My knowledge of this book-and-tape set dates back to about roughly 12 years ago, when I was 5 years old during the holiday season in December. Being in love with the characters of Sesame Street, I found this set to be completely charming and delightful. I hope that the company that published this childrens' book will re-release it again. If I can remember how much it touched me as a child, then I know that it can touch a new generation of children too. Also, being an avid Sesame Street fan definitely helps a whole lot!!

This book provides 4-5 page biographies of many silent film stars. Some are very familiar to film buffs such as Rudolph Valentino, the Talmadge Sisters, etc. but others are not as familiar such as Martha Mansfield, Milton Sills, etc. Golden's writing style is so easy to read and she has done a great deal of research. Many of the biographies left you wanting to read a great deal more about many of these people. I would recommend this for all silent film buffs!

This wonderful book contains 41 short (5-6 pages each) biographies of silent film actors and actresses. Some like Clara Bow, William Haines, and Rudolph Valentino have been covered more in-depth by other biographers. However, there is no other book that covers the life and careers of Marie Prevost, Milton Sills, Arthur Johnson, Clarine Seymour, Harrison Ford (not Indiana Jones), Pearl White, and Wallace Reid. Even famous personalities who just made a few film appearances like May Irwin and Ormer Locklear are covered. Many of these performers died before the silent era was even over, which is why they are virtually unknown today. These essays were originally written for CLASSIC IMAGES magazine, but have been updated for the book. Ms. Golden's bios are well researched and very easy to read. If you are interested in silent film performers, you will want this book!

Before I read Eve's books, I couldn't tell Buster Keaton from Michael Keaton. I kept confusing Anita Page and Doris Hill with Anita Hill. This woman knows more about Virgina Bradford than Bradford herself. Her book has opened my eyes to the wonderful genre that is The Silent Movie. Eve has taught me not to laugh at the name Richard Dix. She's explained that Charlie Chaplin doesn't wear that moustache and glasses because he's in the Witness Protection Program.

I could go on forever about this book, but I think I'll leave you all with a quote from my favorite silent movie: " ".

Very few of Theda Bara's films survive, but author Golden has done an admirable job in reconstructing her career and wading through the large amount of press-agent puffery about Miss Bara. There are many never-before seen pictures of Ms. Bara's films. A great introduction to one of the silent film era's biggest movie stars.

My exposure to Theda Bara and her career in silent films was very minimal when I decided to pick up this book. Basically, I knew she was the original "Vamp", that Theda Bara was not her birth name and that her name was an anagram for Arab Death. My knowledge, for lack of a better word, was encyclopedic. All I knew was that she had dark haunting eyes, reeked of glamour and was so, so Silent Film-ish. I had to know more. Thankfully, the first book I picked up on this underappreciated film legend was "VAMP: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara" by Eve Golden. Ms. Golden's well-researched material is nicely presented through a gauzy veil of wit, aptly aimed sarcasm and insight. She presents the new film industry as it was at that time-assembly line production of films mixed with bizarre PR schemes, a now far outdated style of acting, tedium and excitement. Theda Bara may have been one of the first actresses to be treated like a true movie star but off-screen she was no "vampire"; on the contrary, she was college-educated bookworm Theodosia Goodman from Cincinnati, OH. Off screen, Theda Bara much preferred a good book or a small dinner gathering to "vamping" it up. (In contemporary Colleen Moore's autobiography "Silent Star", Ms. Moore praised Ms. Bara for her delectable wit and lack of pretentiousness. With her interest in entertaining, Ms. Bara ended up being one of the most sought after hostesses in Hollywood, as mentioned in Anita Loos' "The Talmadge Girls".)

Eve Golden does a praiseworthy job of combining the "otherness" of the film industry with the surprising pragmatism of its first star-Theda Bara. The inspired, sometimes sarcastic writing of Ms. Golden seems only appropriate when one thinks of how Ms. Bara was known by her contemporaries for her snappy witticisms. So many books written on the Silent Era take on the tone of a college lecture and I commend Ms. Golden for giving the subject matter a life and vibrancy due the often under-appreciated Theda Bara. And lest I forget, a comment about the included photos: they are simply stunning. A myriad of Hollywood movie stills and personal photos, the included pictures bring a realness to the era and to Theodosia Goodman/Theda Bara that is often overlooked. These shots become even more of a treasure when one learns that only 4 of Theda's many films are still in existence-and none still exists from her most lavish and sensational performances, like Cleopatra, Salome, and Kathleen Mavoureen.

I'm not sure where or when I first heard of Theda Bara, but ever since I did, I thought it was a 'cool' name. The name --- and that she was an actress in the distant past --- was about all I knew about her ... until I read Eve Golden's excellent book. I got this book more or less on a whim; but from it I learned a great deal about this fascinating actress with the cool name. It turns out that she probably was a pretty 'cool' person as well! In fact, this book led me to seek out copies of the few remaining movies Miss Bara made --- such a pity that more examples of her work don't exist. The examples I've seen are, it is often said, not her best; but she seems to have been quite a capable actress.

