“For me, the ultimate attraction of the early movies is the sheer filmic presence of its greatest stars. … Where have all the faces gone? The first stars had faces, they all had style. Nowadays, style seems to get in the way of film-making”. So feels Harold Town, noted Canadian artist and movie buff and, to prove his point, he has captured, in 105 superb full page drawings, most of his film deities, their panache, their foibles - in portraits as well as scenes from their most famous movies. Such mythic personalities as W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, are lovingly and understandingly portrayed by a great artist. Vincent Price, who supplies the introduction to the book, calls Town “a genius,” and this applies not only to his drawings but to Town’s accompanying text, a warm discerning memoir of what the “silver screen” and its stars have meant to him - as boy and man.

~ Silent Stars • Sound Stars • Film Stars, 1971 (McClelland & Stewart)

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Charlie Chaplin in The Cure - lithograph

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Pola Negri - lithograph

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William S. Hart - lithograph, Ed. 4/60 (1970)

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Rudolf Valentino - lithograph

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Clark Gable and Jean Harlow - lithograph

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William S. Hart - lithograph