If you're are even vaguely interested in studio backlots from the Golden Years of Hollywood this is a book for you - exhaustively researched and photographed, it covers the legendary backlot at MGM with it's all American street, train station, backlot London, Esther Williams pool, etc.
I admired the research and passion and appreciate the photos but have to admit: studio backlots aren't a big thing with me. Or maybe the problem is more I read this on my phone via kindle when it should be a coffee table book ideally.
Because it's about MGM there is an aura of sadness about it which the author admits - we remember MGM more because its dead. I was surprised the backlot was used so heavily and for so long - many of the photos refer to the films crappy movies of the 60s and 70s. Really - and this is all hindsight - they should've turned pretty much the whole thing over to TV in the 60s and 70s. Maybe that's a way it could've survived.
There's a lot I didn't know including the story of the Lins, wire dealers who bought the backlot, and further examples of mismanagement from Jim Aubrey.
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