Anthony Slide (born 7 November 1944) is an English writer who has produced more than seventy books and edited a further 150 on the history of popular entertainment. He wrote a "letter from Hollywood" for the British ''
Film Review
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...
'' magazine from 1979 to 1994, and he wrote a monthly book review column for ''
Classic Images
''Classic Images'' is a monthly American mail-subscription newspaper in tabloid format, founded in 1962 by film collector Samuel K. Rubin, dedicated to film and television of the "Golden Age". Its offices are located in Muscatine, Iowa and it is ...
'' from 1989 to 2001. He is a member of the editorial board of the
American Film Institute Catalog
The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in ...
.
Biography
Born in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, England, on 7 November 1944, Slide began his professional involvement with the cultural and historical field of films in the mid-1960s, serving as honorary secretary of the Society for Film History Research and co-founding and serving as the first editor of the newsletter of the still-active Cinema Theatre Association. In 1968, he became assistant editor of ''International Film Guide'' and editorial assistant on the film publications of Tantivy Press. That same year, he co-founded ''The Silent Picture'' a quarterly devoted to the art and history of the silent film, which he edited until its demise in 1974. In 1970, in conjunction with the
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...
, Slide organized Britain's, and the world's, first silent film festival, an eighteen-day event at the
National Film Theatre
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute.
Hist ...
.
In 1971, Slide was named a
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...
Research Associate with the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
's Center for Advanced Film Studies in
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...
. The following year, he went to
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
, D.C. to set up the
American Film Institute Catalog
The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in ...
: ''Feature Films, 1911–1920'', and subsequently became the AFI's associate film archivist. In 1975, he moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, becoming resident film historian of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
, responsible for most of its educational and cultural activities. He left the Academy in 1986 and co-owned
Producers Library Service, one of the two oldest and largest independent stock footage libraries in the United States from 1986–1990. He is now an independent film scholar, archivist and consultant.
Slide published his first book, ''Early American Cinema,'' in 1970 (it was subsequently revised and rewritten in 1994), and since then has been a prolific writer on little known areas of entertainment history. Among his most prominent works are ''The Big V: A History of the Vitagraph Company'' (1976, revised 1987), ''Great Pretenders: A History of Female and Male Impersonation in the Performing Arts'' (1986), ''Nitrate Won’t Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States'' (1992), ''Before Video: A History of the Non-Theatrical Film'' (1992), ''The Hollywood Novel'' (1995), ''DeToth on DeToth: Put the Drama in Front of the Camera'' (1997), ''Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses'' (2002), and ''
Lost Gay Novels
''Lost Gay Novels'' is a 2003 reference guide written by Anthony Slide that provides commentary on 50 works of gay literature published between 1900 and 1950 that Slide found to be not well-known by late 20th and early 21st-century audiences.
...
'' (2003).
He was the first to document the prominence of women directors in the American silent film industry with ''Early Women Directors'' (1977), which was subsequently revised and rewritten as ''The Silent Feminists'' (1996). Slide went on to edit ''The Memoirs of
Alice Guy Blaché
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'' (1986), the autobiography of the world's first female director, and to write ''
Lois Weber
Florence Lois Weber (June 13, 1879 – November 13, 1939) was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer and director. She is identified in some historical references as among "the most important and prolific film directors in the e ...
: The Director Who Lost Her Way in History'' (1996), the first and only biography of America's first native-born woman director.
Slide's 1986 work, ''The American Film Industry: A Historical Dictionary'' was named outstanding reference source of the year by the
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
. The sequel volume, ''The International Film Industry: A Historical Dictionary'' (1989) was named outstanding academic book of the year by
''Choice'' magazine. ''The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville'' (1994) was named outstanding academic book of the year by ''Choice'' magazine, a best reference book of the year by ''Library Journal'' and outstanding reference source of the year by the American Library Association.
His work as a writer and editor led
Charles Champlin
Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer.
Life and career
Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the '' ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' in to describe Slide as “a one-man publishing phenomenon".
However, writing and editing are not his only attributes. He is a frequent “talking head” on film, television and DVD documentaries. He has provided commentary for DVD releases from
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
and
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
He has also produced, written and directed a number of documentaries on silent film personalities: ''Portrait of
Blanche Sweet
Sarah Blanche Sweet (June 18, 1896 – September 6, 1986) was an American silent film actress who began her career in the earliest days of the Hollywood motion picture film industry.
Early life
Born Sarah Blanche Sweet (though her first na ...
'' (1982), ''Vi
iola Dana Portrait of a Silent Star'' (1988), ''Karl Brown's Adventures with
D.W. Griffith
David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the na ...
'' (1990), and ''The Silent Feminists: America’s First Women Directors'' (1993). Slide is also known as an appraiser of entertainment memorabilia, with a client list ranging from Ralph Edwards Productions to
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...
.
Slide conducted oral histories with many silent film celebrities, and these are available at the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
and elsewhere.
In 1990, Slide was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by
Bowling Green University
Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...
. At that time, he was hailed by
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
, on whom he had compiled a monograph for the British Film Institute back in 1969, as "our preeminent historian of the silent film.”
References
External links
*
*
*independentfilmscholar.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slide, Anthony
1944 births
Living people
English writers
British film historians
Film theorists
People from Birmingham, West Midlands