Author: Victoria Riskin
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 1524747297
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416
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Book Description
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography) A Hollywood love story, a Hollywood memoir, a dual biography of two of Hollywood’s most famous figures, whose golden lives were lived at the center of Hollywood’s golden age, written by their daughter, an acclaimed writer and producer. Fay Wray was most famous as the woman—the blonde in a diaphanous gown—who captured the heart of the mighty King Kong, the twenty-five-foot, sixty-ton gorilla, as he placed her, nestled in his eight-foot hand, on the ledge of the 102-story Empire State Building, putting Wray at the height of New York’s skyline and cinematic immortality. Wray starred in more than 120 pictures opposite Hollywood's biggest stars—Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper (The Legion of the Condemned, The First Kiss, The Texan, One Sunday Afternoon), Clark Gable, William Powell, and Charles Boyer; from cowboy stars Hoot Gibson and Art Accord to Ronald Colman (The Unholy Garden), Claude Rains, Ralph Richardson, and Melvyn Douglas. She was directed by the masters of the age, from Fred Niblo, Erich von Stroheim (The Wedding March), and Mauritz Stiller (The Street of Sin) to Leo McCarey, William Wyler, Gregory La Cava, “Wild Bill” William Wellman, Merian C. Cooper (The Four Feathers, King Kong), Josef von Sternberg (Thunderbolt), Dorothy Arzner (Behind the Make-Up), Frank Capra (Dirigible), Michael Curtiz (Doctor X), Raoul Walsh (The Bowery), and Vincente Minnelli. The book’s—and Wray’s—counterpart: Robert Riskin, considered one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. Academy Award–winning writer (nominated for five), producer, ten-year-long collaborator with Frank Capra on such pictures as American Madness, It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, and Meet John Doe, hailed by many, among them F. Scott Fitzgerald, as “among the best screenwriters in the business.” Riskin wrote women characters who were smart, ornery, sexy, always resilient, as he perfected what took full shape in It Happened One Night, the Riskin character, male or female—breezy, self-made, streetwise, optimistic, with a sense of humor that is subtle and sure. Fay Wray and Robert Riskin lived large lives, finding each other after establishing their artistic selves and after each had had many romantic attachments—Wray, an eleven-year-long difficult marriage and a fraught affair with Clifford Odets, and Riskin, a series of romances with, among others, Carole Lombard, Glenda Farrell, and Loretta Young. Here are Wray’s and Riskin’s lives, their work, their fairy-tale marriage that ended so tragically. Here are their dual, quintessential American lives, ultimately and blissfully intertwined.
Author: Ray Morton
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9781557836694
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 368
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Book Description
Chronicling the making of all seven feature films in which King Kong has appeared - including the Peter Jackson film due for release in December 2005 - this book includes coverage of all the original films as well as the many variants and offshoots.
Author: Roy Kinnard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
Widely acclaimed as a horror movie actress, Fay Wray is best remembered for her performances in King Kong and four other classic 1930s film thrillers, Doctor X, The Most Dangerous Game, Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat. Yet her film career encompassed much more than these memorable turns as a damsel in distress. Wray appeared in 77 feature films between 1925 and 1958, playing leading roles in 67 of these. Sadly, the true breadth of Wray's film career is not readily apparent today, as many of her films, including her entire silent film output, have been lost or are available only on a limited archival basis. This heavily illustrated filmography of Wray's work at last makes obvious her sizeable contribution to the film industry. It begins with an overview of her professional acting career, from her period of great demand after the making of King Kong to her gradual decline in the late 1930s. The filmography is divided into three sections that describe and discuss the complete collection of Fay Wray's films. The first section introduces Wray's early silent feature film appearances; the second covers her ?leading lady? period in popular horror thrillers and other films in the sound era; and the third covers her latter-day supporting roles. Two appendices document her work in theatrical film shorts and her television appearances. Commentary throughout also includes first-person interviews with Fay Wray.
