PIONEERS OF HOLLYWOOD: Your Ready Reference of 1,000 Selected Personalities During the Development of Early American Motion Pictures Volume One

When I was a young man decades ago, whenever someone mentioned anything about the golden age of Hollywood, I would automatically think of those funny short silent movies starring familiar comedians we all love; Charlies Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, and of course those Keystone Cops. When asked whether I knew the names of some of their counterparts, sadly, I could name none other than a few stars as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish and Rudolph Valentino.I rarely considered, or even knew little about other types of silent films until later in life when I became interested in watching film noir of the 1930s to 1950s, which led me to investigate what was available in earlier filmdom. To my astonishment, many films of the 1930s to 1950s were remakes of earlier silent films from the 1900s to 1920s.With the advent of the Internet and especially sites as You Tube, I was able to discover a new form of entertainment; silent films. I found many of these films not only presented comedies to entertain audiences, but took on dramas, westerns, mysteries, fantasies, science fiction, historical narratives, and all forms of storytelling we fine in today’s films. To my surprise, many of these films were expertly produced, written, and edited making them enjoyable to watch. By viewing these early films, one can see a progressive evolution in film-making with experiments in editing, split screens, flashbacks, closeups, fadeouts, color, etc. The biggest problem was trying to get sound tracks into movies, a problem that would not be fully resolved until 1929 and onward.As I watched additional silent films, I became interested to know more about the lives of the personalities behind the scenes. Even though I knew they were of the same generation of my great-grandparents and grandparents, they were once young, very goodlooking, and just as free-spirited as today’s young generation. Curiosity led me to further investigate the lives of these fascinating individuals.From their early pursuits towards their careers to the end of their lives, these two volumes briefly probe into the lives of more than 1,000 men and women in this fascinating golden age. In a way you could call this work a sort of “Who’s Who” of selected personalities that became pioneers in the production of movie making.This work is not inclusive; worthy individuals have been overlooked because it is known there were several thousand players in this era including directors, cameramen, stage hands, editors, producers, writers etc. I chose those whose careers were noteworthy or deserved mention because of their particular circumstances.To begin this narrative, Volume One contains a brief history of the development of motion pictures and those involved in its evolution. Please refer to Volume Two that begins with Sôjin Kamiyama and ends with Adolf Zukor plus additional personalities in the Honorable Mention segment. Included is a list of 100 popular silent films available for viewing today.Enjoy these two volumes at your leisure. It’s not required to read them from front to back. You may select any review randomly at your pleasure and use it as a jumping off point for additional studies. -REED S. ANDERSON Read more