THE GLAMOUR FACTORY

A history of the Hollywood factory system that leaps, handy- dandy, between the intimate and the commonplace, drawing from hundreds of interviews with Tinseltown folk conducted by the Southern Methodist University Oral History Program, which Davis (Hollywood Beauty, 1991) founded. Davis's foreword thanks his undergraduate students who took his ``American Society through Film'' course, youngsters who in most instances ``were delving into Hollywood's Golden Era for the first time....'' Meanwhile, older film buffs may begin reading with the terrible feeling that they've read all this before, many times- -but they'll find that tasty garnishings to the familiar are added by the intimate thoughts of film editors like Robert Wise, who slaved on his own over the timing of the famed breakfast scene in Citizen Kane, or of staffers like Lillian Burns, secretary to Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn, who belies Cohn's reputation as an obscenity-spouting ogre. Davis covers all the major studio chiefs, directors, and producers; the creating of stars; lives of actors and actresses (who discover that despite being stars, they're only human); supporting players (``Who am I and what stage are we playing on?''); publicity; writing; music; editing; and much more. Despite a framework of obligatory material erected with no personal voice, Davis keeps most pages lively with the unexpected quote: Asked about his method, Claude Rains says, ``I just learn the lines and pray to God.'' Eventually, the stars grow restless with the contract system, the independents arise, and TV takes over. ``Now, studios are nothing but the Ramada Inn,'' says Billy Wilder. ``You rent space, you shoot, and out you go.'' A cake you eat for its raisins. (Twenty b&w photographs)