Rating: 
Summary: LOTS OF MIX-UPS
Review: I also found a number of errors in this book. It is handsome and large and filled with pictures. But so much of the information is inaccurate. Wallace Beery is identified incorrectly, as is Rita Moreno (as Chita Rivera!!). Kate Hepburn didn't win 8 oscars. This is lunacy. Jane Wyman and Loretta Young are each identified as the other on page 55. Spielberg did not buy "Clark Gable's Best Actor Oscar." (pg. 291) How could he have? Gable didn't win. An unforgivable error. Spielberg bought Vivien Leigh's Oscar! And "King Kong" never won any oscars, not ever. Not the original, not the remake. Also, the delivery man who brought the book to my door found it necessary to point out that his name was Oscar again and again. It was tiresome. Good title for this book? See page 29: Frankly Embarrassing.
Rating:
Summary: LOTS OF MIX-UPS
Review: I also found a number of errors in this book. It is handsome and large and filled with pictures. But so much of the information is inaccurate. Wallace Beery is identified incorrectly, as is Rita Moreno (as Chita Rivera!!). Kate Hepburn didn't win 8 oscars. This is lunacy. Jane Wyman and Loretta Young are each identified as the other on page 55. Spielberg did not buy "Clark Gable's Best Actor Oscar." (pg. 291) How could he have? Gable didn't win. An unforgivable error. Spielberg bought Vivien Leigh's Oscar! And "King Kong" never won any oscars, not ever. Not the original, not the remake. Also, the delivery man who brought the book to my door found it necessary to point out that his name was Oscar again and again. It was tiresome. Good title for this book? See page 29: Frankly Embarrassing.
Rating: 
Summary: for Peter Beard from Magosha, New York
Review: I am affraid Peter got it all mixed up, not the authors of the book. Clark Gable won an Academy Award in 1935 for Frank Capra's comedy "It Happened One Night". Also did "King Kong", winning in 1977 the special Oscar for best visual effects.
Rating: 
Summary: HELP
Review: I am being held prisoner in my home! Although this book is wonderful, please rescue me! I leave near the gas station, by where the 7-11 used to be.
Rating:
Summary: HELP
Review: I am being held prisoner in my home! Although this book is wonderful, please rescue me! I leave near the gas station, by where the 7-11 used to be.
Rating:
Summary: A Frustratingly Poor Work
Review: I had high hopes for this book as it is not officially sanctioned by the Academy and therefore free to tell more of the truth and politics behind what is really going on. It is no such thing. It is simply a poor man's version of Oscar's history that clearly did not receive the rights to quote directly from acceptance speeches and etc. Most of it's information seems to have come from second hand sources with winners giving only their reactions to what they had said or felt when they were lucky enough to be standing at the podium. Unfortunately, a misconceived attempt at something great.
Rating:
Summary: A Frustratingly Poor Work
Review: I had high hopes for this book as it is not officially sanctioned by the Academy and therefore free to tell more of the truth and politics behind what is really going on. It is no such thing. It is simply a poor man's version of Oscar's history that clearly did not receive the rights to quote directly from acceptance speeches and etc. Most of it's information seems to have come from second hand sources with winners giving only their reactions to what they had said or felt when they were lucky enough to be standing at the podium. Unfortunately, a misconceived attempt at something great.
Rating:
Summary: Faulty information, nice pictures
Review: I just finished the book, and then read all of the online reviews. If I had paid full price for the book i would be upset too. It's just not accurate about so many things. I can't agree with the review by dfnyc which says that the authors were righting a wrong by confusing Chita Rivera with Rita Moreno. That makes the whole book seem unreliable. And the Clark Gable mistake is a pretty big one. I don't really understand all the furor on here though. I would imagine that these positive reviews are probably written by the authors themselves and their friends and maybe rightfully so. But otherwise who would back up a book that is so clearly built on an unsteady foundation? The facts are incorrect. But the pictures are lovely and their are a lot of them. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Faulty information, nice pictures
Review: I just finished the book, and then read all of the online reviews. If I had paid full price for the book i would be upset too. It's just not accurate about so many things. I can't agree with the review by dfnyc which says that the authors were righting a wrong by confusing Chita Rivera with Rita Moreno. That makes the whole book seem unreliable. And the Clark Gable mistake is a pretty big one. I don't really understand all the furor on here though. I would imagine that these positive reviews are probably written by the authors themselves and their friends and maybe rightfully so. But otherwise who would back up a book that is so clearly built on an unsteady foundation? The facts are incorrect. But the pictures are lovely and their are a lot of them. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Good photos but...
Review: I like the feel of the book, but I have to agree with the reviewer who said better research was needed. I have only started to read the first few chapters and those sidebars of trivia are full of mistakes. For example, it says that director Frank Lloyd was most famous as a physical comedian. Sorry, that was Harold Lloyd who was a comedy star. Another section mentions silent film stars who didn't make it into talkies, one of which was Gilbert Roland. Sigh, that should be John Gilbert. Gilbert Roland continued making movies his whole life. More than anything, the asides seem to be Hollywood rumors in many cases. In some ways, it feels like the publisher had two books in his hands, one that was the main part of this book, great pictures with historically correct facts, and the other was a scandalous gathering of hearsay. Unfortunately, they combined them into one volume. Still, I can recommend it for the main portions.
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