I Could Have Been a Contender

I Could Have Been a Contender PDF Author: Eric Scott
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 178333147X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
It's 1971 and rock and roll was at its height. Small-time Australian agent Wayne Zemmerman scored an unimaginable coup when he signs British supergroup Andromeda for a nationwide tour. Showbiz reporter Scottie McPherson smells a rat and starts his investigation. The Sound Mixers is a dramatic expose of the rock industry: fiction that reads like fact. A gripping story that moves at breathtaking pace to a devastating climax, Performers, promoters, manipulators, illusion creators - the characters which inhabit the world of rock'n’roll are ruthlessly dissected in an intricate plot full of shocks and suspense. Big business is the name of the game; a game in which the tough survive… but even then not always. He clears up some old mysteries too - like what really happened on the night when American TV star Michael Cole swore on live TV at the Australian Logie Awards and how the Beatles came by their trademark haircut. But it is not all showbiz; the memoirs take us through the childhood fun and games of World War II in the UK, the miseries of teen hood and the horrors and fun of National Service, not to mention the personal traumas of five marriages and break-ups. The stories from a great raconteur run through eight decades, from 1939 through to 1970 in the UK and from then on in Australia. The book gives a shrewd insight to the changing lifestyles through those decades and through the eyes of a professional observer.

The Contender

The Contender PDF Author: William J. Mann
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062427652
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 811

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Book Description
Entertainment Weekly's BIG FALL BOOKS PREVIEW Selection Best Book of 2019 -- Publisher's Weekly Based on new and revelatory material from Brando’s own private archives, an award-winning film biographer presents a deeply-textured, ambitious, and definitive portrait of the greatest movie actor of the twentieth century, the elusive Marlon Brando, bringing his extraordinarily complex life into view as never before. The most influential movie actor of his era, Marlon Brando changed the way other actors perceived their craft. His approach was natural, honest, and deeply personal, resulting in performances—most notably in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront—that are without parallel. Brando was heralded as the American Hamlet—the Yank who surpassed British stage royalty Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson as the standard of greatness in the mid-twentieth century. Brando’s impact on American culture matches his professional significance; he both challenged and codified our ideas of masculinity and sexuality. Brando was also one of the first stars to use his fame as a platform to address social, political, and moral issues, courageously calling out America’s deeply rooted racism. William Mann’s brilliant biography of the Hollywood legend illuminates this culture icon for a new age. Mann astutely argues that Brando was not only a great actor but also a cultural soothsayer, a Cassandra warning us about the challenges to come. Brando’s admonitions against the monetization of nearly every aspect of the culture were prescient. His public protests against racial segregation and discrimination at the height of the Civil Rights movement—getting himself arrested at least once—were criticized as being needlessly provocative. Yet those actions of fifty years ago have become a model many actors follow today. Psychologically astute and masterfully researched, based on new and revelatory material, The Contender explores the star and the man in full, including the childhood traumas that reverberated through his professional and personal life. It is a dazzling biography of our nation’s greatest actor that is sure to become an instant classic. The Contender includes sixteen pages of photographs.

The Chosen

The Chosen PDF Author: Taran Matharu
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
ISBN: 125013871X
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The Chosen introduces the first book in the Contender trilogy, an epic young adult fantasy from Taran Matharu, author of the New York Times–bestselling Summoner series. Throughout history, people have vanished with no explanation. A group of teenagers are about to discover why. Cade is settling into a new boarding school, contemplating his future, when he finds himself transported to another realm. He soon discovers their new world is populated with lost remnants from the past: prehistoric creatures, ancient relics, and stranger still—people. Overwhelmed by his new surroundings, Cade has little time to adjust, for soon he and his fellow classmates are forced to become contenders in a brutal game, controlled by mysterious overlords. But who are these beings and why did they choose these teens? Cade must prepare for battle . . . because hiding is not an option. Fans of fantasy and LitRPG will welcome this new character and world from the author of the Summoner series.

