Patrick Humphries, "Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood: How One Film Almost Sunk the Studios" (History Press, 2023)

New Books in Popular Culture

The astonishing behind-the-scenes story of the 1963 film Cleopatra and how it changed the face of Hollywood makes it one of the most fabled films of all time.

Starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the film’s making soon became a cautionary tale, for the lavish extravagance of production on Cleopatra all but bankrupted 20th Century Fox and almost singlehandedly set in motion the decline of the major Hollywood movie studios. By the time the film was finally released, 20th Century Fox and the world watched as it died at the box office. Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood: How One Film Almost Sunk the Studios (History Press, 2023) is an epic tale of love and lust, gossip, money, sex, movie-star madness, studio politics, and the birth of paparazzi journalism. Within the saga of Cleopatra lies the end of the era of Hollywood's studio system, the seeds of the Swinging Sixties, and the stuff of timeless movie legend.

Patrick Humphries has been a writer and journalist for over forty years and has published numerous books on musical artists such as the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Pink Floyd, and Bruce Springsteen.

Latoya Johnson is an editor, writer, and bibliophile with a master's in Humanities. Her research and writing delve into various aspects of popular culture. She is particularly interested in exploring the public history of women's fiction and the portrayal of femme characters in Greco-Roman mythology.

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