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Hollywood insider talks about "Stardom: Then and Now"

By David Gonnerman '90
March 8, 2005

The Women's Studies Program at St. Olaf College presented a lecture by Hollywood insider Jeanine Basinger on Monday, March 7. Basinger, who is the personal curator for the Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese estates, talked about "Stardom: Then and Now," a look at how Hollywood culture has changed since its "golden age" of the mid-20th century. The lecture, the fourth annual David and Margery Scheie Lecture in Media and Modern Culture, was free and open to the public.

"I'll talk about what a day in the life of a movie star was 'then' and what it is like now," said Basinger beforehand. She has based the lecture on her forthcoming book, The Star Machine, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf. "It's about popular culture and it's about behind-the-scenes Hollywood," she says. For the book and lecture, Basinger has drawn on her own interviews with such "golden" movie stars as Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Jimmy Stewart and Joan Crawford, plus her considerable contacts in today's movie industry, including access to studio archives.

Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film and American Studies at Wesleyan University and chair of the Film Studies Department, is the founder and curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives. She is also a trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute and a member of the board of advisors for the Hampton's Film and the Virginia Film festivals. She has published numerous articles in The New York Times Magazine and American Film magazine. Her eight books include The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre, Anthony Mann: A Critical Study, The It's A Wonderful Life Book, and A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960. Her book, American Cinema: 100 Years of Filmmaking, was the companion for a 10-part PBS television series. Silent Stars holds the National Board of Review's William K. Everson Prize for film history.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.