Wall Award Finalists, 2001-Present
Formerly known as the Theatre Library Association Award, the prize was renamed in 2010 to honor the memory of the late Richard Wall, longtime TLA member and Book Awards Chair.
The Wall Award jurors found the following titles to be of particular stand-out note. They are listed here alphabetically by author under the award presentation year.
2024
Diana W. Anselmo, A Queer Way of Feeling: Girl Fans and Personal Archives of Early Hollywood, University of California Press, 2023.
Donald Bogle, Lena Horne: Goddess Reclaimed, Running Press, 2023.
Mark Cantor, The Soundies: A History and Catalog of Jukebox Film Shorts of the 1940s, Volumes I & II, McFarland, 2023.
Isabel Huacuja Alonso, Radio for the Millions: Hindu-Urdu Broadcasting Across Borders, Columbia University Press, 2023.
Josh Shepperd, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, University of Illinois Press, 2023.
2023
James Chapman, The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985, Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
James Curtis, Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life, Knopf, 2022.
Bruce Davis, The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Brandeis University Press, 2022.
Didier Ghez, The Origins of Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures, Hyperion Historical Alliance, 2022.
Barbara Klinger, Immortal Films: Casablanca and the Afterlife of a Hollywood Classic, University of California Press, 2022.
Alison Macor, Making The Best Years of Our Lives: The Hollywood Classic That Inspired A Nation, University of Texas Press, 2022.
Craig Shemin, Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson’s First Television Show, Bear Manor, 2022.
2022
Richard Abel, editor, Movie Mavens: US Newspaper Women Take on the Movies, 1914-1923, University of Illinois Press, 2021.
Daphne Brooks, Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound, Belknap Press, 2021.
Robert Dance, The Savvy Sphinx: How Garbo Conquered Hollywood, University of Mississippi Press, 2021.
Glenn Frankel, Shooting Midnight Cowboy, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.
Richard Koszarski, Keep ‘Em in the East: Kazan, Kubrick, and the Postwar New York Film Renaissance, Columbia University Press, 2021.
Phil Rosenzweig, Reginald Rose and the Journey of 12 Angry Men, Empire State Editions, 2021.
2021
Debashree Mukherjee, Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City, Columbia University Press, 2020.
Eric Smoodin, Paris in the Dark: Going to the Movies in the City of Light, 1930-1950, Duke University Press, 2020.
Barbara Tepa Lupack, Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema, Cornell University Press, 2020.
2020
J.B. Kaufman, The Making of Walt Disney’s Fun and Fancy Free, Hyperion Historical Alliance, 2019.
Patrick Keating, The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Classical Hollywood, Columbia University Press, 2019.
Sydney Ladensohn Stern, The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics, University Press of Mississippi, 2019.
Eithne Quinn, A Piece of the Action: Race and Labor in Post-Civil Rights Hollywood, Columbia University Press, 2019.
Tom Rice, Films for the Colonies: Cinema and the Preservation of the British Empire, University of California Press, 2019.
Ariel Rogers, On the Screen: Displaying the Moving Image, 1926-1942, Columbia University Press 2019.
2019
Maite Conde, Foundational Films: Early Cinema and Modernity in Brazil. University of California Press, 2018.
Thomas Doherty, Show Trial: History, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist. Columbia University Press, 2018.
Jane M. Gaines, Pink-Slipped: What Happened to Women in the Silent Film Industries? University of Illinois Press, 2018.
Joshua Glick, Los Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History, 1958-1977. University of California Press, 2018.
Marek Haltof, Screening Auschwitz: Wanda Jakubowska’s The Last Stage and the Politics of Commemoration. Northwestern University Press, 2018.
Maggie Hennefeld, Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes. Columbia University Press, 2018.
Deborah L. Jaramillo, The Television Code: Regulating the Screen to Safeguard the Industry. University of Texas Press, 2018.
Martin L. Johnson, Main Street Movies: The History of Local Film in the United States. Indiana University Press, 2018.
Noah Tsika, Traumatic Imprints: Cinema, Military Psychiatry, and the Aftermath of War. University of California Press, 2018.
2018
David Bordwell, Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie Storytelling. University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Glenn Frankel, High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of An American Classic. Bloomsbury USA, 2017.
Jennifer Fronc, Monitoring the Movies: The Fight over Film Censorship in Early Twentieth-Century Urban America. University of Texas Press, 2017.
Rob King, Hokum! The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture. University of California Press, 2017.
Rielle Navitski, Public Spectacles of Violence: Sensational Cinema and Journalism in Early Twentieth-Century Mexico and Brazil. Duke University Press, 2017.
Alan K. Rode, Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. University Press of Kentucky, 2017.
2017
Kevin Brianton, Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist. University Press of Kentucky, 2016.
Emily Carman, Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System. University of Texas Press, 2016.
Laura Horak, Girls Will be Boys: Cross Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934. Rutgers University Press, 2016.
Richard Lowell MacDonald, The Appreciation of Film: The Postwar Film Society Movement and Film Culture in Britain. University of Exeter Press, 2016.
Frank Noack, Veit Harlan: The Life and Work of a Nazi Filmmaker. University Press of Kentucky, 2016.
2016
Richard Abel, Menus for Movieland: Newspapers and the Emergence of Film Culture, 1913-1916. University of California Press, 2015.
Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical. University Press of Kentucky, 2015.
Allyson Nadia Field, Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film And The Possibility of Black Modernity. Duke University Press Books, 2015.
Tracey Goessel, The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks. Chicago Review Press, 2015.
Brian R. Jacobson, Studios Before The System: Architecture, Technology, And The Emergence of Cinematic Space. Columbia University Press, 2015.
Jacqueline Reich, The Maciste Films of Italian Silent Cinema. Indiana University Press, 2015.
Nicholas Sammond, Birth of An Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation. Duke University Press Books, 2015.
2015
Cecilia DeMille Presley and Mark A. Viera, Cecil B. DeMille: The Art of the Hollywood Epic. Running Press, 2014.
J. E. Smyth, Fred Zinnemann and the Cinema of Resistance. University Press of Mississippi, 2014.
Eric Hoyt, Hollywood Vault: Film Libraries Before Home Video. University of California Press, 2014.
Federico Pacchioni, Inspiring Fellini: Literary Collaborations Behind the Scenes. University of Toronto Press, 2014.
2014
Giorgio Bertellini (Editor). Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader. Indiana University Press, 2013.
Thomas Doherty. Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939. Columbia University Press, 2013.
Hilary Hallett. Go West, Young Women! The Rise of Early Hollywood. University of California Press, 2013.
Brian Jay Jones. Jim Henson: The Biography. Ballantine Books, 2013.
Barbara Tepa Lupack. Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking. Indiana University Press, 2013.
2013
The TLA Book Awards were not presented in 2013.
2012
Donald Bogle. Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters. HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.
James Curtis. Spencer Tracy, A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
Lisa Dombrowski (Editor). Kazan Revisited. Wesleyan University Press, 2011.
Angelica Fenner. Race Under Reconstruction in German Cinema: Robert Stemmle’s Toxi. University of Toronto Press, 2011.
Rosalind Galt. Pretty: Film and the Decorative Image. Columbia University Press, 2011.
Jeffrey Geiger. American Documentary Film: Projecting the Nation. Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
Brian Kellow. Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark. Viking, 2011.
Emily W. Leider. Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood. University of California Press, 2011.
Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick. Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, the Birds, and Marnie. University of Illinois Press, 2011.
Malcolm Turvey. Filming of Modern Life: European Avant-Garde Film of the 1920s.MIT Press, 2011.
2011
Dennis Bingham. Whose Lives Are They, Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre. Rutgers University Press, 2010.
Gary Giddins. Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema. W.W. Norton, 2010.
Sam Irvin. Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Amy Lawrence. The Passion of Montgomery Clift. University of California Press, 2010.
Tony Pipolo. Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film. Oxford, 2010.
Steven Price. The Screenplay: Authorship, Theory and Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Heide Schlüpmann. The Uncanny Gaze: The Drama of Early German Cinema. Translated by Inga Pollman. University of Illinois Press, 2010.
Matthew Solomon. Disappearing Tricks: Silent Film, Houdini and the New Magic of the Twentieth Century. University of Illinois Press, 2010.
2010
Matthew H. Bernstein. Screening a Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on Film and Television. University of Georgia Press, 2009.
Lucas Hilderbrand. Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright. Duke University Press, 2009.
Patrick Keating. Hollywood Lighting from the Silent Era to Film Noir. Columbia University Press, 2009.
David Mayer. Stagestruck Filmmaker: D.W. Griffith and the American Theatre. University of Iowa Press, 2009.
Kristin A. McGee. Some Liked it Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928-1959. Wesleyan University Press, 2009.
Derek Nystrom. Hard Hats, Rednecks, and Macho Men: Class in 1970s American Cinema. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Stephen Tropiano. Obscene, Indecent, Immoral, and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned and Controversial Films. Limelight Editions, 2009.
Mark A. Vieira. Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince. University of California Press, 2009.
2009
Michael Aronson. Nickelodeon City: Pittsburgh at the Movies, 1905-1929. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.
Richard Koszarski. Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff. Rutgers University Press, 2008.
2008
Zander Brietzke. American Drama in the Age of Film. The University of Alabama Press, 2007.
Gerald R. Butters, Jr. Banned in Kansas: Motion Picture Censorship, 1915-1966. University of Missouri Press, 2007.
Bruce Lenthall. Radio’s America: The Great Depression and the Rise of Modern Mass Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
D. N. Rodowick. The Virtual Life of Film. Harvard University Press, 2007.
Jeffrey Stepakoff. Billion-Dollar Kiss: The Kiss the Saved Dawson’s Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing. Gotham Books, 2007.
Garrett Stewart. Framed Time: Toward a Postfilmic Cinema. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
2007
Richard Abel. Americanizing the Movies and “Movie-Mad” Audiences, 1910-1914. University of California Press, 2006.
Susan Delson. Dudley Murphy: Hollywood Wild Card. University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
Hervé Dumont. Frank Borzage: The Life and Films of a Hollywood Romantic. Translated by Jonathan Kaplansky. McFarland, 2006.
Neal Gabler. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Joseph McBride. What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career. University Press of Kentucky, 2006.
Robert L. McLaughlin and Sally E. Perry. We’ll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema During World War II. University Press of Kentucky, 2006.
Peter Richmond. Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee. Henry Holt & Company, 2006.
J. E. Smyth. Reconstructing American Historical Cinema: From “Cimarron” to “Citizen Kane”. University Press of Kentucky, 2006.
Jack Sullivan. Hitchcock’s Music. Yale University Press, 2006.
2006
Richard A. Blake. Street Smart: The New York of Lumet, Allen, Scorsese and Lee. University Press of Kentucky, 2005.
Robert J. Christopher. Robert and Frances Flaherty: A Documentary Life, 1883-1922. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005.
Peter Decherney. Hollywood and the Cultural Elite: How the Movies Became American. Columbia University Press, 2005.
Darcie Denkert. A Fine Romance. Watson-Guptill Publications, 2005.
Scott Eyman. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Clinton Heylin. Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios. Chicago Review Press, 2005.
David Leopold. Irving Berlin’s Show Business: Broadway – Hollywood – America. Harry N. Abrams, 2005 (also a Freedley Award Finalist).
Mark Cotta Vaz. Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong. Villard Books, 2005.
Mark A. Vieira. Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy. Harry N. Abrams, 2005.
Haidee Wasson. Museum Movies: The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art Cinema. University of California Press, 2005.
John Wranovics. Chaplin and Agee: The Untold Story of the Tramp, the Writer, and the Lost Screenplay. Palgrave, 2005.
Stephen D. Youngkin. The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre. University Press of Kentucky, 2005.
