Hollywood: The Pioneers

Silent films are sometime dismissed as quaint or out of date because of their jerky, scratchy quality: this book, and the Thames Television series with which it is associated, set out to show that they were, in fact, beautiful as well as vastly entertaining works of art. Kevin Brownlow, with the help of John Kobal and his unique collection of early stills, recaptures the legendary days of film-makers like Cecil B. DeMille, King Vidor, Erich Von Stroheim and D. W. Griffith, of stars like Garbo, the Barrymores, Gloria Swanson, Keaton, Chaplin and Valentino. The early days of Hollywood must be among the most adventurous, extravagant and triumphant that the world of entertainment has ever known. From the first tentative essays of a few bold innovators, Hollywood blossomed almost overnight into a major industry, breeding millionaires and bankrupts, making outrageous demands on those who served it, producing in those early years some of the supreme triumphs of the movie-maker's art. HOLLYWOOD: THE PIONEERS tells the story as never before. Kevin Brownlow, who, with David Gill, directed the Thames Television series, marshals his great knowledge of the subject with lucidity and wit: the photographs - almost all taken from originals and many never seen before - are dramatically beautiful. This is a book which anybody interested in the cinema or who has seen the television series on which it is based will wish to acquire and cherish.