Attending to details so that the bigger picture can emerge.
The scientific application of propaganda for the shaping of public opinion didn’t begin under European despots like Stalin or Mussolini. It began with a lone American press agent named Edward Bernays, the Vienna-born nephew of Sigmund Freud. Like his famous … Continued
Surprisingly little is written about June Mathis these days. But in the early 1920s she was considered the most powerful female executive in Hollywood. Even film historians who focus on the industry’s female trailblazers don’t devote much space to Mathis. … Continued
My novels about early Hollywood are verbal time machines designed to lift the reader into a bygone era. When that happens to be the silent film era, it can be a challenge finding the right fictional “voice” for a character, … Continued
It’s a sad failing of silent film history that there isn’t more documentation of events in Italy during MGM’s first location shoot of “Ben-Hur.” Judging from the little that survives in memoirs, budget sheets, studio memos, and in a smattering … Continued
When Lew C. Wallace was writing “Ben-Hur,” he knew that a thrilling Roman chariot race would give his novel a socko finish. But no lives were at risk until 50 years later when MGM actually staged that race for its … Continued
In 1925, Joseph M. Newman walked wide-eyed onto the most important movie set in Hollywood history. The 16-year-old newcomer from Utah had been hired as an office boy by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. But on that Saturday morning of October 17 he reported … Continued
The world’s “first male sex symbol,” Baltimore’s Francis X. Bushman, got more than his allotted 15 minutes of fame. In fact, his image is still commanding respect today. Cast in bronze and chiseled in marble, he is likely to continue … Continued