Ed Hulse

William Powell Ed Hulse

Innumerable Hollywood biographies and movie history books have been written in retrospectby film historians who relied partially if not extensively on the information provided by theindustry's trade and fan magazines. Long before the modern concept of social media outlets were imagined, these magazines offeredthe curious public a way to further satisfy their obsession for movies outside the darkenedauditoriums of the cinema. These publications, though tightly controlled by the industry, alsoserved as documentation-a window into the popular culture of the day-in feature articles, movie reviews, and product advertisements-and they still do today. In this volume, the first twenty years of WilliamPowell's life and career are presented unfilteredin a collection of feature articles by contemporaryscribes of the industry, along with the generouslyadded illustrative material culled from our collectionand the collections of several other dedicated movieenthusiasts. They chronicle the silent introductionof William H. Powell to movie audiences in the 1920sand follow his development from snidely villain tothe more charming and sophisticated roles for whichhe achieved fame in the early talkies. Many aspectsof his public and private life are revealed by someof the people who knew him best during the yearsleading up to the Second World War