Hooked on Hollywood
Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom
Paperback | Kindle
Written by Leonard Maltin
Publisher: Paladin Communications
Release date: July 2, 2018

One of America’s most famous film critics, Leonard Maltin, is an expert on the evolution of film, the grit and the glory, the ugly and the oh-so-beautiful. He has gotten to interview some of the most famous people in the world, and gotten them to open up in compelling ways. Not everyone can live and love their career, but Maltin has done so with his newest effort, and he draws you in along with him.

More below on Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom by Leonard Maltin.

Having been more into modern movies, reading through the chapters, and the even more interesting interviews have added many titles to my “must see” list.

Some tidbits:

– Ralph Bellamy broke James Cagney’s tooth in Picture Snatcher.

– Fred Astaire only had one argument in his entire marriage.

– Someone said Marilyn Monroe was not that big a deal.

And much, much more!

There’s a chapter on some of RKO’s forgotten films, good and bad. I’m definitely going to try to watch: The Tip-Off (1931), The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), The Half-Naked Truth (1932), and Scarlet River (1933).
As it has been his entire life, Leonard Maltin is definitely “hooked” on Hollywood and this book will hook you as well.

Synopsis:

Leonard Maltin is America’s best-known film historian, film reviewer, and author of books that have sold more than 7 million copies. He remains a thought leader on past and present Hollywood through his website www.leonardmaltin.com, and a social media presence that includes an active Facebook page and a Twitter feed with more than 66,000 followers. In Hooked on Hollywood, Maltin opens up his personal archive to take readers on a fascinating journey through film history. He first interviewed greats of Hollywood as a precocious teenager in 1960s New York City. He used what he learned from these luminaries to embark on a 50-year (and counting) career that has included New York Times bestselling books, 30 years of regular appearances coast-to-coast on Entertainment Tonight, movie introductions on Turner Classic Movies, and countless other television and radio performances. Early Maltin interviews had literally been stored in his garage for more than 40 years until GoodKnight Books brought them to light for the first time in this volume to entertain readers and inform future film scholars. Teenaged Leonard Maltin landed one-on-ones with Warner Bros. sexy pre-Code siren Joan Blondell; Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Burgess Meredith; Cecil B. DeMille’s right-hand-man Henry Wilcoxon; Oscar-winning actor Ralph Bellamy; playwright, novelist, and MGM screenwriter Anita Loos; early screen heartthrob George O’Brien; classic Paramount director Mitchell Leisen; and others. Later in his career, Maltin sat down with men and women who worked inside the top studios during the heyday of movies and early television. This second set of in-depth interviews reveals what life was like under Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, Harry Cohn, and the other titans of Hollywood. What emerges is a fascinating and at times uproarious homage to Golden Era Hollywood. In addition, key feature articles from Maltin’s newsletter Movie Crazy are published here for the first time, providing new perspectives on the Warner Bros. classics Casablanca and Gold Diggers of 1933 as well as many other masterpieces””and bombs””from Hollywood history. Finally, Maltin looks back at what he considers Hollywood’s “overlooked” studio, RKO Radio Pictures, which gave us such classics as King Kong and the many dance musicals of Astaire and Rogers. In Leonard’s unique and witty style, he looks at dozens of obscure RKO features from the 1930s, including saucy pre-Codes, musicals, comedies, and mysteries. Leonard Maltin’s love of movies and vast knowledge about their history shines through from the first page to the last in this unique volume, which includes 150 rare photos and a comprehensive index.

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