What a spectacular book! This will be the starting point for all future researchers of the subject. It's not your typical, dry encyclopedia text. I read it from cover to cover, and found every page enjoyable, fascinating reading. Slide presents beautifully written articles on hundreds of topics, individuals and locations -- and with a wealth of footnotes and resource lists. There's even a small but exquisite selection of photos. I've been researching vaudeville for years, and I learned more from this one book than any five others on the subject. Anyone interested in vaudeville owes Slide a genuine debt for this one. Wherever you are, Mr. Slide, three cheers!

Those of us with a love and fascination for vaudeville, but who were just born too late, owe a real debt to Anthony Slide. This book, while a little light on the stories so near and dear to my heart (though I suppose you can get those from "All My Best Friends" by George Burns) is still an absolutely invaluable reference piece. I'm sure there are others out there (you know who you are!) who wish they could have been there- to see a young Eddie Cantor run around the stage for eight shows a day with total abandon; to witness W.C. Fields as he originally performed, as a silent juggling clown(!); to watch the Ziegfield spectacles; to see, quite simply, the GREATEST ENTERTAINER THAT EVER LIVED, Al Jolson. This doesn't put you in the front row of the Palace, but it sure helps. Even if you're not a fan of this truly American artform, you should be proud that a resource like this exists (and in nigh-indestructible library binding, to boot!) Not cheap, but well worth it.

I have read many of the books written by survivors of the Armenian genocide carried out by Turkey, and this is by far the best of them all. Aurora Mardigian (her name was subsequently changed by "Hollywood") was 14 when her story began, and what makes this book the best is also what makes it the worst: she gives many specific examples of how Turks murdered and tortured Armenians, told quite dispassionately but in no less horrifying terms.
I've already bought copies to give to my brother and sister, even at its high price, because it's worth every cent, and so that all will KNOW what the Armenian people went through at the hands of the still-denying Turks.
Those who don't know what Armenia and her people are about will also learn the true nature and identity of our wonderful culture, and all that it emcompassed both in early times as well as currently.

This book is truly interesting. It explains how an Armenian Genocide survivor's memoir was turned into a motion picture in 1919, a year or two after her arrival to the United States. The beginning of the book explains the whole movie production process, and even lists reviews given at the time of its showing. The movie apparently was very popular in 1919, however all copies of it seem to have been lost. However, the book has about 6 still photos from the movie. The bulk of the book is simply a reprint of Aurora Mardiganian's account of living through the Armenian Genocide. It is amazing, sad, sickening. This is an extremely excellent book for anyone knowing little about the Armenian Genocide, and an original and interesting one for those more familiar with the subject.

Books with show business interviews are usually a waste of time in my opinion. But "Actors on Red Alert" by noted film historian Anthony Slide arrives as a welcome exception, not only due to the obvious intelligence and forthrightness of the five subjects but also because of Mr. Slide's perceptive questioning. All five -- Phil Brown, Rose Hobart, Marsha Hunt, Marc Lawrence and Doris Nolan -- were to various degrees affected by the notorious Hollywood witch hunt of the late 1940s. One -- Lawrence -- became an informer, in fact, and "named names," a treachery the man apparently has a tough time dealing with to this very day. Surprisingly, Lawrence blames the blacklist not on the rightwing politicians of the day but on the Communist Party itself! The remaining four interview subjects -- two of whom were longtime close friends of Mr. Slide -- offer a more balanced view of the tragedy. None, however, is boring and neither is Mr. Slide's wonderful book. In fact, all too little have been written about Doris Nolan, an actress rather better known for her stage work than her few film appearances. But Miss Nolan proves perhaps the most interesting subject for Mr. Slide's probing questions. Sadly, the actress passed away prior to the publishing of "Actors on Red Alert," and the book shall stand as a testament to an unjustly forgotten personality.

Hal Clement was one of the first "hard science" writers to enter the science fiction field, and has reamined productive over many decades. This volume contains three of his long-out-of-print stories that fans have had trouble finding for many years. If you're not a fan but you like hard-science science fiction, coupled with good writing and a "solve the puzzle" style that keeps you thinking throughout the book, give this a try. The stories may seem amazingly old (the book title tells how he wrote them after all), but they are hardly out of date. Based on human nature (perhaps a bit idealized) and fundamental physics & chemistry, they are just as gripping a read today as they were in the 1950's when they were written.

