Old Hollywood Books | Hollywood Yesterday

Movie Star Chronicles: A Visual History of the World’s Greatest Movie Stars

As I said in my last post, I’m an avid collector of all things “Old Hollywood” – books, dvds, magazines, photos, artwork, coffee mugs, Christmas ornaments, dolls… Books are something I add to my collection almost weekly. What can I say? Books are as big of an obsession for me as old movies are, so combine the two and I can’t stop myself or even slow myself down!

The book you see here, Movie Star Chronicles is one of the newest ones to join my collection. Naturally, my beloved Audrey caught my eye and into the cart it went. I LOVE that the publisher put three of “our” stars on the cover – Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Marlon Brando.

Beautifully done!

Audrey Hepburn’s Photo Spread

Many stars (“our” stars as well as modern-day stars) are featured in photo spreads like the one Audrey has (above). The stars have a “timeline” that features their filmography, including release dates and genres.

While I love the information, the gorgeous pictures are my favorite thing about this one. Look at the stunning photo of Greta Garbo below. Wouldn’t this photo make a gorgeous art print?!

Greta Garbo as Elizabeth Dohna

Book Description from Amazon:

Movie Star Chronicles promises to satisfy the curiosity of moviegoers, cinephiles, and the Hollywood-hungry fans that fuel today’s entertainment news industry. For film students, it is a practical reference to the most important actors in cinematic history.

Entries illustrated with film and television stills and other archival material chart the careers of 330 actors from the era of silent film to today’s blockbusters. Expert text gives an entertaining overview and color-coded timelines provide an at-a-glance guide to the actor’s career, their roles, movie release dates, earnings and awards.

With 576 pages and more than 2,500 illustrations for only $29.95, Movie Star Chronicles is an outstanding value. It includes:

A to Z coverage of 330 movie stars, with extended entries for 100

20 feature articles on popular movie trends, including vampires; western heroes; singers turned actors; femmes fatales; saints and sinners; acting dynasties; combat stars; cops and more

30 lavish double-page photo spreads showing cinema’s most influential stars at work and how film has evolved from silent black- and-white to color 3-D

20 illustrated features on genres and trends, such as Superheroes, Acting Dynasties, Screen Sirens, and Movie Villains

Color-coded timelines showing the arc of an actor’s career, including release dates and types of features, such as Criminal, Romantic Drama, and Thriller

Best Actor awards: Oscars, BAFTA, Cesar (France), Goya (Spain), David Di Donatello (Italy), Golden Horse (Asia), Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance.

Covering Hollywood, Bollywood and world cinema, Movie Star Chronicles is truly international and comprehensive. Sure to attract a wide readership, it is an essential purchase.

Audrey Hepburn Timeline (continued on the next page in the book)

This big, beautiful book is an excellent coffee table book – one guests would love to lose themselves in. It would also make a gorgeous and much-appreciated gift, whether it’s for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a birthday, anniversary, or Christmas.

Greta Garbo’s Photo Spread

I found my copy at the Ollie’s in town but I haven’t seen this one in any bookstores. They do have it on Amazon, of course, however. Pretty sure they have everything.

Take a closer look at Movie Star Chronicles: A Visual History of the World’s Greatest Movie Stars on Amazon. I highly recommend it.

(Read my I Know Where I’m Going: Katharine Hepburn Biography Review )

One of my favorite pastimes or guilty pleasures is (as you’d expect) watching movie classics. Old Hollywood, the Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood’s Golden Era… whatever name it goes by, it is absolute magic as far as I’m concerned. There’s just nothing quite like curling up in my favorite swivel rocker, with hot chocolate or tea, my favorite throw, and at least one cat nearby.

However, over the years I’ve found that there’s another guilty Old Hollywood-related pleasure that ranks right up there with watching the movies, themselves…. reading about the colorful, larger than life men and women who made the magic happen.

Old Hollywood biographies, autobiographies, and books line my bookshelves and the collection continues to grow. To be perfectly honest, I just can’t get enough of them!

{Continued below Princess Huck admiring Katharine Hepburn…}

I Know Where I’m Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography

I Know Where I’m Going is one of the first Old Hollywood book reviews I wrote on Hollywood Yesterday and it remains one of my all-time favorite books of all time.

(See I Know Where I’m Going: Katharine Hepburn Review)

The review, linked to above, will go into greater detail about exactly what makes this book such a knock out. It isn’t just a MUST read for Katharine Hepburn fans and it isn’t just a MUST read for fans of Old Hollywood… it’s a MUST read for anyone who enjoys a great book.

The past week, I’ve been going through old posts and articles on the blog and “freshening” up pictures, deleting irrelevant posts, etc. I was anxious to add fresh pictures to this particular book review. When I wrote the review, my camera was a horrible excuse for a camera. So, I snatched I Know Where I’m Going off of my Old Hollywood Books shelves and arranged a photo shoot.

For my food blog as well as a few of my other blogs, I do a LOT of book reviews. I meticulously plan photo shoots for the books to better show them off to my readers. As you can see from these pictures (as well as ones in the review, itself), I had “help” – one of our kittens, Princess Huck, decided she just had to read the book then and there.

I decided, “Fine. You want to be in the pictures… you’ll be in the pictures!” I may or may not spoil my cats.

I have a LOT of book and biography reviews coming up, so keep an eye or two out for those. You’ll forgive me, I trust, if a cat or two or six make their way into the pictures.

~ Joi (“Joy”)