Thomas H. Ince (1880-1924) turned movie-making into a business enterprise. Progressing from actor to director and screenwriter, he revolutionized the motion picture industry through developing the role of the producer. In addition to building the first major Hollywood studio facility, dubbed "Inceville," he was responsible for more than 800 films. Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer chronicles Ince's life from the stage to his sudden death as he was about to join forces with media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Author Brian Taves explores Ince's impact on Hollywood's production system, the Western, his creation of the first American movies starring Asian performers, and his cinematic exploration of the status of women in society. Until now, Thomas Ince has not been the subject of a biography. This book offers insight into the world of silent cinema through the story of one of its earliest and most influential moguls.
"Brian Taves has written the first book length study in English of Thomas Ince, the unjustly forgotten producer-director responsible for creating the classical Hollywood studio system of production. Taves' lucid account of a career cut short by a premature death, debunks the many myths surrounding Ince's mysterious last days, while placing Ince in proper perspective as one of Hollywood's greatest
Jan-Christopher Horak, Director of UCLA Film & Television Archive
"Brian Taves's exhaustive and compelling biography of Thomas Ince documents the career of a valiant independent producer in the early days of Hollywood, a period when the movies became big business. Thanks to Taves's exhaustive research, which documents Ince's working methods, financial arrangements, and filmmaking skills, Ince emerges as a true founder of the industry, along with Adolph Zukor, Ca
Tino Balio, author of The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens, 1946-1973
