Download or read book Hollywood Dreams Made Real written by Mark A. Vieira and published by . This book was released on 2008-11 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1924 to 1936 Irving G Thalberg supervised more than four hundred M-G-M films; made stars of Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Clark Cable, Joan Crawford, Lon Chaney and Greta Garbo; and, gave Hollywood careers to stage legends from Helen Hayes to the Barrymores. This book tells the story of Thalberg's life.
Download or read book Clarence Brown written by Gwenda Young and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2018-11-23 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greta Garbo proclaimed him as her favorite director. Actors, actresses, and even child stars were so at ease under his direction that they were able to deliver inspired and powerful performances. Academy–Award–nominated director Clarence Brown (1890–1987) worked with some of Hollywood's greatest stars, such as Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Mickey Rooney, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy. Known as the "star maker," he helped guide the acting career of child sensation Elizabeth Taylor (of whom he once said, "she has a face that is an act of God") and discovered Academy–Award–winning child star Claude Jarman Jr. for The Yearling (1946). He directed more than fifty films, including Possessed (1931), Anna Karenina (1935), National Velvet (1944), and Intruder in the Dust (1949), winning his audiences over with glamorous star vehicles, tales of families, communities, and slices of Americana, as well as hard-hitting dramas. Although Brown was admired by peers like Jean Renoir, Frank Capra, and John Ford, his illuminating work and contributions to classic cinema are rarely mentioned in the same breath as those of Hollywood's great directors. In this first full-length account of the life and career of the pioneering filmmaker, Gwenda Young discusses Brown's background to show how his hardworking parents and resilient grandparents inspired his entrepreneurial spirit. She reveals how the one–time engineer and World War I aviator established a thriving car dealership, the Brown Motor Car Company, in Alabama—only to give it all up to follow his dream of making movies. He would not only become a brilliant director but also a craftsman who was known for his innovative use of lighting and composition. In a career spanning five decades, Brown was nominated for five Academy Awards and directed ten different actors in Oscar-nominated performances. Despite his achievements and influence, however, Brown has been largely overlooked by film scholars. Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master explores the forces that shaped a complex man—part–dreamer, part–pragmatist—who left an indelible mark on cinema.
Download or read book Irving Thalberg written by Mark A. Vieira and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood in the 1920s sparkled with talent, confidence, and opportunity. Enter Irving Thalberg of Brooklyn, who survived childhood illness to run Universal Pictures at twenty; co-found Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at twenty-four; and make stars of Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow. Known as Hollywood's "Boy Wonder," Thalberg created classics such as Ben-Hur, Tarzan the Ape Man, Grand Hotel, Freaks, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Good Earth, but died tragically at thirty-seven. His place in the pantheon should have been assured, yet his films were not reissued for thirty years, spurring critics to question his legend and diminish his achievements. In this definitive biography, illustrated with rare photographs, Mark A. Vieira sets the record straight, using unpublished production files, financial records, and correspondence to confirm the genius of Thalberg's methods. In addition, this is the first Thalberg biography to utilize both his recorded conversations and the unpublished memoirs of his wife, Norma Shearer. Irving Thalberg is a compelling narrative of power and idealism, revealing for the first time the human being behind the legend.
Download or read book Hollywood Left and Right written by Steven J. Ross and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-06 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hollywood Left and Right, Steven J. Ross tells a story that has escaped public attention: the emergence of Hollywood as a vital center of political life and the important role that movie stars have played in shaping the course of American politics. Ever since the film industry relocated to Hollywood early in the twentieth century, it has had an outsized influence on American politics. Through compelling larger-than-life figures in American cinema--Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Edward G. Robinson, George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Harry Belafonte, Jane Fonda, Charlton Heston, Warren Beatty, and Arnold Schwarzenegger--Hollywood Left and Right reveals how the film industry's engagement in politics has been longer, deeper, and more varied than most people would imagine. As shown in alternating chapters, the Left and the Right each gained ascendancy in Tinseltown at different times. From Chaplin, whose movies almost always displayed his leftist convictions, to Schwarzenegger's nearly seamless transition from action blockbusters to the California governor's mansion, Steven J. Ross traces the intersection of Hollywood and political activism from the early twentieth century to the present. Hollywood Left and Right challenges the commonly held belief that Hollywood has always been a bastion of liberalism. The real story, as Ross shows in this passionate and entertaining work, is far more complicated. First, Hollywood has a longer history of conservatism than liberalism. Second, and most surprising, while the Hollywood Left was usually more vocal and visible, the Right had a greater impact on American political life, capturing a senate seat (Murphy), a governorship (Schwarzenegger), and the ultimate achievement, the Presidency (Reagan).
