New Release: Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood DVD

Movie Moguls movie scene

Harry Rapf (.), Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg were a key to the growth of Hollywood as seen in Moguls and Movie Stars.

On April 26, 2011, Warner Home Video released the miniseries Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood, a seven-episode original production from Turner Classic Movies (TCM), on DVD.

Narrated by two-time Emmy winner and 2009 Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer (The Last Station), Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood is the true story behind the making of the American movie industry.

Featuring movie clips, interviews, expert insight and footage of such legendary movie moguls as Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner and Lou Wasserman, the seven-part series details the personalities, relationships, collaborations and conflicts that created an industry and an art form – while also looking at how moviemakers responded to major historical events, such as the Great Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights Movement.

The DVD comes with a limited edition book featuring 40 pages of vintage photographs and views about the people, power and periods that created Hollywood, from its humble beginnings through the Golden Age to the New Hollywood of the 1960s.

Each one-hour segment focuses on a different era of American movie history, from the invention of the first pictures to the cutting-edge films of the last century. Each installment features clips and interviews with historians and major Hollywood figures.

Here’s a breakdown of the seven segments:

  • “Peepshow Pioneers” (1889-1907)
  • “The Birth of Hollywood” (1907-1920)
  • “The Dream Merchants” (1920-1928)
  • “Brother, Can You Spare a Dream?” (1929-1941)
  • “Warriors and Peacemakers” (1941-1950)
  • “Attack of the Small Screens” (1950-1960)
  • “Fade Out, Fade In” (1960-1969)

Special features on the Moguls & Movie Stars DVD include an hour of additional reflection by producer/writer Jon Wilkman and a group of Hollywood historians.

The DVD carries a list price of $39.92.

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.