2005
Robert S. Birchard. Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
Peter Biskind. Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Peter Bogdanovich. Who the Hell’s in It: Portraits and Conversations. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Elizabeth Ezra (Editor). European Cinema. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Krin Gabbard. Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture. Rutgers University Press, 2004.
Aram Goudsouzian. Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon. University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
Peter C. Rollins (Editor). The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past. Columbia University Press, 2004.
David Thomson. The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Geoffrey C. Ward. Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Max Wilk. Schmucks with Underwoods: Conversations with Hollywood’s Classic Screenwriters. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2004.
2004
John Bodnar. Blue-Collar Hollywood: Liberalism, Democracy, and Working People in American Film. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Thomas Doherty. Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. Columbia University Press, 2003.
Alan L. Heil, Jr. Voice of America: A History. Columbia University Press, 2003.
Peter B. High. The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Years’ War, 1931-1945. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
J. Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler. Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting. Princeton University Press, 2003.
Stefan Kanfer. Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Devin McKinney. Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History. Harvard University Press, 2003.
Sven Nykvist and others. Making Pictures: A Century of European Cinematography. Harry N. Abrams, 2003.
Rebecca Solnit. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West. Viking, 2003.
Jeffrey Vance. Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema. Harry N. Abrams, 2003.
2003
Richard Barrios. Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall. Routledge, 2002.
Gerald R. Butters, Jr.Black Manhood on the Silent Screen. University Press of Kansas, 2002.
Samuel Fuller and others. A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking. Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Stuart Galbraith IV. The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Faber & Faber, 2002.
Arthur Knight. Disintegrating the Musical: Black Performance and American Musical Film. Duke University Press, 2002.
Rémi Fournier Lanzoni. French Cinema from Its Beginnings to the Present. Continuum, 2002.
Simon Louvish. Stan and Ollie, The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy. St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
Barbara Tepa Lupack. Literary Adaptations in Black American Cinema: From Micheaux to Morrison. University of Rochester Press, 2002.
Richard M. Sudhalter. Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael. Oxford University Press, 2002.
John Trumpbour. Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film Industry, 1920-1950. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Jeffrey Vance and Suzanne Lloyd. Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian. Harry N. Abrams, 2002.
Hanns Zischler (Susan H. Gillespie, Translator). Kafka Goes to the Movies. University of Chicago Press, 2002.
2002
Charles Affron. Lillian Gish: Her Legend, Her Life. Scribner, 2001.
Joanne Bernardi. Writing in Light: The Silent Scenario and the Japanese Pure Film Movement. Wayne State University Press, 2001.
Donald Bogle. Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001.
Paula Marantz Cohen. Silent Film and the Triumph of the American Myth. Oxford University Press, 2001.
Maria DiBattista. Fast-Talking Dames. Yale University Press, 2001.
Jane M. Gaines. Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Peter Hanson. Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood Rebel: A Critical Survey and Filmography. McFarland, 2001.
Charles Keil. Early American Cinema in Transition: Story, Style and Filmmaking, 1907-1913. University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
Bill Nichols (Editor). Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde. University of California Press, 2001.
Ben Singer. Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts. Columbia University Press, 2001
Linda Williams. Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson. Princeton University Press, 2001.
2001
Sarah Berry. Screen Style: Fashion and Femininity in 1930s Hollywood. University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
David Bordwell. Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. Harvard University Press, 2000.
Kate Buford. Burt Lancaster: An American Life. Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki. The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
J. Ronald Green. Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux. Indiana University Press, 2000.
Constance Valis Hill. Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers. Oxford University Press, 2000 (also a Freedley Award Finalist).
Mick LaSalle. Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood. St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
Randolph Lewis. Emile de Antonio: Radical Filmmaker in Cold War America. University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Lary May. The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Steven Reiss and others. Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary Art of the Music Video. Harry N. Abrams, 2000.
Luther F. Sies. Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960. McFarland, 2000.
Shelley Stamp. Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon. Princeton University Press, 2000.