Download or read book Bringing Up Oscar written by Debra Ann Pawlak and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of the innovative pioneers who helped make movies the preeminent art form of the twentieth century. The founders of the now infamous Academy were a motley crew as individuals, but when they first converged in Hollywood, then just a small town with dirt roads, sparks flew and fueled a common dream: to bring artistic validity to their beloved new medium. Who were these movers and shakers who would change movies forever? And what about Oscar, their famous son? He is fast approaching his hundredth birthday and is still the undisputed king of Hollywood. Yet with such dynamic parents, what else could we expect?
Download or read book MGM written by Steven Bingen and published by Santa Monica Press. This book was released on 2011-02-25 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot is the illustrated history of the soundstages and outdoor sets where Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced many of the world’s most famous films. During its Golden Age, the studio employed the likes of Garbo, Astaire, and Gable, and produced innumerable iconic pieces of cinema such as The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, and Ben-Hur. It is estimated that a fifth of all films made in the United States prior to the 1970s were shot at MGM studios, meaning that the gigantic property was responsible for hundreds of iconic sets and stages, often utilizing and transforming minimal spaces and previously used props, to create some of the most recognizable and identifiable landscapes of modern movie culture. All of this happened behind closed doors, the backlot shut off from the public in a veil of secrecy and movie magic. M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot highlights this fascinating film treasure by recounting the history, popularity, and success of the MGM company through a tour of its physical property. Featuring the candid, exclusive voices and photographs from the people who worked there, and including hundreds of rare and unpublished photographs (including many from the archives of Warner Bros.), readers are launched aboard a fun and entertaining virtual tour of Hollywood’s most famous and mysterious motion picture studio.
Download or read book The 50 MGM Films that Transformed Hollywood written by Steven Bingen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-11-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Movies don’t exist in a vacuum. Each MGM movie is a tiny piece of a large, colorful (although often black-and-white) quilt, with threads tying it into all of the rest of that studio’s product, going forward, yes, but also backward, and horizontally, and three-dimensionally across its entire landscape. Not necessarily a “best of” compilation, this book discusses the films that for one reason or another (and not all of them good ones) changed the trajectory of MGM and the film industry in general, from the revolutionary use of “Cinerama” in 1962’s How the West Was Won to Director Alfred Hitchcock’s near-extortion of the profits from the 1959 hit thriller North by Northwest. And there are the studio’s on-screen self-shoutouts to its own past or stars, in films like Party Girl (1958), the That’s Entertainment series, Garbo Talks (1984), Rain Man (1955), and De-Lovely (2004), or the studio’s acquisition of other successful franchises such as James Bond. But fear not—what we consider MGM’s classic films all get their due here, often with a touch of irony or fascinating anecdote. Singin' in the Rain (1952), for example, was in its day neither a financial blockbuster nor critically acclaimed but rather an excuse for the studio to reuse some old songs it already owned. The Wizard of Oz (1939) cost almost as much to make as Gone With the Wind (also 1939) and took ten years to recoup its costs. But still, the MGM mystique endures. Like the popular Netflix series The Movies that Made Us, this is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the greatest—and at times notorious—films ever made.