This is not a review of Miss Bara, however, but of Ms. Golden's book. And a great book it is: informative, well-illustrated (I agree with the author's philosophy that 'a biography without pictures is like a cake without icing'), and with a clear writing style. It is extremely well-researched too --- the numerous quotes from contemporary reviews of Miss Bara's movies shows that Ms. Golden did her homework.

I don't know exactly what some reviewers meant when they noted Ms. Golden's 'sarcastic' attitude. I enjoyed her writing. Her book was informative, not too scholarly, and written with good humor. I think it's a book Miss Bara herself might have liked. It certainly succeeded in sparking my interest in this actress, and in the genre of silent films in general.

In this book you will learn not only about Theda Bara's life and work; you will also discover much about the early film industry, and about Hollywood publicity operations too. And here's an interesting tidbit: the 'cool' name was not really an invention of a Hollywood studio at all; in fact, the 'Arab Death' story came about as an afterthought, long after the name itself had stuck on Theodosia ('Theda') Goodman.

Although this mother gets tired of reading the someone dumb text which accompanies the really cool textures, it captivates my 10 month old. My baby who is usually bored reading loves this book very much. He "reads" it by himself if it's on the floor with him.

I had this book as a kid...and I grew up to love dachshunds! It's a great baby gift. Kids love it -- it's "hands on." Lots of different textures to feel. It's a classic (plus, EVERYBODY gives "Pat the Bunny." This is something different.)

I much prefer David Stenn's "Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow" over Ms. Golden's biography. While her book has a wonderful array of sumptuous photos, it is not enough to make up for factual errors and there are numerous factual errors in this book. She states that Marino Bello was in Los Angeles during the 1920s with Mother Jean but that was a totally different man. Bello did not enter into Mother Jean's life until Harlean (Jean Harlow) was at Ferry Hall School for Girls in Lake Forest, Ill. Golden consistently refers to Harlow's big white house on Beverly Glen Boulevard as the house on Club View Drive. I cannot help but to find this as inexcuseable. Mother Jean, as she was called, was never called Mama Jean. Yet, Golden uses "Mama Jean" throughout the entire book. Harlow called her mother Mother or Mommie. Everyone else referred to her as Mother Jean or Mrs. Bello.
There is too much gleaned from movie magazines from the 1930s. I have had contact with several women who attended school with Harlean at Ferry Hall and the school was far too strict to allow the pranks that Ms. Golden writes about. They never happened! I cannot imagine where such information was ever obtained.
This is in no way the definitive biography on Jean Harlow. The defamation of Jean Harlow by Shulman's fictitious and lurid tome is insightful. "Platinum Girl" has its moments but the tangents of Hollywood History seem to this reader as easy filler. Jean Harlow had a tragic life. She was a kind and sensitive girl and was dominated by her Mother. This biography misses that fact and calls Harlow's life a "success story". In terms of becoming a greatly beloved star who transcended her sex symbol image, then it is a success story. Jean Harlow was insecure and passive. She did what the studio told her to do because it was what her mother wanted her to do. Jean Harlow didn't long to become a big star--her mother wanted her to become a star because Mother Jean wasn't able to break into films during the years of 1923-1925. Mother Jean lived vicariously through her daughter, whom she called The Baby. Thus, Jean Harlow never really knew who she was. She was unlucky in romantic love and when told to fight to live, she said, "I don't want to." She died shortly after uttering those words.
Jean Harlow was MGM's most beloved star by the cast and crew and all who knew her. Yet she was plagued by a domineering stage mother, drank to excess, and gave less love to herself than she deserved. Statistical errors aside, Golden paints a far more happy story of Jean Harlow than what was actually true. Read both and decide--but don't bother with Irving Shulman's so-called biography!

Eve Golden is a writer who knows Hollywood, especially classic Hollywood in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. For anyone who read Moveline magazine back in it's heyday, Eve Golden wrote witty video reviews along with other contributions.

Golden turns her attention to Jean Harlow and the result is stunning. The tragic, short life of the wisecracking blonde from the Mid-West is told without being too sugar-sweet and refrains from wallowing in gutter like a cetain 1960s biography of Harlow. Jean Harlow was a nice person with a longing to be more than just the blonde bombshell the public saw, not a nymphomaniac who needed a navy fleet and an ocean of booze to get through the night.

The layout of the book and the photographs are amazing. Reading this in hardcover is knowing you're reading some very special beyonf the usual as-told-to film/tv/ star tat that crowds the Biography sections.

For the film buff or newbie that wants a worthwhile read that's not hard on the eyes, "Platinum Girl" is a clear winner.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly and know I'll read it again very soon. Eve Golden is a talented biographer, with her succinct writing style and plain English- the prose is so casual as a matter a fact it's like she's speaking to you personally. The pictures of course are stunning, and I loved the way they are distributed throughout this sturdy book, making things more visually appealing, instead of sticking them together all in one or two clumps. The only thing I didn't like was Golden constantly quoting movie reviewers, which I thought got monotonous after a while. Simply putting "reviewers hated/loved it" after a while would've been enough for me. Other than that, Golden doesn't try to get all melodramatic when Jean dies in her book; she doesn't try to extract sympathy for Jean when she experiences tragedies, and I like that. What she does is presents facts and dispels myths and let you make your own opinion about this young woman. Not that she's detached, Golden apparently likes her subject a lot, but mostly, she lets the people who knew Harlow best say who she was.

