Clown Prince of Hollywood

Clown Prince of Hollywood PDF Author: Bob Thomas
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Traces the life and career of the influential producer, shares the impressions of those who worked with him, and surveys Warner Brothers films.

Clown Prince of Hollywood

Clown Prince of Hollywood PDF Author: Bob Thomas
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Traces the life and career of the influential producer, shares the impressions of those who worked with him, and surveys Warner Brothers films.

Lion of Hollywood

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

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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.

The Warner Brothers

The Warner Brothers PDF Author: Chris Yogerst
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813198038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
One of the oldest and most recognizable studios in Hollywood, Warner Bros. is considered a juggernaut of the entertainment industry. Since its formation in the early twentieth century, the studio has been a constant presence in cinema history, responsible for the creation of acclaimed films, blockbuster brands, and iconic superstars. These days, the studio is best known as a media conglomerate with a broad range of intellectual property, spanning movies, TV shows, and streaming content. Despite popular interest in the origins of this empire, the core of the Warner Bros. saga cannot be found in its commercial successes. It is the story of four brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack—whose vision for Hollywood helped shape the world of entertainment as we know it. In The Warner Brothers, Chris Yogerst follows the siblings from their family's humble origins in Poland, through their young adulthood in the American Midwest, to the height of fame and fortune in Hollywood. With unwavering resolve, the brothers soldiered on against the backdrop of an America reeling from the aftereffects of domestic and global conflict. The Great Depression would not sink the brothers, who churned out competitive films that engaged audiences and kept their operations afloat—and even expanding. During World War II, they used their platform to push beyond the limits of the Production Code and create important films about real-world issues, openly criticizing radicalism and the evils of the Nazi regime. At every major cultural turning point in their lifetime, the Warners held a front-row seat. Paying close attention to the brothers' identities as cultural and economic outsiders, Yogerst chronicles how the Warners built a global filmmaking powerhouse. Equal parts family history and cinematic journey, The Warner Brothers is an empowering story of the American dream and the legacy four brothers left behind for generations of filmmakers and film lovers to come.

A Dictionary of Cinema Quotations from Filmmakers and Critics

A Dictionary of Cinema Quotations from Filmmakers and Critics PDF Author: Stephen M. Ringler
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786437634
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
"The cinema isn't a slice of life, it's a slice of cake"--Alfred Hitchcock. "If you make a popular movie, you start to think where have I failed?"--Woody Allen. "A film is the world in an hour and a half"--Jean-Luc Godard. "I think you have to be slightly psychopathic to make movies"--David Cronenberg. This compendium contains more than 3,400 quotations from filmmakers and critics discussing their craft. About 1,850 film people are included--Bunuel, Capra, Chaplin, Disney, Fellini, Fitzgerald, Griffith, Kael, Kurasawa, Pathe, Sarris, Schwarzenegger, Spielberg, Waters and Welles among them. The quotations are arranged under 31 topics such as acting, animation, audience, budget, casting, critics, costume design, directing, locations, reviews, screenwriting, special effects and stardom. Indexing by filmmakers (or critics), by film titles and by narrow subjects provides a rich array of points of access.

