Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but hardly "history"
Review: An amusing bit of fluff for those unfamiliar with silent stars but I was stunned by the number of factual errors (dates, film titles, names)--especially for someone with so many decades writing about the subject! Did Mr. Slide have no editor on this project, or is he, ummm, "slipping?"
Rating: 
Summary: Silent Players Speak to us from the pages of this fine book.
Review: Anthony Slide is an English film critic who specializes in early Hollyood. In this book he has 100 chapters devoted to the lives and careers of 100 silent movie actors. At the end of each chapter there is a useful bibliography of articles and books on each person who is profiled., A picture is included at the begining of each chapter portraying the person as they looked in the silent era.
Many of the persons mentioned are famous such as Doug Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo and Fay Wray. The vast majority of those discussed are of actors I am not acquainted with nor will most readers know who they are.
All of the persons are interesting with stories to tell about the early days of D.W, Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille and Fred Niblo and other directors who made the movies, the stars and the way in which movies were produce in a bygone era.
Slide knew several of the actors on a personal basis and includes humorous and sad stories of his dealings with them.
This work could be used as an a handy reference tool for students of silent film and can also be read cover to cover for profitable pleasure.
This work along with the fine work of Kevin Brownlow allows t he new student to pre-sound film a good basic grounding in who the people were who were on the screens of America long ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Obnoxious Book by an Obnoxious Writer
Review: Anthony Slide is somewhat infamous among movie buffs for his truly unctuous writing style, arrogantly putting forth his own opinions as fact and lambasting any opinions to the contrary. Movie fans have to put up with his nonsense for years in the vintage films publication CLASSIC IMAGES with his malicious reviews of other author's works, often completely trashing excellent books because of a single trivia error he found (and no, I am not a book author trashed by him in case you are wondering). The insufferable Slide always gave the impression he was slumming in that good-natured fan publication, fortunately a few years ago he finally decided he had lived in the trailer park too long and haughtily left the magazine much to the delight of most of the readership. Slide has written numerous books on silent movies, none of them particularly good except for the D.W. Griffith filmography which I suspect was due mainly to his co-writer, Edward Wagenknecht, a beloved silent film historian. Indeed, despite his many years writing (Slide must be sixtyish now), I certainly would not rank him on the level of Wagenknecht, Kevin Brownlow, James Card, and William Everson as an important, influential silent film scholar-historian despite the compliment by the always kind Lillian Gish that adorns the dust jackets of many Slide books. Slide is more of a critic than a historian or scholar and unfortunately he tends to be the Rex Reed of silent movie writers. Typical Slide views are his dissmissal of Greta Garbo's films while spending one of the largest chapters praising his personal friend starlet Mary Brian to the heavens. Miss Brian was quite a beauty and well-loved in the industry but she was in no way a great star and was not at all a good actress. Considering Lillian Gish's kindness toward him, I was surprised by the rather indifferent profile she merits in this book including digging up a few negative reviews (which could be found on of course any Hollywood star). There is something of the suggestion Slide was miffed that Ms. Gish was equally generous and warm to her fans as well as to snooty film writers. Slide's essays here are often scarcely more credible than the books of Boze Harleigh, whose shoes Slide seems to want to fill as for "outing" and conjecture about possible gay silent stars. He speculates Wallace Reid and George O'Brien might have been gay or bisexual with the weakest of evidence (one actress who was not known to be close to Reid told Slide he "should never have married") while the elderly character actress Kate Bruce is ludricously presumed by Slide to have been a lesbian due to her never having married, complete with a suggestion the old grandma actress was bedding down some very young Griffith actresses!! Slide's "source" for this is his intrepetation of a quote from a 1920's vindictive book by D.W. Griffith's widely disliked ex-wife but the quote he gives from the book as "evidence" (that various young actresses would cling to Bruce and rest their heads on her lap) could be intrepeted as such only by the dirtiest of minds, a more level-headed person would realize Mrs. Griffith was being excessively sarcastic about a bunch the women all