Download or read book Early Poverty Row Studios written by E.J. Stephens and Marc Wanamaker and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Hollywood is often seen only through the lens of the major studios, forgetting that many of Tinseltown's early creations came from micro-studios stretched along Sunset Boulevard in an area disparagingly known as Poverty Row. Here, the first wave of West Coast moviemakers migrated to the tiny village of Hollywood, where alcohol was illegal, actors were unwelcome, and cattle were herded down the unpaved streets. Most Poverty Row producers survived from film to film, their fortunes tied to the previous week's take from hundreds of nickelodeon tills. They would routinely script movies around an event or disaster, often creating scenarios using sets from more established productions, when the bosses weren't looking, of course. Poverty Row quickly became a generic term for other fly-by-night studios throughout the Los Angeles area. Their struggles to hang on in Hollywood were often more intriguing than the serialized cliffhangers they produced.
Download or read book Poverty Row Studios 1929 1940 written by Michael R. Pitts and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-09-17 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning of the sound era until the end of the 1930s, independent movie-making thrived. Many of the independent studios were headquartered in a section of Hollywood called "Poverty Row." Here the independents made movies on the cheap, usually at rented facilities where shooting was limited to only a few days. From Allied Pictures Corporation to Willis Kent Production, 55 Poverty Row Studios are given histories in this book. Some of the studios, such as Diversion Pictures and Cresent Pictures, came into existence for the sole purpose of releasing movies by established stars. Others, for example J.D. Kendis, were early exploitation filmmakers under the guise of sex education. The histories include critical commentary on the studio's output and a filmography of all titles released from 1929 through 1940.
Download or read book Republic Studios written by Richard M. Hurst and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2007-03-15 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Republic Studios: Between Poverty Row and the Majors documents the influence and significance of this major B studio. Originally published in 1979, this book provides a brief overview of the studio's economic structure and charts its output. Hurst examines the various genres represented by the studio and addresses the non-series B films Republic produced, as well as rare A films such as Wake of the Red Witch, Sands of Iwo Jima, and John Ford's The Quiet Man, all of which starred John Wayne.
Download or read book Early Warner Bros Studios written by E. J. Stephens and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1928, Warner Bros. has produced thousands of beloved films and television shows at the studio's magical 110-acre film factory in Burbank. This collection of evocative images concentrates on the Warner Bros. legacy from the 1920s to the 1950s, when timeless classics such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and East of Eden came to life. It also looks at WB's earlier homes along Hollywood's "Poverty Row," the birthplace of Looney Tunes, and the site of WB's pioneering marriage between film and sound in the 1920s. Early Warner Bros. Studios also tells the tale of four brothers--Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner--scions of a Polish Jewish immigrant family who rose from the humblest of origins to become Hollywood moguls of enormous and lasting influence.
Download or read book Early Paramount Studios written by E.J. Stephens and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over 100 years, Paramount Pictures has been captivating movie and television audiences worldwide with its alluring imagery and compelling stories. Arising from the collective genius of Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky, and Cecil B. DeMille during the 1910s, Paramount Pictures is home to such enduring classics as Wings, Sunset Boulevard, The Ten Commandments, Love Story, The Godfather, the Indiana Jones series, Chinatown, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Titanic, and Star Trek. Early Paramount Studios chronicles Paramounts origins, culminating in the creation and expansion of the lot at 5555 Melrose Avenue, the last major motion picture studio still in Hollywood.
Download or read book Early Hollywood written by Marc Wanamaker and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American International Pictures written by Rob Craig and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American International Pictures was in many ways the "missing link" between big-budget Hollywood studios, "poverty-row" B-movie factories and low-rent exploitation movie distributors. AIP first targeted teen audiences with science fiction, horror and fantasy, but soon grew to encompass many genres and demographics--at times, it was indistinguishable from many of the "major" studios. From Abby to Zontar, this filmography lists more than 800 feature films, television series and TV specials by AIP and its partners and subsidiaries. Special attention is given to American International Television (the TV arm of AIP) and an appendix lists the complete AITV catalog. The author also discusses films produced by founders James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff after they left the company.
