Hollywood Unknowns
A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins
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Book Presentation:
Extras, bit players, and stand-ins have been a part of the film industry almost from its conception. On a personal and a professional level, their stories are told in Hollywood Unknowns, the first history devoted to extras from the silent era through the present.
Hollywood Unknowns discusses the relationship of the extra to the star, the lowly position in which extras were held, the poor working conditions and wages, and the sexual exploitation of many of the hardworking women striving for a place in Hollywood society. Though mainly anonymous, many are identified by name and, for perhaps the first time, receive equal billing with the stars. And Hollywood Unknowns does not forget the bit players, stand-ins, and doubles, who work alongside the extras facing many of the same privations. Celebrity extras, silent stars who ended their days as extras, or members of various ethnic groups—all gain a deserved luster in acclaimed film writer Anthony Slide's prose. Chapters document the lives and work of extras from the 1890s to the present. Slide also treats such subjects as the Hollywood Studio Club, Central Casting, the extras in popular literature, and the efforts at unionization through the Screen Actors Guild from the 1930s onwards.
Slide chronicles events such as John Barrymore's walking off set in the middle of the day so the extras could earn another day's wages, and Cecil B. DeMille's masterful organizing of casts of thousands in films such as Cleopatra. Through personal interviews, oral histories, and the use of newly available archival material, Slide reveals in Hollywood Unknowns the story of the men, women, and even animals that completed the scenes on the silver screen.
About the Author:
Anthony Slide has written and edited more than two hundred books on the history of popular entertainment. He is a pioneer in the documentation of women in silent film, writing the first biography of Lois Weber, editing the memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché, and authoring the first study of women silent film directors. In 1990 he received an honorary doctorate of letters from Bowling Green State University, at which time Lillian Gish hailed him as “our preeminent historian of the silent film.” In 2025 the Los Angeles Silent Film Festival presented him with its first Certificate of Honor in Silent Film Scholarship.
> From the same author:
A Journey Through Film History (2025)
Anthony Slide in Conversation with Matthew Renoir
by Anthony Slide and Matthew Renoir
Subject: History of Cinema
The Silent Feminists (2022)
America's First Women Directors, Rowman & Littlefield Edition
Subject: Silent Cinema
The Truth at Twenty-Four Frames per Second (2021)
An Anthology of Writings on Film History
Dir. Anthony Slide
Subject: History of Cinema
The Encyclopedia of British Film (2021)
Dir. Brian McFarlane and Anthony Slide
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Magnificent Obsession (2018)
The Outrageous History of Film Buffs, Collectors, Scholars, and Fanatics
Subject: Sociology
A Special Relationship (2015)
Britain Comes to Hollywood and Hollywood Comes to Britain
Subject: History of Cinema
It's the Pictures That Got Small (2014)
Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age
Dir. Anthony Slide
Subject: Director > Billy Wilder
Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine (2010)
A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers
Subject: On Films > Movie magazines
Silent Players (2002)
A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses
Subject: Silent Cinema
Actors on Red Alert (1999)
Career interviews with five actors and actresses affected by the blacklist
Subject: Countries > United States
Before, In and After Hollywood (1997)
by Joseph Henabery and Anthony Slide
Subject: Director > Joseph Henabery
De Toth on De Toth (1997)
Putting the Drama in Front of the Camera
by André De Toth and Anthony Slide
Subject: Director > André De Toth
Silent Portraits (1997)
Stars of the Silent Screen in Historic Photographs
Dir. Anthony Slide
Subject: Silent Cinema
Selected Film Criticism (1995)
Foreign Films 1930-1950
Dir. Anthony Slide
Subject: On Films > Film selections
The International Film Industry (1989)
A Historical Dictionary
Fifty Classic French Films, 1912-1982 (1987)
A Pictorial Record
Early women directors (1977)
Their Role in the Development of the Silent Cinema
Subject: Silent Cinema
The Idols of Silence (1977)
Stars of the Cinema Before the Talkies
Dir. Anthony Slide
Subject: Silent Cinema
The Films of D. W. Griffith (1975)
by Edward Wagenknecht and Anthony Slide
Subject: Director > David W. Griffith
Griffith and the Rise of Hollywood (1970)
by Paul O'Dell and Anthony Slide
Subject: Director > David W. Griffith
> On a related topic:
Hollywood Boozers, Brawlers and Hard-Luck Cases (2025)
Fifteen Ill-Fated Actors of the Golden Age
by Laura Wagner
Hollywood's Hard-Luck Ladies (2020)
23 Actresses Who Suffered Early Deaths, Accidents, Missteps, Illnesses and Tragedies
by Laura Wagner
Latino Image Makers in Hollywood (2014)
Performers, Filmmakers and Films Since the 1960s
Hollywood by Hollywood (2018)
The Backstudio Picture and the Mystique of Making Movies
by Steven Cohan
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