The Way We Lived Then : Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper

Amazon.com

In a previous incarnation, writer Dominick Dunne was the toast of Hollywood--entertaining movie stars and socialites and invited by moguls to clambakes and black-tie dances. Long before he started churning out his romans à clef set in the private recesses of Hollywood and penthouses of New York City and his dispatches from notorious murder trials, he spent his days on movie sets, producing films like Ash Wednesday and working as an executive at various studios. In the off-hours, he and his wife Lenny ate dinner with Vincente Minnelli, Jack Benny, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Montgomery. They went to beach parties hosted by Jane Fonda and Roddy McDowall--and threw not a few bashes of their own, attended by, well, everyone and often photographed for Vogue magazine. Dunne seemed to carry his camera with him everywhere and "was always sticking [it] into someone's face." Kirk Douglas biting into an oversized hotdog, a scantily clad Paul Newman perusing a picnic table, Princess Margaret smoking, Mia Farrow dancing, and Natalie Wood hamming. Each weekend he carefully arranged his snapshots along with the week's invitations, telegrams, and news-clippings into a set of scrapbooks.

The Way We Lived Then closely resembles those scrapbooks, filled as it is with images culled from them. Dunne sews the scraps together with a loose memoir that moves from the mundane (how the house was decorated for a certain party, how the subjects of a given photo were feeling about one another at the time) to the grand (meditations on his marriage and his children). All of these famous friends, glittery parties, and cozy evenings did add up to a picture-perfect life for a time. But by the mid '60s, Dunne was drinking hard, insulting acquaintances in public, and being a perfectly terrible husband to the lovely Lenny. He was soon arrested carrying drugs into the country from Mexico, divorced, nearly poverty-stricken, and living in a cabin in Oregon. But he lived to tell about it, and though his story is something of a cautionary tale about the dangers of success and excess, punctuated as it is by his dreamy photos, one can't help but wonder if he'd happily go back to the way he lived then. --Jordana Moskowitz

Book Description

Mesmerizing, revelatory text combines with more than two hundred photographs -- most of them taken by the author -- in a startling illustrated memoir that will both astonish and move you.

When Dominick Dunne lived and worked in Hollywood, he had it all: a beautiful family, a glamorous career, and the friendship of the talented and powerful. He also had a camera and loved to take pictures. These photographs, which Dunne carefully preserved in more than a dozen leatherbound scrapbooks -- along with invitations, telegrams, personal notes, and other memorabilia -- record the parties, the glittering receptions, the society weddings, and scenes from the everyday lives of the Dunnes and those they knew, including Jane Fonda, Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, Roddy McDowall, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Brooke Hayward, Jennifer Jones, and David Selznick. You'll meet them all in this fascinating book -- captured in snapshots as these celebrities relax at poolside barbecues, gossip at cozy get-togethers and dance at the Dunnes' dazzling black-and-white ball. And you will meet Dominick Dunne's beautiful wife, Lenny, and his children, Griffin, Alex, and Dominique, as they celebrate Christmases, birthdays, and graduations. But, most of all, you will meet Dominick Dunne and learn about the peaks and valleys of his years in Hollywood, the disastrous turn his life took, and the long road back that led to his triumphant career as a writer. With its engaging photographs and candid text, The Way We Lived Then is a riveting and unvarnished account of a life among the stars and a life almost lost.

Customer Reviews:

--Interesting glimpse of old Hollywood--.......2005-08-18

THE WAY WE LIVED THEN is a look at the lives and personalities of some of the most famous entertainers in the world.

I've been aware of the author, Dominick Dunne for a long time, but until reading this book, I had no idea what kind of background he had or what made him so knowledgeable about so many celebrities. Dunne was a director and producer of various TV shows and apparently was good at his job. People enjoyed working with him and he and his wife gave wonderful parties and were invited everywhere.

The book is as much about Dunne and his family as it is about the people that he socialized with. His story is rather sad because he ended up losing his wife because he became addicted to drugs and the fast Hollywood lifestyle. There are more than a few moving stories in the book. One pitiful entry has Dunne and Peter Lawford sharing drugs at a party. Years before, they had been friends and neighbors, but at this low point in their lives, they were both broke and seemingly without friends.

You can also read about Elizabeth Montgomery, Gig Young, Natalie Wood, George Hamilton, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and dozens of other Hollywood "big" names. Dunne took a lot of photographs and I think that I enjoyed the snapshots as much as I did the text of the book.