Author: Fay Wray
Publisher: St Martins Press
ISBN: 9780312022655
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 270
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Book Description
Recounts the actress's career in Hollywood, beginning with bit parts as a teenager, her starring roles, and her troubled marriages and affairs, in an account that also provides a vivid, colorful portrait of the film world in the "Golden Age"
Author: Robert Riskin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520205253
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 772
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Book Description
Screenwriter Robert Riskin (1897-1955) was a towering figure even among the giants of Hollywood's Golden Age. Known for his unique blend of humor and romance, wisecracking and idealism, Riskin teamed with director Frank Capra to produce some of his most memorable films. Pat McGilligan has collected six of the best Riskin scripts: Platinum Blonde (1931), American Madness (1932), It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), and Meet John Doe (1941). All of them were directed by Capra, and although Capra's work has been amply chronicled and celebrated, Riskin's share in the collaboration has been overlooked since his death. McGilligan provides the "backstory" for the forgotten half of the team, indispensable counterpoint to the director's self-mythologizing autobiography--and incidentally the missing link in any study of Capra's career. Riskin's own career, although interrupted by patriotic duty and cut short by personal tragedy, produced as consistent, entertaining, thoughtful, and enduring a body of work as any Hollywood writer's. Those who know and love these vintage films will treasure these scripts. McGilligan's introduction offers new information and insights for fans, scholars, and general readers.
Author: George E. Turner
Publisher: Pulp Hero Press
ISBN: 9781683901549
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
The Definitive King Kong. In this updated and expanded edition, the story of Universal's 1933 classic film *King Kong* is fully told, from the biographies of its creators and the challenges in its production, to the many "gorilla" films that followed. With over 100 photos.
Author: William Wegman
Publisher: Hyperion
ISBN: 9780786864867
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
With family photos, video and film stills, and studio photos never before published, Fay captures the collaborative spirit and amazing artistic outpouring of Wegman and his extraordinary companion. Their relationship spanned ten years during which time Fay became as well known to the art world as her canine predecessor, Man Ray. Motherhood brought Fay new concerns and Wegman a wealth of new characters. In 1989 she was joined in the studio by three of her puppies. What followed was a flowering of dramatic roles for Fay and her offspring in a wide range of books and videos for children.
Author: Roy Kinnard
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476604150
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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Book Description
Widely acclaimed as a horror movie actress, Fay Wray is best remembered for her performances in King Kong and four other classic 1930s film thrillers, Doctor X, The Most Dangerous Game, Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat. Yet Wray appeared in 77 feature films between 1925 and 1958, playing leading roles in 67. Many of her films, including her entire silent film output, have been lost or are available only on a limited basis. This heavily illustrated filmography at last makes obvious her sizeable contribution to the film industry. After an overview of her professional acting career, the filmography is divided into three sections. The first introduces Wray's early silent feature film appearances; the second covers her "leading lady" period in popular horror thrillers and other films in the sound era; and the third covers her latter-day supporting roles. Appendices document her work in film shorts and her television appearances. Commentary throughout includes first-person interviews with Fay Wray.
Author: Ring Lardner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Author: Jack Neary
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781583429716
Category : Comedy
Languages : en
Pages : 110
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Book Description
Cast: 5m., 4w. This is the story of what happened in the hotel room next to the hotel room where Ann (played in the 1933 movie by Fay Wray) was whisked out of the bed and into the Manhattan night by King Kong. There's always a backstory. Myron Siegel is a low-end Broadway producer who desperately wants to be high end. Trouble is, he has, for his entire career, been sabotaged by his arch rival, who is ultra-famous for making movies about scary jungle creatures. That producer's father and Myron's father were also rivals back in the day, and the legacy has lived on. As the play opens, Myron has just learned that the rival producer has booked a theatre directly across from the theatre where Myron's potential bonanza, Foxy Felicia, is about to open. Nobody on the rialto knows what he's up to, but it's big. It's BIG! Myron gathers his entourage his sassy mother, his gangster henchman, his Hungarian backer and his wide-eyed niece straight off the bus from Buffalo and concocts a plan to find out what the mystery show is all about. What he discovers is that the show is about a monkey. A very large monkey. He also learns that the rival is sleeping with his wife and plans to steal both her and Foxy Felicia away from Myron. As the story unfolds, the seven doors on the set fly open and slam shut constantly. There are also mistaken identity, pies in the face, deceit, underhandedness and even a couple of romances. And every moment is meticulously coordinated with the events depicted in the 1933 movie. Unit set. Approximate running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.
