Through the richness in cases, examples and anecdotes it gives a practical, nuts-and-bolts insight into the workings of the film business.
~Business History
Does a fine job of detailing the death of a studio and its reincarnation as a subsidiary of a conglom. Dick's forensics peel back history, revealing the passions, politics and power plays of filmmakers and dealmakers that culminated in the dissolution of a Hollywood empire.
~Daily Variety
An important book not only about the history of a studio, but also about the apparently ineluctable direction big business has taken in American society.
~Donald Spoto
A breezy and informative six-reeler about the 'engulfing' of the once proud studio by a mega-conglomerate to which film art was merely another commodity.
~EH.NET Reviews
Provides a helpful scaffolding of Paramount's fascinating history thus far and suggests that business historians would do well to engage the film industry further in their explorations of twentieth-century business and economic life.
~Enterprise and Society
Clever, thought-provokingDick has the ability to explain the complex in-fighting among studio executives in the corridors of power in a movie studio—and their even more complex negotiations with the conglomerates who own the studios—in a way that is clear and incisive.
~Gene D. Phillips
The stories behind some of the greatest films ever made pale beside the story of the studio that made them.
~Hollywood Inside Syndicate
Provides historical insight into the death of Paramount Pictures as an autonomous studio and its fall to the conglomerate Gulf + Western in 1966.
~Journal of Economic History
Uses Paramount Pictures to illustrate the evolution of the motion-picture industry from Thomas Edison to Michael Eisner.... Always erudite and entertaining.
~Kirkus Reviews
This thoroughly researched story reveals the shift in the industry's primary focus from making fine film to making a successful, multifaceted business deal and prompts debate over which one is considered to be real art in modern Hollywood.
~Library Journal
Everybody knows that Paramount was one of the major studios, but few know the twists and turns of the history of the studio over the years.
~Peter C. Rollins
Traces Paramount's lineage from its 1912 origins to its 1966 purchase by Gulf & Western and its present ownership by Viacom/CBS.
~Publishers Weekly
Astutely analyzes the role of outside corporate money in the film industry, and how the changes at Paramount heralded a new, inevitable trend in American film and arts.... Dick's in-depth analysis and research makes for great—and shocking—journalism.
~Publishers Weekly
Dick lends the personalities and events so much emotional colour that his book is as compulsively readable as a biography.
~Sight and Sound
Dick has composed an authoritative account of Paramount Pictures Corporation and accomplished the not inconsiderable feat of making it read less like business and more like history.
~Washington Times
