Search results for ""Author Holly"

Explore facts and theories behind famous, and infamous, paranormal cases and follow these incidents into the world of big-budget movies in Hollywood. Through behind-the-scenes stories and paranormal case documents, compare and analyze evidence behind blockbusters, such as The Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, The Changeling, An American Haunting, and more. Weigh in on the number of creatures raping "Carla" in The Entity—paranormal investigators claim three nasty ghosts; not one. It may be that demons, blood, and rape from the real world have made it to the screen in The Haunting in Connecticut. UFOs, Men-in-Black, poltergeist, Bigfoot, animal and human mutilations may all be responsible for real Mothman sightings … or not. Featured are over 70 timeless entertainer stills, movie posters, and horror film shots that will take you back to heart-racing moments viewing horror flicks on the silver screen. Relive the world of Hollywood's paranormal movies and separate ghosts from glitz and glamour.

Read more less

2023 Wall Award Finalist, Theatre Library Association How a Hollywood gem transformed the national discourse on post-traumatic stress disorder. Released in 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives became an immediate success. Life magazine called it “the first big, good movie of the post-war era” to tackle the “veterans problem.” Today we call that problem PTSD, but in the initial aftermath of World War II, the modern language of war trauma did not exist. The film earned the producer Samuel Goldwyn his only Best Picture Academy Award. It offered the injured director, William Wyler, a triumphant postwar return to Hollywood. And for Harold Russell, a double amputee who costarred with Fredric March and Dana Andrews, the film provided a surprising second act. Award-winning author Alison Macor illuminates the film’s journey from script to screen and describes how this authentic motion picture moved audiences worldwide. General Omar Bradley believed The Best Years of Our Lives would help “the American people to build an even better democracy” following the war, and the movie inspired broad reflection on reintegrating the walking wounded. But the film’s nuanced critique of American ideals also made it a target, and the picture and its creators were swept up in the anti-Communist witch hunts of the late 1940s. In this authoritative history, Macor chronicles the making and meaning of a film that changed America.

Read more less

This is classic Hollywood history as told through the life and career of one of its most iconic actresses. The book benefits tremendously from the author's meeting with Olivia de Havilland after he was assigned to handle her projected memoir at the Delacorte Press in 1973. Amburn also knew many of the key figures in her life and career, a veritable pantheon of Hollywood royalty from the 30s, 40s, and 50s: Jimmy Stewart, George Cukor, and David O. Selznick, and he was an editor at William Morrow when the company published the autobiography of de Havilland's difficult sister Joan Fontaine. Superbly researched and full of delicious anecdotes about Clark Gable, John Huston, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Errol Flynn, David Niven, and Bette Davis--particularly the bloody, bone-crunching fistfight Flynn and Huston waged over Olivia--this book not only profiles one of the finest actresses of her time, but also the culture of the film industry's Golden Age. It details de Havilland's relationships with the men who sought her--Howard Hughes, Jimmy Stewart, Errol Flynn, John F. Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, and John Huston, as well as her friendships with Grace Kelly, British Prime Minister Edward Heath, Ronald Reagan, Victor Fleming, and Ingrid Bergman. Here, too, are the fabulous and often surprising back stories of her 49 films, including Gone With the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Snake Pit, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and the two for which she won Oscars, The Heiress and To Each His Own. The account of the filming of Gone With the Wind is unique in that the author interviewed many of the people involved in the epic making of this masterpiece as Lois Dwight Cole, who discovered the novel, producer David O. Selznick, director George Cukor, agents Kay Brown and Annie Laurie Williams, Radie Harris, Vivien Leigh's closest friend in the press, and both Edie Goetz and Irene Mayer Selznick, daughters of Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, the studio that funded, released, and ended up owning Gone With the Wind. Also included in this biography are Olivia's adventures with Bette Davis. They appeared together in four movies and Davis tried to destroy her, but Olivia stood up to Davis as no other actress had ever dared to do. She won Davis's respect, and by the time they made their biggest hit, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte, a lasting friendship had blossomed. Undertaking a joint national publicity tour, they attracted mobs of boisterous fans and, in private, reminisced about the Golden Age of movies, evaluated the current crop of stars, and exchanged observations about love goddesses, nudity, and parenthood.

