Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, and the Golden Age of Hollywood

Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, and the Golden Age of Hollywood PDF Author: Melanie Gall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493069047
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
The 1930s was a magical age in Hollywood, with Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis and Clark Gable lighting up the silver screen. But Deanna Durbin's fame surpassed them all. Born in Canada, Deanna was “discovered” by starmaker Eddie Cantor, producer Joe Pasternak and director Henry Koster, and she quickly became the world’s most celebrated star. She saved Universal Studios from ruin, she was a favourite of Winston Churchill and Anne Frank, and she became the highest-paid woman in America. From the start, Deanna’s life was irrevocably connected with that of another young ingénue, Judy Garland. Deanna and Judy were wildly talented, ambitious, and strong-willed young women who followed vastly different paths to stardom. While fame was thrust upon Deanna, Judy spent years struggling for success and their early friendship soon turned into a lifelong rivalry. Despite her tragic life, Judy Garland is remembered as an entertainment icon, beloved by millions. However, Deanna Durbin—who turned her back on Hollywood at the age of twenty-eight to pursue love and happiness—has been largely forgotten. But Deanna’s legacy endures, and this first-ever biography tells of how her gorgeous voice and winning charm vaulted her to worldwide fame and how a thirteen-year-old girl transformed moviemaking and influenced a generation of fans as the first teenage superstar.

Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, and the Golden Age of Hollywood

Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, and the Golden Age of Hollywood PDF Author: Melanie Gall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493069047
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 1930s was a magical age in Hollywood, with Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis and Clark Gable lighting up the silver screen. But Deanna Durbin's fame surpassed them all. Born in Canada, Deanna was “discovered” by starmaker Eddie Cantor, producer Joe Pasternak and director Henry Koster, and she quickly became the world’s most celebrated star. She saved Universal Studios from ruin, she was a favourite of Winston Churchill and Anne Frank, and she became the highest-paid woman in America. From the start, Deanna’s life was irrevocably connected with that of another young ingénue, Judy Garland. Deanna and Judy were wildly talented, ambitious, and strong-willed young women who followed vastly different paths to stardom. While fame was thrust upon Deanna, Judy spent years struggling for success and their early friendship soon turned into a lifelong rivalry. Despite her tragic life, Judy Garland is remembered as an entertainment icon, beloved by millions. However, Deanna Durbin—who turned her back on Hollywood at the age of twenty-eight to pursue love and happiness—has been largely forgotten. But Deanna’s legacy endures, and this first-ever biography tells of how her gorgeous voice and winning charm vaulted her to worldwide fame and how a thirteen-year-old girl transformed moviemaking and influenced a generation of fans as the first teenage superstar.

Precocious Charms

Precocious Charms PDF Author: Gaylyn Studlar
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520955293
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
In Precocious Charms, Gaylyn Studlar examines how Hollywood presented female stars as young girls or girls on the verge of becoming women. Child stars are part of this study but so too are adult actresses who created motion picture masquerades of youthfulness. Studlar details how Mary Pickford, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin, Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones, and Audrey Hepburn performed girlhood in their films. She charts the multifaceted processes that linked their juvenated star personas to a wide variety of cultural influences, ranging from Victorian sentimental art to New Look fashion, from nineteenth-century children’s literature to post-World War II sexology, and from grand opera to 1930s radio comedy. By moving beyond the general category of "woman," Precocious Charms leads to a new understanding of the complex pleasures Hollywood created for its audience during the half century when film stars were a major influence on America’s cultural imagination.

The Movie Musical!

