“Keep ’Em in the East”

Kevin Brownlow, author of The Parade's Gone By ... :
Keep 'Em in the East is absorbing and enlightening. The dramas and disasters are expertly told and brilliantly researched. The book is a pleasure to read.

Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star Machine:
In this reassessment of the role of New York City in the history of film, “Keep ’Em in the East” restores the city’s filmmaking reputation with impeccable research and enthusiasm. No one would dispute that Richard Koszarski is the only film historian who could have written this book.

Eddie Muller, host of TCM's Noir Alley:
Keep 'Em In the East is a valuable (and long overdue) work of cinema scholarship. It broadens the parameters of American film history to include the boroughs of New York, where independent artists thrived far from Hollywood’s picture factories. Koszarski’s exemplary research shows that New York’s influence extended beyond Broadway’s influential writers, directors, and performers; it included a whole cadre of cinematic talent who'd have a profound impact on American movies.

David Bordwell, author of Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie Storytelling:
Richard Koszarski is a bold historian, a meticulous researcher, and a spellbinding storyteller. “Keep ‘Em in the East” masterfully displays all his talents. Only Koszarski could so deftly weave together industrial history, political infighting, social conditions, personal and very human biographies, and pointed appreciation of films as different as Naked City and Tall, Tan, and Terrific. In the process, Koszarski brings to light forgotten movies and trends, from little-known urban docudramas to the important 'race films' made for Black audiences. The book’s final stretch “crosscuts” Kazan's making On the Waterfront with Kubrick's preparing Killer’s Kiss, and the result is as exciting as a Hollywood chase. “Keep ‘Em in the East” permanently reshapes our understanding of American film as an art, a business, and a cultural force.