Download or read book A Squalid looking Place written by Robert J. Read and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Theatres in Los Angeles written by Suzanne Tarbell Cooper and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los Angeles and the movies grew up together, and a natural extension of the picture business was the premium presentation of the product--the biggest, best, and brightest theatres imaginable. The magnificent movie palaces along Broadway in downtown Los Angeles still represent the highest concentration of vintage theatres in the world. With Hollywood and the movies practically synonymous, the theatres in the studios' neighborhood were state-of-the-art for showbiz, whether they were designed for film, vaudeville, or stage productions. From the elegant Orpheum and the exotic Grauman's Chinese to the modest El Rey, this volume celebrates the architecture and social history of Los Angeles's unique collection of historic theatres past and present. The common threads that connect them all, from the grandest movie palace to the smallest neighborhood theatre, are stories and the ghosts of audiences past waiting in the dark for the show to begin.
Download or read book Movie Studios of Culver City written by Julie Lugo Cerra and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After watching pioneer filmmaker Thomas Ince film one of his famous Westerns on Ballona Creek, city founder Harry Culver saw the economic base for his city. Culver announced plans for the city in 1913 and attracted three major movie studios to Culver City, along with smaller production companies. "The Heart of Screenland" is fittingly etched across the Culver City seal. These vintage images are a tour through the storied past of this company town on the legendary movie lots bearing the names of Thomas Ince, Hal Roach, Goldwyn, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lorimar, MGM-UA, Columbia, Sony Pictures, DeMille, RKO-Pathe, Selznick, Desilu, Culver City Studios, Laird International, the Culver Studios, and such nearly forgotten mini-factories as the Willat Studios. On these premises, Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, and other classics were filmed, along with tens of thousands of television shows and commercials featuring Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and many others.
Download or read book Poverty Row HORRORS written by Tom Weaver and published by McFarland. This book was released on 1999-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poverty row horror films were usually inexpensively (some would say cheaply) produced with writing that ranged from bad to atrocious. Yet these movies with their all-star horror casts (Carradine, Lugosi, Karloff, et al.) and their ape men, mad monsters, devil bats and white zombies still have a loyal audience 50 years after their release. Essays contain full filmographic data on the 31 horror chillers made by the three studios from 1940 through 1946 and are arranged by year of release. Each entry includes the date of release, length, production credits, cast credits, interview quotes, and a plot synopsis with critical commentary. Filmographies for prominent horror actors and actresses, from John Abbott to George Zucco, are provided in the appendices.
Download or read book Location Filming in Los Angeles written by Karie Bible and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11-29 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los Angeles has reigned for more than a century as the world capital of the film industry, a unique and ever-changing city that has been molded and recast thousands of times through the artistic visions and cinematic dreams of Hollywoods elite. As early as 1907, filmmakers migrated west to avoid lengthy eastern winters. In Los Angeles, they discovered an ideal world of abundant and diverse locales blessed with a mild and sunny climate ideal for filming. Location Filming in Los Angeles provides a historic view of the diversity of locations that provided the backdrop for Hollywoods greatest films, from the silent era to the modern age.
Download or read book Poverty Row Studios 1929 1940 written by Michael R. Pitts and published by McFarland. This book was released on 1997 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning of the sound era until the end of the 1930s, independent movie-making thrived. Many of the independent studios were headquartered in a section of Hollywood called Poverty Row. Here the independents made movies on the cheap, usually at rented facilities where shooting was limited to only a few days. From Allied Pictures Corporation to Willis Kent Production, 55 Poverty Row Studios are given histories in this book. Some of the studios, such Diversion Pictures and Cresent Pictures, came into existence for the sole purpose of releasing movies by established stars; others, for example J.D. Kendis, were early exploitation filmmakers under the guise of sex education. The histories include critical commentary on the studio's output and a filmography of all titles released from 1929 through 1939.
