The Jews from Europe came to America got into silent reels, then short movies and realized viewers could enjoy longer talkies. Thus they (the Jews) eventually became powerful moguls of the movie companies and the actors. ( )

This is the story of the Hollywood moguls, especially those who created Paramount, Universal, MGM, Warner Brothers and Fox. Most were Eastern European Jews trying to assimilate into U.S. culture. In the process, they ended up creating a representation of American culture which came to dominate the new film media in the 20th century.

Most of book concerns the business aspect of how the major studios were formed, how they competed, and how the personalities of their founders shaped the industry. There are references to a few famous writers, directors and movie stars, but they are not the main focus of the narrative. The most interesting chapter for the general film buff is "In Their Image", in which the styles of film produced by the studios are contrasted.

A major theme is how each mogul related to his Jewish background, and their various attitudes towards assimilation into early 20th century American society. This theme is followed through the question of how to organize against antisemitism, how and how much to support the war efforts, and through the disastrous encounters with the House Un-American Activities Committee (which resulted in the infamous Hollywood blacklist).

I felt that the subtitle "How the Jews Invented Hollywood" is a bit overstated, and glosses over the contributions of non-Jews like Thomas H. Ince, who established many elements of the studio system in California, but who didn't quite fit the scope of the text. Read this book for the detailed business politics and personalities of the moguls, but not for a general history of American cinema. ( )

An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood is flawed yet interesting. It is most of all a character study of the first Hollywood movie moguls, the founders and heads of the major studios--Paramount, Universal, Columbia, Warner Brothers, MGM, and the rest--in the context of an industry that was for several decades almost the exclusive domain of Jewish entrepreneurs, artists, artisans, and businessmen. Why this was so and what it meant for the infant motion picture industry, especially with respect to the American culture, is the main theme of the book. An important subtheme is the interplay of the personal lives and histories of such dominant figures as Lewis B. Mayer, Jack and Harry Warner, and Adolph Zukor with the screen products they brought into being.

The flaws that bothered me might not ruffle all readers. I was put off, first of all, by poor editing, which always affects my evaluation. There were too many grammatical mistakes, typos, and wrong word choices. For example, the author once uses "ascendancy" and another time "ascension" when both times he means "ascent." He does not understand the word "lest" and know how to construct a sentence with it. He commits many errors of agreement between subject and verb. He cites the song "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" incorrectly as beginning with "Oh" (has he ever listened to the song? it would be hard to mishear that).

More seriously, there are numerous continuity errors, as if the book were stitched together from disparate articles, essays, or columns and not thoroughly edited into a single narrative. Some people are named and identified repeatedly within a short space, and some are named without identification so you have to guess. One chapter contains many references to "the Hollywood Ten" but never tells us who they were. That same chapter, oddly, is mistitled, as if whole sections had been excised but the title not updated: Chapter 9, "Refugees and British Actors," is mostly about antisemitism and Communist-hunting and doesn't talk about British actors at all.

There is also a fair amount of industry jargon and even some expressions in Yiddish or Hebrew that are not always sufficiently explained or explained at all, so that sometimes I simply missed the author's points.

The research does appear to be thorough and thoroughly documented, and the author speaks as one who knows his subject well. He does not make a claim to objectivity but does expose his bias. Fair enough.

Because of the rough cutting and the long list of characters whose relationships were sometimes hard to track, I found it difficult to retain much in the way of particulars about individual figures, but I did gain something of an overall sense of their character, especially those such as Mayer who were dwelt on at some length. As a result I feel that I can see a dimension to the movies of the first half of the twentieth century that I never recognized before and also glimpse how their legacy influences the motion pictures of today.

To gain a better understanding of this vital period of motion picture history and its interaction with the American culture, I would have to read a different book. ( )

Brilliant and highly readable presentation of how the studio heads of Hollywood fashioned America as a dream, a dream everyone my age believed in and tried to live by. A must read. ( )

An amazing account of the men who created Hollywood. Understanding the immigrant roots of these movie moguls is critical to a full appreciation of the American movie industry and its impact on shaping American culture in the 20th century. ( )