Mr. Dunne, I adore you!.......2004-02-03

I think I was probably one of the very first people who purchased this book...and I loved every page and every minute of it! Some of the earlier reviewers I read below simply don't seem to "get" this book. It is not meant to be great literature. It is meant to be a great read with one-of-a-kind photos, and it delivers both in spades! Also, I believe it is meant to be somewhat of a love letter, both to the parts of Mr. Dunne's ealier life that were happy and held great promise, AND perhaps to the fans of his books...giving all of us glimpses into what was an incredibly fascinating "Hollywood existence" and giving us a peek at the REAL people that he has thinly veiled, completely disguised, or combined to create the fascinating characters that populate his terrific books. Mr. Dunne, if you read these reviews (I know that I probably would!!), please know that I eagerly await everything you publish, including your monthly "Diarist" articles in Vanity Fair. Your writings are so incredibly enjoyable, fascinating, and provide a much-needed escape for me. You must feel very blessed to have finally found your calling - so many never do.

Dominick Dunne is fascinating.......2002-11-05

It is easy to see why celebrities, criminals and perfect strangers have told Mr. Dunne their secrets. He is so interesting in a gossipy, name-dropping but sweet way. His Hollywood life makes an engrossing tale, much more entertaining than fiction.

Beautiful collection of photos.......2001-10-06

This book is filled with beautiful photographs of almost every star imaginable with personal anecdotes from Mr. Dunne to go with them. There are beautiful photos of Natalie Wood and a young (brunette) Elizabeth Montgomery. Mr. Dunne's life has certainly had its ups and downs, but this is NOT another celebrity pity party...he writes of the bad times he has faced, as well as the good, in a very matter of fact style, which is (thankfully) not at all whiny. But, again, the real treasure here are all the beautiful photographs of beautiful people in beautiful places. Thanks, Mr. Dunne, for sharing them with us.

THE WAY WE LIVED THEN.......2001-06-27

Mr. Dunne can work the room no matter where he is, no matter what social strata. I would have had an anxiety attack had I been face-to-face with Betsy Bloomingdale. Yet, this why I love Mr. Dunne. Reading about Betsy, she retained the warm, kind, classy image that I imagined her to have from various books and magazines. I loved being a fly-on-the-wall when Mr. Dunne was in Washington since I knew so little about politics. It was fun the way he scribed it in the pages. I feel safe reading Dominick's stories - although I feel like I am there, I don't have the real fear!

Hollywood Creative Directory, 59th Edition (Hollywood Creative Directory)

Average customer rating:

Good luck screenwriters
Fantastic Book

Hollywood Creative Directory, 59th Edition (Hollywood Creative Directory)
Hollywood Creative Directory Staff
Manufacturer: Hollywood Creative Directories
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1928936539
Release Date: 2007-01-15

Book Description

It's the phone book to Hollywood!

* Comprehensive and up-to-the-minute--published three times per year
* Names, numbers, and addresses--more than 2,000 production companies, studios, and executives plus 11,000 producers and studio and network executives

The Hollywood Creative Directory is the authoritative, easy-to-use source for finding entertainment professionals. It's like a gigantic Hollywood phone book, packed with names, numbers, addresses, and current titles of executives from film and television. Studios, production companies, television networks, and cable channels are listed with their preferred genres, selected credits, projects in development, and deals. A separate section contains the network, primetime, and major cable TV shows currently in production, along with staff and contact information. Comprehensive and up-to-the-minute (it's published three times a year), the directory is used by studios, directors, producers, writers, actors, aspiring filmmakers, students, college and university libraries, researchers--everyone who needs reliable entertainment-industry information right at their fingertips.

Customer Reviews:

Good luck screenwriters.......2007-07-09

This is an expensive book, especially when you consider that most of the companies listed say "no unsolicited screenplays" or "submission through agent or lawyer only."
The contacts are listed but I doubt it will help anybody.

Fantastic Book.......2007-04-15

Great resource and has helped me make contact with some big hollywood names.

Average customer rating:

An American Icon
As a glamour photographer myself...
ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL
Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits
EXCELLENT BOOK! Vieira's mastery of the written word brings that era to life.

Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits
Mark A. Vieira
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810934345

Amazon.com

They had faces then, in the golden age of Hollywood when a publicity photo could make or break a star. The visual power of George Hurrell's portraits, with their Rembrandtesque lighting and dramatic poses, shaped the careers of such stars as Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, and Jane Russell, and did as much or more to establish them as their film performances. Mark Vieira, who adopted Hurrell's techniques and uses them to this day, explains how the master portraitist lit and retouched his photographs--a portrait of Crawford before and after retouching reveals what an artist the one-time painter really was--and analyzes their impact.