Read more less

Continuing what has been dubbed his 'revenge on two hundred years of American history', Gore Vidal locates this novel in Washington. But this is 1917, and Hollywood is now competing with America's capital as the nation's power-base, just as it fights for centre-stage in this book. Caroline Sanford, erstwhile newspaper magnate, launches herself into the West Coast land of celluloid dreams and becomes, overnight, an international star. Not for nothing, on the dawn of World War One, is Caroline making films like the Huns from Hell. She is a government agent. But in Washington, that government isn't doing awfully well. Weighed down by his League of Nation's failure, by Roosevelt, Clemenceau, a stroke and the ship-like tonnage of his wife Edith, President Woodrow Wilson is on the wane - and Warren Harding is on the up. A popular, handsome, toothpick-chomping philanderer and dimwit whose wife is given to consulting spiritualists, he is about to usher in a new era. One of unprecedented scandal, cinematic extravagance and tawdry disintegration. The sort of era where the President could easily be mistaken for a film star ...

Read more less

Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond provides a detailed account of genre history and contemporary trends in film genre, alongside the critical debates they have provoked. The book ranges widely across the field, dealing separately and in detail with not only classic genres - including the Western, the musical, the war film, the gangster film, and film noir - but also more recent trends such as body-horror, Holocaust film, and the action blockbuster. Throughout the book, genre is presented as a constantly evolving phenomenon. Writing in a sophisticated yet accessible style, Barry Langford shows how notions of genre help shape the ways that filmmakers, critics and audiences view films and how the often complex scholarly debates around genre reflect important differences in the ways cinema is understood in relation to its social and historical contexts. The book encourages students to interrogate and broaden received ideas about genre. Key Features *Key text suitable for both undergraduate and advanced students *Detailed close analyses of key films (including The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan and Singin' in the Rain) *Comprehensive bibliography and guide to further reading *Up-to-date and theoretically informed

Read more less

"We've got intrigue, murder, and ghosts. Egos, images, revenge. It's Hollywood... in brilliant Dana Fredsti's hands" Josh Mallerman. Working in Hollywood is a living Hell. Quirky, fast-paced modern horror in the vein of Supernatural, Lucifer, True Blood, and Evil. All the best jobs in Hollywood go to the supernaturals. For a stuntman, it helps to be able to fly. For a romantic lead, it’s an advantage to be an incubus or succubus, and if you smell Sulphur in your agent’s office, you’ll know why. Vampires, succubae, trolls, fallen angels, ghouls—anything that can take direction, be discreet, and not eat the extras. Lee Striga is an actress, stuntwoman, and demon hunter. Fresh from filming Voodoo Wars in New Orleans, Lee returns to Los Angeles. Back at the Katz Family stunt ranch she finds animals of all kinds taking refuge on the grounds, and the supernatural creatures who populate Hollywood on edge to the point of violence. People are vanishing without a trace, and clues lead to a legendary mansion famous for its horrible deaths—the location of Lee’s next film assignment.

Read more less

From living rooms with stripper poles to showers with commanding views of the city, Los Angeles's wealthy bachelor rock stars, actors, producers, and financiers have established a slightly different and eclectically exciting bar for the designers who serve 26 of them. For instance, the bedroom can be a very, um, significant feature. Rock star Dave Navarro has been quoted as saying he "wanted clothes to literally fall off a girl" when she came into the room. 300 vivid color photographs reveal an insider's view of these killer bachelor pads of. Interior designer Carol Kipling shines the spotlight on her peers: leading architects and designers who share their perspectives of working with the city's alpha males. See the bold architecture where dreams are made on screen and off, and discerning men with demanding careers let loose at home.