Download or read book The Very Witching Time of Night written by Gregory William Mank and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-05-23 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book covers unusual and often surprising areas of horror film history: (1) The harrowingly tragic life of Dracula's leading lady, Helen Chandler, as intimately remembered by her sister-in-law. (2) John Barrymore's 1931 horror vehicles Svengali and The Mad Genius, and their rejection by the public. (3) The disastrous shooting of 1933's Murders in the Zoo, perhaps the most racy of all Pre-Code horror films. (4) A candid interview with the son of legendary horror star Lionel Atwill. (5) The censorship battles of One More River, as waged by Frankenstein director James Whale. (6) The adventures (and misadventures) of Boris Karloff as a star at Warner Bros. (7) The stage and screen versions of the horror/comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. (8) Production diaries of the horror noirs Cat People and The Curse of the Cat People. (9) Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man revisited. (10) Horror propaganda: The production of Hitler's Madman. (11) Horror star John Carradine and the rise and fall of his Shakespearean Repertory Company. (12) The Shock! Theatre television phenomenon. And (13) A Tribute to Carl Laemmle, Jr., producer of the original Universal horror classics, including an interview with his lady friend of almost 40 years.
Download or read book John Gilbert written by Eve Golden and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2013-04-12 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revealing biography of the legendary silent film star chronicles his meteoric rise, famous romances, and tragic descent into obscurity. Known as “The Great Lover,” John Gilbert was among the world's most recognizable actors during the silent era. A swashbuckling figure on screen and off, he is best known today for his high-profile romances with Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, his legendary conflicts with Louis B. Mayer, his four tumultuous marriages, and his swift decline after the introduction of talkies. Many myths have developed around the larger-than-life star in the eighty years since his untimely death, but this definitive biography sets the record straight. Eve Golden separates fact from fiction in John Gilbert, tracing the actor's life from his youth spent traveling with his mother in acting troupes to the peak of fame at MGM, where he starred opposite Mae Murray, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and others in popular films such as The Merry Widow, The Big Parade, Flesh and the Devil, and Love. Golden debunks some of the most pernicious rumors about Gilbert, including the oft-repeated myth that he had a high-pitched, squeaky voice that ruined his career. Meticulous, comprehensive, and generously illustrated, this book provides a behind-the-scenes look at one of the silent era's greatest stars and the glamorous yet brutal world in which he lived.
Download or read book Myrna Loy written by Emily W. Leider and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of the actress from her early dance training, to being typecast as Hollywood's "exotic," to her success in her most famous role, Nora Charles.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of American Cinema written by M. Keith Booker and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most powerful forces in world culture, American cinema has a long and complex history that stretches through more than a century. This history not only includes a legacy of hundreds of important films but also the evolution of the film industry itself, which is in many ways a microcosm of the history of American society. Historical Dictionary of American Cinema, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 600 cross-referenced entries covering people, films, companies, techniques, themes, and subgenres that have made American cinema such a vital part of world culture.
Download or read book Produced by Irving Thalberg written by Ana Salzberg and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on archival sources, this is the first book to explore Thalberg's insights into casting, editing, story composition and the importance of the mass audience from a theoretical perspective.
Download or read book The MGM Effect written by Steven Bingen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-08-15 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s emblem, which has opened thousands of movies since 1924, is the most recognized corporate symbol in the world. Not just in the entertainment industry, it should be noted, but of any industry, anywhere, in the history of human civilization. But MGM has been a competitively insignificant force in the motion picture industry for nearly as long as it once, decades ago, dominated that industry. In fact, the MGM lion now presides not over movies alone, but over thirty world-class resorts, and is, or has been, also a recognized leader in the fields of real estate, theme parks, casinos, golf courses, consumer products, and even airlines, all around the world. But the MGM mystique remains. This book is a look at what made MGM the Mount Rushmore of studios, how it presented itself to the world, and how it influenced everything from set design to merchandising to music and dance, and continues to do so today.
