The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History (Hardcover)

~ Gail Kinn (Author), Jim Piazza (Author) "AS THE HORRORS OF WORLD WAR I receded, the Roaring Twenties rushed in to take the place of years of worry and dread..." (more)
Key Phrases: Warner Bros, Buena Vista, Best Director (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A celebration of the film world's most coveted prize complete with new listings, photos, and stories from the 2003 ceremonies. The perfect gift for any film buff.

From the Back Cover

You are invited to share eighty years of stars and statues, directors and presenters, all the winners and losers, and all the glamour and gossip that is Oscar. From the very first awards spectacular to the most recent, star-studded ceremony, this is the complete, unofficial history. Get the full story and all the facts: memorable images, behind-the-scenes and on-camera anecdotes, and unabridged lists by year and category of every nominee and every winner that has ever heard his or her name called on the brightest night in Hollywood.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; Rev Upd edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579123171
• ISBN-13: 978-1579123178
• Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 10.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,383,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Handsome to Look At, but Sloppily Edited, March 19, 2005

By	BGK "BGK" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

As an Academy Awards fan, I was pleased to receive this book as a birthday present. My version goes through 2001 and "A Beautiful Mind." It's a handsome book -- big, heavy, but nicely designed. For each year presented, brief bios of winners and photos of each are accompanied by facts and figures, as well as a short overview of that year.

Unfortunately, it's filled with errors from beginning to end. Perhaps these were caught in later editions, but it was embarassing. As I was reading it, I kept a running list of mistakes ... and they ranged from small to large. For example, in the write-up for Katharine Hepburn's first Oscar, it claims that she "went on to win eight Academy Awards by the end of her career." While she is the all-time acting champ in terms of wins, she won four, not eight. Marie Dressler's birth date is listed as 1838 in her bio ... which would mean she was 92 when she made "Min and Bill"! The correct date, I believe, is 1868. The description for Melvyn Douglas' win in 1979 is almost word-for-word the same description for his 1963 win! Shirley MacLaine's bio in 1983 lists films for which she was nominated but did not win, including two for which she was not. Then it says she was nominated six times, when in reality it was five. I could go on and on. The factoids called "Sins of Omission" list actors, actresses and films that failed to win a nomination. But every so often, it lists a person or film that WAS nominated. And in a complete headscratcher, under "Sins of Omission" for 1998, it lists as movie called "Sight Unseen" as an omitted best picture nominee. I'm fairly movie savvy, and I've NEVER heard of a film called "Sight Unseen."

The point is that these errors are presented as fact. And for readers unfamiliar with the Oscars, they will not realize that these errors exist. Again, I hope that later editions of this book clean up these errors. Otherwise, I'd go with another book on the Oscars if you're interested in learning about them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a very poor effort, November 20, 2006

By	Timothy J. Dunn (Hazard, KY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History (Paperback)

This book is not only poorly edited and proofread, as a previous reviewer said, it is INCREDIBLY poorly edited and proofread. Also, it is not well written. Some entries are very sparase--it seems that the writers know nothing of the movie being honored, or the actor or actress winning the trophy, or the role for which they are winning. Did these writers even bother to see "A Passage to India"? You wouldn't know it from their discussion of Peggy Ashcroft's best supporting actress win. They wonder at Dianne Wiest forgetting to thank Woody Allen when she won her first Oscar for "Hannah and Her Sisters" remarking that Wiest was a frequent star of Allen's movies--but "Hannah" was her first movie with Allen. A lot of similar nonsense throughout the book, but it seems to get worse as we get closer to the present, and the carelessness becomes more and more enfuritating.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Hello, Gorgeous!", December 28, 2003

By	TundraVision (o/~ from the Land of Sky Blue Waters o/~) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The maxim "You can't judge a book by its cover" is sometimes wrong, as in the case of this Must-Have "Complete Unofficial History" of the Academy Awards. The cool Coffee-table-able cover is awesome - all a-glitter - with an almost real envelope encasing "And the winner is ..."

I have been wanting a Guide to the Oscars for a long time. You know, you're sitting there going through the TV Guide and see a Movie, and it DIDN'T win that year's Oscar. I wonder what did? Now, it's easy to find out. This big glossy galaxy is laid out by year, from the beginning Wings in 1927 to Chicago in 2002: each with a picture and blurb of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supportings. There is also a list of the Also-ran Nominees, with the winner of each catagory in bold type. There is an excellent Index in the back.

You'll like it! You'll really, really like it!
Reviewed by TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer