Hollywood Royalty; A Family In Films offers an intimate account of America’s visionary film pioneer Jesse L. Lasky. In 1913, he produced the first full-length feature in Hollywood and founded Paramount Pictures with partners Cecil B. DeMille and Sam Goldwyn. Lasky Sr.’s first film was “The Squaw Man” made by first time director DeMille and financed with money raised by Lasky’s brother-in-law, the successful glove-maker Sam Goldfish. The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company would eventually merge with Famous Players and Paramount Publix to eventually become Paramount. Lasky would discover stars & produce many successful films such as Carmen with Geraldine Farrar, Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm with Mary Pickford, Male & Female with Gloria Swanson, The Shiek with Rudolph Valentino, and IT with Clara Bow. Suffering bankruptcy as a result of the Depression, Lasky’s indomitable optimism enabled him to move on, eventually producing over 1,000 films including The Covered Wagon, The Coconuts with the Marxs Brothers, Zoo In Budapest with Loretta Young, Sergeant York with Gary Cooper, Wings with Richard Arlen & Clara Bow, The Power & The Glory with Spencer Tracy, The Great Caruso with Mario Lanza and Rhapsody In Blue with Robert Alda. His beloved son Jesse Lasky Jr., a decorated Captain in World War II, became an acclaimed novelist, poet and top Hollywood screenwriter, writing 8 films for his father’s ex-partner including Union Pacific, Unconquered, Sampson & Delilah and The Ten Commandments). Pat Silver-Lasky (Lasky Jr’s collaborator and wife for 30 years) has written a masterful history of the birth and development of Hollywood, intimately revealed in over 400 private letters from father to son. Silver-Lasky’s insider knowledge creates a uniquely passionate mix of history and biography told with all the drama of a Hollywood blockbuster. Unlike many of the early Hollywood moguls, Silver-Lasky’s book reveals Lasky as a sensitive, educated man, full of love for his family and bursting with enthusiasm for art, drama and beauty. DeMille said of Lasky, “The world was new to him every morning. For Jesse, life was a sparling road full of unknown curves, ‘round any one of which might lie untold adventure.” Author Don Sartell wrote: “Hollywood Royalty is insightful, inspirational, educational, historically authentic, adventurous, heart-warming and timely… should be in every school and public library.” The history of the movies is the history of America. Hollywood Royalty: A Family In Films is a rare personal slice of that history. https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Royalty-Family-Pat-Silver-Lasky/dp/1629331848/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie;=UTF8&qid;=1506629521&sr;=1-1&keywords;=hollywood+royalty+a+family+in+films

• published: 28 Sep 2017
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