Read more less

It's classic Hollywood -- uncensored. Filled with rare images and untold stories from producers, censors, stars, exhibitors, and the movie-going public, Forbidden Hollywood is the ultimate guide to a gloriously entertaining and strikingly modern time in early American films: the Pre-Code era."Pre-Code" -- a catchy misnomer for the days before a strict code of censorship purified the content of Hollywood films -- encompasses movies made from 1930 through 1934, when Hollywood censors were lax or absent. But there was already a Production Code in place, the result of a collaboration between Catholic bishops, Protestant politicians, and Jewish-American film producers with the aim of preventing federal censorship. The Code prohibited violent, vulgar, or sexual content in films. It was well intentioned, but no one abided by it, especially after the Great Depression began to keep filmgoers away from theaters. The easiest way to lure them back was with sex and violence. For the next four years -- before a grassroots movement caused the Code to be fully instated -- sinful cinema ruled the screen.Forbidden Hollywood is a history of Pre-Code like none other because it tells the story of the era by taking the reader there. Through the text you will eavesdrop on conferences between producers and writers, read nervous telegrams from executives to censors, and listen to conversations between censors and directors, where artistic decisions meant shifts in power -- and money -- when one third of a nation was desperate. You will see how these decisions were so artfully wrought as to fool some of the people just long enough to get films into theaters. You will read what theater managers thought of such craftiness. You will read letters from a variety of fans as they, depending on community standards, applauded creativity or condemned crassness.The book spotlights twenty-three films which author and film historian Mark A. Vieira identifies as the definitive list of movies that brought on strict enforcement of the Code in 1934, including a loincloth-clad Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan and His Mate; Barbara Stanwyck climbing the corporate ladder on her own terms in Baby Face; a group of misfits out for revenge in Freaks; and Paul Muni leading the crime world in the original Scarface. More than 200 newly restored (and some never-before-published) photographs throughout illustrate pivotal moments in the careers of such stars as Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich, and Jean Harlow, completing a definitive portrait of an unforgettable era in filmmaking.

Read more less

George Hurrell (1904-1992) was the creator of the Hollywood glamour portrait, the maverick artist who captured movie stars of the most exalted era in Hollywood history with bold contrast and seductive poses. This lavishly illustrated book spans Hurrell's entire career, from his beginnings as a society photographer to his finale as the celebrity photographer who was himself a celebrity, and a living legend. From 1929 to 1944 Hurrell was the Rembrandt of Hollywood," creating portraits of Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, and Joan Crawford that were a blend of the ethereal and the erotic. His photos of Jane Russell sulking in a haystack made the unknown girl a star,without a film credit to her name. He immortalized leading males stars of the day from the Barrymores to Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. Latter photo shoots magnified the glamour of the likes of Warren Beatty and Sharon Stone. Through newly acquired photos and in-depth research, photographer and historian Mark A. Vieira, author of Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits , offers not only a wealth of new images but a compelling sequel to the story presented in his earlier book on Hurrell. Hurrell was himself a star,rich, famous, successful. Then, at the height of his career, he suffered a vertiginous fall from grace. George Hurrell's Hollywood recounts, for the first time anywhere, Hurrell's rise from the ashes,how movie-still collectors and art dealers pulled the elderly artist into a nefarious world of theft and fraud how his undiminished powers gave him a second career and how his mercurial nature nearly destroyed it. The photographs that motivate this tale are luminous, powerful, and timeless. This book showcases more than four hundred, most of which have not been published since they were created. George Hurrell's Hollywood is the ultimate work on this trailblazing artist, a fabulous montage of fact and anecdote, light and shadow.

Read more less

China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 ignited a race to capture new global media audiences. Hollywood moguls began courting Chinese investors to create entertainment on an international scale-from behemoth theme parks to blockbuster films. Hollywood Made in China examines these new collaborations, where the distinctions between Hollywood's "dream factory" and Xi Jinping's "Chinese Dream" of global influence become increasingly blurred. With insightful policy analysis, ethnographic research, and interviews with CEOs, directors, and film workers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Los Angeles, Aynne Kokas offers an unflinching look at China's new role in the global media industries. A window into the partnerships with Chinese corporations that now shape Hollywood, this book will captivate anyone who consumes commercial media in the twenty-first century.

Read more less

Postwar Hollywood is a comprehensive history of the American film industry, from 1946-1962. A comprehensive introductory textbook exploring the unique period in the history of the film industry after World War II Examines the cultural history, business practices, new technologies, censorship standards, emerging genres, and styles of post-war cinema Chronicles the restructuring of Hollywood cinema against the backdrop of the major political, economic, and social changes taking place after World War II Features in-depth discussions of important films from Picnic, The Heiress, and From Here to Eternity, to Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Love Me or Leave Me Illustrates the culture/filmmaking interface, and demonstrates the triumphs and failures of Hollywood's new methods of business

