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Book review

In Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams,for the first time Donald Bogle tells the story of a place both mythic and real: Black Hollywood. This entertaining history demonstrates the brave and courageous manner in which African Americansfound a place for themselves in an industry that originally had no place for them. By collecting interviews and the personal memories of Hollywood luminaries, Bogle puts together a marvelous history that is stillquite obscure to this day. The book tells us that Black Hollywood was a place different from the studio-system-dominated Tinseltown, a world unto itself, with unique rules and social hierarchy. This place has its own talent scouts and media, its own elegant hotels, and fashionable nightspots, and, no doubt, its own glamorous and brilliant personalities. Apart fromwell-known actors such as Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Hattie McDaniel, beautiful Lena Horne and the fabulously talented Sammy Davis, Jr., readers meet the likes of heartthrob James Edwards, whose promising career was destroyed by rumors of an affair with Lana Turner, and the mysterious Madame Sul-Te-Wan, who was close friends with pioneering director D. W. Griffith. At the same time, Bogle examines other members of the black community, from the white stars’ black servants, who had their own money and prestige, to gossip columnists, hairstylists, and architects. Bogle described the world that grew up around them along Central Avenue, the Harlem of the West.

By introducing Madame Sul-te-wan Bogle explains the status system in the early days that ranked black servants to white stars higher than any black actor or actress. No doubt, since Bogle is the only author who wrote about early Black film stars one believes everything he says. He never introduces the public to unsung talents people have never heard of. However, Bogle tells the story of black women from white people's perspective not from a true black person's perspective, which I consider to be biased and partial. Actress Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar as Mammy in Gone With The Wind, but in fact she was a part of a glamorous society of black actors living, working and prospering in Old Hollywood. In his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams entertainment historian Donald Bogle depicts the lifestyles and careers of African Americans in Hollywood.

Works cited

Bogle, Donald. Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams. The Story of Black Hollywood. One World/Ballantine, Hardcover, January 2005