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Author: Arthur Frank Wertheim
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781629335919
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Arthur Frank Wertheim's groundbreaking book is the first to examine W.C. Fields' twelve silent movies and how they influenced his later career in sound films. The author concludes that Fields might never have become one of the prem-ier comedians during the Golden Age of Sound Films without first embarking on a career in silent movies. In this explo-ration, readers will discover new insights and surprises concerning Fields' experiences in this medium. The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields details Fields' early failed screen attempts, which resulted in his decision not to abandon his successful Ziegfeld Follies career, a choice that would prevent him from joining the pantheon of great silent film stars: Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd---each of whom, by 1925, had achieved worldwide recog-nition and success. Wertheim relates how Fields would have to struggle against all types of roadblocks to reach the second pantheon tier - and how legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith came to his rescue by directing two of his silent pictures. The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields is a comprehensive depiction of Fields' early years in New York and Holly-wood, his personal and professional trials and accomplishments, his triumphs and disillusionments, each of which would lead to his ultimate screen legacy. Generously illustrated with many new and rare photos, The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields will prove invaluable to fans of both the comic genius of W.C. Fields and his pristine time of moviemaking. Arthur Frank Wertheim has written numerous books on Twentieth Century American Culture including The New York Little Renaissance and Radio Comedy. He has also co-edited with Barbara Bair three volumes on the The Papers of Will Rogers and edited Will Rogers at the Ziegfeld Follies and American Popular Culture. An American history professor at several universities, his awards include a Fulbright grant to teach at the Univer-sity of Indonesia. He has recently published a three-volume biography on W. C. Fields.
Author: Arthur Frank Wertheim
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781629335919
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Get Book Here
Book Description
Arthur Frank Wertheim's groundbreaking book is the first to examine W.C. Fields' twelve silent movies and how they influenced his later career in sound films. The author concludes that Fields might never have become one of the prem-ier comedians during the Golden Age of Sound Films without first embarking on a career in silent movies. In this explo-ration, readers will discover new insights and surprises concerning Fields' experiences in this medium. The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields details Fields' early failed screen attempts, which resulted in his decision not to abandon his successful Ziegfeld Follies career, a choice that would prevent him from joining the pantheon of great silent film stars: Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd---each of whom, by 1925, had achieved worldwide recog-nition and success. Wertheim relates how Fields would have to struggle against all types of roadblocks to reach the second pantheon tier - and how legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith came to his rescue by directing two of his silent pictures. The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields is a comprehensive depiction of Fields' early years in New York and Holly-wood, his personal and professional trials and accomplishments, his triumphs and disillusionments, each of which would lead to his ultimate screen legacy. Generously illustrated with many new and rare photos, The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields will prove invaluable to fans of both the comic genius of W.C. Fields and his pristine time of moviemaking. Arthur Frank Wertheim has written numerous books on Twentieth Century American Culture including The New York Little Renaissance and Radio Comedy. He has also co-edited with Barbara Bair three volumes on the The Papers of Will Rogers and edited Will Rogers at the Ziegfeld Follies and American Popular Culture. An American history professor at several universities, his awards include a Fulbright grant to teach at the Univer-sity of Indonesia. He has recently published a three-volume biography on W. C. Fields.
Author: James L. Neibaur
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476665303
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
W.C. Fields was at the top among comedians during Hollywood's Golden Era of the 1930s and 1940s and has since remained a comic icon. Despite his character's misanthropic, child-hating, alcoholic tendencies, his performances were enduringly popular and Fields became personally defined by them. This critical study of his work provides commentary and background on each of his films, from the early silents through the cameos near the end of his life, with fresh appraisals of his well known classics. Pictures once believed to be lost that have been discovered and restored are discussed, and new information is given on some that remain lost.
Author: William Claude Fields
Publisher: Lorrimer Publishing Limited
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 100
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Book Description
Author: Jonathan Lyons
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1317679555
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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Book Description
While comedy writers are responsible for creating clever scripts, comedic animators have a much more complicated problem to solve: What makes a physical character funny? Comedy for Animators breaks down the answer by exploring the techniques of those who have used their bodies to make others laugh. Drawing from traditions such as commedia dell’arte, pantomime, Vaudeville, the circus, and silent and modern film, animators will learn not only to create funny characters, but also how to execute gags, create a comic climate, and use environment as a character. Whether you’re creating a comic villain or a bumbling sidekick, this is the one and only guide you need to get your audience laughing! Explanation of comedic archetypes and devices will both inspire and inform your creative choices Exploration of various modes of storytelling allows you to give the right context for your story and characters Tips for creating worlds, scenarios, and casts for your characters to flourish in Companion website includes example videos and further resources to expand your skillset--check it out at www.comedyforanimators.com! Jonathan Lyons delivers simple, fun, illustrated lessons that teach readers to apply the principles of history’s greatest physical comedians to their animated characters. This isn’t stand-up comedy—it’s the falling down and jumping around sort!