Eve Golden's book about Anna Held is an enjoyable light read. She provides a wealth of information about one of our first media celebrities. I liked the subject of this book tremendously, but had a big issue with the editing, or rather, the lack of it. Specifically, I was distracted by the inclusion of material in parentheses on nearly every page. Sometimes the verbiage in the parentheses was additional information and other time it was author's commentary. This material should have been moved to endnotes, incorporated in the text, or in the case of author commentary, eliminated. It was so distracting, that everyime I turned a page I found myself scanning for the multiple parentheses first! Ms. Golden is not a bad writer. In fact she is quite good. But honestly, were all the parentheses necessary?

Not much has been written about the former music hall and vaudeville star, Anna Held, brought to fame in this country by Florenz Ziegfeld, and who turned out to be his first wife. I was surprised to learn of her early difficult childhood and her Jewish origins. Most interesting of all is how the author weaves in facts about the life in her times, especially early history of the automobile and of women's tortuous underwear, i.e. the corset! My lack of 4 or 5 stars is not for the content, but for the editor who missed a lot of spelling and syntax mistakes. It is a worthwhile read if you are interested in late 19th and early 20th century life and stage performers.

Those hoping for a trashy sensationalist bio from this author will be disappointed. That is not to say that they will not be entertained, enlightened and educated and even perhaps raise their future expectations of "show biz biographies". Ms.Golden's previous two biographies, on Jean Harlow and Theda Bara were witty, well-researched and humane investigations of two film figures whose public personas had been hidden behind decades of myth and melodrama. In Anna Held, Ms.Golden has rediscovered a figure in entertainment history who has been largely, and illogically forgotten. It is as if , in a century's time, Streisand had slipped from the public imagination. It would have been easy to write a melodramatic biography of Anna Held (her short life certainly justifies it) but Ms. Golden has gone deeper and placed her resolutely within her time, and therein lies the success of her book. Anna's times were turn-of-the-century Europe and the United States, and with her talent for bringing alive historical times, Ms.Golden presents a fascinating and insightful picture not only of Anna and the entertainment world she lived in, but of the bigger social context. want to know what the early days of motoring were really like? it's there. Want to know what wearing a corset actually entailed? It's there. Does this sound dry and over-scholarly? Fear not. Ms.Golden, known for her humorous column in Movieline magazine, has brought a dry and witty humour to Anna's story. Ms.Golden has, for this reader, achieved something really special: she has made me care deeply about an otherwise forgotten figure. Anna Held emerges from Ms.Golden's book alive and charming as all hell, and in doing so, the author has made a forgotten character unforgettable.

After waiting years for a bio about the magnificent Kay Kendall, Eve Golden's effort is little more than tin. The book is a laundry list of Kendall's personality quirks and defects (film stars documented as self-centered is a revelation?) and completely misses the mark. Kendall was so extraordinary and special as an actress, and this book, tragically, misses that which clearly made her so memorable. Several of Kendall's films are watchable only due to her presence and there is no mention of that here. Golden has chosen to focus on the personal details at the expense of Kendall's charm and uniqueness as a performer. It seems that cooperation of Kendall's sister, Kim, was necessary to provide documentation about their childhood and early careers, however, this doesn't seem to have helped the book much. Previous bios on Rex Harrison have better captured the essence of Kendall's star quality (i.e. Alexander Walker's). Noel Coward's diary entry for Kendall's London stage performance in THE BRIGHT ONE does more to illuminate this great actress than this book: "Went to see a dreadful play in which Kay Kendall was enchanting..." THAT was Kendall's gift. This book does nothing to endorse that consensus.

This is Eve Golden's best book yet, and that's saying a lot. While many Americans are unaware of Kay Kendall's short, but significant, career, Ms. Kendall's popularity over the pond remains unwavering. Her life story is told in a style true to Kendall's off-screen persona: funny, witty, sharp, and always interesting. As the subject matter could have ended up a cliched tearjerker with Kendall's death, Golden instead takes the high road. Highly recommended for any fan or Kendall's, Golden's, or movies in general.

This was a book I eagerly anticipated and I was not let down. Entertaining show biz author Eve Golden weaves a fun story around show business's most glamorous comedienne. From day one, Kay Kendall lived a fast-paced, fun-filled life, mixed with a semi-successful career filled with interesting and witty friends.
As the world knows, Kay Kendall's life was cut short following a losing battle with leukemia, a disease everyone swears she never knew she had. Her marriage to Rex Harrison is honestly told and the author manages to bring Kay's story to print in a slender volume that is filled with reminiscences from family and friends.
A fun read, a delightful tribute to the Divine Kay.

if you had put some info on the internet, i might have gotten on a on the report