Happy to have had facilitated the sensitivity read of this manuscript via Kevin Anderson & Associates! Thanks for the ack, too. Hope this book does well in sales!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to enjoy and read this title. This was a great read. The author is very talented.

Great book for younger readers. This book is full of information about women behind and in front of the camera back when Hollywood was young.

Each January, when the year’s Oscar nominations are announced, we’re reminded that Hollywood is primarily a place for white men. Female filmmakers and filmmakers of color still struggle to get the jobs—and the recognition—that they deserve. But in her book The Women Who Built Hollywood: 12 Trailblazers in Front of and Behind the Camera, author Susan Goldman Rubin shows that women have always played an important role in filmmaking.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

Even without knowing that this book was geared towards younger readers, you can tell as you go through that's the target audience. The biographies for each woman detail their careers with little mention of their personal lives, which is fine, but if I were a kid reading this, I'd want to know more about the women's personal lives, too.

Many of the women I had never heard of, and some I was more familiar with. The photos of the women at work add to their stories.

My only beef is that DW Griffith's Birth of a Nation isn't given a more severe criticism. The who, what, where, when and why this racist film, while groundbreaking for its filmmaking techniques, is just as bad as Gone With the Wind for it's glorification of slavery.

Beautifully written book about the wonderfully talented women who worked on/in movies during a very important time of development. Love the women of color in this book. Great history that should be passed along. Would highly recommend.

Mary Pickford. Marion Wong. Dorothy Arzner. Names from Hollywood's earliest days that many have forgotten or never known. This wonderful book introduces a dozen groundbreaking females from the early days of the motion picture industry, giving them credit for their skills and their courage. As the subtitle states, they were 12 Trailblazers in Front of and Behind the Camera. Whether they were actresses - Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Hattie McDaniel, Anna May Wong; a director - Dorothy Arzner; a screenwriter - Frances Marion, a producer - Marion Wong; a film editor - Margaret Booth; a costume designer - Clare West; or a stuntwoman - Helen Holmes - they all paved the way for those who came later.

The stories of each career are supported with photos showing various roles or scenes of the women at work behind the camera or at the editing desk, etc. As Ruth E. Carter says in her foreword, "These women did not just build Hollywood, they contributed to its longevity. They were breaking ground and breaking stereotypes. They were role models. They were a founding generation of women in Hollywood who helped future generations not only exist but have the powerful and diverse voices that they have now."

This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in Hollywood, the motion picture industry, and the role of women in popular culture. Publication date is set for May 16, just in time for some summer reading.

Early Hollywood is fascinating to me, and I also love biographies, so this collection of the stories of Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Frances Marion, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Hattie McDaniel, Marion Wong, Anna May Wong, Dorothy Arzner, Margaret Booth, Clare West, and Helen Holmes as fascinating and also well-researched. Looking at individuals is a good way to understand the history through a particular lens, and it is impressive that Rubin was able to not only high light women, but to find a little bit of diversity in the film industry. There's so much written about Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and other white men that it's interesting to see how the early movies included women.

Each subject gets a picture or two, information about early life, and a good overview of her film career. There's enough about studio systems, the way films were made, and a bit about the types of films that were popular and how they were consumed by the public that readers who are unfamiliar with this time period will be better able to understand the impact these women had. Readers might be encouraged to try to find some of the films mentioned; I've seen the 1959 Douglas Sirk version of Imitation of Life, but don't know how I've missed the 1934 one with Cincinnati native Louise Beavers and Claudette Colbert. The saddest part of the book was Beavers' comment that she would rather be playing maids in films than working as a maid.

It can be a little difficult to get middle grade readers to investigate pop culture of 100 years ago; Lillian Gish was almost exactly my grandmother's age, and she would be 130 were she still alive! Still, this is a valuable book to have for pleasure reading as well as National History Day projects. Calkins Creek publishes such great narrative nonfiction like Brimner's Blacklisted! or Jarrow's Blood and Germs, so I will purchase this one right away so I can get it in hardcover.

This is also a great book to have as a resource for students who read Wiley's The Nerviest Girl in the World, Cheaney's I Don't Know How the Story Ends, Nesbet's Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen, or even Fleming's Strongheart! I'd love to see individual biographies of any of these women; the only one I've seen so far is Yoo's book about Anna May Wong.

(Also, I added this to Goodreads.)

A fascinating group of women that have had an amazing impact on Hollywood. A great read for anyone who loves film and Hollywood history.


I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

What a truly curious & enlightening read! I had a wonderful time reading this breezy breadth (it was the perfect length! — although that depends on how fast you read of course!) of a book that’s immaculately researched & fabulously written with empathy, excitement & admiration for a sampling the very smart & brave women that have helped Hollywood soar to such great heights.

