In this Book
- Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: University Press of Mississippi
summary
Extras, bit players, and stand-ins have been a part of the film industry almost from its conception. On a personal and a professional level, their stories are told in Hollywood Unknowns, the first history devoted to extras from the silent era through the present.
Hollywood Unknowns discusses the relationship of the extra to the star, the lowly position in which extras were held, the poor working conditions and wages, and the sexual exploitation of many of the hardworking women striving for a place in Hollywood society. Though mainly anonymous, many are identified by name and, for perhaps the first time, receive equal billing with the stars. And Hollywood Unknowns does not forget the bit players, stand-ins, and doubles, who work alongside the extras facing many of the same privations. Celebrity extras, silent stars who ended their days as extras, or members of various ethnic groups--all gain a deserved luster in acclaimed film writer Anthony Slide's prose. Chapters document the lives and work of extras from the 1890s to the present. Slide also treats such subjects as the Hollywood Studio Club, Central Casting, the extras in popular literature, and the efforts at unionization through the Screen Actors Guild from the 1930s onwards.Slide chronicles events such as John Barrymore's walking off set in the middle of the day so the extras could earn another day's wages, and Cecil B. DeMille's masterful organizing of casts of thousands in films such as Cleopatra. Through personal interviews, oral histories, and the use of newly available archival material, Slide reveals in Hollywood Unknowns the story of the men, women, and even animals that completed the scenes on the silver screen.Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. iii-iv
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Introduction
- pp. 3-17
- Chapter Two: The 1920s
- pp. 34-51
- Chapter Four: Central Casting
- pp. 62-81
- Chapter Six: The Coming of Sound
- pp. 98-116
- Chapter Seven: The Stand-In
- pp. 117-140
- Chapter Eight: Celebrity Extras
- pp. 141-155
- Chapter Nine: The Silent Star as Extra
- pp. 156-186
- Chapter Ten: Ethnic Extras
- pp. 187-204
- Bibliography
- pp. 244-255
Additional Information
ISBN
9781621037033
Related ISBN(s)
9781617034749
MARC Record
OCLC
777251346
Pages
256
Launched on MUSE
2012-12-20
Language
English
Open Access
No