Author: Bernard F. Dick
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813196140
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Get Book Here
Book Description
Ben Hecht called him "White Fang," and director Charles Vidor took him to court for verbal abuse. The image of Harry Cohn as vulgarian is such a part of Hollywood lore that it is hard to believe there were other Harry Cohns: the only studio president who was also head of production; the ex-song plugger who scrutinized scripts and grilled writers at story conferences; a man who could see actresses as either "broads" or goddesses. Drawing on personal interviews as well as previously unstudied source material (conference notes, memos, and especially the teletypes between Harry and his brother, Jack), Bernard Dick offers a radically different portrait of the man who ran Columbia Pictures—and who "had to be boss"—from 1932 to 1958.
Author: Dimitrios Latsis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197689272
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 409
Get Book Here
Book Description
How the Movies Got a Past presents a comprehensive survey of the rise of historiographical discourse on cinema in North America as it is reflected in publications, exhibitions, lectures, and films about the cinema as a technology, artform, and source of entertainment, from its inception up to 1930. With a wealth of case studies and illustrations, this book will appeal to media historians, silent movie buffs, film archivists, and students alike.
Author: Burt Kearns
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493074229
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Get Book Here
Book Description
The definitive biography of the great Shemp Howard, an original member of the Three Stooges, and one of Hollywood's most influential actors that Library Journal calls "a complete portrait of a talented character actor," Kirkus Reviews calls an "illuminating… reworking of the Stooges mythology" and Patton Oswalt praises as "the only book you will ever need to read about anything. Burn all the other books - there is ONLY SHEMP!" Shemp Howard not only had one of the most distinctive faces of the twentieth century, but was also one of its most accomplished, influential comic actors and showbiz personalities. Along with his brother Moe and comedy violinist Larry Fine, Shemp was an original member of the comedy team that became known as the Three Stooges before he quit and set off on his own in 1932. SHEMP! shows how he made an even greater mark in a successful and until now largely unexplored career in more than a hundred movie shorts and features. He appeared in comedies, dramas, mysteries, Westerns, and musicals alongside the biggest stars of the Golden Age, including W.C. Fields, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, William Powell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Myrna Loy, and the team of Abbott & Costello. Author Burt Kearns challenges the “official” version of Three Stooges history that’s been repeated for decades, shattering myths while uncovering the surprising and often troubling facts behind the man’s unlikely story: how the child of Jewish immigrants, supposedly racked by debilitating phobias, could conquer show business; the behind-the-scenes machinations that pushed him to return to the team; and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death. Through interviews with fans, family members, experts, filmmakers, and celebrities, SHEMP! unearths treasures in Shemp’s solo work, examines the “cult of Shemp” that thrives today, and confirms Shemp Howard’s deserved place in cinematic history.
Author: Michael E. Birdwell
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814789625
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Get Book Here
Book Description
During the 1930s many Americans avoided thinking about war erupting in Europe, believing it of little relevance to their own lives. Yet, the Warner Bros. film studio embarked on a virtual crusade to alert Americans to the growing menace of Nazism. Polish-Jewish immigrants Harry and Jack Warner risked both reputation and fortune to inform the American public of the insidious threat Hitler's regime posed throughout the world. Through a score of films produced during the 1930s and early 1940s-including the pivotal Sergeant York-the Warner Bros. studio marshaled its forces to influence the American conscience and push toward intervention in World War II. Celluloid Soldiers offers a compelling historical look at Warner Bros.'s efforts as the only major studio to promote anti-Nazi activity before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Author: Jon Lewis
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520959914
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Get Book Here
Book Description
The tragic and mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths of Elizabeth Short, or the Black Dahlia, and Marilyn Monroe ripped open Hollywood’s glitzy façade, exposing the city's ugly underbelly of corruption, crime, and murder. These two spectacular dead bodies, one found dumped and posed in a vacant lot in January 1947, the other found dead in her home in August 1962, bookend this new history of Hollywood. Short and Monroe are just two of the many left for dead after the collapse of the studio system, Hollywood’s awkward adolescence when the company town’s many competing subcultures—celebrities, moguls, mobsters, gossip mongers, industry wannabes, and desperate transients—came into frequent contact and conflict. Hard-Boiled Hollywood focuses on the lives lost at the crossroads between a dreamed-of Los Angeles and the real thing after the Second World War, where reality was anything but glamorous."
