The Hollywood Book Club

By Steven Rea

Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe—the brightest stars of the silver screen couldn't resist curling up with a good book. This unique collection of rare photographs celebrates the joy of reading in classic film style. The Hollywood Book Club captures screen luminaries on set, in films, in playful promotional photos, or in their own homes and libraries with books from literary classics to thrillers, from biographies to children's books, reading with their kids, and more. Featuring nearly 60 enchanting images, lively captions about the stars and what they're reading by Hollywood photo archivist Steven Rea, here's a real page-turner for booklovers and cinephiles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chronicle Books Digital
• Release date: Sep 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781452183732

Steven Rea

Steven Rea is the author of several Hollywood-themed photography books, and his archive of movie photographs numbers in the thousands. He lives in Philadelphia.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

pop quiz: What’s the name of the bookshop where Audrey Hepburn is employed in Funny Face?

(a) Acme Book Shop

(b) Argosy Book Store

(c) Embryo Concepts

(d) Flourish and Blotts

(e) The Shop Around the Corner

Cheers if you answered c. Hepburn’s empathicalism-spouting gamine is a clerk at this philosophy books emporium in ’50s boho Greenwich Village—her hushed, dusty, musty world rudely upended when Fred Astaire and a bossy team from a fashion mag charge in with cameras and model in tow. And extra points if you can match the other four fictional establishments with the films they’re in. (Answers below)

Books and movies have been intersecting in significant ways since the silent era: actors on screen reading tomes that tell us something about the characters they’re playing; books as instructional guides, or plot devices, or humorous props; or as stealth objects slipped into bookcases, pages carved out, to hide a weapon or a wad of cash. (And what about the bookcases with secret hinges— entryways to hidden lairs?) From Voltaire and Emile Zola to Shakespeare and Kerouac to Sylvia Plath and David Foster Wallace, biopics of authors and poets have made for one of filmdom’s most reliable genres. The life stories of fictional scribes, too, have always been a big part of the big screen diet. Barton Fink, anyone?

Novels and biographies, history and investigative series, memoirs and sci-fi—thousands upon thousands of published works have provided the foundation, the core, the starting-off-point-but-we’re-going-to-totally-change-the-ending-and-make-you-really-mad basis for motion picture adaptations.

The Hollywood Book Club is a bibliophile-meets-cinephile celebration of the convergence points between these two very different media. Its 55 photographs capture some iconic stars with some pretty iconic (or ironic) books in their mitts. James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Humphrey Bogart, and Lauren Bacall, they’re all here with literature (or not) in their hands—or on their laps, or in the general vicinity. Some of the titles are easily discernible in these images—the book jackets or spines held upright for the photographer’s lens, for our view. But some photos required further investigation. That gorgeous shot of a napping Leslie Caron seated with the book open to a page of print? By enlarging the image and isolating the book, phrases became readable: the food which we produced . . . the softness of the bed . . . coffin walls . . .  Enter them in an internet search engine and William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! shows

Reviews for The Hollywood Book Club

[mysterymax_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very nice little coffee table book for lovers of film and books. Quality production as Chronicle always is. I'd have given it a higher rating if it had more copy. Love the photos. A nice book to give as a gift.

[octafoil40 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Interesting and with great pictures

[moibibliomaniac · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Browsing this coffee table book is enjoyable. The viewer, however, quickly realizes that almost all the photos in this book are publicity shots promoting a movie the respective star is starring in. There are movie stars who were book collectors, and you can find the books they owned and even read via the book search engines. Marilyn Monroe was one of them.

[rosecityreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Hollywood Book Club is a new book of curated photos compiled by Hollywood archivist Steven Rea, published by Chronicle Books. The collection features 60 movie stars curling up with books. Celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, and Humphrey Bogart are seen with great literature, thrillers, children books, and more. Some are candid and most are promotional photos.

