Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture

Jerome Charyn

NYU Press, 1989 - Performing Arts - 304 pages

In Movieland, Jerome Charyn mingles his own life as a moviegoer with the history, romance, and sadness of Hollywood. He meets Paul Newman, Viveca Lindfors, and Mae Clark, the actress who was the original bride of Frankenstein; explores Cinecitta, Mussolini's own Hollywood on the Tiber; recalls his own life as Otto Preminger's house writer (and jester) during Preminger's decline; reinvents the lost years and lost stars of the silent era --Irving Thalberg, Gloria Swanson, and Clara Bow -- and seeks out the hieroglyphics of modern Hollywood; writes of the Nazi officer who saved the Cinematheque Francaise and its library of American films; and pays homage to Hollywood's heroes, victims, goddesses, and neglected lords: Louise Brooks, Raymond Chandler, Carole Landis, Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, and more.

What people are saying

Review: Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture

User Review  - Lenore Riegel - Goodreads

I love movies. Reading this must-read book is like seeing all of them with the producer sitting next to you, whispering all the gossipy details of the backstory into your ear!

Review: Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture

User Review  - David - Goodreads

Ruminations on movies, movie stars, the moviegoing experience and what they have meant to him

Contents

• THE LOEWS PARADISE: 7
• FACES ON THE WALL: 13
• PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS BUFFALO BILL: 26
• GILDAS GLOVE: 44
• ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER: 57
• MOGUL: 73
• YOUNG FELLAH: 93
• COWARDLY LIONS AND FORGOTTEN MEN: 108
• DANCING IN THE DARK WITH DICK POWELL: 126
• CHILDREN OF PARADISE: 141
• TWOHEADED MAN: 161
• WILDIES: 181
• THE HOUSE ON NINETYFIFTH STREET: 208
• MR FEATHERS: 221
• POISONVILLE: 232
• PILGRIMS PROGRESS: 247
• THE FIRST EMPEROR: 259
• NOTES: 273
• SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY: 290
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: 295
• INDEX: 297

About the author

Jerome Charyn was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1937. An author who primarily writes detective stories, Charyn's novels contain a wide array of characters ranging form a gorgeous, headstrong double agent to a greedy, corrupt lawyer. Charyn chronicles the life of Isaac Sidel El Caballo, the Mayor of New York City, in over half a dozen books, including El Bronx, Little Angel Street, Marilyn the Wild, and The Good Policeman. His latest novel is entitled The Secret Life of emily Dickinson. The story is told from her point of view and incorporates both historical and fictional characters to tell what she may have been like. Widely translated, Charyn's novels have broad readership in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Japan, as well as the United States. Charyn lives in Paris where he teaches cinema at the American University of Paris.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture
• Author: Jerome Charyn
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: NYU Press, 1989
• ISBN: 0814715508, 9780814715505
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Performing Arts / Film & Video / General; Performing Arts / Film & Video / History & Criticism; Social Science / General; Technology & Engineering / Telecommunications