Hal Erickson

Costs a small fortune in hardcover on the used market these days, but if you have any comprehensive interest at all in cartoons of the later half of the 20th century, Hal Erickson (who you might know from AllMovies Guide) did some titanic work here. In fact, I have no idea how he did it in the age before torrents and video streaming, where that rare cartoon is a search or two away (although he partially explains how he did it in the introduction). Two thick volumes covering just about every English language cartoon of the era from A-Z. A tidal wave of useful information. If I have one nitpick, listing the full roster of voice actors for each show takes up considerable space, and I'm not sure it was necessary beyond listing the main cast. This is the type of quality reference book I'll read now and then for the rest of my life.… (mehr)

I love both classic era movies and "otr" - old time radio, a surprisingly amount of which survives and can be found for free online - so I was surprised I was rather disappointed in this book. The book badly needs a detailed table of contents telling what movie adaptations are on what pages, instead the toc is virtually nothing. I also dislike the way each film is run together rather than beginning and ending like a chapter with blank space between entries. I was also disappointed that far too many of the photographs used to illustrate the book are movie ads, magazine covers, and the like, not particularly uncommon images for those of us who are real into this hobby. The photo is fairly well researched but somehow lacks strong interest though part of that may be due to a startling number of these filmed versions of radio favorites were unsuccessful and failed to capture the appeal of the programs.… (mehr)

Hal Erickson's From Radio to the Big Screen is a thorough reference on radio programs that made the leap (sometimes not particularly that successfully) to the big screen. The amount of detail in this books is astonishing - and commendable. All the big shows and names are here, along with programs and their actors that might otherwise have been lost to the annals of time.

Some entries are better than others. In the very first one, about Ann Howe, concludes her life with the note that she is not the woman who starred in 1990 porn movies. A poor attempt at humor? Why ever it's there, it's not funny, it's confusing, and it's inappropriate.

Despite this and some other issues, this book is a great reference for fans of radio shows and film alike.… (mehr)