Customer Reviews:

An American Icon.......2007-08-25

George Hurrell is universally acknowledged THE Hollywood portrait photographer, the man who recreated during the talkies much of the mystery of the silent stars through his breathtaking photographs. At a time when the finest still photography was becoming more incisive and natural, Hurrell managed to balance this new naturalism and directness in highly manipulated ways, producing in his best work iconic images of the great stars of MGM. After the second World War his work became largely passe, appearing too contrived and built up for an age demanding grit and spontaneity and an off-hand naturalness.
This work seeks to both show and tell the story of Hurrell's highwater era as not only the major photographer of the stars, and MGM in particular, but also his development as artist. Hurrell's flamboyant personality, his novel and sometimes off-putting behavior during shootings, seems now unfortunately taken as role template by many lesser fashion photographers. In his day and at his height during the late twenties through the beginnings of World War II Hurrell dominates a demanding and highly accomplished professional field.
Whether you live in a sumptious penthouse overlooking Central Park, need a single book for the coffee table in the living room of that restored Neutra you just purchased, or just enjoy reasonably priced fashion books, Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits fits the bill. At a significantly reduced price its a lovely reminder of one of the nicer advantages of democratic publishing: not every fine art book is a prohibitively expensive limited edition printed by a small press.

As a glamour photographer myself..........2007-04-13

As a glamour photographer myself, this is a book I own and use for inspiration. I love the way Hurrell not only captures the inner-beauty of the subjects, but his photojournalistic approach. I often graze through this book as I've read it many times over--the grazing gets me going when it comes to my own glamour photography. I recommend anyone interested in this book, buy it now! If you'd like to see how it's affected my career, also check out the following books, Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple, Rolando Gomez's Glamour Photography: Professional Techniques and Images and even a book where I have a chapter, Professional Portrait Lighting: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers (Photo Pro Workshop series) This book should not only be on a collector's list, but for any student of photography--we're always learning no matter what level your photography. ---Rolando Gomez, contributing writer, Studio Photography magazine

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.......2006-08-19

This book -- how beautiful. I have photography books by several of the great portrait photographers of the 20th Century, and this one is the best. There are a wealth of photographs, and the story of Hurrell's life is also interesting. If you ever thought about seriously learning about photography and taking some good pictures, this book will take any hesitation out of your mind. Gorgeous!!

Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits.......2006-07-25

This book is everything I expected. The pictures are great and the text very informative. I am enjoying it very much and it is a valued addition to my film library.

EXCELLENT BOOK! Vieira's mastery of the written word brings that era to life........2005-12-03

I thoroughly enjoyed browsing through and then reading this beautiful tribute to the legendary work of George Hurrell. As compelling as Hurrell's photos are it is the author's indepth knowledge and understanding of Hollywood and Hurrell that set this book apart.

Mark Vieira's own photographic artistry is based on Hurrell's techniques, providing current-day enthusiasts with authentic glamour photography of their own.

The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insider's Secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers

Average customer rating:

A Must Read
The truth you need to hear before pursuing your dreams
Yes, I am tired of reading old reviews on Screenwriting Books too.
A Must Have For Aspriring Screenwriters
A good "dip-in" book for the isolated writer

The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insider's Secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers
Karl Iglesias
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1580625509

Amazon.com

Aspiring screenwriters don't need another book on how to write a screenplay, says Karl Iglesias. What they need is a book on how to be a screenwriter. Voilà: The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, featuring interviews with 14 screenwriters, arranged by subject. The result reads like a panel discussion, touching on such subjects as collaboration, schmoozing, discipline, Hollywood, and story pitching. The dream of winning a Hollywood jackpot has lured everyone and his gardener into the screenwriting game. Still, despite the unencouraging odds, "all you need to do is write a good script," says Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls). Some of the book's best advice concerns one of the screenwriter's most formidable hurdles: getting a screenplay read. Submit it to film festivals and screenwriting competitions, or follow Tom Schulman's (Dead Poet's Society) advice and hire an entertainment attorney. After all, "most of them know a lot of agents." --Jane Steinberg

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read.......2007-05-14

This is a must read for anyone who aspires to be a screen writer. Any wannabe writer has their own personal favorite blogs, a blog that helps inspire, motivate and teach them. This book is almost a best of those blogs from successful writers whose movies they have written have actually BEEN PRODUCED.
The one main theme of this book is just write and write and write because you love writing and not because you want the Hollywood celebrity lifestyle. Great writing will open a lot of doors for one and most importantly, keep that door open.
In my opinion, I like to study and and read how successful writers from all genres got their first break, their work ethic and how most importantly they work through writer's block and rejection. Again, Karl Iglesias' book does that successfully.

The truth you need to hear before pursuing your dreams.......2006-04-10

I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Iglesias at the Screenwriting Expo. He knows his craft, he loves the business. And he's brutally honest in conveying the realistic odds of breaking into Hollywood. While no one ever says it's easy, he can tell you just how hard. This book is a must read for any aspiring screenwriter. Interviewing some of the greatest screenwriters, they all are forthcoming in telling their own tales of struggle, achievement, success, and most of them, frustration.