Read more less

Leading scholars address the myriad ways in which America’s attitudes about race informed the production of Hollywood films from the 1920s through the 1960s. From the predominantly white star system to segregated mise-en-scènes, Hollywood films reinforced institutionalized racism. The contributors to this volume examine how assumptions about white superiority and colored inferiority and the politics of segregation and assimilation affected Hollywood’s classic period.Contributors: Eric Avila, UCLA; Aaron Baker, Arizona State U; Karla Rae Fuller, Columbia College; Andrew Gordon, U of Florida; Allison Graham, U of Memphis; Joanne Hershfield, U of North Carolina; Cindy Hing-Yuk Wond, College of Staten Island, CUNY; Arthur Knight, William and Mary; Sarah Madsen Hardy, Bryn Mawr; Gina Marchetti, U of Maryland; Gary W. McDonogh; Chandra Mukerji, UC, San Diego; Martin F. Norden, U of Massachusetts; Brian O'Neil, U of Southern Mississippi; Roberta E. Pearson, Cardiff U; Marguerite H. Rippy, Marymount U; Nicholas Sammond; Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, U of Arizona; Peter Stanfield, Southampton Institute; Kelly Thomas; Hernan Vera, U of Florida; Karen Wallace, U of Wisconsin, Oshkosh; Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke; Geoffrey M. White, U of Hawai’i; and Jane Yi.

Read more less

Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe—the brightest stars of the silver screen couldn't resist curling up with a good book. This unique collection of rare photographs celebrates the joy of reading in classic film style. The Hollywood Book Club captures screen luminaries on set, in films, in playful promotional photos, or in their own homes and libraries with books from literary classics to thrillers, from biographies to children's books, reading with their kids, and more. Featuring nearly 60 enchanting images, lively captions about the stars and what they're reading by Hollywood photo archivist Steven Rea, and a glamorous stamped case design, here's a real page-turner for booklovers and cinephiles.

Read more less

A comprehensive analysis of the historical film—a popular and controversial genre that’s been with us since the early days of cinema—and Hollywood’s unique ability to reshape our viewpoints while it sensually recreates the past. Provides a complete guide to the unique characteristics of historical film, distinguishing among sub-genres such as historical epics, war films, biographies, topical films, and meta-historic works like Nixon and JFK Offers detailed analyses of groundbreaking films such as Spartacus, Schindler’s List, and United 93 Examines the dual role of the historical film to entertain and educate, with its tendency to arouse critical and popular controversy Stimulates discussion about Hollywood’s power to persuade and reshape our views of the past

Read more less

'Breaking Hollywood is romantic comedy at its best. It's laugh-out-loud funny, incredibly sexy, sweetly heartfelt and unadulterated fun... You'll be smitten with everything about this entertaining, steamy and feel-good romance' USA Today's Happy Ever AfterA hot and hilarious standalone romance from Samantha Towle, the New York Times bestselling author of the Gods series, Ruin and Rush.Readers love this steamy rom-com!'Sam writes the funniest, loveliest and most 'romantic' in such a classy way, stories that are ALWAYS a must buy''I can't praise this story enough''An electric story that you physically cannot help but put your life on hold for'..............................................................................It wasn't supposed to be like this... I wasn't supposed to be boyfriendless, homeless and jobless at twenty-eight. And I most definitely wasn't supposed to hit Hollywood's resident bad boy Gabriel Evans with my car and break his foot. Now I'm stuck in his apartment, taking care of him while he's incapacitated. Living with the hottest guy in Hollywood, who I've had a crush on forever, doesn't sound like a chore, right? Wrong. Gabriel Evans is rude, crude, drinks way too much and, as soon as his foot is healed, I'm out of here. So, why do I keep forgetting to check the classifieds? And keep getting flustered when I see him shirtless? Breaking Hollywood wasn't part of the plan. But neither was falling in love with him...............................................................................Loved Breaking Hollywood? Check out Samantha's sexy, laugh-out-loud romance, Wardrobe Malfunction, out now!The Gods series, as seen on TikTok, is out now, starting with Ruin and Rush!Plus, don't miss any of Samantha Towle's sensational love stories, including the sizzling beach romance, The Two Week Stand, and many more!

