Bringing Up Oscar

by Debra Ann Pawlak

Overview

The untold story of the innovative pioneers who helped make movies the preeminent art form of the twentieth century.

The founders of the now infamous Academy were a motley crew as individuals, but when they first converged in Hollywood, then just a small town with dirt roads, sparks flew and fueled a common dream: to bring artistic validity to their beloved new medium.

Who were these movers and shakers who would change movies forever? And what about Oscar, their famous son? He is fast approaching his hundredth birthday and is still the undisputed king of Hollywood. Yet with such dynamic parents, what else could we expect?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605982168
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	01/12/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Debra Ann Pawlak has spent over ten years writing about Hollywood history and is a frequent contributor to The Mediadrome. She is the author of Farmington and Farmington Hills, for Arcadia’s “Making of America” series, and has written a screenplay about Clara Bow. She lives in southeastern Michigan.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface xiii

Part 1 You Oughta Be in Pictures! 1

Chapter 1 The Flickers 3

Chapter 2 Welcome to Hollywood! 14

Chapter 3 Team Biograph 27

Chapter 4 The Scribes 39

Chapter 5 The Silent Types 52

Chapter 6 The Idols 64

Chapter 7 Calling the Shots 75

Chapter 8 How Did They Do That? 91

Chapter 9 Head of the House 103

Chapter 10 The Guardians 121

Part 2 You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet! 133

Chapter 11 On Top of the Mountain 135

Chapter 12 Lions and Tigers and Brothers, Oh My! 148

Chapter 13 The Lunatics 160

Chapter 14 In The Zoo 173

Chapter 15 The Rest of 'Em 187

Chapter 16 The Gang's All Here 200

Chapter 17 Let's Go On With the Show! 218

Part 3 Baby, Take a Bow! 225

Chapter 18 Scholars, Tough Guys and Bishops 227

Chapter 19 Three Men and a Lady 243

Chapter 20 Mad Hatters, Macho Men and Mexican Divorces 256

Chapter 21 Businessmen, Artists and Mediators 270

Chapter 22 Mogul to Mogul 281

Chapter 23 Ancient Slaves, Bad Facelifts and Broken Towel Bars 297

Chapter 24 Pretzels, Lawyers and Potentates 315

Chapter 25 Last Founders Standing 330

That's a Wrap! 347

Sources 349

Editorial Reviews

Pawlak, a contributor to Arcadia Publishing's "Making of America" series, traces the lives of the 36 key figures in the cinema community who launched the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, the same year talkies arrived with The Jazz Singer. An opening about 19th-century Hollywood and one-reel flickers leads into brief biographies of picture pioneers Sid Grauman, Louis B. Mayer, Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn, Cecil B. DeMille, and others involved in the early expansion of the film industry: "By 1908, about 8,000 neighborhood movie theaters had opened throughout the country." The book features such actors as Douglas Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd, and the roster of directors includes John Stahl, Fred Niblo and Raoul Walsh, followed by producers Harry Rapf and Irving Thalberg. Pawlak covers only three women among the 36--actress Mary Pickford, screenwriter Beth Meredyth, and actress-writer Jeanie Macpherson, who had herself imprisoned to research her 1922 Manslaughter screenplay. By skillfully weaving such highlights of Hollywood history throughout this Tinseltown tapestry, Pawlak succeeds in recreating that colorful era when flickers turned into features and silents converted to sound. (Jan. 15)

Publishers Weekly

Pawlak is able to re-create the peculiar form of community that existed among a group of otherwise vicious competitors.

Bill Ott - Booklist

Pawlak is able to re-create the peculiar form of community that existed among a group of otherwise vicious competitors.”— Bill Ott

Booklist

Bringing Up Oscar sets itself the interesting task of telling the back stories of the men and women who founded the Academy.

Wall Street Journal

"Pawlak is able to re-create the peculiar form of community that existed among a group of otherwise vicious competitors." —Bill Ott, Booklist

"Pawlak traces the lives of the key figures in the cinema community who launched the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. By skillfully weaving such highlights of Hollywood history throughout this Tinseltown tapestry, Pawlak succeeds in recreating that colorful era." —Publishers Weekly

"Bringing Up Oscar sets itself the interesting task of telling the back stories of the men and women who founded the Academy." —Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

Pawlak (Farmington and Farmington Hills, 2003) charts the establishment of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization best known for its annual distribution of the Academy Awards.

Unfortunately, Oscar fans will find little here to entice them. The author mostly foregoes any discussion of the fabled ceremonies, instead providing biographical sketches of the Academy's founders. The result is a useful but dull primer on the movers and shakers of early Hollywood, with the familiar histories of such luminaries as Douglas Fairbanks and Cecil B. DeMille leavened with those of less well-known players, including lawyer Edwin Loeb and early special-effects maven Roy Pomeroy. Pawlak has done her homework—most of the profiles include information on the salient figure's parents, siblings, employment history, marital status and financial standing—but the cumulative effect of all the data, especially as regards the relatively obscure likes of, say, Fred Niblo or Milton Sills, is ultimately stultifying and frustratingly hard to keep straight. The Academy was founded to help settle disputes, act as an educational repository for advancements in film technology and protect the industry's image amid scandals and public outrage at the extravagance of the movie-star lifestyle. Pawlak largely neglects to report on the Academy's activities in the pursuit of these goals. Instead, the author uses the founding of the Academy as a seemingly arbitrary matrix for celebrating the careers of Tinseltown's pioneering artists, technicians and businessmen. Pawlak's workmanlike prose and journalistic approach fail to elevate the material beyond an admirably detailed historical survey, but the sheer invention of the first generation of moviemakers inevitably results in appreciation.

A serviceable but flavorless history of early Hollywood.

Kirkus Reviews