playing the cornball mother/daughter sentiment bit from Griffith's melodramas off screen as well as on. Would that Slide have actually listened to his friend Mary Brian whom he quotes as dismissing all the lurid latterday gossip about the golden era, that it was literally another era and people just were not as sexually adventurous back then!! (I did find it rather ironic that Slide repeatedly refers to his housemate film archivist Robert Gitt but never actually identifies their relationship!!) Like Miss Brian, Slide goes into detail about some of the other elderly actresses who befriended him like Ruth Clifford and Priscilla Bonner, women whose careers arguably don't merit this much space. His chapter on Laura La Plante is not bad but his Corinne Griffith essay is quite weak (by the way, Mr. Slide, the Redskins, owned by one of Corinne's husbands, are a football team not a baseball team). The Blanche Sweet chapter allows him to both brag on his friendship with the elderly star and expose her hot temper while he joins the long line of Mae Murray bashers (so many cruel-natured writers just love to kick this tragic, ill-fated star since she fell perhaps the hardest of any big name) in an extremely short essay and when Slide ridicules the home and clothes of the elderly, impoverished Madge Bellamy one wonders if the man has any humanity in him at all. The book in fact seems overloaded with mean-spirited comments (is it possible for him to be any other way with individuals he does not admire?) directed at certain performers some of whom were kind enough to give him a few minutes of their time. Some were smarter and apparently snubbed him. Be smart yourself and follow their lead. And go read a book by Kevin Brownlow!!
Rating:
Summary: Silent Players: An arrogant, Tasteless Polemic
Review: Anthony Slide seems to be working out some deep-seated psychiatric dysfunction whenever he writes about silent stars. His recent work, Silent Players, shows an enormous amount of disrespect towards his subjects---most of whom are long dead and cannot provide a rejoinder. While Mr. Slide apparently has a good grasp of most of the subject matter, his favoritism is painfully obvious---those stars whom he liked personally received favorable treatment, while those he did not like (usually those who refused to submit to his interviews) were lambasted and ridiculed, i.e., calling Mary Philbin "braindead." What gives Mr. Slide, whom, as far as we know, can't act his way out of paper bag, the right to judge these people personally, not just artistically? Too often his work reads like the personal likes and dislikes of a frustrated little boy who doen't always get his way. What a shame. Mr. Slide should exhibit more class toward those who are dead, especially since they possessed far more talent than he.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Disappointment.
Review: As a longtime fan of silent movies, I am always on the lookout for books and articles on the subject. I was familiar with the name of Anthony Slide primarily in connection with Edward Wagenknecht. They worked together on a book called FIFTY GREAT AMERICAN SILENT FILMS. Wagenknecht is best known for THE MOVIES IN THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, one of the earliest books to deal with the study of silent films. I was therefore looking forward to this book after running across it on a silent film website and seeing it reviewed on Amazon. I ordered it right away, promptly received it, and have just finished reading it. While the book is chock full of information on many little known silent performers which makes it invaluable to anyone interested in silent movies, I was really put off by the tone adopted by Mr Slide in many of his portraits. While John Bunny may have been hard to work with and Mary Philbin an airhead just to give a couple of examples, the way he reports these facts seems especially mean spirited. After criticising the notorious HOLLYWOOD BABYLON in a segment on Miriam Cooper, he proceeds to do an interview with a drunken Ralph Graves that would have made Kenneth Anger (the author of HB) proud in the "information" it imparts. And is it really necessary to tell us almost everyone's sexual orientation? Everyone including celebrities should be entitled to some privacy especially as all but one of the subjects are dead. I think that Mr Slide should have taken his name off the book and used the name of Lennox Sanderson Jr.(a reference from D.W. Griffith's WAY DOWN EAST). That's the pen name he used for negative reviews (see the Lowell Sherman segment). It would be more in keeping with the overall tone of the book. As the author points out in the preface "you have your opinions and I have mine". Frankly I could have done with a little less opinion. Nevertheless the book contains a wealth of information on people and events of the silent era and as such remains a valuable account of that long vanished art. However because of its overall tone I found it a great disappointment. I wonder what Edward Wagenknecht would have thought?
