Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg

Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg PDF Author: Kenneth Turan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300254495
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Kenneth Turan brings to life the extraordinary partnership of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and their role in creating the film industry as we know it One was a tough junkman's son, the other a cosseted mama's boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899-1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry. Mayer, older by fourteen years, was the business-minded face of the studio, and Thalberg worked closely with the creative corps, especially writers--together they rarely set a foot wrong. And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg's shocking death at the age of thirty-seven. In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood.

Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg

Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg PDF Author: Kenneth Turan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300254495
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Kenneth Turan brings to life the extraordinary partnership of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and their role in creating the film industry as we know it One was a tough junkman's son, the other a cosseted mama's boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899-1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry. Mayer, older by fourteen years, was the business-minded face of the studio, and Thalberg worked closely with the creative corps, especially writers--together they rarely set a foot wrong. And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg's shocking death at the age of thirty-seven. In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood.

Irving Thalberg

Irving Thalberg PDF Author: Mark A. Vieira
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520945115
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 526

Get Book Here

Book Description
Hollywood in the 1920s sparkled with talent, confidence, and opportunity. Enter Irving Thalberg of Brooklyn, who survived childhood illness to run Universal Pictures at twenty; co-found Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at twenty-four; and make stars of Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow. Known as Hollywood's "Boy Wonder," Thalberg created classics such as Ben-Hur, Tarzan the Ape Man, Grand Hotel, Freaks, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Good Earth, but died tragically at thirty-seven. His place in the pantheon should have been assured, yet his films were not reissued for thirty years, spurring critics to question his legend and diminish his achievements. In this definitive biography, illustrated with rare photographs, Mark A. Vieira sets the record straight, using unpublished production files, financial records, and correspondence to confirm the genius of Thalberg's methods. In addition, this is the first Thalberg biography to utilize both his recorded conversations and the unpublished memoirs of his wife, Norma Shearer. Irving Thalberg is a compelling narrative of power and idealism, revealing for the first time the human being behind the legend.

Lion of Hollywood

Lion of Hollywood PDF Author: Scott Eyman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439107912
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 612

Get Book Here

Book Description
Lion of Hollywood is the definitive biography of Louis B. Mayer, the chief of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer—MGM—the biggest and most successful film studio of Hollywood’s Golden Age. An immigrant from tsarist Russia, Mayer began in the film business as an exhibitor but soon migrated to where the action and the power were—Hollywood. Through sheer force of energy and foresight, he turned his own modest studio into MGM, where he became the most powerful man in Hollywood, bending the film business to his will. He made great films, including the fabulous MGM musicals, and he made great stars: Garbo, Gable, Garland, and dozens of others. Through the enormously successful Andy Hardy series, Mayer purveyed family values to America. At the same time, he used his influence to place a federal judge on the bench, pay off local officials, cover up his stars’ indiscretions and, on occasion, arrange marriages for gay stars. Mayer rose from his impoverished childhood to become at one time the highest-paid executive in America. Despite his power and money, Mayer suffered some significant losses. He had two daughters: Irene, who married David O. Selznick, and Edie, who married producer William Goetz. He would eventually fall out with Edie and divorce his wife, Margaret, ending his life alienated from most of his family. His chief assistant, Irving Thalberg, was his closest business partner, but they quarreled frequently, and Thalberg’s early death left Mayer without his most trusted associate. As Mayer grew older, his politics became increasingly reactionary, and he found himself politically isolated within Hollywood’s small conservative community. Lion of Hollywood is a three-dimensional biography of a figure often caricatured and vilified as the paragon of the studio system. Mayer could be arrogant and tyrannical, but under his leadership MGM made such unforgettable films as The Big Parade, Ninotchka, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, and An American in Paris. Film historian Scott Eyman interviewed more than 150 people and researched some previously unavailable archives to write this major new biography of a man who defined an industry and an era.

Thalberg

Thalberg PDF Author: Roland Flamini
Publisher: Crown
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book Here

Book Description
More than any other individual, Irving Thalberg was responsible for building M-G-M into the most successful studio in Hollywood. Here is the first major biography of one of the most influential and fascinating figures in 1920's and '30's filmdom--and the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon. Photo insert.

Nobody's Stooge

Nobody's Stooge PDF Author: Bill Cassara
Publisher: BearManor Media
ISBN: 9781593937690
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the HARDBACK version. Ted Healy had a successful, if mysterious life. Starting from the lowest rung of show business, he soon conquered the stages of vaudeville, Broadway and the silver screen. Healy's biography also serves as the backstory to the rise of what became The Three Stooges act. He had an eagle eye in spotting and cultivating the talents of Shemp, Moe, Larry and Curly, who served their apprenticeship in his act off and on from 1923 to 1934. As "father" of the act, he took his stooges to Broadway and Hollywood. Healy is the tree around which some mighty acorns fell. Healy died at age 41, four days after his only child was born in 1937. His passing quickly became one of the most notorious of Hollywood's celebrity death scandals. Was it foul play or natural causes? Author Bill Cassara, a retired law enforcement professional, explores all the possibilities.