The Big Tiny

The Big Tiny PDF Author: Dee Williams
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101634715
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Dee Williams’s life changed in an instant, with a near-death experience in the aisle of her local grocery store. Diagnosed with a heart condition at age forty-one, she was all too suddenly reminded that life is short, time is precious, and she wanted to be spending hers with the people and things she truly loved. That included the beautiful sprawling house in the Pacific Northwest she had painstakingly restored—but, increasingly, it did not include the mortgage payments, constant repairs, and general time-suck of home ownership. A new sense of clarity began to take hold: Just what was all this stuff for? Multiple extra rooms, a kitchen stocked with rarely used appliances, were things that couldn’t compare with the financial freedom and the ultimate luxury—time—that would come with downsizing. Deciding to build an eighty-four-square-foot house—on her own, from the ground up—was just the beginning of building a new life. Williams can now list everything she owns on one sheet of paper, her monthly housekeeping bills amount to about eight dollars, and it takes her approximately ten minutes to clean the entire house. It’s left her with more time to spend with family and friends, and given her freedom to head out for adventure at a moment’s notice, or watch the clouds and sunset while drinking a beer on her (yes, tiny) front porch. The lessons Williams learned from her “aha” moment post-trauma apply to all of us, every day, regardless of whether or not we decide to discard all our worldly belongings. Part how-to, part personal memoir, The Big Tiny is an utterly seductive meditation on the benefits of slowing down, scaling back, and appreciating the truly important things in life.

Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties

Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties PDF Author: Foster Hirsch
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307958930
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 702

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Book Description
A fascinating look at Hollywood’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system—set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shifts Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions—from Cinerama, CinemaScope, and VistaVision to the epic film and lavish musical. It was a decade that saw the rise of the anti-hero; the smoldering, the hidden, and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios; the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the “small screen” television. Here is Eisenhower’s America—seemingly complacent, conformity-ridden revealed in Vincente Minnelli’s Father of the Bride, Walt Disney’s Cinderella, and Brigadoon, among others. And here is its darkening, resonant landscape, beset by conflict, discontent, and anxiety (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Asphalt Jungle, A Place in the Sun, Touch of Evil, It Came From Outer Space) . . . an America on the verge of cultural, political and sexual revolt, busting up and breaking out (East of Eden, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, Sweet Smell of Success, The Wild One, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Jailhouse Rock). An important, riveting look at our nation at its peak as a world power and at the political, cultural, sexual upheavals it endured, reflected and explored in the quintessential American art form.

The Killings on Jubilee Terrace

The Killings on Jubilee Terrace PDF Author: Robert Barnard
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416560467
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Vernon Watts may have been beloved by the millions of faithful viewers of the long-running soap opera Jubilee Terrace but his fellow cast members knew him for what he was -- an egotistical former music-hall performer whose untimely death in a pedestrian accident was not something to be universally regretted. Sadly, though, director Reggie Friedman soon fills the supposed void by asking Hamish Fawley, an equally unpleasant former member of the Jubilee Terrace troupe, to rejoin the soap. Hamish was never much liked. Now he's more obnoxious than ever. The mood on the set is not exactly serene, a situation made worse when the police receive an anonymous letter suggesting that Vernon Watts's "accident" may in fact have been murder. Did one of his fellow actors push Vernon into the oncoming traffic? Detective Inspector Charlie Peace faces tough challenges as he probes the make-believe world of skilled thespians to find a possible killer. With a cast of suspects who are trained to emote on cue, Charlie will need all of his policeman's instincts if he's to avert further tragedy. Writing with his usual acerbic wit and penetrating insight into human foibles, acclaimed master of mystery Robert Barnard gives us another winning entry in his magnificent body of work.

