City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s in Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club

Oct 27, 2023 Chris D. rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a long book that examines the German diaspora during the late 1930's and the 1940's in Southern California. It is not really a history of Hollywood during the decade of the 40's. The author does tell many stories about those who make the movies, but he is more interested in those who wrote the movies. Many anecdotes are related which are entertaining even though some of the anecdotes are then contradicted by the facts.

Friedrich does seem more interested in telling stories that put the s ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Jun 01, 2010 Jill Hutchinson rated it liked it

Shelves: film-music-history

This is an interesting look at Hollywood during a time of transition in America....the war, its effects on film making, and the rise of the two greatest threats to the industry......the Red scare and television. Each year is discussed separately and filled with anecdotes about actors, directors, the studios, writers and all the things that made Hollywood the center of film entertainment. A fun read but also somewhat disturbing as much of the inner workings of the studios were not what they appea ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2023 Magnus Stanke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: film

4 and 1/2 stars
While the 40s aren't my favourite era of Hollywood film making (I prefer Pre-Code and New Hollywood years), this is a fab read, an entertaining collection of anecdotes and hard facts concerning some of the main and some of the unjustly forgotten players in the Californian metropolis. There is a bit of geopolitical info, mass hysteria and racism, the build-up towards the Red witch hunt, the shenanigans of the studio bosses and a good deal about some of the German emigrés like Thoma ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 10, 2018 Tom Stamper rated it it was amazing

Shelves: film, american-history

I decided halfway through that City of Nets was the best history ever written about 1940s Hollywood. It's not a thorough history, but the subjects he tackles are handled in depth. You'll come away understanding the partnership of Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett and why they eventually had enough of each other. You get plenty of the moguls. Louis B. Mayer gets the most ink, but Jack Warner is spread liberally, and David Selznick bounces in and out. You see the novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald, Wil ...more

2 likes · Like · see review