Download or read book King Cohn written by Bob Thomas and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fay Wray and Robert Riskin written by Victoria Riskin and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography) A Hollywood love story, a Hollywood memoir, a dual biography of two of Hollywood’s most famous figures, whose golden lives were lived at the center of Hollywood’s golden age, written by their daughter, an acclaimed writer and producer. Fay Wray was most famous as the woman—the blonde in a diaphanous gown—who captured the heart of the mighty King Kong, the twenty-five-foot, sixty-ton gorilla, as he placed her, nestled in his eight-foot hand, on the ledge of the 102-story Empire State Building, putting Wray at the height of New York’s skyline and cinematic immortality. Wray starred in more than 120 pictures opposite Hollywood's biggest stars—Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper (The Legion of the Condemned, The First Kiss, The Texan, One Sunday Afternoon), Clark Gable, William Powell, and Charles Boyer; from cowboy stars Hoot Gibson and Art Accord to Ronald Colman (The Unholy Garden), Claude Rains, Ralph Richardson, and Melvyn Douglas. She was directed by the masters of the age, from Fred Niblo, Erich von Stroheim (The Wedding March), and Mauritz Stiller (The Street of Sin) to Leo McCarey, William Wyler, Gregory La Cava, “Wild Bill” William Wellman, Merian C. Cooper (The Four Feathers, King Kong), Josef von Sternberg (Thunderbolt), Dorothy Arzner (Behind the Make-Up), Frank Capra (Dirigible), Michael Curtiz (Doctor X), Raoul Walsh (The Bowery), and Vincente Minnelli. The book’s—and Wray’s—counterpart: Robert Riskin, considered one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. Academy Award–winning writer (nominated for five), producer, ten-year-long collaborator with Frank Capra on such pictures as American Madness, It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, and Meet John Doe, hailed by many, among them F. Scott Fitzgerald, as “among the best screenwriters in the business.” Riskin wrote women characters who were smart, ornery, sexy, always resilient, as he perfected what took full shape in It Happened One Night, the Riskin character, male or female—breezy, self-made, streetwise, optimistic, with a sense of humor that is subtle and sure. Fay Wray and Robert Riskin lived large lives, finding each other after establishing their artistic selves and after each had had many romantic attachments—Wray, an eleven-year-long difficult marriage and a fraught affair with Clifford Odets, and Riskin, a series of romances with, among others, Carole Lombard, Glenda Farrell, and Loretta Young. Here are Wray’s and Riskin’s lives, their work, their fairy-tale marriage that ended so tragically. Here are their dual, quintessential American lives, ultimately and blissfully intertwined.
Download or read book King Cohn written by Bob Thomas and published by New Millennium Entertainment (CA). This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today's cutthroat world of multimillion-dollar movies, Cohn is a man of mythic proportions. In this revised show-biz classic, Thomas reinstates material omitted from the book's first publication for being too controversial--information that adds to the mystery of Cohn's compelling persona. 8-page photo insert.
Download or read book Lawrence Tierney written by Burt Kearns and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lawrence Tierney (1919–2002) was the kind of actor whose natural swagger and gruff disposition made him the perfect fit for the Hollywood "tough guy" archetype. Known for his erratic and oftentimes violent nature, Tierney drew upon his bellicose reputation throughout his career—a reputation that made him one of the most feared and mythologized characters in the industry. Born in Brooklyn to Irish American parents, Tierney worked in theater productions in New York before moving to Hollywood, where he signed with RKO Radio Pictures in 1943. His biggest roles would come in Dillinger (1945), in which he played 1930s gangster and bank robber John Dillinger, and Robert Wise's film noir classic Born to Kill (1947). Despite his natural talents, Tierney was trouble from the start, struggling with alcoholism and mental instability that emboldened him to start fights whenever and wherever he could. The continued bouts of alcohol-fueled rage, his subsequent stints in jail, and his continued attempts at rehabilitation curtailed his acting career. Unable to find work throughout much of the 1960s, he did a stint in Europe before eventually returning to New York, where he took odd jobs as a construction worker, bartender, and hansom cab driver. In the mid-1980s Tierney returned to acting. With a somewhat cooler head, he established himself again with recurring roles in shows such as Seinfeld and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He would take on his final projects as a septuagenarian in Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Armageddon (1998), where his on-set behavior would once again draw the ire of his colleagues and studio representatives. He would go down swinging just shy of his eighty-third birthday, his tough-guy image solidly intact until the end. In Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy, author Burt Kearns traces Tierney's storied life from his days as Dillinger, to his clash with Quentin Tarantino at the end of his film career, to his final public appearances. The first official biography of the late actor, the book draws on the writings of Hollywood reporters and gossip columnists who first reported on Tierney's antics, and exclusive interviews with surviving colleagues, friends, family members—and victims. Through their words and his research, Kearns paints a portrait of Tierney's brutish behavior and the industry's reaction to the pugnacious star, drawing parallels—and the line—between the man and the characters that made him a Hollywood legend.