With its decorative, embossed cover and oversized format, The Hollywood Book Club would make a charming gift for both book and movie buffs. It is also perfect for a cozy afternoon break during this busy holiday season.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An absolutely wonderful book that brought back many treasured memories. As a young preteen I watched many of the stars in this book in various movies, next to my too soon gone grandfather. I guess one could say this is a coffee table book, but it is so wonderful to see these past movie stars reading or posed with various books and book shelves. There is a full sized picture of the featured star and on the following page a description of the star, their movies and what book they are reading. All are in black and white.

Jack Benny reading Final Duck to his four year old daughter. Bette Davis hides her books title by covering the book with a Guild Library dust jacket. Burt Lancaster often fell asleep over his books. Maybe Mansfield in a large bubble bath reading Peyton Place. These are just a few tidbits from this book. Oh, and Gregory Peck. I'll let you guess what he is reading.

ARC from Librarything.

[mrmapcase · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very nice collection of Hollywood stars engaging in my favorite pastime, reading. Some are real books, while some are stills from movies with some interesting prop books. The only negative is the large blank space under the descriptions.

[kayebarley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm so excited to have won this book through librarything.com . Chronicle Books publishes only the best coffee table photo books, and this is a beauty. If you're a fan of old Hollywood history and glamour you will love this book. If you're always curious as to what other people are reading you will swoon.

[eliz12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great little book for fans of old Hollywood. The stars are pictured in all their elegance, posed either with a title that inspired a film in which they're starring or one to make them appear intellectual. I'd never seen many of these photos, and they're terrifically fun: Alfred Hitchcock yawning while reading "The World of Birds" and Bob Hope, surrounded by lovely young women, immersed in "Power of Will." There's a brief, usually witty, commentary that accompanies each photo. I enjoyed these! Alongside a picture of a young Harry Belafonte, smoking a pipe, shirt open to reveal his chest, author Steven Rea writes that the actor "displays some torso and more so, posing, puffing and perusing literature in the somewhat controversial 1957 Caribbean-set melodrama 'Island in the Sun.'" Though all clearly carefully managed by studio execs (women are perfectly coiffed, with makeup done to a T) so no real surprises here, the photos never get boring. If you're looking for a small gift for fans of vintage Hollywood, this is perfect. My only complaint: how did this book make it out the door with typos?

[mstrust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book of old Hollywood stars interacting with books, all black and white photos with a paragraph about the actor or the circumstances in which the photo was taken. There's Joan Collins on set and in Western costume of 1958's The Bravados reading You Can't Go Home Again, Orson Welles lying on his couch in 1939 and reading A History of Technology, Vol. III: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, Sammy Davis Jr. reading The Robe on a patio lounger, and Alfred Hitchcock yawning as he flips through The World of Birds in a bookstore. The cover photo, included inside, is a 1951 shot of Marilyn Monroe reading The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine. It's a nice collection of glamorous people and books.

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A nice coffee table book filled with photographs of old glamorous Hollywood celebrities reading. Most are candid publicity shots, some are film stills, and others are promotional movie photos. Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Sammie Davis Jr, Bette Davis, and Orson Welles are just a few of the dozens and dozens included. Alongside each picture is a brief description of the celebrity, information about the book they're reading (if it's available), and any information about the set or the home they're reading at. There are some typos and I wish the book was a bigger size (for true coffee table potential), but overall I thought it was a neat literary/cinematic crossover and something fun to flip through or show off.

[rickla-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Hollywood Book Club is a lovely compact volume of classic movie stars enjoying reading their favorite books. The photos are all black and white, very personal glimpses of everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Sean Connery. As such, it comprises two of my favorite interests: film and books. My favorite is Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe, studying in the library. Recommended to all film fans and all readers.

[book58lover · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A delicious coffee table book of actors reading books. Artful black and white photos of actors from the 40s and 50s with their publicity photo style outfits, on set or at home, reading. If you stare hard enough at their eyes you can see that they are truly engaged. These weren't by and large posed. It was wonderful to see people we have admired loving books that we also admire. An appendix lists all the featured book titles for our enjoyment.
The photos are so beautiful that I would love to frame them. And I want to see some of the movies listed that I didn't know. I only wish the book were longer.