MGM

MGM PDF Author: Steven Bingen
Publisher: Santa Monica Press
ISBN: 1595808930
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 1157

Get Book Here

Book Description
M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot is the illustrated history of the soundstages and outdoor sets where Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced many of the world’s most famous films. During its Golden Age, the studio employed the likes of Garbo, Astaire, and Gable, and produced innumerable iconic pieces of cinema such as The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, and Ben-Hur. It is estimated that a fifth of all films made in the United States prior to the 1970s were shot at MGM studios, meaning that the gigantic property was responsible for hundreds of iconic sets and stages, often utilizing and transforming minimal spaces and previously used props, to create some of the most recognizable and identifiable landscapes of modern movie culture. All of this happened behind closed doors, the backlot shut off from the public in a veil of secrecy and movie magic. M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot highlights this fascinating film treasure by recounting the history, popularity, and success of the MGM company through a tour of its physical property. Featuring the candid, exclusive voices and photographs from the people who worked there, and including hundreds of rare and unpublished photographs (including many from the archives of Warner Bros.), readers are launched aboard a fun and entertaining virtual tour of Hollywood’s most famous and mysterious motion picture studio.

Hitler in Los Angeles

Hitler in Los Angeles PDF Author: Steven J. Ross
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1620405644
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Get Book Here

Book Description
A 2018 FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE “[Hitler in Los Angeles] is part thriller and all chiller, about how close the California Reich came to succeeding” (Los Angeles Times). No American city was more important to the Nazis than Los Angeles, home to Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine in the world. The Nazis plotted to kill the city's Jews and to sabotage the nation's military installations: Plans existed for murdering twenty-four prominent Hollywood figures, such as Al Jolson, Charlie Chaplin, and Louis B. Mayer; for driving through Boyle Heights and machine-gunning as many Jews as possible; and for blowing up defense installations and seizing munitions from National Guard armories along the Pacific Coast. U.S. law enforcement agencies were not paying close attention--preferring to monitor Reds rather than Nazis--and only attorney Leon Lewis and his daring ring of spies stood in the way. From 1933 until the end of World War II, Lewis, the man Nazis would come to call “the most dangerous Jew in Los Angeles,” ran a spy operation comprised of military veterans and their wives who infiltrated every Nazi and fascist group in Los Angeles. Often rising to leadership positions, they uncovered and foiled the Nazi's disturbing plans for death and destruction. Featuring a large cast of Nazis, undercover agents, and colorful supporting players, the Los Angeles Times bestselling Hitler in Los Angeles, by acclaimed historian Steven J. Ross, tells the story of Lewis's daring spy network in a time when hate groups had moved from the margins to the mainstream.

Hollywood’s Spies

Hollywood’s Spies PDF Author: Laura B Rosenzweig
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 147988247X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Get Book Here

Book Description
The remarkable story of the Jewish moguls in Hollywood who established the first anti-Nazi Jewish resistance organization in the country in the 1930s. Finalist, Celebrate 350 Award in American Jewish Studies The 1939 film Confessions of a Nazi Spy may have been the first cinematic shot fired by Hollywood against Nazis in America, but it by no means marked the political awakening of the film industry’s Jewish executives to the problem. Hollywood’s Spies tells the remarkable story of the Jewish moguls in Hollywood who paid private investigators to infiltrate Nazi groups operating in Los Angeles, establishing the first anti-Nazi Jewish resistance organization in the country—the Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee (LAJCC). Drawing on more than 15,000 pages of archival documents, Laura B. Rosenzweig offers a compelling narrative illuminating the role that Jewish Americans played in combating insurgent Nazism in the United States in the 1930s. Forced undercover by the anti-Semitic climate of the decade, the LAJCC partnered with organizations whose Americanism was unimpeachable, such as the American Legion, to channel information regarding seditious Nazi plots to Congress, the Justice Department, the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department. Hollywood’s Spies corrects the decades-long belief that American Jews lacked the political organization and leadership to assert their political interests during this period in our history and reveals that the LAJCC was one of many covert “fact finding” operations funded by Jewish Americans designed to root out Nazism in the United States. “A remarkable tale.” —The Wall Street Journal “Expose[s] a buried story about underground plots waged by Nazis against major Hollywood figures.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

Thalberg

Thalberg PDF Author: Bob Thomas
Publisher: Phoenix Books
ISBN: 1614670846
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 471

Get Book Here

Book Description
More than seventy-five years after his death, Irving Thalberg remains a legendary Hollywood figure. In this definitive biography, his legend comes to life -- from his beginnings as the "Boy Wonder of Hollywood", to the creation with Louis B. Mayer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, to his tragic death at the age of thirty-seven. With his remarkable talent for developing stars and doctoring scripts, this architect of the American film created some of America's best-loved movies: Ben-Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty, A Night at the Opera, Grand Hotel, Romeo and Juliet, The Good Earth, Camille. His genius has made his name a legend in the land of legends.

The Brothers Mankiewicz

The Brothers Mankiewicz PDF Author: Sydney Ladensohn Stern
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617032689
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 455

Get Book Here

Book Description
Winner of the 2020 Peter C. Rollins Book Award Longlisted for the 2020 Moving Image Book Award by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Named a 2019 Richard Wall Memorial Award Finalist by the Theatre Library Association Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture’s only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing All About Eve, which also won Best Picture. Despite triumphs as diverse as Monkey Business and Cleopatra, and Pride of the Yankees and Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have—a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué, New York Times and New Yorker theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct Cleopatra by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered. For this award-winning dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.