Read more less

In 1947 and 1948, Van Johnson was MGM's top male box office draw. "On screen he was the Pied Piper; Elizabeth Taylor's lover, he was a war pilot with Spencer Tracy," writes his friend and decorator Carleton Varney in the introduction for Van Johnson's Hollywood: A Family Album. Along the way, his wife, Evie Wynn Johnson, an amateur shutterbug captured behind-the-scenes images of their friends some of Hollywood's most famous stars, such as Gary Cooper, Judy Garland, and Humphrey Bogart on the road, on the set, around the pool, and at their Hollywood home. She put together these casual and candid images in a family album that has never been published before. Their daughter, Schuyler adds her memories to this unique document of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Read more less

A New York Times bestseller, now updated with an afterword and exclusive new material From the #1 bestselling author behind acclaimed oral histories of Saturday Night Live and ESPN comes "the most hotly anticipated book [in decades]" (Variety): James Andrew Miller's irresistible insider chronicle of the modern entertainment industry, told through the epic story of Creative Artists Agency (CAA)-the ultimate power player that has represented the world's biggest stars and shaped the landscape of film, television, comedy, music, and sports. Started in 1975, when five bright and brash upstarts left creaky William Morris to form their own innovative talent agency, CAA would come to revolutionize Hollywood, representing everyone from Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, and Steven Spielberg to Jennifer Lawrence, J.J. Abrams, Will Smith, and Brad Pitt. Over the next decades its tentacles would spread aggressively into sports, advertising, and digital media. Powerhouse is the fascinating, no-holds-barred saga of that ascent. Drawing on unprecedented and exclusive access to the men and women who built and battled with CAA-including co-founders Michael Ovitz and Ron Meyer and rivals like Ari Emanuel of William Morris Endeavor-as well as the stars themselves, Miller spins a unique and unforgettable tale of brilliance, ambition, betrayal, and outrageous success.

Read more less

SHELBY, LOLA AND CAT. THREE WOMEN. THREE DAZZLING CAREERS. THREE IMMINENT DIVORCES.Hollywood Divorces takes you behind the scenes of the Hollywood divorce wars with stories ripped from the headlines. Sex, scandal, drugs and power – Hollywood Divorces covers every decadent minute. Shelby, Lola and Cat. Three unforgettable, strong women making their way along the treacherous trails of divorce and coming out on top. Three beautiful and sexy women, determined to get things done their way, and succeeding against all odds.

Read more less

Hollywood Musicals offers an insightful account of a genre that was once a mainstay of twentieth-century film production and continues to draw audiences today.What is a film musical? How do musicals work, formally and culturally? Why have they endured since the introduction of sound in the late 1920s? What makes them more than glittery surfaces or escapist fare? In answering such questions, this guidebook by Steven Cohan takes new and familiar viewers on a tour of Hollywood musicals. Chapters discuss definitions of the genre, its long history, different modes of analyzing it, the great stars of the classic era, and auteur directors. Highlights include extended discussions of such celebrated musicals from the studio era as The Love Parade, Top Hat, Holiday Inn, Stormy Weather, The Gang’s All Here, Meet Me in St. Louis, Cover Girl, Mother Wore Tights, Singin’ in the Rain, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Band Wagon, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Jailhouse Rock as well as later films such as Cabaret, All that Jazz, Beauty and the Beast, and La La Land. Cohan brings in numerous other examples that amplify and extend to the present day his claims about the musical, its generic coherence and flexibility, its long and distinguished history, its special appeal, and its cultural significance.Clear and accessible, this guide provides students of film and culture with a succinct but substantial overview that provides both analysis and intersectional context to one of Hollywood’s most beloved genres.

Read more less

"Hollywood & God" is a virtuosic performance, filled with crossings back and forth from cinematic chiaroscuro to a kind of unsettling desperation and disturbing - even lurid - hallucination. From the Baltimore Catechism to the great noir films of the last century to today's Elvis impersonators and Paris Hilton (an impersonator of a different sort), Polito tracks the snares, abrasions, and hijinks of personal identities in our society of the spectacle, a place where who we say we are, and who (we think) we think we are, fade in and out of consciousness, like flickers of light dancing tantalizingly on the silver screen. Mixing lyric and essay, collage and narrative, memoir and invention, "Hollywood & God" is an audacious book, as contemporary as it is historical, as sly and witty as it is devastatingly serious.

