Preface
Part One The Merger
1 The Boy Wonder
2 A Funny Little Man
3 Three Shaky Little Stars
Part Two The Perfection of Silence
4 A Studio Style
5 Wicked Stepchildren
6 A Business of Personalities
7 Top of the Heap
8 “More Stars Than There Are
in Heaven”
Part Three The Talkies
9 The Golden Silents
10 All-Talking, All-Singing,
All Profitable
11 The Production Code
Part Four “His Brain Is the Camera”
12 Visiting Royalty
13 New Morals for Old
14 The Right to Be Wrong
15 Hollywood Icarus
Part Five The Thalberg Unit
16 The New Setup
17 Honor with Credit
18 “To Hell with Art!”
Part Six The Crown Prince of Hollywood
19 “Napoleon Thalberg”
20 A Feverish Energy
21 A Labor of Love
22 The Gods Are Jealous
Part Seven The Legacy
23 Unfinished Projects
24 Marie Antoinette
Epilogue
Appendix: The M-G-M Films
of Irving Thalberg
Notes
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Illustrations
Mark A. Vieira is a photographer, filmmaker, and Hollywood historian. His previous books include Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits and Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy.
"Vieira has accomplished something quite extraordinary... This is the definitive volume about a towering figure in the history of Hollywood." -- Leonard Maltin Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy "Vieira has written the definitive biography of Thalberg." STARRED REVIEW -- Teri Shiel Library Journal "The third biography of Thalberg, and far and away the most thoroughly researched, comprehensive, and penetrating ... as close to definitive as any biography of Irving Thalberg is likely to get." -- Joseph Epstein The Weekly Standard "Vieira writes with great verve and enthusiasm, and he has a flair for narrative movement that suits these exponents of the new storytelling ... well written and extensively researched." -- David Thomson New Republic "If you want to know about Hollywood's Golden Age, then you must know about Thalberg. And if you want to know about Thalberg, then you must read this book." -- Anthony McKenna Screening The Past "Among the many virtues of Mark Vieira's biography is the use he makes of the story conferences preserved in the MGM archives." The Economist "Vieira's work is both exhaustively researched and beautifully presented, rich in detail yet compulsively readable. If you want to know about Hollywood's Golden Age, then you must know about Thalberg. And if you want to know about Thalberg, then you must read this book." -- Anthony McKenna Screening The Past "This is a worthy, well-documented account of [Thalberg's] life." -- R. D. Sears Choice "A well-researched and readable biography." -- David Yezzi Wall Street Journal "This is a sympathetic, diligent, and intelligent account of a wondrous era in Hollywood." Jewish Book World "Vieira has put the enigmatic producer back in the spotlight with his biography ... a thorough and readable book." -- Matthew Rovner Forward "Vieira's excellent biography reveals a master player...[and] sheds much needed light upon significant, influential life." Magill's Literary Annual / Salem Press "The jury has been out for 70 years on the MGM studio chief, even though F Scott Fitzgerald immortalised him as the "last tycoon". Was Thalberg art's gift to Hollywood, with his well-bred epics (Romeo and Juliet, Marie Antoinette)? Or was he a mogul playing to the middlebrow? Read this impressively researched study and decide." -- Nigel Andrews Financial Times "An engaging new biography ... an unusually animated and revealing tour of Hollywood in the 1920s and '30s." -- Noah Isenberg Bookforum "An important book on a pivotal figure in Hollywood history... Vieira's biography is an invaluable resource." -- Camille McCutcheon, University of South Carolina Upstate Jrnl Of American Culture "Vieira takes students of movie history deep into the bowels of MGM." -- Robert Fulford The National Post "A fast-paced and well-researched new biography of Thalberg." -- Kent Jones Film Comment
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