The Movie Musical! PDF Author: Jeanine Basinger
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 1101874066
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
Irresistible and authoritative, The Movie Musical! is an in-depth look at the singing, dancing, happy-making world of Hollywood musicals, beautifully illustrated in color and black-and-white--an essential text for anyone who's ever laughed, cried, or sung along at the movies. Leading film historian Jeanine Basinger reveals, with her trademark wit and zest, the whole story of the Hollywood musical--in the most telling, most incisive, most detailed, most gorgeously illustrated book of her long and remarkable career. From Fred Astaire, whom she adores, to La La Land, which she deplores, Basinger examines a dazzling array of stars, strategies, talents, and innovations in the history of musical cinema. Whether analyzing a classic Gene Kelly routine, relishing a Nelson-Jeanette operetta, or touting a dynamic hip hop number (in the underrated Idlewild), she is a canny and charismatic guide to the many ways that song and dance have been seen--and heard--on film. With extensive portraits of everyone from Al Jolson, the Jazz Singer; to Doris Day, whose iconic sunniness has overshadowed her dramatic talents; from Deanna Durbin, that lovable teen-star of the '30s and '40s; to Shirley T. and Judy G.; from Bing to Frank to Elvis; from Ann Miller to Ann-Margret; from Disney to Chicago . . . focusing on many beloved, iconic films (Top Hat; Singin' in the Rain; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Sound of Music) as well as unduly obscure gems (Eddie Cantor's Whoopee!; Murder at the Vanities; Sun Valley Serenade; One from the Heart), this book is astute, informative, and pure pleasure to read.

The Star Machine

The Star Machine PDF Author: Jeanine Basinger
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307388751
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 610

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Book Description
ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME • From one of our most distinguished film scholars, comes a rich, penetrating, amusing book about the golden age of movies and how the studios worked to manufacture stars. With revelatory insights and delightful asides, Jeanine Basinger shows us how the studio “star machine” worked when it worked, how it failed when it didn't, and how irrelevant it could sometimes be. She gives us case studies focusing on big stars groomed into the system: the “awesomely beautiful” (and disillusioned) Tyrone Power; the seductive, disobedient Lana Turner; and a dazzling cast of others. She anatomizes their careers, showing how their fame happened, and what happened to them as a result. Deeply engrossing, full of energy, wit, and wisdom, The Star Machine is destined to become an classic of the film canon.

Dan Duryea

Dan Duryea PDF Author: Mike Peros
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496809939
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Dan Duryea (1907–1968) made a vivid impression on moviegoers with his first major screen appearance as the conniving Leo Hubbard in 1941's classic melodrama The Little Foxes. His subsequent film and television career would span from 1941 until his death. Duryea remains best known for the nasty, scheming villains he portrayed in such noir masterpieces as Scarlet Street, Criss Cross, and The Woman in the Window. In each of these, he wielded a blend of menace, sleaze, confidence, and surface charm. This winning combination led him to stardom and garnered him the adoration of female fans, even though Duryea's onscreen brutality so often targeted female characters. Yet this biography's close examination of Duryea's oeuvre finds him excelling in various roles in many genres—war films, westerns, crime dramas, and even the occasional comedy. Dan Duryea: Heel with a Heart is a full-scale, comprehensive biography that examines the tension between Duryea's villainous screen image and his Samaritan personal life. At home, he proved to be one of Hollywood's most honorable and decent men. Duryea remained married to the former Helen Bryan from 1931 until her death in 1967. A dedicated family man, he and Helen took an active role in raising their children and in the community. In his career, Duryea knew villainous roles were what the public wanted—there would be a public backlash if fans read an article depicting what a decent guy he was. Frustrated that he couldn't completely shake his screen image and public persona, he wrestled with this restriction throughout his career. Producers and the public did not care to follow any new directions he hoped to pursue. This book, written with Duryea's surviving son Richard's cooperation, fully explores the life and legacy of a Hollywood icon ready for rediscovery.

