Leo Braudy is among America's leading cultural historians and film critics. He currently is University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature at the University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles.
“Deliciously quirky and intelligent . . . In his irresistible take
on the famous sign, Braudy spins a larger metaphor for the culture
and history of California itself.”—Joy Horowitz, Los Angeles Review
of Books
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
“Braudy offers a stimulating exploration of Hollywood’s
significance in Western culture.”—Edward White, Times Literary
Supplement
*Times Literary Supplement*
"Braudy weaves an entertaining tale of the Hollywood sign’s various
lives and incarnations."—T. Rees Shapiro, Washington Post
*Washington Post*
“This is a magically brief book, written with wit and elegance, on
the whole history of Los Angeles and the movies.”—David Thomson,
New Republic
*New Republic *
“A short, lively book . . . artfully distilled.”—Paul Brownfield,
Los Angeles Times
*Los Angeles Times*
“Terrific . . . As I read the book, I marked passages that I
thought were particularly interesting, surprising or well-written.
Before long I realized I was marking just about everything.”—Geoff
Nicholson, San Francisco Chronicle
*San Francisco Chronicle*
“A rich, far-reaching, gripping history . . . a pithy and sharp
little study that is more than just an analysis of this one icon
but a larger reflection on the movies in Los Angeles and the
implications of that for the place of the movies in our lives.”
—Dana Polan, New York University
*Dana Polan*
“Braudy pulls off the difficult feat of writing a substantive book
about an elusive American icon. By unearthing the history of the
sign--which turns out to be a rich history of real estate, roads,
advertising, starlets and, of course, the movies themselves, The
Hollywood Sign ends up exploring the enigma of an entirely mythic
place.”—Linda Williams, University of California Berkeley
*Linda Williams*
"What Carly Simon claims for James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me
(1977) is equally true of Leo Braudy. Nobody does it better,
as this polymathic enquiry so clearly demonstrates in its fusion of
erudition, insight, and panache."—Kevin Starr, author of the
Americans and the California Dream series
*Kevin Starr*
“The story of Hollywood as a place and its evolution into the hub
of the movie business is as fascinating as anything in the movies
it produced. Using the sign as both protagonist and
reflecting mirror, Leo Braudy provides a mesmerizing account
of the shifting fortunes of Hollywood, from the early struggle
between Puritans and pleasure-seekers to the emergence of the sign
as a pop icon symbolizing the dreams and fantasies of millions.
This is movie history from an utterly fresh and kaleidoscopic
view.”—Molly Haskell, author of Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the
Wind Revisited
*Molly Haskell*
“A deftly told and delightfully detailed account of how a humble
real estate promotional tool was transformed over the years into an
American icon. Leo Braudy's book is not just the story of a bold
bit of signage, but of the community and the industry it came to
symbolize. It's a must read for anyone interested in the history of
a place and a dream. Hooray for The Hollywood Sign."—Richard
Schickel, Author of Clint and Conversations with Scorsese
*Richard Schickel*
“Leo Braudy, one of our most astute cultural critics and film
historians, has produced a wonderful history of this pregnant icon,
an analysis of its “metaphysical life,” and an examination of its
dissemination as the triumphant yet decadent symbol of America and
its dream factory. In doing so he has given us what is
perhaps the best single essay ever written on not just on the sign,
but on Hollywood itself.”—Tom Lutz, author of Doing Nothing:
A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers and Bums in America
*Tom Lutz*
“Though we’ve all seen the Hollywood sign, no one has ever looked
at it more beautifully or to better effect than Leo Braudy. With
Braudy as expert guide, ‘a word on the side of a steep hill’ opens
onto a dazzling social history of Los Angeles in the 20th century.
Like the landmark on which it focuses, The Hollywood Sign is
irresistible.”—Richard Meyer, author of Outlaw Representation
*Richard Meyer*
“An artful, illuminating and absorbing meditation on a place, an
era, an industry, a cast of unlikely characters and a zeitgeist. .
. . An instant classic.”—Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal
*Jewish Journal*
“Amusing, astute and informative . . . not just about the sign but
about Hollywood itself.”—Rob Hardy, Commercial Dispatch (Columbus,
Mississippi)
*Commercial Dispatch*
“Braudy’s short, sharp-shooting social history of modern movie
culture says ‘hooray’ for the Hollywood sign and the American
Dream.”—The Times
*The Times*
"Braudy, in this terrific book, is at home with the history of
Hollywood."—San Francisco Chronicle
*San Francisco Chronicle*
“An excellent guidebook”—Greg Baldino, Bleeding Cool
*Bleeding Cool*
"Explores the remarkable story of the hillside icon that began as a
1923 advertisement."—Wendy Witherspoon, Los Angeles magazine
*Los Angeles magazine*
“… [A] dazzlingly enjoyable exposition.”—The Independent
*The Independent*
“…[an] entertaining history.”—PD Smith, The Guardian
*The Guardian*
"A witty, lucid, far-reaching contribution to Yale's Icons of
America series."—Philip French, The Observer
*The Observer*
"Braudy's witty, allusive study… uses the famous sign… as a
framework on which to string the history of Hollywood
itself."—Philip Kemp, Sight and Sound
*Sight and Sound*
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