Audiobook25 hours
City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's
Written by Otto Friedrich and Glen David Gold
Narrated by P.J. Ochlan
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In 1939, fifty million Americans went to the movies every week, Louis B. Mayer was the highest-paid man in the country, and Hollywood produced 530 feature films a year. One decade and five thousand movies later, the studios were faltering. The 1940s became the decade of Hollywood's decline: anticommunist hysteria excommunicated some of its best talent, while a 1948 antitrust consent decree ended many of the business practices that had made the studio system so profitable.
In this masterful work of cultural history, the legendary Otto Friedrich tells the story of Hollywood's heyday and decline in a vivid narrative featuring an all-star cast of the actors, writers, musicians, composers, producers, directors, racketeers, labor leaders, journalists, and politicians who played major parts in the movie capital during the turbulent decade from World War II to the Korean War.
Friedrich draws on sources from celebrity biographies to trade-union history, mingling lively gossip with analysis of Hollywood's seedier business dealings and telling the stories of legendary movies such as Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and All About Eve.
In this masterful work of cultural history, the legendary Otto Friedrich tells the story of Hollywood's heyday and decline in a vivid narrative featuring an all-star cast of the actors, writers, musicians, composers, producers, directors, racketeers, labor leaders, journalists, and politicians who played major parts in the movie capital during the turbulent decade from World War II to the Korean War.
Friedrich draws on sources from celebrity biographies to trade-union history, mingling lively gossip with analysis of Hollywood's seedier business dealings and telling the stories of legendary movies such as Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and All About Eve.
Author
Otto Friedrich
Otto Friedrich (1929-1995) was a journalist and cultural historian. A contributing editor at The Saturday Evening Post and Time magazine, he was the author of fourteen books, including Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s.
Related to City of Nets
Related audiobooks
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing John Wayne: The Making of the Conqueror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cary Grant: Dark Angel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confidential Confidential: The Inside Story of Hollywood's Notorious Scandal Magazine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Way: A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sins of Hollywood Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I Am Spartacus!: Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charlton Heston: Hollywood's Last Icon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hollywood: The Oral History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whatever Happened to Hollywood? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker's Journey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Popular Culture & Media Studies For You
Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 50th Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Zelda: Linking Our World to the Legend of Zelda Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Predictably Irrational Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burn Book: A Tech Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Butts: A Backstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Travelled Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for City of Nets
Rating: 4.666666666666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
6 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful. If you love the golden age of film, it's a must. Listened to it all week at work. Hate that it's over. Narrator also did a great job.