Overview

In Magnificent Obsession: The Outrageous History of Film Buffs, Collectors, Scholars, and Fanatics, author Anthony Slide looks at the way film has dominated the minds and lives of film buffs, film collectors, film academics, and just plain fans of past movies. Based on the author's more than fifty years in the field and his personal, up-front knowledge of the subject, chapters provide unique documentation on film buffs who once created a livelihood from their hobby, including long-forgotten Chaw Mank and the vast array of film clubs that he headed and New York radio and television sensation Joe Franklin. The history of fans and their fan clubs are discussed, as well as the first and only periodical, Films in Review, that catered both to film scholars and film buffs. The histories of several legendary film collectors such as David Bradley and Herb Graff are featured, as is Hollywood's Silent Movie Theatre, where film buffs found a home from the 1940s onwards, sharing it with drug dealers, male prostitutes, fantasists, and hit men. Magnificent Obsession is vast in its approach, discussing the entire history of the phenomenon of the film buff from the early 1910s through the present and documenting the manner in which film buffs have changed--thanks to the internet--from relatively gentle and kind individuals to the obsessive, sometimes overbearing, and often self-important film buffs of today.

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9781496810533

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Reviews

As an actor of the venerable age of 103, I have come across quite a few film buffs in my career. I have never fully understood their place in society, and I am grateful to Tony Slide for casting his discerning eye on such individuals. --Norman Lloyd I never dreamed that the unique species known as the film buff would be the subject of an entire book. Tony Slide has not only pulled off this feat but gathered a cornucopia of anecdotal history that's fascinating and fun to read. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not to be included, but I cannot deny that I am one of these odd ducks. --Leonard Maltin

As an actor of the venerable age of 103, I have come across quite a few film buffs in my career. I have never fully understood their place in society, and I am grateful to Tony Slide for casting his discerning eye on such individuals. --Norman Lloyd I never dreamed that the unique species known as the film buff would be the subject of an entire book. Tony Slide has not only pulled off this feat but gathered a cornucopia of anecdotal history that's fascinating and fun to read. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not to be included, but I cannot deny that I am one of these odd ducks. --Leonard Maltin

As an actor of the venerable age of 103, I have come across quite a few film buffs in my career. I have never fully understood their place in society, and I am grateful to Tony Slide for casting his discerning eye on such individuals. --Norman Lloyd I never dreamed that the unique species known as the film buff would be the subject of an entire book. Tony Slide has not only pulled off this feat but gathered a cornucopia of anecdotal history that's fascinating and fun to read. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not to be included, but I cannot deny that I am one of these odd ducks. --Leonard Maltin

Author Information

Anthony Slide, Studio City, California, is a provocative film scholar, historian, and writer who has authored or edited more than 250 books on the history of popular entertainment. Among his books are She Could Be Chaplin! The Comedic Brilliance of Alice Howell; Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins; and Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers, all published by University Press of Mississippi. He has received many awards and, as recently as 2016, The Guardian named """"It's the Pictures That Got Small"""": Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age as one of the Best Books of the Year.

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