Customer Reviews

A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen

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I was thoroughly impressed with this book the moment I opened it. It has literally thousands of b&w photos filling its 324 pages. The photos are of various sizes and include the players and films in chronological order from "the early years" of the 1890s through 1929. From the widely known to the obscure, they are all here! What's more, the names of the films and actors are provided for nearly all the photos which has aided me in identifying a few miscellaneous stills I have. I run a tribute website for Henry B. Walthall and being able to see one photo in this book of a "lost" or "buried" film I will never get a chance to see means so much. I am sure that any silent film buff will find some prized rare photos in this book to treasure. Book includes index list of actors and films for easy reference. (This review is based on the 1982 printing edited by Daniel Blum alone, original copyright 1953).

I believe that this is definitely the best book ever written on any form of entertainment in our culture. It is the kind of book that makes you feel a great deal of adulation, sympathy, love, or any other emotion for the characters, the silent screen stars, just by seeing their photographs. The reader can literally feel themselves fall back about ninety or so years while looking through this immense photo gallery which captures stars in their natural element and heydey. Where else can you find big names like Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, and Douglas Fairbanks? Or, names that were big then, like, Norma and Constance Talmadge, Robert Harron, and Alice Joyce? Or, even sound stars who were also silent screen players like, Joan Crawford, Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper, and Myrna Loy? I would recommend this anthology to anybody, film buff (which I am a HUGE HUGE one!) or photography student. It is an indespensible collection for the eyes to feast on, thousands of pictures of the most important people in the world. Enjoy!!![.]
(This review based on the edition published in 1953, and by Daniel Blum alone.)

This magificent "coffee table" book, in print for over 30 years but out of print now for over 20 years, is a must for the library of any silent movie fan. Thousands of photographs of silent movie actors and movie scenes, listed by year from 1908 to 1928, over 300 10x12 pages of truly rare photographs many from films unseen for almost a century and some players who tragically have not a single film known to still exist in sizes that range from postage stamp size to full page. And of course the superstars and legends are seen in large numbers of pictures: Mary Pickford around 40 photos, Charlie Chaplin about 30 plus similar numbers on Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, etc. As well as a quite sizable number on big stars from the period less known today - Wallace Reid, Corinne Griffith, Mae Murray, Charles Farrell, etc. You will spin many an hour pouring over the photos in this book and go back to it again and again.

This book really captures the magic of the silent movie era through thousands of photographs. It helps one understand the glory of this long forgotten and brief part of movie history.

blum's books are tough to get a hold on---but if you are a serious student of american film or theater, you have to own one! many of the pictures are now umpublished, which makes them all the more valuable. they are also great hints on dress and hair styles for costumers.

they're also a valuable look at something else--but we'll save that for another time.