New book reveals secrets of MGM backlot and the Golden Age of Hollywood
Call Hollywood the Dream Factory and you have to call the old MGM Studio’s backlot its brain stem – the source of some of the greatest films and most indelible images ever brought to the screen.
The chariots of Ben-Hur rumbled here, the munchkins of The Wizard of Oz squeaked here, Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds went Singin' in the Rain here, too. In M-G-M: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot, the history of one of moviedom's most storied studios – a city-within-a-city of soundstages, construction sites, recording facilities, rehearsal halls, writers offices, costume shops, dressing rooms, faux waterfronts and exotic Old World facades – is explored in loving detail. Rife with amazing archival photos (the Marx Brothers with their literal bags of tricks, Katharine Hepburn diving into the studio's Esther Williams Pool for a scene in The Philadelphia Story) and meticulously researched chapters on the Culver City complex, the 304-page hardbound book (from Santa Monica Press) is a must-have for film buffs, fans of Hollywood's Golden Age and anyone who keeps Turner Classic Movies as the default channel on their TV.
"It has been estimated that historically a fifth of all movies made in the United States were partially shot somewhere at MGM studios," note co-authors Steven Bingen, Stephen X. Sylvester and Michael Troyan in their prologue. Spend some time with this amazing book and the images come flooding back. As Frank Morgan said in one of the most famous of all the MGM classics, "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." M-G-M: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot pulls back the giant curtain, and it's impossible not to pay attention as the machinery behind the magic is revealed.