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In the book Hollywood Unknowns, author Anthony Slide tackles a little-known side of Hollywood moviemaking: the aspirations and travails of the movie extras and bit players (in addition to "side" chapters on actors' stand-ins and stunt doubles). [Image: Book cover featuring -- possibly -- short filmmaker Pete Smith.] Slide's Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players and Stand-Ins covers the history of the movie extras from the very dawn of cinema -- when, say, someone like future "star" Florence Lawrence could be the focus of one film and mere "atmosphere" in another -- to the current crop of movie extras. Among the sujects discussed in Anthony Slide's highly entertaining tome are the history of Central Casting; union battles involving the Screen Actors Guild, the Screen Extras Guild, and splinter groups; and a look at former silent-era performers, including Clara Kimball Young, King Baggott, and William Farnum, who finished their days as Hollywood extras. So, next time you watch Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist,...