February 2023 MBR The Theatre/Cinema Shelf

The Theatre/Cinema Shelf

Hollywood in the Klondike
Michael Gates
Harbour Publishing
www.harbourpublishing.com
9781550179965, $34.95, HC, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Klondike-Dawson-Citys-Great/dp/1550179969

Synopsis: In 1978, hundreds of reels of silent films were unearthed from beneath the demolished site of an old hockey arena in Dawson City, Yukon. Author Michael Gates witnessed the cinematic discovery of these once-lost films -- and with the publication of "Hollywood in the Klondike: Dawson City's Great Film Find" tells of excavating time lost cinematic treasures while illuminating the history of a gold rush town like no other.

An event in the most unlikely of places and circumstances, the Klondike gold rush was unique in the history of Canada and the development of the North. Dawson City, the "Paris of the North," was the hub of the Klondike gold rush 125 years ago. There were more saloons, gambling halls and theatres than there were places serving food, and the live theatre was at the centre of it all.

Readers will discover the icons who went from the Klondike to Hollywood including Robert Service, Jack London, Charlie Chaplin, Alexander Pantages, Sid Grauman, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Marjorie Rambeau and more.

Readers will join Gates on his cinematic journey as he ponders the question: Did the Klondike help make Hollywood, or did Hollywood make the Klondike? Crafted from Gates's first-hand experience and extensive research, "Hollywood in the Klondike" casts a spotlight on an exciting piece of Canadian (and Hollywood) history.

Critique: A seminal work that is an absolutely essential read for dedicated students of cinematic film history (and the history of Dawson City), "Hollywood in the Klondike: Dawson City's Great Film Find" is an extraordinary and inherently fascinating account. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Hollywood in the Klondike: Dawson City's Great Film Find" is informatively enhanced with the inclusion of a five page Appendix (Gold-Mining Techniques and Terminology), a six page Bibliography, eighteen pages of Notes, and a an eight page Index. This edition of "Hollywood in the Klondike: Dawson City's Great Film Find" from Harbour Publishing is highly recommended for personal, community, and academic library Cinematic History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Michael Gates (https://harbourpublishing.com/collections/michael-gates) is the Yukon story laureate. He is the author of several historical books, including From the Klondike to Berlin, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Fred Kerner Book Award, and Dublin Gulch: The History of the Eagle Gold Mine, which received the Axiom Business Book Award silver medal for corporate history. He was formerly the curator of collections for Klondike National Historic Sites in Dawson City and pens the popular column History Hunter for the Yukon News. He lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

The Life and Afterlife of Swedish Biograph
Jan Olsson
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299339906, $79.95, HC, 312pp

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-life-and-afterlife-of-swedish-biograph-jan-olsson/1141872290

Synopsis: Sweden's early film industry was dominated by Swedish Biograph (Svenska Biografteatern), home to star directors like Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller. It is nostalgically remembered as the generative site of a nascent national artform, encapsulating a quintessentially Nordic aesthetic -- the epicenter of Sweden's cinematic Golden Age.

With the publication of "The Life and Afterlife of Swedish Biograph: From Commercial Circulation to Archival Practices", veteran film scholar and academician Jan Olsson takes a hard look at this established, romanticized narrative and offers a far more complete, complex, and nuanced story.

Nearly all of the studio's original negatives were destroyed in an explosion in 1941, but Olsson's comprehensive archival research shows how the company operated in a commercial, international arena, and how it was influenced not just by Nordic aesthetics or individual genius but also by foreign audiences' expectations, technological demands, Hollywood innovations, and the gritty back-and-forth between economic pressures, government interference, and artistic desires.

Professor Olsson's focus is wide, encompassing the studio's production practices, business affairs, and cinematographic conventions, as well as the latter-day archival efforts that both preserved and obscured parts of Swedish Biograph's story, helping construct the company's rosy legacy. The result is a necessary rewrite to Swedish film historiography and a far fuller picture of a canonical film studio.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of illustrations, three appendices, thirty-four pages of notes, a four page bibliography, and a sixteen page index, "The Life and Afterlife of Swedish Biograph: From Commercial Circulation to Archival Practices" by Professor Jan Olsson is an extraordinary work of meticulous, exhaustive, and research. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, this seminal study is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Swedish Cinematic History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Jan Olsson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Olsson_(film_scholar)) is a Swedish film scholar, professor of cinema studies and former head of department at Stockholm University. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, UCLA, Northwestern University, Utrecht University and the City University of Hong Kong. Olsson is the founding editor of John Libbey's book series Stockholm Studies in Cinema, and the founding editor of the scholarly journal Aura Film Studies Journal. Along his trajectory of archival research, he has found copies of two previously lost early films, Buster Keaton's The Cook and Fatty Arbuckle's A Reckless Romeo. He currently leads the research project "From Business Commodities to Revered Cultural Heritage: Global Media, Vernacular Strategies, and Cultural Negotiations," funded by a grant from Vetenskapsradet (the Swedish Research Council). He is also responsible editor of Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis' cinema studies series which is distributed by Stockholm University library.

Hollywood with a Smile
Sandra de Bruin, author
Dean Brierly, author
BearManor Media
PO Box 71426, Albany, GA 31708
www.bearmanormedia.com
9798887710297, $35.00, HC, 218pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Smile-Sandra-Bruin/dp/B0BJYD44V9

Synopsis: With the assistance of Dean Brierly, "Hollywood with a Smile: My Follies and Foibles in the Film Industry" is a simply fascinating memoir by Sandra de Bruin recounting her encounters with numerous Hollywood celebrities and her life and career as a working actress who never made the A list of celebrity status herself but had a successful acting history enabling her to deliver a true 'insider' perspective to what it was like to be a supporting actress in a long term movie and television career.

Critique: With a poem for a Prologue, "Hollywood with a Smile: My Follies and Foibles in the Film Industry" is a personal and fascinating memoir that is deftly organized and presented with chapters and sections devoted to specific Hollywood celebrities ranging from Harry Belafonte, James Garner, Charleton Heston, Cher, Paul Newman, Dolly Parton, and more! Not to be missed in Chapter 18 featuring Sandra de Bruin herself -- including her experiences with auditions, commercials, and 'Off-Center Vignettes. While a treasured addition to personal, community, and academic library Cinematic History collections, it should be noted for individual reading lists that "Hollywood with a Smile" is also available in a paperback edition (9798887710280, $25.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.95).

Editorial Note: Sandra de Bruin (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0207632/bio) has appeared in over 200 television shows, several major films, many Los Angeles stage productions, numerous commercials, voice over and looping -- and danced in a production at the Los Angeles Music Center. Her informative and witty articles have appeared in several magazines, and her scripts have been optioned, bought, sold and dropped by major studios and independent producers alike. She created both the "Actor's Audition Log" and the "Performer's Workshop Log" to fulfill the organizational needs of her fellow performers from coast to coast and around the world.

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