Part of one of the all time great lines in radio programing. OK, it is from a Jack Benny show. Fortunately there are many of the radio shows from the 30's, 40's and 50's still available. This is a book that will show the folks in the show and make the shows that much more enjoyable. Fun fun fun...

Here are three of Dwain and Hildegarde Esper's most infamous exploitation scripts of the 1930s. Not exactly camp, Esper's films are wild, no-holds-barred sleeze that go for the jugular. If you've had the privelege of seeing the truly uncanny Maniac, you'll probably know just what editor Bret Wood is talking about as he describes the queasiness with which we watch a scene of an amateur cat skinner, knowing that there's no way a film of this budget could have afforded to FAKE such props...Esper's films were not only creepy side-shows--there's an artistry at work here, too. Besides the scripts, Wood has contributed excellent essays and notes on the films, with tantalizing biographical information on, I think it's safe to say, the most bizarre husband and wife team in the movies. I can't wait for an exhaustive biography on the Espers, but in the meantime this is a fascinating appetizer.

Anthony Slide writes a fascinating history of the film preservation movement in the United States. After covering the dangers of nitrate film and the wholesale junking of film prints during the silent era, he documents the beginning of the archive movement in the 1930s and 1940s. You would think that the book would be filled with stories of heroic efforts to save films, but there are just as many stories of incompetent and egotistical administrators who did more damage than good. The American Film Institute did a good job for a few years helping archives to preserve and restore films, but it quickly became a political organization and mostly claimed credit for projects that it had nothing to do with. The book goes into detail into the "colorization" controversy, a process which thankfully has pretty much disappeared since this book was published in 1992. There is also a section on how Scandinavian archives have done a much better job of preserving their countries' film heritage. If you are a serious lover of silent films or the golden age of sound films, you will definitely want to read this book!

The incredible Billy Doyle has published a followup to his now legendary "Ultimate Directory of the Silent Screen Performer." This time, Doyle covers births and deaths for over 9,000 behind-the-scenes personnel, both silent and sound and not only the obvious -- directors, producers, screenwriters -- but hair dressers, art directors, cinematographers, editors, etc., etc. As everyone familiar with Mr. Doyle's tireless approach knows, the directory is as "ultimate" as humanly possible. In his foreword, Doyle modestly allows that the book is incomplete -- many film workers died in complete obscurity and have thus proven impossible to trace -- offering the fervent hope that "some future film historian can accomplish [a complete directory]." Some may try but the film history community will owe Mr. Doyle its gratitude for a great many years to come.

In the spirit of fairness, I should begin this review by mentioning that my name appears in the book's acknowledgments. That said, however, this, Billy Doyle's final book in his trilogy, is indeed indispensable for everyone researching past film personalities. An indefatigable necrologer, Mr. Doyle has left no stone unturned in order to deliver the facts -- birth and death places and dates for more than 15,000 performers. Doyle has spent a lifetime collecting and updating his material and is the foremost authority in his field. Naturally, a great deal of the names are unknown to even the most ardent film buff, but THE ULTIMATE DIRECTORY ... can settle any argument concerning the true age of anyone from Jean Arthur to Blanche Yurka. And Doyle did not stop there but has included a wealth of foreign actors -- from Hans Albers to Milivoye Zivanovic. As an added bonus, Doyle has included corrections and additions to the first two books in the trilogy, THE ULTIMATE DIRECTORY OF SILENT SCREEN PERFORMERS and THE ULTIMATE DIRECTORY OF FILM TECHNICIANS.

Doyle brings to life a clutch of fascinating, utterly forgotten (even by real film buffs) performers from the earliest days of silent films in this superb collection of short biographical essays. The tales are gripping and well-told. The book's second half makes it a must-have for libraries and serious researchers: an amazingly detailed list of everyone who ever stepped in front of a silent camera; their birth and death dates and places. Doyle's research is staggering. It's a shame a major house couldn't have put this book out and given it a lower price and more photos, but anyone interested in silent films should save their pennies to buy this.

This is an excellent book, and absolutely essential to any author writing on silent films! Highly recommended; well worth the price.