Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969

Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview ; though muddled in its analysis
Review: This book does an admirable job of documenting gay Hollywood. Not just the stars, but the directors, clothing designers, set decorators, etc. The shifting climate for gays in Hollywood is documented along with its apparent impact on gay people working in the industry. The one drawback is the muddled summation of what it all means---the author takes a romanticized, separatist view, in which the more closted eras in Hollywood are seen as building community and doing more for gay identity. I rather doubt that people who lived through that would feel the same way and his own research seems to contradict this analysis. Not a book for those looking for fresh gossip or innuendo, but entertaining, as well informative and well-documented, nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: well-researched, poorly written
Review: This fascinating glimpse into the lives and careers of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual men and women who created many of the cinematic images permanently imprinted on our psyches is undermined by ponderous prose, numerous typos, redundancies and inconsistencies, and an incomplete index-- in short desperately in need of an editor.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating !!!
Review: This is the book I've been waiting for, serious and respectful, as well as fascinating. I have been wanting an account of gay Hollywood that departed from the old scandal, sensational school. This one treats the experience of gays and lesbians with as much respect and scholarship as other studies have considered the experience of Jews, African-Americans, and women in American cinema. I was astounded by the research --and the 30-some pages of notes document the author's sources (something missing in so many books on the subject.) Kudos to Mr. Mann, of whom I remain a tremendous fan. He has done a remarkable job of reconstructing a lost world and subculture-- they said it couldn't be done, but he has!!

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This look at pre-Stonewall Hollywood was well written, and refreshing because it was not merely the "who slept with whom" snapshot that we have seen before. I was surprised at how many costume designers and decorators were as closeted and ashamed as they were, and the almost total absence of gay cameramen...Hmm?! I also think that Hollywood has not changed much, post-Stonewall, as we would have hoped. Easy to read, fantastic and rich with detail!

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This look at pre-Stonewall Hollywood was well written, and refreshing because it was not merely the "who slept with whom" snapshot that we have seen before. I was surprised at how many costume designers and decorators were as closeted and ashamed as they were, and the almost total absence of gay cameramen...Hmm?! I also think that Hollywood has not changed much, post-Stonewall, as we would have hoped. Easy to read, fantastic and rich with detail!

Rating:
Summary: Thorough and Thoughtful
Review: This on my wishlist and was given to me as a Christmas present. A very nice present indeed. I had read one other work by Mann, "Wisecracker" the biography of Billy Haines. Mann approached this work with just as much care. It was an interesting inside view of gay Hollywood, without the usual scandal and muckracking.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Unlike his great biography on William Haines, I did not care for this book, and did not even finish it!! It is not terribly factual and many statements and articles are taken through assumptions, theories, heresay, whatever. I like substantial biographies that can be proved. Like the biography of Peggy Hopkins Joyce, this book was a lot of "he said", "they said", and "this book said". I want unequivocable knowledge. This time period and the people were not from the era when much could have been compiled, but I suppose this was an admirable attempt. I was very disappointed. I thought I would have a great, fun book to read.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC BOOK ON GAY HOLLWOOD!!!
Review: William J. Mann's new book Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood is a breath-taking , wide-angle, Panavision examination of how gay people helped form - and were formed by-the movies. Skillfully mixing equal parts kiss-n-tell dish and in-depth cultural history of gay people's lives, Mann's book is an enormous achievement. Always informed by a soulful love of motion pictures and a real empathy for the gay people who in such major ways created the industry, the author sheds brave, new light on queer Hollywood.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, successful book!
Review: With a very educated writing style based on much research, Mann has presented a profoundly interesting history of gays in Hollywood. I couldn't put this book down. The details are vastly interesting. E.g., I didn't know that gays were accepted in movies and expected to appear in them from the beginning of theie appearance in movie theaters until the depression hit and the immoral right (the Catholoic church and the federal censors) pounced on Hollywood in the early 30s and used gays as a scapegoat, as did Hitler the Jews later in WWII. There are innumerable cultural, societal, and political details herein, making this a great read. An additionally wonderful read is his previous book on gay actor William Haines, also an outstanding tome.