Read more less

The first intimate look at the cracked fairytale life of Hollywood's first family, the Farrows. John Farrow was Hollywood royalty. An Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter, he was married to the talented and beautiful actress Maureen O'Sullivan, best known for playing Jane in Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller. Together they had seven children, including esteemed actress Mia Farrow, mother of journalist Ronan Farrow. From the outside, they were a fairytale Hollywood family. But all was not as it seemed.The Farrows of Hollywood: Their Dark Side of Paradise reveals that Mia Farrow's allegations of sexual molestation by Woody Allen of their seven-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan, has roots in Farrow’s childhood relationship with her father, John Farrow. John was often an abusive father to his children, his wife, and to his co-workers in Hollywood. Called the most disliked man in Hollywood, John Farrow was a tortured, tragic artist and father. He left his children a legacy of trauma and pain that the family kept hidden. It erupted only years later when Mia Farrow unknowingly revealed her pain through her words and behavior in her allegations aimed at Allen.The book includes new research, never-before-revealed interviews with actors who worked with John Farrow, and an original theory from author, biographer, and documentarian Marilyn Ann Moss.

Read more less

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of the history, myriad themes, and critical approaches to the action and adventure genre in American cinema. Draws on a wide range of examples, spanning the silent spectacles of early cinema to the iconic superheroes of 21st-century action films Features case studies revealing the genre’s diverse roots – from westerns and war films, to crime and espionage movies Explores a rich variety of aesthetic and thematic concerns that have come to define the genre, touching on themes such as the outsider hero, violence and redemption, and adventure as escape from the mundane Integrates discussion of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality alongside genre history Provides a timely and richly revealing portrait of a powerful cinematic genre that has increasingly come to dominate the American cinematic landscape

Read more less

We are all experts about Hollywood. We have to be, given its iconic power as the global source of so much entertainment. Designed to add to existing expertise as a movie-goer, The Contemporary Hollywood Reader enables students to enter into the thematic, critical, artistic, economic, and political debates on Hollywood. The Contemporary Hollywood Reader is a dynamic selection of scholarly writings on Hollywood from the post-World War II period onwards, divided into three sections, each with contextualizing introductions from the Editor. The sections, Production, Text, and Circulation, address all the major perspectives on Hollywood allowing equal attention to the field, in both thematic and disciplinary senses. In this collection, Toby Miller offers a plural, open guide to major scholarly tendencies in writing about Hollywood with a mixture of familiar and less familiar works. While the Reader draws on research undertaken within US-UK film or cinema studies, it also ventures further afield, bringing together the most stimulating materials available on the subject.

Read more less

A definitive new account of the professional and personal life of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable, influential stars. Archie Leach was a poorly educated, working-class boy from a troubled family living in the backstreets of Bristol. Cary Grant was Hollywood's most debonair film star--the embodiment of worldly sophistication. Cary Grant: The Making of a Hollywood Legend tells the incredible story of how a sad, neglected boy became the suave, glamorous star many know and idolize. The first biography to be based on Grant's own personal papers, this book takes us on a fascinating journey from the actor's difficult childhood through years of struggle in music halls and vaudeville, a hit-and-miss career in Broadway musicals, and three decades of film stardom during Hollywood's golden age. Leaving no stone unturned, Cary Grant delves into all aspects of Grant's life, from the bitter realities of his impoverished childhood to his trailblazing role in Hollywood as a film star who defied the studio system and took control of his own career. Highlighting Grant's genius as an actor and a filmmaker, author Mark Glancy examines the crucial contributions Grant made to such classic films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Notorious (1946), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Charade (1963) and Father Goose (1964). Glancy also explores Grant's private life with new candor and insight throughout the book's nine sections, illuminating how Grant's search for happiness and fulfillment lead him to having his first child at the age of 62 and embarking on his fifth marriage at the age of 77. With this biography--complete with a chronological filmography of the actor's work--Glancy provides a definitive account of the professional and personal life of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable, influential stars.

Read more less

Hollywood teams with famous ghosts! Take a spirited tour of the most haunted studios, hotels, homes, and graveyards. Visit the house where the ghost of actor Gary Cooper continues to smoke cigarettes that others smell. At Chasen's, the hottest Hollywood restaurant of its day, now a grocery store, stars continue to dine rather than shop for food. Go ghost hunting at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel's poolside cabana where a grisly specter appears to guests with his throat slit. Lucy's ghost is still selling Vitametavegamin on her old set at the Ren-Mar Studios and Desi's haunts his old office there. Read messages that Hollywood's greatest legends left on their tombstones. See the Hollywood sites where many of the rich and famous lived, died, and refuse to leave.