Starstruck

Starstruck PDF Author: Leonard Maltin
Publisher: Paladin Communications
ISBN: 1735273821
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Hollywood historian and film reviewer Leonard Maltin invites readers to pull up a chair and listen as he tells stories, many of them hilarious, of 50+ years interacting with legendary movie stars, writers, directors, producers, and cartoonists. Maltin grew up in the first decade of television, immersing himself in TV programs and accessing 1930s and '40s movies hitting the small screen. His fan letters to admired performers led to unexpected correspondences, then to interviews and publication of his own fan magazine. Maltin's career as a free-lance writer and New York Times-bestselling author as well as his 30-year run on Entertainment Tonight, gave him access to Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Sean Connery, Shirley Temple, and Jimmy Stewart among hundreds of other Golden Age stars, his interviews cutting through the Hollywood veneer and revealing the human behind each legend. Starstruck also offers a fascinating glimpse inside the Disney empire, and Maltin's tenure teaching USC's popular film course reveals insights into moviemaking along with access to past, current, and future stars of film, such as George Lucas, Kevin Feige, Quentin Tarantino, and Guillermo del Toro.

Straight Shooting

Straight Shooting PDF Author: Robert Stack
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Straight Shooting is a wry, amusing, affectionate look at Hollywood over the years – the public drama and private feuds, the tyrannical reigns of the big studio bosses, the larger-than-life exploits of the big male stars – and what it was like to be part of that world. Stack is renowned for his Emmy Award-winning performance in TV’s “The Untouchables” and for films like “The High and the Mighty” and “Written on the Wind”. Less well known are the other roles this hard-working actor excelled in over the years: son, husband, father, friend to some of Hollywood’s most admired stars, and a consummate sportsman especially skilled in skeet shooting -- National Skeet Shooting Champion at seventeen and a member of the Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame. Stack was the son of a dazzling California socialite and an advertising giant (the man responsible for slogans like “The beer that made Milwaukee famous"). Among their friends, the elder Stacks numbered many well-known Hollywood personalities – lovingly described by the actor as he remembers them from his adolescent years. Each step in Stack’s career brought him in contact with fascinating people who became legends -- story after story rolls by, each more memorable than the last, told with unceasing admiration for the personal style these stars projected and the often profound effect many of them had upon Stack’s life. “The Untouchables” years are depicted with wonderful candor as Stack recalls many fine co-stars and hilarious behind-the-scenes episodes. In addition there are cameo appearances by luminaries Ernst Lubitsch, Betty Grable, W.C. Fields, the Ritz Brothers, Joe Pasternak, “Archie Bunker”, and Lauren Bacall, to make this a rich, engrossing reading experience. Straight Shooting is filled with good feeling, friendship, and a sense of a job well done – as was Stack’s own career and life. Through it all, Robert Stack emerges on target, a straight-shooter in every sense of the word.

The Deanna Durbin Scrapbook

The Deanna Durbin Scrapbook PDF Author: Kate Gaddis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description
In this book, learn about actress Deanna Durbin

Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas

Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas PDF Author: Alonso Duralde
Publisher: Limelight Editions
ISBN: 0879103760
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Profiles noteworthy Christmas films of all types, including movies for children and for grownups, comedies, sad movies, crime and adventure films, horror movies, versions of "A Christmas Carol," the worst movies, and the classics.

This Was Hollywood

This Was Hollywood PDF Author: Carla Valderrama
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762495855
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
In this one-of-a-kind Hollywood history, the creator of Instagram's celebrated @ThisWasHollywood reveals the forgotten past of the film world in a dazzling visual package modeled on the classic fan magazines of yesteryear. From former screen legends who have faded into obscurity to new revelations about the biggest movie stars, Valderrama unearths the most fascinating little-known tales from the birth of Hollywood through its Golden Age. The shocking fate of the world's first movie star. Clark Gable's secret love child. The film that nearly ended Paul Newman's career. A former child star who, at ninety-three, reveals her #metoo story for the first time. Valderrama unfolds these stories, and many more, in a volume that is by turns riveting, maddening, hilarious, and shocking. Drawing on new interviews, archival research, and an exhaustive library of photographs, This Was Hollywood is a compelling and visually stunning catalogue of the lost history of the movies.