Author: Anthony Slide
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135925615
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 623
Get Book Here
Book Description
The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry is a completely revised and updated edition of Anthony Slide's The American Film Industry, originally published in 1986 and recipient of the American Library Association's Outstanding Reference Book award for that year. More than 200 new entries have been added, and all original entries have been updated; each entry is followed by a short bibliography. As its predecessor, the new dictionary is unique in that it is not a who's who of the industry, but rather a what's what: a dictionary of producing and releasing companies, technical innovations, industry terms, studios, genres, color systems, institutions and organizations, etc. More than 800 entries include everything from Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to Zoom Lens, from Astoria Studios to Zoetrope. Outstanding Reference Source - American Library Association
Author: John Malahy
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762499273
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 541
Get Book Here
Book Description
Turner Classic Movies presents a festival of sunshine classics—movies that capture the spirit of the most carefree season of the year—complete with behind-the-scenes stories, reviews, vacation inspiration, and a trove of photos. Summer Movies is your guide to 30 sun-drenched classics that—through beach parties, road trips, outdoor sports, summer camp, or some intangible mood that brings the heat—manage to keep summer alive year-round. Packed with production details, stories from the set, and more than 150 color and black-and-white photos, the book takes an in-depth look at films from the silent era to the present that reflect the full range of how summer has been depicted on screen, both by Hollywood and by international filmmakers. Featured titles include Moon Over Miami (1941), State Fair (1945), Key Largo (1948), Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955), The Parent Trap (1961), The Endless Summer (1964), Jaws (1975), Caddyshack (1980), Dirty Dancing (1987), Do the Right Thing (1989), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Call Me by Your Name (2017), and many more.
Author: Bernard F. Dick
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617030805
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Get Book Here
Book Description
Loretta Young (1913–2000) was an Academy Award-winning actress known for devout Catholicism and her performances in The Farmer's Daughter, The Bishop's Wife, and Come to the Stable, and for her long-running and tremendously popular television series. But that was not the whole story. Hollywood Madonna explores the full saga of Loretta Young's professional and personal life. She made her film debut at age four, became a star at fifteen, and many awards and accolades later, made her final television movie at age seventy-six. This biography withholds none of the details of her affair with Clark Gable and the daughter that powerful love produced. Bernard F. Dick places Young's affair in the proper context of the time and the choices available to women in 1935, especially a noted Catholic like Young, whose career would have been in ruins if the public knew of her tryst. With the birth of a daughter, who would have been branded a love child, Loretta Young reached the crossroads of disclosure and deception, choosing the latter path. That choice resulted in an illustrious career for her and a tortured childhood for her daughter.
Author: Bradley Schauer
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 0819576603
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Get Book Here
Book Description
Today, movie theaters are packed with audiences of all ages marveling to exciting science fiction blockbusters, many of which are also critically acclaimed. However, when the science fiction film genre first emerged in the 1950s, it was represented largely by exploitation horror films—lurid, culturally disreputable, and appealing to a niche audience of children and sci-fi buffs. How did the genre evolve from B-movie to blockbuster? Escape Velocity charts the historical trajectory of American science fiction cinema, explaining how the genre transitioned from eerie low-budget horror like It Came from Outer Space to art films like Slaughterhouse-Five, and finally to the extraordinary popularity of hits like E.T. Bradley Schauer draws on primary sources such as internal studio documents, promotional materials, and film reviews to explain the process of cultural, aesthetic, and economic legitimation that occurred between the 1950s and 1980s, as pulp science fiction tropes were adapted to suit the tastes of mainstream audiences. Considering the inescapable dominance of today's effects-driven blockbusters, Escape Velocity not only charts the history of science fiction film, but also gives an account of the origins of contemporary Hollywood.
Author: Ian Scott
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813196256
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Get Book Here
Book Description
Because screenwriter Robert Riskin (1897–1955) spent most of his career collaborating with legendary Hollywood director Frank Capra, his own unique contributions to film have been largely overshadowed. With five Academy Award nominations to his credit for the monumental films Lady for a Day, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, Here Comes the Groom, and It Happened One Night (for which he won an Oscar), Riskin is often imitated but rarely equaled. Robert Riskin: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Screenwriter is the first detailed critical examination of the Hollywood pioneer's life and work. In addition to being one of the great screenwriters of the classic Hollywood era, Riskin was also a producer and director, founding his own film company and playing a crucial role in the foundation of the Screen Writers Guild. During World War II, Riskin was one of the major forces behind propaganda filmmaking. He worked in the Office of War Information and oversaw the distribution—and later, production—of films and documentaries in foreign theaters. He was interested in showing the rest of the world more than just an idealized version of America; he looked for films that emphasized the spiritual and cultural vibrancy within the United States, making charity, faith, and generosity of spirit his propaganda tools. His efforts also laid the groundwork for a system of distribution channels that would result in the dominance of American cinema in Europe in the postwar years. Author Ian Scott provides a unique perspective on Riskin and the ways in which his brilliant, pithy style was realized in Capra's enduring films. Riskin's impact on cinema extended far beyond these films as he articulated his vision of a changing America and helped spread Hollywood cinema abroad.