Author: Simon Louvish
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393318401
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 584
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Book Description
Louvish brilliantly sifts through evidence of W.C. Fields' own self-creation to illuminate the vaudeville world from which he rose to become the beloved cinematic curmudgeon and comic genius of his time. Photos.
Author: A. Wertheim
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137300671
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 271
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Book Description
W. C. Fields was a virtuoso comedian, often called a comic genius, legendary iconoclast, and "Great Man," who brought so much laughter to millions while enduring so much anguish. This book explores his little-known, long stage career from 1898 to 1930, which had a major influence on his comedy and screen presence.
Author: Richard Lewis Ward
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809388066
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 284
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Book Description
Once labeled the “lot that laugher built,” the Hal Roach Studios launched the comedic careers of such screen icons as Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, and Laurel and Hardy. With this stable of stars, the Roach enterprise operated for forty-six years on the fringes of the Hollywood studio system during a golden age of cinema and gained notoriety as a producer of short comedies, independent features, and weekly television series. Many of its productions are better remembered today than those by its larger contemporaries. In A History of the Hal Roach Studios, Richard Lewis Ward meticulously follows the timeline of the company’s existence from its humble inception in 1914 to its close in 1960 and, through both its obscure and famous productions, traces its resilience to larger trends in the entertainment business. In the first few decades of the twentieth century, the motion picture industry was controlled by an elite handful of powerful firms that allowed very little room for new competition outside of their established cartel. The few independents that garnered some measure of success despite their outsider status usually did so by specializing in underserved or ignored niche markets. Here, Ward chronicles how the Roach Studios, at the mercy of exclusive distribution practices, managed to repeatedly redefine itself in order to survive for nearly a half-century in a cutthroat environment. Hal Roach’s tactic was to nurture talent rather than exhaust it, and his star players spent the prime of their careers shooting productions on his lot. Even during periods of decline or misdirection, the Roach Studios turned out genuinely original material, such as the screwball classic Topper (1937), the brutally frank Of Mice and Men (1940), and the silent experiment One Million B.C. (1940). Ward’s exploration yields insight into the production and marketing strategies of an organization on the periphery of the theatrical film industry and calls attention to the interconnected nature of the studio system during the classic era. The volume also looks to the early days of television when the prolific Roach Studios embraced the new medium to become, for a time, the premier telefilm producer. Aided by a comprehensive filmography and twenty-seven illustrations, A History of the Hal Roach Studios recounts an overlooked chapter in American cinema, not only detailing the business operations of Roach’s productions but also exposing the intricate workings of Hollywood’s rivalrous moviemaking establishment.
Author: Robert Lewis Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Actors and actresses
Languages : en
Pages : 300
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Book Description
Author: James Curtis
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 0375424725
Category : Motion picture art directors
Languages : en
Pages : 449
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Book Description
He was the consummate designer of film architecture on a grand scale. He was known for his visual flair and timeless innovation, a man who meticulously preplanned the color and design of each film through a series of continuity sketches that made clear camera angles, lighting, and the actors' positions for each scene, translating dramatic conventions of the stage to the new capabilities of film. Here is the long-awaited book on William Cameron Menzies, Hollywood's first and greatest production designer, a job title David O. Selznick invented for Menzies' extraordinary, all-encompassing, Academy Award-winning work on Gone With the Wind (which he effectively co-directed). It was Menzies--winner of the first-ever Academy Award for Art Direction, and who was as well a director (fourteen pictures) and a producer (twelve pictures)--who changed the way movies were (and still are) made, in a career that spanned four decades, from the 1920s through the 1950s. Now, James Curtis, acclaimed film historian and biographer, writes of Menzies' life and work as the most influential designer in the history of film. Interviewing colleagues, actors, directors, friends, and family, and with full access to the Menzies family collection of artwork and unpublished writing, Curtis gives us the path-finding work of the movies' most daring and dynamic production designer: his evolution as artist, art director, production designer, and director. Here is a portrait of a man in his time that makes clear how the movies were forever transformed by his startling, visionary work.--Adapted from book jacket.
Author: Farran Smith Nehme
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 146831078X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
New York in the late 1980s. Ceinwen Reilly has just moved from Yazoo City, Mississippi, and she’s never going back, minimum wage job (vintage store salesgirl) and shabby apartment (Avenue C walkup) be damned. Who cares about earthly matters when Ceinwen can spend her days and her nights at fading movie houses—and most of the time that’s left trying to look like Jean Harlow? One day, Ceinwen discovers that her downstairs neighbor may have—just possibly—starred in a forgotten silent film that hasn’t been seen for ages. So naturally, it’s time for a quest. She will track down the film, she will impress her neighbor, and she will become a part of movie history: the archivist as ingénue. As she embarks on her grand mission, Ceinwen meets a somewhat bumbling, very charming, 100% English math professor named Matthew, who is as rational as she is dreamy. Together, they will or will not discover the missing reels, will or will not fall in love, and will or will not encounter the obsessives that make up the New York silent film nut underworld. A novel as winning and energetic as the grand Hollywood films that inspired it, Missing Reels is an irresistible, alchemical mix of Nora Ephron and David Nicholls that will charm and delight.
