I love anything about old Hollywood. I own thousands of classic films, biographies of actors, studios, etc. I don't watch new movies as I don't think they are as good as those long past. In my opinion there will never be another Bogart, Cagney, Stanwyck -- or even someone like Charlie Chaplin, who revolutionized films.

This is the pictorial story of the first studios in Hollywood -- those on Poverty Row, where they changed hands constantly, silent films and serials being made daily, and cowboys waiting for their turn to be chosen for a western or two.

If you are interested in how film studios began, then this is the book. While it isn't high art, it isn't meant to be. But what it is, is showing us how everything began, where the studios were located, and even little tidbits of history that one might not have known about actors (or those who wanted to be). It's an interesting album of pictures that I have never seen before, and I found fascinating to see. Hollywood as it was when movies were churned out as fast as they could, trying to make actors stars and therefore fill the coffers of the producers and directors; and while it is a short book it has packed in a lot of history. Recommended. ( )