A Poetics for Screenwriters

A Poetics for Screenwriters PDF Author: Lance Lee
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029277804X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Writing successful screenplays that capture the public imagination and richly reward the screenwriter requires more than simply following the formulas prescribed by the dozens of screenwriting manuals currently in print. Learning the "how-tos" is important, but understanding the dramatic elements that make up a good screenplay is equally crucial for writing a memorable movie. In A Poetics for Screenwriters, veteran writer and teacher Lance Lee offers aspiring and professional screenwriters a thorough overview of all the dramatic elements of screenplays, unbiased toward any particular screenwriting method. Lee explores each aspect of screenwriting in detail. He covers primary plot elements, dramatic reality, storytelling stance and plot types, character, mind in drama, spectacle and other elements, and developing and filming the story. Relevant examples from dozens of American and foreign films, including Rear Window, Blue, Witness, The Usual Suspects, Virgin Spring, Fanny and Alexander, The Godfather, and On the Waterfront, as well as from dramas ranging from the Greek tragedies to the plays of Shakespeare and Ibsen, illustrate all of his points. This new overview of the dramatic art provides a highly useful update for all students and professionals who have tried to adapt the principles of Aristotle's Poetics to the needs of modern screenwriting. By explaining "why" good screenplays work, this book is the indispensable companion for all the "how-to" guides.

Lindsey

Lindsey PDF Author: Kimberly Kolb
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1475987927
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Fifteen-year-old Lindsey Morgan Brooks is still considered the new kid in the small town of Emit, Michigan. Both of her parents are lawyers, but her father has built his reputation prosecuting some of the worst criminals in New York and Chicago. Now, as a high school junior, she is trying to choose her own path. Lindsey feels the demands and pressure from school, gymnastics, and her parents as she battles insecurities to build friendships while steering clear of the many land mines in high schoolsuch as the group of popular girls she has dubbed the Fab Five. Busy with activities and consumed with thoughts of her secret crush, Chris, she takes little notice of whats happening around her. She gets a flat tire, gets caught with the lights-out and starts receiving strange text messagesthings she assumes are just high school pranks gone too far. Her father wants her to be able to handle herself, so she should be able to handle this. But while she steals a glimpse at Chris, who is watching her? "LINDSEY is a lovely YA tale of young love and deep intrigue. Lindsey Brooks faces a peril all the more invisible because of the seemingly normal veneer of popular girls and teen crushes she deals with at high school every day." Scott Turow, Best Selling Author and Authors Guild President

In Pursuit of Spenser

In Pursuit of Spenser PDF Author: Otto Penzler
Publisher: BenBella Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1935618571
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
When Robert B. Parker passed in early 2010, the world lost two great men: Parker himself, iconic American crime writer whose books have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, and his best-known creation, Spenser. Parker's Spenser series not only influenced the work of countless of today's writers, but is also credited with reviving and forever changing the genre. In Pursuit of Spenser offers a look at Parker and to Spenser through the eyes of the writers he influenced. Editor Otto Penzler-- proprietor of one of the oldest and largest mystery specialist bookstores in the country, New York's The Mysterious Bookshop, and renowned mystery fiction editor whose credits include series editor for the Best American Crime Writing and Best American Mystery Stories, among many others (and about whom Parker himself once wrote, "Otto Penzler knows more about crime fiction than most people know about anything")-- collects some of today's bestselling mystery authors to discuss Parker, his characters, the series, and their impact on the world. From Hawk to Susan Silverman to Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall, from the series' Boston milieu to Parker's own take on his character, In Pursuit of Spenser pays tribute to Spenser, and Parker, with affection, humor, and a deep appreciation for what both have left behind.

Fidelity

Fidelity PDF Author: Ted Gross
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503525899
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Fidelity is a vivid description of a man's conflict between marriage and work against the backdrop of grand opera. Mark Feldman has a supportive wife, who wants him to succeed in his new career as vice president of development for the Chicago Grand Opera, but as she witnesses his passion become dangerously intense under the influence of the mesmerizing visionary, Gloria Winthrop, she loses faith in him and returns to New York to restore the career she has forsaken. Mark's own fidelity to marriage is tested as he must choose between a brilliant career and a durable marriage. This core conflict is set again the seductive, glamorous world of grand opera.