Once hailed by Lillian Gish as “our preeminent historian of the silent film," Anthony Slide has served as both associate archivist of the American Film Institute (acquiring and preserving films for the National Film Collection at the Library of Congress) and as resident film historian of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He published his first book, “Early American Cinema” in 1970. Among his more than sixty additional works are “Silent Players,” “American Racist: The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon,” and “Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazines.” Additionally, his “The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville” (1994) was named outstanding academic book of the year by “Choice” magazine, best reference book of the year by “Library Journal”, and outstanding reference source of the year by the American Library Association. His most recent book is “A Special Relationship: Britain Comes to Hollywood and Hollywood Comes to Britain.”
Author Archives:
'Movies': Is That an 'Abhorrent' Word That Denigrates the Art Form? Many Believed So
“Movies” or…? Quo Vadis: One of the first feature films ever made, Enrico Guazzoni's Italian epic came out in 1913, going on to become a global sensation. Should American “moving picture” fans of the early 1910s have referred to it as a “photoplay” or a “movie”? Silent bites: The birth […]
Crime Novel Remembered: Everywoman Heroine & Bourgeois Values + 'Straight & Gay' Movie Versions
Crime novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. While her husband is away during World War II, housewife Lucia Holley – the sort of “Everywoman” who looks great in a two-piece bathing suit – does whatever it takes to protect the feeling of “normality” in her bourgeois, suburban household. […]
Roy Rogers & 'Under Western Stars': Remembering Singing Cowboy's 'Socialist' Western
Roy Rogers, Singing Cowboy of 1940s and 1950s Hollywood. Known for his affable characterizations and, both on and off screen, “traditional values” stance, the King of the Cowboys – step aside, John Wayne & Gene Autry – toplined the “subversive” 1938 musical Western Under Western Stars. Sound bites: Remembering Roy […]
Rediscovering Silent Film Star with Million Dollar (Adjusted) Back
Kitty Gordon: Silent film star with the 'most beautiful' and most heavily insured back. Rediscovering a long-forgotten silent film star: Kitty Gordon It seems almost unthinkable that there are still silent film stars who have not been resurrected, their lives and movies subject to detailed, if not always reliable, examination. […]