This book may be geared toward all screenwriters, however it succeeds in leaps and bounds, by telling the realistic truth any up-and-coming screenwriter needs to hear. Too often people are putting together a script hoping to win the lotttery, sell it for mid-six figures, and not taking the time to understand that the money should never be the motivating factor of writing any script. And if that's your only motivation, you'll never succeed in making your dream come true. This book reminds those of us that do it for a different reason, what that reason is. It's the love of writing. Anything else, any other reason, is simply a waste of time and energy.

Mr. Iglesias lays it out in plain view, through interview after interview, just how much of an uphill battle it is get someone to simply give your script a look, and even then, chances of your selling it are slim. Nicholas Kazan once spoke at a seminar. He told them to go turn in their registration forms and go home. He then told them that if any of them seriously entertained that advice, they would never make it. It's all about challenge and it's all about sacrifice. This book will help you realize how important both of those things are.

Yes, I am tired of reading old reviews on Screenwriting Books too........2006-03-06

I always find it frustrating when I go to Amazon and look at the reviews that are posted and find that they are at least 2 to 3 years old. So I decided to at least make a more up-to-date review.

First and foremost, this book is NOT a `How to Write a great Script' book. This book is about screenwriters and their knowledgeable insight on the practice we all know as Screenwriting. These established screenwriters ( Akiva Goldman: A Beautiful Mind, A Time to Kill, and the up coming The Da Vinci Code Steven E. de Souza: Die Hard, 48 Hours.) reference their past experience on what works, what does not work, and what habits you need to establish to have a successful career in the shark infested waters of Hollywood. Not sure how many hours you need to write day in day out? Thinking that you are the only one with a spouse and kids, fearing that you will not have enough time to write? Arrived at Hollywood lost with no plan of action on how to get your script read? Worried that you born yesterday and began sending inquiry letters to agents and producers? Fear of rejection (it is inevitable) from everyone? All these topics are discussed and more in this book.

This book is required reading for all serious screenwriters. I also suggest Breakfast with sharks by Michael Lent, The Art of Dramatic writing by Lajos Egri, Story by Robert Mckee, Making a good script Great by Linda Seger, and The Writer Got Screwed by Brooke A. Wharton.

A Must Have For Aspriring Screenwriters.......2005-11-28

This is one of thost books that you absolutely must read if you are an aspiring screenwriter. It's a goldmine of quality information to help you go from being a decent or lousy writer to a great one. Fourteen of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters share their secrets and tips to writing and selling your scripts to Hollywood. It's like getting private lessons from the pro's. Don't pass this book up, it will make a big difference in your writing career.

A good "dip-in" book for the isolated writer.......2004-12-20

Think of this book this way: it's you having a cup of tea with a bunch of good and not-so-good (but working) screenplay writers. This is not a formula for greatness, but rather a list of suggestions and experiences that you can greatly benefit from if you are so inclined.

Don't be put off by the cover. This is a good book. The best thing about it is it creates a sense of community and exchange of knowledge in what is essentially an isolated (and some might argue isolating) occupation.

This is a "dip-in" book which I find useful and refer to often.

Hollywood Rhapsody: The Story of Movie Music, 1900-1975

Average customer rating:

I think the it is a very informative and well-written book.
The book is intriguing, and very well written!

Hollywood Rhapsody: The Story of Movie Music, 1900-1975
Gary Marmorstein
Manufacturer: Schirmer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0028645952

Book Description

This engaging text presents the history of songs and scores highlighted with personal history of their creators.

Customer Reviews:

I think the it is a very informative and well-written book........1999-01-09

If you were writing a report on music in the movies, Hollywood Rhapsody should be in your bibliography!!! It's a very compelling and funny factual book about music and the stories about the composers.

The book is intriguing, and very well written!.......1998-07-19

It is facinating to read about the behind scenes history of our most famous movies, and the men and women who made them. Also, very enlightening stories and facts about Hollywood and Los Angeles.

Average customer rating:

Excellent as a Historical Text Book
Not very good...
A very useful beginners guide to American film.
Movie spoiler

American Cinema/American Culture
John Belton
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 007004466X

Book Description

Developed to accompany the Annenberg-funded telecourse American Cinema, and written under the aegis of The New York Center for Visual History, this text offers a fascinating look at the interplay between the movie industry and mass culture in America.

Ideal for film appreciation and film and culture courses found in Cinema Studies, English, History, American Studies, or other departments, American Cinema/American Culture first examines the industry, its narrative conventions, and its cinematographic style.

Following this introduction, students are exposed to the sweep of film history in the U.S. using five genres as the bases for discussion and focusing on the point at which each had the greatest affect on the industry, film aesthetics, and American culture.

