I’m Simone Elias, a writer. Right now, I love teaching young people about old Hollywood, so I wrote a book called Old Films, Young Eyes: A Teenage Take on Hollywood's Golden Age. It came out November 15, 2024 from McFarland.
I produced and co-hosted the podcast Teenage Golden Age about golden-age movies from the teen perspective. Before that I did my own podcasts about my rotating array of interests: I did one about spying, one about national parks, and another affiliated with the Internet Archive.
I write pretty much everything you can imagine, including songs and pilots. I love exploring multifaceted female characters in my writing.
I’ve previously written a column for a magazine called "Berkeley Hills Living" and have been a guest columnist on California Focus, the syndicated column. I’m also an advocate for mental health, and my interview with Psychology Today has inspired many to come out about experiences with OCD and mental hospital care.
I live in Berkeley, California and Camino (also in California) with my dad and mom respectively.
My sister Lazarre has published 7 books, which I have helped edit and release through Kindle Direct Publishing. We also have a band (The Elias Sisters) where we write & perform songs as a duo.
Thank goodness for Simone O. Elias. Her smart, vivacious writing should make even the most cynical of modern filmgoers stop and consider taking another look at classic Hollywood films, especially in the context of women in front of and behind the camera. I hope this is the first book of many more to come.
-- Kristin Marguerite Doidge, author of Nora Ephron: A Biography and Woman on Top: Becoming Greta Gerwig
A fabulous book for film lovers young and old—or for anyone who harbors a curiosity about ‘old movies.’ At 14, Simone O. Elias is the perfect Gen Z guide to classic Hollywood. She writes with a teenager’s infectious enthusiasm and sophistication beyond her years, drawing the line from Elizabeth Taylor to Taylor Swift, from Born Yesterday to Barbie. Hats off to Simone!
-- Michael Schulman, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat and Tears
Simone O. Elias has written an inspiring book about the influence of classic Hollywood films and how they remain relevant and continue to influence contemporary audiences. With a clear and confident voice, this young author takes us on a delightful tour of the Golden Age of Hollywood. I found myself smiling and shaking my head in disbelief at the keen observations and insights Elias brings to her writing.
– Matt Williams, Creator of Roseanne, Home Improvement, author of Glimpses
As someone who was once a movie-obsessed teenager, I wish this book had been available to me when I was younger! Simone O. Elias has produced a perceptive and engaging guide into the world of classical Hollywood cinema, connecting the stars, films, and genres of the past to today’s popular culture. This young author has an immense breadth of knowledge, curiosity, and passion for her subject, and she makes the case that historical inquiry can help us learn about ourselves and each other. Elias writes with confidence and insight well beyond her years and Old Films, Young Eyes is the perfect book to introduce the next generation of fans to the joys and complicated history of Hollywood's Golden Age.
– Dr. Olympia Kiriakou, film historian, host of The Screwball Story, and author of Becoming Carole Lombard: Stardom, Comedy, and Legacy.
“Simone Elias’s passion for classic cinema leaps off every page of Old Films, Young Eyes. This smart, well-researched book is the perfect introduction to some of Hollywood’s forgotten gems and funky experiments—for teenagers but also moviegoers of all ages. Reading it made me yearn for a darkened theater and a tub of popcorn!”
—Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong
"Elias is the very model of a modern American teen. Where she breaks the mold is in choosing old movies as her obsession, making them vivid to first-time viewers and confirmed fans through fresh eyes, and plunging--impatiently but smartly--into the personal, familial, and historic connections that can make artifacts of old Hollywood matter deeply today. I second what the hot-headed politico said in one of the most classic of Golden Age comedies, The Great McGinty: This book belongs in every home."
--Stuart Klawans, author of Crooked, but Never Common: The Films of Preston Sturges
Miss Elias does a remarkable job of recounting her own story of discovering Old Hollywood and why she personally enjoys classic films, but that's just the beginning. She then shares a treasure trove of well-researched information on how Old Hollywood has influenced pop culture, insights into the 1960s beach movie phenomenon, interracial relationships, portrayals of mental illness in Old Hollywood, the iconic 1950s housewife, and much more! The the film history book we all needed... [Elias takes a] youthful, insightful and personal approach that still manages to be informative and accurate.
--Silent Cinema School blog
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