Texas Hollywood: Filmmaking in San Antonio since 1910

$16.95
(softcover)

96 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 inches,
109 illustrations, notes, bibliography, index
ISBN: 1-893271-20-X

“I much prefer San Antonio for the production for pictures to either New York or Los Angeles,” one movie director observed in 1919. “San Antonio has all the advantages of both places with the addition of a few neither can boast of.”

Such advantages—varied countryside, interesting architecture, rich history, good weather, talented people—continue to yield a remarkably diverse number of films. A broad San Antonio presence is obvious in some: Cloak and Dagger (1984), Still Breathing (1998), Evenhand (2001). Others draw on the city’s longstanding relationship with the military: Wings (1927), West Point of the Air (1935), Air Cadet (1951) plus a host of Alamo films beginning with The Immortal Alamo (1911). San Antonio also substitutes for such places as the Old South ( The Warrens of Virginia , 1924), Chicago ( The Big Brawl , 1980), Colombia ( Toy Soldiers , 1991), Africa ( Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls , 1995).

California film historian Frank Thompson sorts it all out in this entertainingly written, dramatically illustrated and thoroughly researched work, concluding with a landmark San Antonio filmography. He leaves no doubt about the richness of the filmmaking heritage that gives San Antonio claim to the title “Texas Hollywood.”

Maverick Publishing Company
P. O. Box 6355, San Antonio, Texas 78209
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