Finally, the book concludes with a look at Hollywood post World War II, giving separate chapter coverage to the effects of the Cold War, television, the counterculture of the Sixties, directors from the film school generation, and the trends of the Eighties and Nineties.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent as a Historical Text Book.......2007-03-24

So, I expected this book to be a bit more fun. Unfortunately, the fun element is missing. However, in fairness, the book serves as a thorough textbook for the history of American Cinema and its techniques and various genres. I did enjoy reading about the early studio system and the vast amount of control this oligopoly held. There were some very good critiques and studies of specific films, and a bit about specific actors and actresses. Even a bit about directors. Though packed with information, the book just lacks an entertainment value that it could and should have pulled off based on the subject matter.

The different genres studied include:

Westerns
War Movies
Silent Films
Film Noire
Screwball Comedies

As well as an overall dissertation on Classical Hollywood Style and its various techniques.

Not very good..........2005-03-05

I got this book for a class on the history of cinema. Unfortunately, as the title implies, it only deals with American Cinema. If this is a book for school, check out the class to see if foreign films and film history will be discussed. This book is, again, as the title implies--one-sided. Most of the movies it discusses, gives away crucial plot-points and endings. Some movies that I've been dying to see were ruined in just one or two sentences. This book is also very puffed-up and biased (I don't know any other way of explaining it). Many times throughout the book, Belton seems like James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio", and goes on and on about the greatness of Hollywood, actors, director's, and films with nothing negative to say. It's not at all critical of anything and the author frequently inserts his own interpretation of films into the general text, which I found a little pompous. The book does offer up some interesting facts about the early history and the birth of cinema, but there's something about the way this book was written that makes it hard to stay interested. I think the chapters about film genres exaggerate the importance of some of them, and neglects other genres completely, ie. Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Sci-fi, Animation, Epics, etc. Again, question the instructor and/or look at the class syllabus before siging up if this is the only book for this class. I don't believe this is a comprehensive and unbiased view of cinema and it's history.

A very useful beginners guide to American film........2003-01-08

Years ago I took an intro-level film class at a community college. This was the text for the class. It was accompanied (at least in my class) by a PBS video series that combined film clips with interviews and historical information. Going into the class I had little more than a passing interest in film and film history. But after taking that class, my passion for film has grown exponentially with each year. But back to the book, I really liked this book and highlighted my way from the front cover to the back cover. There are of course limitations to this book. Firstly, it deals only with American films. Secondly, this book barely breaks the 300-page mark - hardly a comprehensive volume. You aren't going to get any information on John Cassavetes here or anything. Now if you have a chance to use this book in conjunction with the PBS films, I think you'll do much better (in fact I think the vids even give a nod to Cassavetes), but even then please note that this material is for an INTRO-level film class, and won't be much good for someone who already knows a fair amount about American film. But with that in mind, the book still has a lot to offer someone looking to introduce themselves to film history.

The first third of the book starts with the birth of film, moves quickly on to the Hollywood studio system, and walks us through the basics of film style (camerawork, lighting, editing, etc.). The second third covers the basics of film genre; there is a chapter about film noir, one on comedies, one on war films, and one on westerns. This second section was particularly useful to me. I could read each chapter, jot down a list of promising titles, hit my local video store, and I was good to go. The third section covers American film after World War II. In this section things seem a little compressed. 110 pages for 50 years of film? A lot is lost on the cutting room floor. But there's lots to dig into all the same. There's a chapter on Hollywood during the McCarthy years (yikes!), one on film's evolution during the emergence of television, a chapter on 1960s counterculture films, one on the film school directors of the 1970s and 1980s, and finally a pretty weak chapter on film in the 1990s. Oh yeah, and at the end of the book there's a handy glossary (in case you're ever stuck on what point-of-view editing is) and a pretty thorough index.

Again, not a book for someone who already has a good feel for film history. But definitely a great resource for someone new to film studies, or for someone who has trouble finding a movie at Blockbuster on Fridays. It did a great job getting me excited about movies, and I imagine its done the same for others.... A good companion to this text (or possibly an all-out replacement of it) is Scorsese's VHS/DVD, "A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies."

Movie spoiler.......2002-10-08

This would be a great book to read if you have no intention of watching the films discussed within, or if you've already seen them. On quite a few films, it tells the whole plot, in detail, from opening to end credits.

I also don't like the prose of the author, as he excessively uses sentences "in quotations". The writing structure is very formulaic and boring. The "5 paragraph essay" format is good for high school students learning to write, but imagine an entire book written that way. I can only read it for 15 minutes before losing interest.

The book does, however, provide plenty of examples from a variety of films.

Book Description

An Essential Guide to Landing -- and Keeping -- Your first Hollywood Job

A position as an assistant to a producer, agent, director, studio executive, or star can be the path to a fabulous career -- or a one-way ticket to hell. How can the aspiring Hollywood assistant quickly learn the inside track to success while avoiding the land mines? It's All Your Fault is the answer. Written by two former Hollywood assistants who've been there and done that, It's All Your Fault is bursting with hard-earned advice, from figuring out who's who and who isn't to sex, drugs, and other work-related issues. Filled with outrageous anecdotes and countless celebrity stories, It's All Your Fault proves an indispensable addition to the nightstand of every wannabe Hollywood mover and shaker.

