Steven Bingen is a best-selling author, lecturer, and on-camera personality who is also the author of dozens of books, articles, and media presentations regarding film history and popular culture. As a speaker and Hollywood insider he has given sold-out presentations for Warner Bros., MGM, Turner Classic Movies, The Autry Museum of the American West, the American Cinematheque, Hollywood Heritage, The Society of Architectural Historians, and for countless other cities, corporations and historical foundations.

For nearly two decades, Steven worked as an archivist/staff historian at Warner Bros. Studio. While there, he was responsible for evaluating, maintaining, and preserving that legendary company’s physical assets and its intangible legacy. He also spent a lot of time hobnobbing with stars and crawling around storied studio backlots, underground catacombs, and cavernous soundstages. In 2011, Steven moved from those soundstages to the written word and published "MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot," which was notable for being the first significant volume ever published about a movie studio as a physical and architectural location. Featuring an introduction by actress Debbie Reynolds, the book’s surprise success (4 printings in the first 18 months) was also matched by enthusiastic reviews. Jeanine Basinger in "The Wall Street Journal" marveled about how the book managed to “present MGM as a concrete environment without losing the wonder and magic that were its product.” Seven more books on the entertainment industry followed in rapid succession.

Although he has long been widely acclaimed as one of the foremost of Hollywood historians, we’ll leave the last word on the subject to no less than screen legend Clint Eastwood, who has remarked about Steven that his canny insights into Hollywood are just “like being there…I know. I was there.”

Click here to visit Steven's website >> www.stevenbingen.com

Curated presentations include 6x45 minute multi-media lectures which have already been presented and received enthusiastically by nationwide audiences. The common thread tying these presentations together is that popular entertainment, specifically movies, television and music, have affected our lives in hundreds of often very personal and profound ways, which most of us have never realized, nor considered. At least not until now...

1. MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Studio
Based on the author’s best-selling book, this presentation takes the audience on a fast-paced virtual tour of the most filmed location in the world; the legendary Metro Goldwyn Mayer backlot, a location where literally thousands of the world’s most beloved and recognized movies and TV shows were created. It’s a glamorous, ultimately tragic story about a singular place which has long been shrouded in romance, mystery and myth.

2. The Counterculture, Easy Rider, and Fifty Years Looking for America
The perfect presentation for baby boomers and armchair easy riders, and based on the author’s best-selling book, this production charts both the turbulent 1960’s social rebellion and the romantic lure of the open road by exploring the creation of Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda’s explosive motorcycle epic —and its unexpected and far-ranging ripple effect through popular culture, which continues to reverberate even today.

3.Warner Bros: Hollywood’s Ultimate backlot!
The author of the most comprehensive book ever written about Hollywood’s most storied studio throws open the gates and takes the audience inside for an all-access, star-studded look behind the scenes at a previously veiled and ever-mysterious Hollywood paradise.

4. Paramount: City of Dreams
A popular presentation, based on the author’s book, which explores the myriad of soundstages and outdoor sets where, for more than a hundred years, Paramount Pictures has produced the world's most legendary entertainment. Audiences will be given a rare and unique chance to visit and to virtually explore a place which few outside Hollywood have ever ventured, but which will still be hauntingly familiar to any of us who have ever watched a movie or television series.

5. Shiver Me timbers! A Look at Piracy in Pop Culture
Landlubbers and sea dogs alike are welcome to this fun, irreverent, brine-soaked-deep dive into the history of piracy as viewed (and not always too accurately) through books, films, plays, commercials, and even at questionable sea food restaurants. With due attention paid along the way to legendary corsairs such as Long John Silver and Captain Jack Sparrow, this presentation is guaranteed to be a seven seas-spanning extravaganza which no audience will want to miss.

6. Hollywood’s most mysterious studio
Built in the 1920’s by an (allegedly murdered) producer, this spell-binding and popular lecture untangles the shadowy, twisted story of a mysterious and little known (to the public) studio hidden in the suburbs of Hollywood where stars from Clark Gable to Harrison Ford have worked and loved and become legends. It’s a location which Star Trek, Superman, King Kong. Barney Fife, E.T. and Jesus Christ (twice!) have called home. Today it’s also the media headquarters for Amazon.com, and this is your unique opportunity to finally learn all of its many secrets!