplify each style. Paramount was the industry's first big studio and monopolised the theatre chains which guaranteed exhibition of their product, giving founder Adolph Zukor the confidence to experiment. Paramount valued the individuality of directors Ernst Lubitsch and Mitchell Leisen who made elegant "boudoir snafu", and writer/directors Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. The actors they served best were clowns, like The Marx Brothers, WC Fields and Mae West. MGM was Louis B Mayer and he reigned with zealotry, blackmail and tyranny. His operation was a factory and anyone who disturbed the running of the assembly line was discarded - director Erich von Stroheim who's Greed ran for 7 hours, tempestuous diva Mae Murray, womaniser John Gilbert), even the self-willed Lillian Gish who demanded artistic control of her films. Mayer favoured factotum - company men who had a talent for treating actors, like Clarence Brown who guided Garbo's transition into talkies in Anna Christie. Whilst Mayer's style of polished glamour was epitomised by Grand Hotel, which featured stars, art direction by Cedric Gibbons, gowns by Adrian, and the high-key lighting of William Daniels, his head of production, Irving Thalberg earned cudos for greenlighting unprofitable prestige titles over Mayer's objections, like King Vidor's The Crowd and Todd Browning's Freaks. However Thalberg's death left Mayer unchecked, and his Andy Hardy "family" values homogenised the studio's mentality - like Dorothy's banal realisation that there's no place like home. Arthur Freed's unit produced innovative musicals, but as the studio wound down Mayer was replaced by bookkeeper Dore Schary, who favoured the reliably mediocrity (Kathryn Grayson) to the unpredictable avatar (Judy Garland). The smaller studios may have existed on low budgets but that doesn't mean their output was always crummy, even if history has forgotten them because the titles have been lost. Hal Wallis' First National featured Colleen Moore who originated the flapper bangs that Louise Brooks gets credit for. Republic was a minor major (or a major minor), starring the singing cowboys Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, skater Vera Hruba Ralston (the wife of mogul Herbert J Yates), and John Wayne, who won the studio the best picture Oscar for The Quiet Man. Columbia rose to greatness via Frank Capra, Rita Hayworth and screwball comedy, but it's real success was due to mogul Harry Cohn, legendary for being mean. His idea of artistic freedom was "just do it. If it makes money, do another one. If it loses money, you're fired". Some independent artists tried to adapt to life at the studios. Buster Keaton's experience with MGM ruined him. Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D W Griffin formed United Artists, but had no studio of their own. Samuel Goldywn retained a studio after the merge with Metro and Mayer. He saw himself as a showman like Ziegfield, his taste ranging from literary titles like Wuthering Heights and The Little Foxes, and vaudevilleans like Eddie Cantor and Danny Kaye. His famous blunder was Nana, an attempt to make Anna Sten the new Garbo/Dietrich and also present Zola to the American public. Amusingly Sten's fractured English was as imitable as Goldwyn's own malaproprisms. David O Selznick shared Goldwyn's taste in literature though his quest for control was without equal. Beginning at RKO then joining MGM when he married Mayer's daughter ("The son-in-law also rises" was the nepotistic quip) before forming Selznick International Pictures, his vision was as epic as the infamous memos to his directors. He had his own Anna Sten in his wife, Jennifer Jones, and though their efforts weren't as disastrous as Goldwyn's, he could never better the albatross success of GWTW. Warner Bros was the major studio run on a quickie's low budget, Jack Warner's motto being "keep it moving". The look is flat realism, the milieu urban. Warners was Edward G Robinson, Cagney, Bogart, Bette Davis and Rin Tin Tin. The Jazz Singer was a stunt that paid off. Warners is also backstage musicals with Busby Berkerley's kaleidoscopic formations, Depression-era socially conscious titles like I Am a fugitive from a chain gang, The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca. Fox is 2 studios - Fox Film with Mary Pickford, Theda Bara, Will Rogers; and Darryl Zanuck's Twentieth Century Fox. Zanuck was bold. His Depression-era saviour was child star Shirley Temple. He liked blonde women and dark men - Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Marilyn, Victor Mature, Tyrone Power, and vaudeville interlopers, like The Ritz Brothers and Carmen Miranda. In response to WW2 his technicolour was garish. His humanist polemics like The Grapes of Wrath and The Ox-bow Incident led the way for Gentleman's Agreement and Pinky at the height of McCarthyism. Zanuck outlasted all the other moguls, and even had a second chance. RKO never had a mogul but was the distributor for independent producers like Pandro S Berman who made the early Katharine Hepburn. Selznick's success with King Kong enabled RKO's Astaire/Rogers series. Orson Welles made Citizen Kane, and Lucille Ball's Desilu saved it from the ghost town Howard Hughes had made. Universal and founding mogul Carl Laemmle had reactionary tendencies - Griffith directed Mary Pickford and the Gish's. Their big ones served their aesthetic - Showboat, Lon Chaney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, All Quiet on the Western Front. However things improved with Fritz Lang's film noir, James Whale's Frankenstein, WC Fields and Abbott and Costello. Later we have camp - Maria Montez, Deanna Durbin, Douglas Sirk's camp weepies, and the Rock Hudson/Doris Day comedies. The divestiture of the theatre chains in 1950 signaled the end of Hollywood's Golden Age, the bulldozing of the MGM backlots in the 1970's a metaphor for a lost era, though Universal turned their lot into a successful theme park.