Customer Reviews:

Recommended STAT!.......2006-11-17

Wow this book is a must have and one of your top priority of books and resources to buy if you want to become a Hollywood Assistant. The authors doesn't sugarcoat anything. They strip down the job as a Hollywood Assistant to the raw naked view. It has a bit of humor in it but all of it is true.

As soon as I got this book I could not put it down and time went by so fast!

If you are serious about becoming a Celebrity Personal Assistant, whether for a star, producer, director, agent, or studio executive, you must buy this book to know what to expect!

They also include phrases to say, how to not lie but not tell the truth, what the phrases mean in Hollywood, and so much more!

Required reading for Hollywood-bes: keep it close!.......2004-08-22

This is a fast read, and it reads like a memoir-humor book-- don't be fooled. It's full of REAL information, and good advice.

I have only a limited experience in this world, a few month's as a producer's assistant, but everything they described is 100% accurate. As I investigate how I want to continue, I'm finding the descriptions of the different roles invaluable (particularly that of assistant to a network exec as a great job for those in the witness protection program; i.e. you'll never meet anyone... lol)

the way these two got into the industry is, as is the norm, highly idiosyncratic, full of luck, timing and chutzpah. It's no surprise that both have done well along the way.

This is also a useful book for creative artists-- screenwriters, actors, aspiritng directors-- because it gives an invaluable inside look at the day-to-day life of the offices and staff of the people they need to deal with.

Better than I hoped it would be!

A Career you want to leave as soon as possible.......2003-08-02

I enjoy reading about the industry. This book is a cross between a "how-to" book and a book filled with industry anecdotes. This book gives great advice on how to perform in your job working for an egomaniac (they almost all are) and why you want to get out of that job as soon as possible. But it also provides quite a few hilarious stories that will have the normal office worker scratching their heads at the audacity of some of these bosses. Working in investment banking I've seen my share of egomaniacs but Hollywood is the place to be if you want to reach for the stars or meet some real asses. This book gives a good overview on what you can expect.

Since I'm not interested in an assistant's job, I was looking more for stories of the industry. This book satisfied that desire but with some down time as it educated the potential assistant. Overall, I'm pleased with the read but if you want to know about the industry and the abuse of new hires, I recommend the recent book, " The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up."

Superb, insightful, bitterly funny........2003-07-25

This is the "Crafty Screenwriting" of assistanting. The writers have clearly been around the block and through the mill, and tell it like it is. They also had fun writing it, and the bitter joy of (I hope for their sakes) no longer being an assistant shines through. If you're thinking of going to Hollywood as anything at all, you need to read this book to understand what the lives of the 50% of people there who are assistants are like!

Humiliation is just the beginning!.......2002-12-01

This book really made me glad I never pursued a career in Hollywood. It is full of reality-based humor. Everybody is so phony! However, if you have the stomach for it (Hollywood) -- this is the book to prepare you for the insanity. READ IT BEFORE YOU HOP ON THE BUS.

The Script Selling Game: A Hollywood Insider's Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced

Average customer rating:

Helpful for screenwriters at the start of their career
The Best Book You will Ever Read About selling your sscreenplay
Something For Everyone!
Duane Kulikowsky
If it's Tuesday, it must be Warner Brothers....

The Script Selling Game: A Hollywood Insider's Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced
YonedaKathieF
Manufacturer: Michael Wiese Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0941188442

Book Description

Explains the processes of developing, pitching, and submitting stories. The book includes such unique information as a 10-point checklist for a completed script, the eight most common reasons why a script can be rejected, what really happens to a script once it's submitted, how to navigate within the industry, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Helpful for screenwriters at the start of their career.......2007-05-19

An industry veteran of 25 years, Kathie Fong Yoneda is both a story analyst at Paramount and a script consultant. Her background as a development executive gives her an excellent perspective for helping screenwriters can break down the gates to Hollywood. And this book aims to do just that.

The book is divided into four major parts: working on the script, meetings and pitches, submissions and relationships. It is a very clearly structured guide to the do's and don'ts for writers looking for their breakthrough (hint: the first step is to WRITE A GREAT SCRIPT!).

Yonada includes advice on how to behave towards executives, how to find an agent, the special vocabulary used in Hollywood, how to start a writers group, even how to prepare for a conference. All of this is written in a clear manner, making the book a very useful reference.

The downside to this is that most of this information is out there already. If you read screenwriting magazines and keep up with recent books on the business side of screenwriting, there will be very little here you don't know already. Moreover, the book is very "pro-system" -- there is no criticism of the way things are done, and the advice is very much "mainstream" common knowledge.