Rating:
Summary: Obnoxious Book by an Obnoxious Writer
Review: I got the book for Christmas and am about to start through it a second time. Next to Brownlow's "The Parade Passed By" this is the most fun you can have reading about silent films. These are personal observations so the reader can accept or discount the instances where the revelation seems extraordinary. Mostly they are entertaining. What matters most is that their stories of their times cannot be regathered since Mary Brian, the last living subject, died shortly after publication. Take the story of Lowell Sherman, a splendid D. W. Griffith villian, who ended up directing a sound film in his underwear and dying of pneumonia on the day the film opened. Since he was filming a fantasy novel of Thorne Smith (of "Topper" fame) it sounds like the plot of a Smith novel. There are many priceless anecdotes, the writing is sublime, and the photos are a marvel (I only wish there were more). Don't be put off by people claiming this is mean-spirited reporting just because it is personal. He indicates where he doubts his subjects memory and is honest in showing people warts and all. Some of them were bad actors who got their fifteen minutes and died rich while others were great actors who lost their fortunes.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Portraits
Review: I got the book for Christmas and am about to start through it a second time. Next to Brownlow's "The Parade Passed By" this is the most fun you can have reading about silent films. These are personal observations so the reader can accept or discount the instances where the revelation seems extraordinary. Mostly they are entertaining. What matters most is that their stories of their times cannot be regathered since Mary Brian, the last living subject, died shortly after publication. Take the story of Lowell Sherman, a splendid D. W. Griffith villian, who ended up directing a sound film in his underwear and dying of pneumonia on the day the film opened. Since he was filming a fantasy novel of Thorne Smith (of "Topper" fame) it sounds like the plot of a Smith novel. There are many priceless anecdotes, the writing is sublime, and the photos are a marvel (I only wish there were more). Don't be put off by people claiming this is mean-spirited reporting just because it is personal. He indicates where he doubts his subjects memory and is honest in showing people warts and all. Some of them were bad actors who got their fifteen minutes and died rich while others were great actors who lost their fortunes.
Rating:
Summary: A rebuttal
Review: I have gotten quite a bit of flack for my glowing review of Anthony Slide's "Silent Players." Yes, I am a longtime personal friend of the author and, yes, I am mentioned in the acknowledgments. But I would love this book regardless. It is, in my opinion, about time that someone wrote a more personal account of this bygone era. It is, of course, also a dangerous thing to do, as some of the scathing comments below seem to suggest. One especially virulent writer -- who, quite cowardly, chooses to remain anonymous although any insider will immediately recognize the style; the writer is actually mentioned, twice, in Slide's text, albeit obliquely -- questions the author's slighting of such icons as Greta Garbo in favor of forgotten ingenues like Mary Brian, Ruth Clifford and Priscilla Bonner, all of whom were his dear friends. But that is exactly the point of the book: a personal journey through silent films. Several reviewers also take Mr. Slide to task for dismissing the comedic prowess of John Bunny. A negative review of the very, VERY, late Mr. Bunny is controversial in 2003? Yes, "Silent Players" is quite dishy in places but isn't that its charm? Do we need another ponderous and dry Who's Who serving up the same old platitudes? I, for one, do not. And by the way, anonymous Reader from L.A., like most other contributors, Tony Slide was never compensated for his many years as a book reviewer for CLASSIC IMAGES, a magazine much poorer since his withdrawal.
Rating:
Summary: A Page Turner
Review: I wouldn't have thought a book of short biographies on silent actors could be so interesting. I hadn't heard of most of these people yet I found myself drawn to their stories of what it was like to work in the early days of film when it seems a pretty face and a visit to a casting studio got you a role. I wasn't aware of D.W. Griffith's casting couch, or Mack Sennet being a switch hitter (makes me understand why Mabel never married him) or the tragic deaths of some major silent stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Page Turner
Review: I wouldn't have thought a book of short biographies on silent actors could be so interesting. I hadn't heard of most of these people yet I found myself drawn to their stories of what it was like to work in the early days of film when it seems a pretty face and a visit to a casting studio got you a role. I wasn't aware of D.W. Griffith's casting couch, or Mack Sennet being a switch hitter (makes me understand why Mabel never married him) or the tragic deaths of some major silent stars.
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