Hollywood Rhapsody: The Story of Movie Music, 1900-1975

This is a very readable book , written in a gossipy, anecdotal style with plenty of detail. As other reviewers have commented, Marmorstein is also more than a bit cavalier with facts and there are some notable omissions. Nevertheless, he does integrate the great Hollywood songwriters into the history of Hollywood film music and his chapters on specific musical genres such as the Western and Animation are interesting. Marmorstein is frequently opinionated (annoyingly so) and often without substantiation. It is an enjoyable book but probably best read in conjunction with some of the more academic books on film music , such as those by Kathryn Kalinak.