Download or read book Gloria Swanson written by Stephen Michael Shearer and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gloria Swanson defined what it meant to be a movie star, but her unforgettable role in Sunset Boulevard overshadowed the true story of her life. Now Stephen Michael Shearer sets the record straight in the first in-depth biography of the film legend. Swanson was Hollywood's first successful glamour queen. Her stardom as an actress in the mid-1920s earned her millions of fans and millions of dollars. Realizing her box office value early in her career, she took control of her life. Soon she was not only producing her own films, she was choosing her scripts, selecting her leading men, casting her projects, creating her own fashions, guiding her publicity, and living an extravagant and sometimes extraordinary celebrity lifestyle. She also collected a long line of lovers (including Joseph P. Kennedy) and married men of her choosing (including a French marquis, thus becoming America's first member of "nobility"). As a devoted and loving mother, she managed a quiet success of raising three children. Perhaps most important, as a keen businesswoman she also was able to extend her career more than sixty years. Her astounding comeback as Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard catapulted her back into the limelight. But it also created her long-misunderstood persona, one that this meticulous biography shows was only part of this independent and unparalleled woman.
Download or read book The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan written by Ron Briley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-28 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elia Kazan first made a name for himself on the Broadway stage, directing productions of such classics as The Skin of Our Teeth, Death of Salesman, and A Streetcar Named Desire. His venture to Hollywood was no less successful. He won an Oscar for only his second film, Gentleman’s Agreement, and his screen version of Streetcar has been hailed as one of the great film adaptations of a staged work. But in 1952, Kazan’s stature was compromised when he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan’s decision to name names allowed him to continue his filmmaking career, but at what price to him and the Hollywood community? In The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan: The Politics of the Post HUAC Films, Ron Briley looks at the work of this unquestionable master of cinema whose testimony against former friends and associates influenced his body of work. By closely examining the films Kazan helmed between 1953 and 1976, Briley suggests that the director’s work during this period reflected his ongoing leftist and progressive political orientation. The films scrutinized in this book include Viva Zapata!, East of Eden, A Face in the Crowd, Splendor in the Grass, America America, The Last Tycoon, and most notably, On the Waterfront, which many critics interpret as an effort to justify his HUAC testimony. In 1999, Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar that caused considerable division within the Hollywood community, highlighting the lingering effects of the director’s testimony. The blacklist had a lasting impact on those who were named and those who did the naming, and the controversy of the HUAC hearings still resonates today. The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan will be of interest to historians of postwar America, cinema scholars, and movie fans who want to revisit some of the director’s most significant films in a new light.
Download or read book Moving to Los Angeles written by Alec Shankman and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2010-03 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Moving to Los Angeles, The ABC's of Making Your Hollywood Dreams Come True!, former top Hollywood television agent Alec Shankman writes a motivational guide for success in Hollywood. Alec, who went from agent to entertainment CEO by the age of 30, references his own personal journey from Ohio to success in the entertainment industry. This inspirational book offers Hollywood dreamers a step-by-step breakdown of how to make their dreams become a reality.
Download or read book Hollywood Heartbreak New York Dreams written by Kody Christiansen and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dreams can often turn into heartbreak. Just ask Kaleb, a renowned female illusionist whose tumultuous journey from Texas to New York to Hollywood, and back again, serves as the catalyst for this tragic but ultimately inspiring true story. Appearing on national television as his alter ego "Sarah Summers," Kaleb immerses himself in the Hollywood celebrity culture, including heavy drug and alcohol abuse. He uses his talents to beguile women while confusing men. When he falls in love with a famous rock star, his world is turned upside down. Every peak Kaleb reaches in the entertainment world is followed by stumbles into many self-imposed despairing valleys. A series of tragic events sends him back to New York where his world becomes even darker and more ominous as this once enchanting creature turns into a homeless alcoholic struggling through New York City's shelter system. Kaleb's determination to turn his life around and resurrect his entertainment career is hard fought and awe inspiring." This is the true story of my life. Some names have been changed to protect those involved.