Rather than just a rundown of the usual suspects, the directors, writers, producers, actresses, stuntwomen, etc. — the innovators — that were selected felt modern & it was great to see that none of them could be typecast on the whole. It was also a treat to learn more about other film industries that had popped up at the time. I don’t want to spoil it for you as each chapter/section is less than a handful of pages long. 5 shining Hollywood stars! Cannot wait to see what this author comes up with next!

In this collective biography, women who influenced the growth of the Hollywood film business are profiled, including actors Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Louise Beavers, and Anna May Wong, as well as director Dorothy Arzner, screenwriter Frances Marion, and filmmaker Marion Wong. Each person receives an engaging chapter illustrated with b&w photos, and the introduction and conclusion explain the focus of the book; for example, European silent film creators are not included. Each biographical essay clearly explains why the person is significant, and gives a nice summary of the life and achievements of that person. This works as a solid introduction to the growth of the California film industry in the 1920’s and early ‘30’s, and includes several people of color, although there is one error. It says that after Hattie McDaniel, “The next Black actress to win an Academy Award …” was Halle Berry in 2002, when it was actually Whoopi Goldberg in 1991. Rubin has written many popular biographies and social histories, and this is a nice addition to her work. Back matter includes a bibliography of material used in research, a list of places to see these innovators’ works, index, and extensive source notes.

The Women Who Built Hollywood by Susan Goldman Rubin

This book focuses on the amazing women who helped form the film industry and became the first women in their fields to do so. Many of them came from different backgrounds, culturally, racially, and economically, but they all shared a love of movies. Many of the women in this book did it all! They were actresses, directors, writers, camerawomen, film editors, stuntwomen, costume designers, and more. They had a passion for storytelling and helped make hundreds of films during the silent film era and days of the talkies.

When I was in high school, I did a year long study on the history of the film industry but only a few of these women were mentioned as often as the men in the industry were in my research. I love that this book brings to light a few of the dedicated, hardworking, and talented women of their time in the industry who have made such a lasting impact even now. They were trailblazers who led the way for many of the women that came after them.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the film industry. The book not only covers many of the women in front of the camera, but also the women behind it. This book also does a great job of explaining many of the technical aspects used during the silent film and talkie eras to produce films. The Women Who Built Hollywood is definitely a fascinating read that covers many topics both directly related to films and the personal lives of the women in the book, as well as the issues all women faced during the time.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Susan Goldman Rubin, and Calkins Creek (Publisher) for allowing me to read this advanced copy of The Women Who Built Hollywood. It was a fantastic book that was well written and had many great historical photos. I definitely plan on purchasing a copy for my home library. I also really appreciate that there is a list of all the films mentioned throughout the book as I plan to watch all of them!

This book is so full of misinformation and errors, especially about the early film industry, is an embarrassment. I cannot believe this is going to press with material that has been disproven, that is myth, and that is not factual. In addition, the author’s judgmental tone and condescending writing makes this a painful read, even if it is intended for young readers. I’m also appalled by the whitewashing of DW Griffith and his work, including trying to claim that The Birth of a Nation was groundbreaking albeit flawed by racism. As a film historian, I’m horrified by this book and hope the publishers will consider its massive problems before actually publishing it

"The Women Who Built Hollywood" is an excellent work showcasing the marvelous women who led the way for others in show business during the early 1900's. Each minibiography aims at inspiring girls of all backgrounds to pursue their interests in the film industry, and not just as actors. There are representative biographies for women in all manner of positions from acting and directing to screenwriting and editing. This book also highlights the first famous African American and Asian American actresses who refused to be pigeonholed in stereotypical racial roles. This is a great starting point for young girls interested in Hollywood, television, and/or motion pictures.

I love learning about female trailblazers. In this book are stories of 12 women who made Hollywood and the idea of acting in movies possible for any girl who wanted that. The forward and afterward add so much to these stories by emphasizing the effects of these women who's names many people probably do not know. I loved the information and snapshots offered in this book.

I really enjoyed reading this, I enjoyed that this book talked about movie actresses that I really didn't read about. This book was well done and I was enjoying what I read. Susan Goldman Rubin has a great writing style that works in this nonfiction book. I look forward to read more from the author.

"Griffith always told us there was no quick or easy way to stardom. You were a star only when you had won your way into the hearts of people.” —Lillian Gish When they met D. W. Griffith at Biograph Studios, Lillian and Dorothy Gish were sitting huddled on a bench."