Read more less

The films, the stars, the filmmakers-all get their due in Hollywood Black, a sweeping overview of black people in film from the silent era through Black Panther, with striking photos and an engrossing history by award-winning author Donald Bogle.The story opens in the silent film era, when white actors in blackface played black characters and D. W. Griffith premiered his shocking, controversial The Birth of a Nation. Sound motion pictures were ushered in by Al Jolson in blackface in The Jazz Singer, but in this new era of filmmaking, black performers such as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Paul Robeson began finding a place in Hollywood. More often than not, they were saddled with rigidly stereotyped roles, but some gifted performers were able to turn in significant performances, notably Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind (1939).In the coming decades, more black talents would light up the screen. Dorothy Dandridge became the first African American to earn a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Carmen Jones (1954), and Sidney Poitier broke ground in films like 1963's Lilies of the Field, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar. Hollywood Black reveals the changes in images that came about with the evolving social and political atmosphere of the country, from the Civil Rights era to the Black Power movement. The story takes readers through the Blaxploitation era with movies like Shaftand Super Fly, to the emergence of such stars as Diana Ross and Eddie Murphy, and of directors Spike Lee and John Singleton. The history comes to modern times with filmmakers Steve McQueen (Twelve Years a Slave) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight); megastars Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Halle Berry; and a glorious gallery of others.Filled with photographs and stories of stars and filmmakers on set and off, Hollywood Black tells an enthralling, underappreciated history as it's never before been told.

Read more less

A comprehensive analysis of the historical film—a popular and controversial genre that’s been with us since the early days of cinema—and Hollywood’s unique ability to reshape our viewpoints while it sensually recreates the past. Provides a complete guide to the unique characteristics of historical film, distinguishing among sub-genres such as historical epics, war films, biographies, topical films, and meta-historic works like Nixon and JFK Offers detailed analyses of groundbreaking films such as Spartacus, Schindler’s List, and United 93 Examines the dual role of the historical film to entertain and educate, with its tendency to arouse critical and popular controversy Stimulates discussion about Hollywood’s power to persuade and reshape our views of the past

Read more less

This revealing history of the American film musical synthesizes the critical literature on the genre and provides a series of close analytical readings of iconic musical films, focusing on their cultural relationship to other aspects of American popular music. Offers a depth of scholarship that will appeal to students and scholars Leads a crucial analysis of the cultural context of musicals, particularly the influence of popular music on the genre Delves into critical issues behind these films such as race, gender, ideology, and authorship Features close readings of canonical and neglected film musicals from the 1930s to the present including: Top Hat, Singin' in the Rain, Woodstock, Gimme Shelter, West Side Story, and Across the Universe

Read more less

Step into the glitz and glamor of Hollywood with 50 classic and modern cocktails inspired by some of our most legendary stars.Beyond the silver screen, Hollywood has always exerted a significant influence on various aspects of popular culture, including the world of cocktails. From classic romances to fantasy epics, its portrayal of worlds populated by stylish and enigmatic characters sipping on sophisticated libations has left an indelible mark on the drinking scene. Throughout the decades many iconic figures have been associated with glamorous classic cocktails that simply capture their essence, such as a Marilyn Monroe Martini or a Humphrey Bogart Old Fashioned. But in the world of modern mixology there is an exciting trend of creating new cocktails that pay homage to today''s most beloved actors. The drinks featured here go beyond the traditional classics and incorporate the personalities of our best-loved celebrities, from a seductive Scarlett Johansson-inspired des

Read more less

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's TV series about their shock buyout of Wrexham AFC has propelled the team to unimaginable new popularity. Lifelong fan Peter Read looks at his own obsessive support, the club's history, and developments over the first two seasons under the Hollywood stars.

Read more less

Lights, camera, action! Join the hunt for Wally in Hollywood in this mini edition with free magnifying glass.Wow! Wally and his friends are in the land where dreams are made, and they're hidden in every intricately-detailed scene. So let the hunt begin! Full of eye-boggling extras and hours of fun, this fourth classic Wally adventure comes in a fiendish mini edition with free magnifying glass. Wow! Amazing! The Where's Wally? series has sold over 75 million books worldwide.

Read more less