I don't think this book has very much to offer veteran writers who are already well acquainted with the vagaries of getting their scripts through the Hollywood maze. For writers who are starting out, however, the book will serve very well to inform them about the basics of getting your script sold to Hollywood.

The Best Book You will Ever Read About selling your sscreenplay.......2006-09-13

After writing my first screenplay, I was stuck on how to sell it. I have ran my own business for over tens years and have a natural flare for marketing - thinking that selling a script would be commonsense WRONG! After reading The Script Selling Game I was blown away by the fantastic real life tips and jargon given. It's motivated me more than ever to see my projects on the silver screen. IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT breaking into Hollywood - You MUST BUY THIS BOOK! It's easy-to-read and only an insider would know how to write it's contents.

Something For Everyone!.......2006-09-05

I loved this little book! Not only was it a quick read, but it was also filled with a variety of solidly helpful information for new and experienced screenwriters. I found the "10 Point Checklist for Completed Scripts", the "Big Eight" and the section on pitching particularly useful and now put the information to use on every project. The book is certainly worth more than you pay for it!!

Duane Kulikowsky.......2005-10-10

The book never forgot who was reading it. If you are at a point in your career where you need guidance in what to do and what's important, this book offers you that. Kathie Yoneda, I feel, just got the balance right between fact, figures and emotion. Kathie actually cares.

If it's Tuesday, it must be Warner Brothers...........2005-08-13

The Script-Selling Game is your "Biedecker's", your "Fodor's", or your "Lonely Planet" guide to the exotic, exciting, sometimes confusing, sometimes dangerous yet ultimately rewarding territory of Hollywood Script Sales.

Kathie Fong Yoneda has not only explored this territory, she has actually carved out, tamed, and settled a lot of it in her years as a studio executive. Her expertise in the special jargon, the specific tools, and the appropriate approaches will help you craft an effective presentation of your unique creative project, be it a feature film, a TV series, or any other media production.

Read Kathie's book. Smile, frown, gasp.... Yes, Hollywood can be just as she says. It's a closed world unless you have an interpreter and a guidebook. Thank goodness hers is accessible, informative, specific, and comforting. Well then, follow her guidelines, learn to speak the language, do the currency exchange from creativity-to-commerciality, and watch the barriers go down and the doors open up for you.

Average customer rating:

Dull, Dull and Dreadful
Much Ado about Nothing
By no means a serious study of GayHollywood, but a good read
Beef Jerky for the Brain
Deeper analysis of being gay in Hollywood

Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998
David Ehrenstein
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0688153178

Amazon.com

If David Ehrenstein's Open Secret says that somebody is gay, you can safely assume that he or she is (which is why the chapter on Tom Cruise reveals nothing more than reasons why people believe--or want to believe--he might be gay). Interviews with contemporary "out" stars, writers, and studio execs are balanced against the reminiscences of those who spent Tinseltown's golden age in the closet. This reveals how open Hollywood's tolerance of its gay and lesbian members has become, but it also shows the lack of similar progress in how the press deals with potential celebrity queerness. There isn't much difference, for example, between the scandal sheet Confidential's 1955 exposé of Tab Hunter's bust at a "pajama party ... for the boys" and the 1997 "Kevin Spacey Has a Secret" cover story in the ostensibly more respectable Esquire.

Open Secret flits from a visit to the set of the Ian McKellen-Brendan Fraser film Father of Frankenstein (based on the novel by Christopher Bram) to an analysis of Ellen DeGeneres's protracted coming-out process, from an overview of the impact of AIDS on the entertainment industry to the story of how Gus Van Sant almost made a movie of Randy Shilts's The Mayor of Castro Street. But the intersection of queer sexuality and Hollywood admittedly covers a lot of territory, and Ehrenstein does an admirable job of providing an overview. One bit of advice: skip over the very brief prologue, which tries a bit too hard to convince readers of the book's seriousness, and allow the informative and entertaining stories here to speak for themselves. --Ron Hogan

Book Description

Hollywood isn't just a place or an industry -- it's a fantasy that unfolds in the minds of moviegoers the world over. And talking about "who's gay in Hollywood" has always been the most socially acceptable way of talking about homosexuality period.But times have changed for gays and lesbians inside Hollywood and in the culture at large. Ellen DeGeneres "came out" to a world quite different from the one that allowed Marlene Dietrich to "stay in." And while Rupert Everett may be called "the gay Cary Grant," the real Cary Grant would never have described himself as gay -- even though he was.So what has it meant to be gay in Hollywood, not just as a star but behind the scenes as well? How homosexual actors and actresses came to define straight America's sexual self-image is only one of the paradoxical and provocative questions explored in Open Secret, a revealing cultural chronicle of gay Hollywood. From the silent era to the age of the multiplex and beyond, homosexuality has been a fact of life in the film industry, and scores of important personalities -- stars, writers, directors, producers -- have enjoyed long and spectacular careers on both sides of the camera, despite mainstream America's professed bias against gays.

