COMING FROM KNOPF OCT 10, 2023
Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties
The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher — Television
“Hirsch has written the definitive book on 1950s Hollywood.” —Booklist
A fascinating look at Hollywood’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system—set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shifts in Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions—from Cinerama, CinemaScope, and VistaVision to the epic film and lavish musical.
It was a decade that saw the rise of the anti-hero; the smoldering, the hidden, and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios; the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the “small screen” television. READ MORE
50 from the 50s
NYC: Film Forum ▪ October 13—November 16
50 from the 50s is a five-week series at the Film Forum in New York that opens on October 13, Friday the 13th, with House of Wax in 3-D. The 1950s were a time when Congress held hearings on communists in the movie industry; when left-leaning writers, directors, and actors were blacklisted; when the major studios were divested of their lucrative theater chains; when the studio system began to crumble; and when the movie industry faced its biggest threat of all… READ
Foster Hirsch
A movie fan from an early age, I have been ‘writing’ my new book for over seventy years. A long distance runner, I have also been teaching film history at Brooklyn College for over fifty years and counting. When I am not seeing and talking and reading and writing about movies, I am interviewing actors and directors from the Golden Age. Thank goodness I like to travel and swim, which breaks things up a bit. My history of the 50s is my longest and most ambitious and most personal project, and I am looking forward to promoting the book