Hollywood: The Oral History, ed. Jeannine Basinger and Sam Wasson

*No one who worked with her in the book has anything sunstantially negative to say about Joan Crawford--she was a high professional on set during her star period and was very nice to people. Everyone gave her credit for knowing she had come from notihing and recognizing the fact. One of the few things she did insist upon were the strappy shoes that later became known as "Joan Crawford fuck-me pumps," but the reason she always wanted them was because she had tiny feet and was afraid they would otherwise slip out of her shoes on set.

*Carole Lombard swore a blue streak on set but everyone liked her. She was the easiest star during the Golden Age to light with the possible exception of Shirley Temple, since they both took the light beautifully. Claudette Colbert was very hard to light because she only had one good side.

*Ginger Rogers started out great--a very nice woman with a great figure and face, even though she had the tackiest taste in clothing. Many of the interviewed agree, though that she let her fame go to her head and became very difficult to work with over time.

*Clark Gable was deeply insecure about his talent and often apologized to directors about how bad he was after he had finished a take.

*Mae West was extremely difficult to work with, and a real bitch.

I take up an entire volume.

Now give us the oral one, OP.

More please, OP - love reading it!

Is it true the book has no index?

New York Times review

R5, it does not have an index.

I love Jeannine Basinger's work, but her steadfast refusal to acknowledge the closeted stars of the golden age is very disappointing.

There's not much about sexuality or private lives in this book, r8--it's mostly about what the actual work was like. But Basinger is not much in the book.

Thank You OP, it's another book I need to read this summer before I go back to work in September.

I love anything oral!!

One of the most unintentionally funny parts of the book is Katharine Hepburn complaining at length about films from the late 60s and early 70s, including "Straw Dogs" and "A Clockwork orange." I wonder if she actually saw them. She also lumps "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" in with them, which is annoying since it's not violent at all--she's obviously just reacting against its frank depiction of bisexuality (which makes her such a hypocrite, of course).

I had no idea she wanted the part of Scarlett O'Hara. She never screen-tested for it, but she told George Cukor (the original director) that if he couldn't find the right Scarlett she would have loved to slip in and do it. Can you imagine a Scarlett with Hepburn's Yankee accent, which she never ever hid?

There's a lot interesting in this about the early silent days--it talks a lot about how DW Griffith got the idea for all kinds of things we take for granted today, like close-ups. One thing that's interesting is that so many of the people interviewed have so much respect for him but also for Cecil B. deMille, whom they all agree worked incredibly hard at his craft.

Also interesting:

*Jean Harlow was nothing like her screen persona. The people interviewed in the book uniformly considered her well educated (she went to a very fine finishing school), very professional, and especially polite.

*Don Simpson and Jerry bruckheimer had no idea what Flashdance was going to be about: they sold the title to the studio and got a contract, and then had to figure out a storyline to go with it

*Beverly Hills Cop was originally intended for Mickey Rourke