Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the Film Entertainment Industry

This book is a brilliant collection of the history of the Deaf in their relationship to Hollywood. Very well researched, well written and well organized.

Before reviewing, I want you to be aware that the product info provided by Amazon.com is misleading. Firstly, the info says that it is 200 pages. The textual portion is actually 155 pages. Of that, 48 pages is a filmography indexing all films and television shows the author could find related to deafness, with a brief description of how deafness is treated in each. So the actual "book" portion of it is about 100 pages. Secondly, 1999 is the listed publication date. That may be when the book was published, but it was originally written in 1986. The last film mentioned in it is "Children of a Lesser God." This book would much more interesting if it were updated. Taken in the context of the time it was written (prior to the Deaf cultural flowerings since 1988), it is a very interesting, though brief, examination of how Hollywood has portrayed deafness in film and television since their inceptions. It compares the portrayals with real deaf people and real deaf life. Written by the son of culturally Deaf parents, he had first-hand experience with real deaf people. Noticing that deaf people were presented very falsely by the media, he decided to write this book. Film was a very exciting medium for deaf people when it was first invented. Not only were these silent films a completely accessible media, they could also record the dynamics of sign language. Deaf actors were on par with hearing actors in these films. But, there were several deaf characters in various films, and all of them were stereotypes (ironically, none of the deaf characters were acted by deaf actors). This book mostly describes these stereotypes, and their various incarnations in film, such as the lonely deaf character, the expert lip-reader, the deaf as a victim (usually of rape), the association of speech with intelligence (using the term "dumb" or "dummy"), and hearing people who pretend to be deaf (based on the assumption that deaf people are not threatening). The book discusses these issues as they appeared in films through the decades. It also discusses seminal films, particularly "Johnny Belinda," and, of course, "Children of a Lesser God." These films stood out in their presentations of deaf people, and influenced the directions of many later films. To a lesser extent, the book describes television. It addresses the same stereotypes. It also notes that deaf actors made a debut on television before they re-appeared in film (deaf actors mostly lost their jobs with the beginning of sound films). So in a way, television was in the advance of big-screen films, and was probably the motivating force for getting deaf people into deaf roles in film. The book also describes the true lives of deaf people, and issues of importance to the Deaf community, to give context. As the title implies, except for a few brief exceptions, the book is limited to discussions of American media, and response from American audiences, both deaf and hearing. The issues addressed seem rather repetitive, since the topics and stereotypes are defined again for each time period. I am not sure that the casual reader will want to spend $20+ on this little book, especially considering how dated it is. But for people who are not familiar with the topic of deafness in relation to the media, it is a fantastic introduction. I am fairly familiar with both, and I found myself becoming aware of things I had never thought of before. Even if dated, many of the same stereotypes may still be propagating in our current media.

I liked the way Dr. John Schuchman did a research job focusing on the deaf and hard-of hearing entertainers from the early 1920s for historical purposes of the deaf. Unfortunately, the Deaf actors were short-lived until the sound films were introduced in 1928. The book explains how deaf "Hollywood" was developed in the early 1970s until the 1990s.

The author of this book, graduated from Manual High School, in 1956. I know him, and he is a very educated man, and I knew his book would be very good. He also signed it for me.