The Golden Age of Hollywood ran from 1929 - when the “talkies” were introduced - to the 1960s. Film stars were groomed and promoted by a studio system that could be both supportive and exploitive. When the studios began to break up in '60s, many of the stars they made famous were entering their old age. Some were still working by the late '70s, others were happily, or not, retired. But they were still accessible to fans in a way that modern celebrities aren’t.
For the past four decades, Dave Fantle has been interviewing some of Hollywood’s best loved stars. Those interviews have been published in a book called Hollywood Heyday: 75 Candid Interviews with Golden Age Legends.
Fantle explains how the his teenage obsession with the era, turned into a book decades later.
He says, "[In] June of 1978, we made this first sojourn via St. Paul to Los Angeles to interview the screen legends Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly... because they were so revered - and having that photo taken with Fred Astaire - it opened so many doors for us, and over 200 interviews followed."