Jean Negulesco

Jean Negulesco PDF Author: Michelangelo Capua
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476666539
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Originally a successful painter from Romania, Jean Negulesco worked in Hollywood first as an art director, then as a second unit director. He was later hired as a director by various studios--mostly for ballet and musical shorts--before being assigned to a number of commercially successful films. During his 30-year career, he worked in several European countries yet it was in the U.S. he achieved his greatest success, with Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. Dubbed "The Prince of Melodrama" by critics, he directed films of all genres, working with stars like Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, Richard Burton, Alec Guinness, Fred Astaire and many others. Negulesco was nominated for Best Director by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1948 for Johnny Belinda--now considered a classic, along with his The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), Humoresque (1946), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and Three Coins in the Fountain (1954). This book--the first on him since his 1984 autobiography--covers his extraordinary life and career, with extensive analyses of his films.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. PDF Author: Steven Bingen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1589799623
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Movie studios are the wondrous, almost magical locales where not just films, but legends, are created. Unfortunately, these celebrity playgrounds are, and always have been, largely hidden from public view. Although some movie studios offer tours, few guests from outside the Hollywood community have ever been witness to the artistry, politics, and scandals that routinely go on behind the soundstage walls and away from the carefully orchestrated scenes visible to them from their tram carts. In this book, studio staff historian and Hollywood insider Steven Bingen throws open Hollywood’s iron gates and takes you inside the greatest and yet most mysterious movie studio of them all: Warner Bros. Long home to the world’s biggest stars and most memorable films and television shows, the Warner Bros. Studio lot functions as a small city and is even more fascinating, glamorous, and outrageous than any of the stars or movies that it has been routinely minting for more than ninety years. Accompanied by stunning behind-the-scenes photos and maps, and including a revealing backstory, this book is your ticket to a previously veiled Hollywood paradise.

The Making of Rebel Without a Cause

The Making of Rebel Without a Cause PDF Author: Douglas L. Rathgeb
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 078648750X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In 1954, troubled director Nicholas Ray chatted at a dinner party about his controversial plan for a film about middle-class juvenile delinquents. He was told of a book, written by a prison psychologist and owned by Warner Bros., called Rebel Without a Cause. Though he was initially unimpressed, Ray adapted the book into his own screenplay and Warner Bros. hired him to direct what would become a classic. From the backgrounds of the many players to the pre-production, production, and post-production of the film, this complete history recounts every aspect of Rebel Without a Cause from its rudiments to the 1955 Academy Awards: the selection of cast and crew, legal fights, changing screenwriters and the many variations of the story, location scouting, auditions, script readings, difficulties with the censors, romances and fights, the editing, test screenings, and, of course, the death of its star. Dozens of intimate anecdotes, from wardrobe decisions to James Dean's pranks, add rich detail. An epilogue discusses the possible sequels, rights conflicts, documentaries, musicals, and spin-off attempts, and offers concluding words on the cast and crew.

Celluloid Soldiers

Celluloid Soldiers PDF Author: Michael E. Birdwell
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814713386
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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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.

Dark Victory

Dark Victory PDF Author: Ed Sikov
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805088632
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
A biography of Bette Davis, focusing on her acting career, drawing from interviews with friends, directors, and admirers, archival research, and a new look at her films to provide insights into her personal and professional life.

Zachary Scott

Zachary Scott PDF Author: Ronald L. Davis
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496802179
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Throughout the 1940s, Zachary Scott (1914-1965) was the model for sophisticated, debonair villains in American film. His best-known roles include a mysterious criminal in The Mask of Dimitrios and the indolent husband in Mildred Pierce. He garnered further acclaim for his portrayal of villains in Her Kind of Man, Danger Signal, and South of St. Louis. Although he earned critical praise for his performance as a heroic tenant farmer in Jean Renoir's The Southerner, Scott never quite escaped typecasting. In Zachary Scott: Hollywood's Sophisticated Cad, Ronald L. Davis writes an appealing biography of the film star. Scott grew up in privileged circumstances—his father was a distinguished physician; his grandfather was a pioneer cattle baron—and was expected to follow his father into medical practice. Instead, Scott began to pursue a career in theater while studying at the University of Texas and subsequently worked his way on a ship to England to pursue acting. Upon his return to America, he began to look for work in New York. Excelling on stage and screen throughout the 1940s, Scott seemed destined for stardom. By the end of 1950, however, he had suffered through a turbulent divorce. A rafting accident left him badly shaken and clinically depressed. His frustration over his roles mounted, and he began to drink heavily. He remarried and spent the rest of his career concentrating on stage and television work. Although Scott continued to perform occasionally in films, he never reclaimed the level of stardom that he had in the mid-1940s. To reconstruct Scott's life, Davis uses interviews with Scott and colleagues and reviews, articles, and archival correspondence from the Scott papers at the University of Texas and from the Warner Brothers Archives. The result is a portrait of a talented actor who was rarely allowed to show his versatility on the screen.