Abstract
Throughout movie history, fans have always perceived themselves as more than just spectators. Individually and in groups, they tried to participate in the movies—to befriend actors, influence production and casting decisions, and boost their favorite actors to greater heights of success. Convinced that they had a role to play in the Hollywood studio system, they continually attempted to inform filmmakers of their likes, dislikes, and demands.
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Notes
Alexander Walker, Stardom (New York: Stein & Day, 1970), 253.
Leo Rosten, Hollywood (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1941), 411.
Sometimes fans made it as far as the film set before they were discovered. Greta Garbo, claims her biographer, had an uncanny ability to spot fans who had hidden among film extras in crowd scenes. “There are people here who do not belong here,” she would announce to the director. John Bainbridge, Garbo (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1955), 217.
Bob Thomas, Joan Crawford (New York: Bantam, 1978), 112
Irving Shul-man, Harlow (New York: Dell, 1964), 274–5. “No one is more appreciative than I am of the interest of the fans and if [they] want me to talk to them, I’ll be glad to do so,” Harlow explained in an official statement to the press. Los Angeles Citizen, May 14, 1935, Jean Harlow File, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Samuel Marx, Mayer and Thalberg The Make Believe Saints (New York: Random House, 1975), 166.
David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild (New York: Doubleday 1988), ch. 8; Lady Killer, dir. Roy Del Ruth, Warner Brothers, 1933.
Marx, Mayer and Thalberg, 92; Karen Swenson, Greta Garbo: A Life Apart (New York: Scribner’s, 1997), 193.
Antoni Gronowicz, Garbo (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 250, 257–8.
Gary Carey, AH the Stars in Heaven (New York: Dutton, 1981), 258
Jane Ellen Wayne, Lana The Life and Loves of Lana Turner (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), 15; “Scrapbook on Lana Turner,” Photoplay, October 1944, 52.
Joan Crawford with Jane Kesner Ardmore, A Portrait of Joan (London: Frederick Muller, 1962), 13.
Crawford, Portrait of Joan, 67; Alexander Walker, Joan Crawford, The Ultimate Star (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), 22; Thomas, Joan Crawford, 57.
Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, Gable & Lombard & Powell & Harlow (New York: Dell, 1975), 82.
Quirk, “Why Women Go Crazy About Clark Gable”; Warren Harris, Gable and Lombard (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974), 35.
Lyn Tornabene, Long Live The King (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1976), 129, 141; Walter Ramsay, “What Happened, Gable?,” Modern Screen, April 1934.
Dorothy Carter to Selznick, January 9, 1939, DOS, UT; Rudy Behlmer, Memo from David O. Selznick (New York: Viking, 1972), 167.
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© 2001 Samantha Barbas
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Barbas, S. (2001). The View from Hollywood. In: Movie Crazy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-10319-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-10319-2_7
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