Part social history and part Tinseltown expose, this entertaining book spans seventy years, painting knowing and vivid portraits of many of Hollywood's foremost gays and lesbians, often in the words of eyewitnesses or the principals themselves. Veteran entertainment journalist David Ehrenstein traces the gradual transformation from an era when gays and lesbians had no public profile in "polite" society to the modern era when many top entertainment figures are not merely comfortable with their sexuality but actually celebrate it -- and are in turn celebrated for it. In the process, he presents a unique reflection of American society as a whole and its ever-changing attitudes and values.

Customer Reviews:

Dull, Dull and Dreadful.......2005-11-12

This book has no life to it---I mean the writing--it is redundant, heavy, lackluster. Reads like a boring college research textbook. The author repeats and repeats and is consumed and obsessed with Ellen Degeneres over and over again. It is not like a book, but an overblown article. There is nothing new in the book--it is a historical account of gay and lesbians in Hollywood and boring as can be. Sorry I bought it but am thankful I got a used copy and did not pay much. I could hardly wait to finish it to throw it out as I did not even want to keep it. Forget this dull and dreadful book!

Much Ado about Nothing.......2003-03-05

It seems odd that this book, with its good intentions, would just be so unsatisfying as a read. You almost get the feeling that the author is on the outside of Hollywood looking in. He seems to be obsessed with Ellen. The book has a certain bitterness to it that doesn't play well.

I couldn't in all honesty recommend purchasing this book. Though if you find it at a public library, might be worth flipping through- but not checking out.

By no means a serious study of GayHollywood, but a good read.......2000-03-25

...nonetheless. This book is not a distasteful one unlike a vast majority of books about gays in Hollywood. It is also quite entertaining and should be regarded only as such: an entertaining book on a summer's day... In this case it does not really matter, whether the material is credible or not. If you do not take what you read TOO SERIOUSLY, then you will enjoy this book. If you want some serious study about gay actors, then look some place else for it.

Beef Jerky for the Brain.......1999-07-13

As one reader comments, this book is "a must for any serious Hollywood History library." Yes--in the same sense that the complete works of Ed Wood belong in every comprehensive home video collection.

Deeper analysis of being gay in Hollywood.......1999-06-18

If you want gossip, get a tabloid. If you'd rather read a thoughtful analysis of "gay Hollywood" in a social/historical context, get this book. This is not a list of who's gay and who isn't; Ehrenstein has chosen to write about what happened (and happens) to gays who are part of the Hollywood machine. He demonstrates, through first-person interviews and anecdotal accounts, in what ways Hollywood--the studios, the executives, the media, the audience--is and is not accepting of homosexuals. Not everyone in his book is famous, or a big time movie star, but they all have something to say or show about the difference between the gay Hollywood of the Cary Grant and Rock Hudson era and the gay Hollywood of the Ellen Degeneres and Tom Cruise era.

Book Description

Who was Rita Hayworth? Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, she spent her life subjected to others' definitions of her, no matter how hard she worked to claim her own identity. Although there have been many "revelations" about her life and career, Adrienne McLean's book is the first to show that such disclosures were part of a constructed image from the outset.

McLean explores Hayworth's participation in the creation of her star persona, particularly through her work as a dancer—a subject ignored by most film scholars. The passive love goddess, as it turns out, had a unique appeal to other women who, like her, found it extraordinarily difficult to negotiate the competing demands of family, domesticity, and professional work outside the home. Being Rita Hayworth also considers the ways in which the actress has been treated by film scholarship over the years to accomplish its own goals, sometimes at her expense. Several of Hayworth's best-known star vehicles—among them Gilda (1946), Down to Earth (1947), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), and Affair in Trinidad (1952)— are discussed in depth.

Customer Reviews:

Exploring the creation of this popular movie star's persona.......2005-01-12

Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity And Hollywood Stardom by Adrienne L. McLean (Assistant Professor of Film Studies, University of Texas-Dallas) strives to answer the question "Who was Rita Hayworth?" Exploring the creation of this popular movie star's persona, beloved in movies such as "The Lady from Shanghai" (1948) and "Affair in Trinidad" (1952), Being Rita Hayworth takes an especial interest in her appeal to other women of the day who were struggling to navigate the demands of family and work outside the home. Careful research of Hayworth's life frames the chapters, which meticulously pick apart fabricated image and propaganda from what can be verified as truth. An excellent read for anyone with an especial interest in not only Hayworth's career, but the ripple effect her star persona had on the hearts and minds of a female generation.

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