Download or read book In Search of Donna Reed written by Jay Fultz and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first biography of Donna Reed also contains the first extended discussion of her television show. The personal richness that Reed brought to her television role has been filtered out in the caricature perpetuated by pop critics. In the media "Donna Reed" is Donna Stone distorted as a female-manque who wears pearls and high heels around the house. But Donna Reed's long hold on viewers depends on irreducible qualities that have nothing to do with this fixed image, as Fultz suggests. He follows her development from Iowa farm girl to apprentice in Hollywood to mature juggler of the demands of family and career to antiwar activist. Drawing on Reed's letters and on interviews, Fultz looks for what was real in a very private person without discarding what is romantic in any pursuit of a public one. He shows why the rich and principled life of Donna Reed matters in this more cynical time.

Download or read book Donna Reed written by Brenda Scott Royce and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1990-11-26 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donna Reed has been called "America's favorite mother" and her recognition as such has stood the test of time. But before she became known as the ultimate mom on The Donna Reed Show, she was already a veteran film actress with almost 40 films to her credit--including roles in It's a Wonderful Life and From Here to Eternity. This book contains a brief biography, a detailed examination of her work, a listing of reviews of her work and of her awards and nominations, a chronology of major events in her life, and an annotated bibliography of writings from major magazines, fan magazines, books and newspapers.

Download or read book The Donna Reed Handbook Everything You Need to Know about Donna Reed written by Emily Smith and published by Tebbo. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donna Reed (January 27, 1921 January 14, 1986) was an American film and television actress. With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also well known for her role as Mary Hatch in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). She worked extensively in television, notably as Donna Stone, an American middle class mother in the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958 1966), in which she played a more prominent role than many other television mothers of the era and for which she received the 1963 Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star - Female. Later in Reed's career she replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie Ewing in 1984 season of the television melodrama, Dallas, and sued the production company for breach of contract when she was abruptly fired upon Bel Geddes' decision to return to the show. This book is your ultimate resource for Donna Reed. Here you will find the most up-to-date information, photos, and much more. In easy to read chapters, with extensive references and links to get you to know all there is to know about Donna Reed's Early life, Career and Personal life right away. A quick look inside: Donna Reed, 1953 in film, 1963 in television, Another Mother for Peace, Babes on Broadway, Backlash (1956 film), Barbara Bel Geddes, Beyond Mombasa, Calling Dr. Gillespie, Carl Betz, Dallas (1978 TV series), Deadly Lessons (1983 film), Denison, Iowa, Eyes in the Night, Frank Capra, From Here to Eternity, Gentle Annie (film), Green Dolphin Street, Gun Fury, Iowa, It's a Wonderful Life, Lana Turner, Los Angeles City College, Mary Hatch, Miss Ellie Ewing, Miyoshi Umeki, Paul Petersen, Ransom!, Scandal Sheet (1952 film), See Here, Private Hargrove, Shadow of the Thin Man, Shelley Fabares, The Benny Goodman Story, The Bugle Sounds and more pages! Contains selected content from the highest rated entries, typeset, printed and shipped, combining the advantages of up-to-date and in-depth knowledge with the convenience of printed books. A portion of the proceeds of each book will be donated to the Wikimedia Foundation to support their mission.

Download or read book The Donna Reed Show written by Joanne Morreale and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes The Donna Reed Show, which aired from 1958 to 1966, as a key moment of cultural transition. At a time when television offered limited opportunities for women, Donna Reed was an Oscar-winning Hollywood actress who became both producer (though largely uncredited) and star of her own television show. Distinct from the patriarchal family sitcoms of the era, The Donna Reed Show's storylines focused on the mother instead of the father, and its production brought a cinematic aesthetic to television situation comedy. In The Donna Reed Show, author Joanne Morreale illustrates how the program pushed the boundaries of the domestic sitcom at a time when the genre was evolving and also reflected the subtle shifts and undercurrents of unrest in the larger social and political culture. Morreale begins by locating Donna Reed in relation to her predecessors Gertrude Berg and Lucille Ball, both of whom were strong female presences in front of and behind the camera. She also explores the telefilm aesthetics of The Donna Reed Showand argues that the series is a prime example of the emergent synergy between Hollywood and the television industry in the late fifties. In addition, Morreale argues that the Donna Stone character's femininity acts as a kind of masquerade, as well as provides a proto-feminist model for housewives. She also examines the show's representation of teen culture and its role in launching the singing careers of its two teenaged stars. Finally, Morreale considers the legacy of The Donna Reed Show in the representation of its values in later sitcoms and its dialogue with contemporary television texts. Morreale illustrates the interplay of gender, industry, and culture at work in the history of this classic TV series. Fans of the show, as well as students and teachers of television history, will enjoy this close look at The Donna Reed Show.

Download or read book Donna Reed 212 Success Facts Everything You Need to Know about Donna Reed written by Gregory Peters and published by Emerge Publishing Group Llc. This book was released on 2014-07-05 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takes A Fresh Look At Donna Reed. 'Donna Reed' (January 27, 1921 ndash; January 14, 1986) was an American feature and TV female actor. This book is your ultimate resource for Donna Reed. Here you will find the most up-to-date 212 Success Facts, Information, and much more. In easy to read chapters, with extensive references and links to get you to know all there is to know about Donna Reed's Early life, Career and Personal life right away. A quick look inside: Gigi Perreau - Affiliations, Ben Gage, Tisha Sterling - Life and career, Gentle Annie (film) - Cast, Hangman's Knot, 1921 in film - Births, The Betty Hutton Show - Reception and cancellation, Norman Taurog - 1950s, Donna Reed - Political views, Hal Smith (actor) - Early life, Beyond Glory - Cast, Jesse White (actor) - Life and career, Timothy Hutton - Career, Barry Nelson - Career, The United States Steel Hour - Television, Donna Reed Foundation, Gale Gordon - Television, Carl Betz - Career, 1963 in television - Events, George Hamilton (actor) - Television work, Kansas City Confidential - Background, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film) - Cast, Sacagawea - Film, Beyond Mombasa - Cast, Charles Herbert - Career, Jay North - Adult years, Lesley Gore - 1960s career, Marlo Thomas - Early career, Eyes in the Night - Cast, Adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray - Film and television, Notre Dame High School (Sherman Oaks, California) - Notable alumni, Hangman's Knot - Plot, Raiders of the Seven Seas - Cast, Shadow of the Thin Man, Calling Dr. Gillespie, The Wide Country - Synopsis, Shelley Fabares - Early life and career, Roberta Sherwood - Later career, Donna Reed Foundation - Death, Stephen Talbot - Early life and career, Stuart Erwin, Kim Darby - Television roles, Trouble Along the Way, Charles Lane (actor) - 1960s, and much more...

Download or read book LIFE written by and published by . This book was released on 1946-06-10 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

Download or read book Searching for John Ford written by Joseph McBride and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2011-02-11 with total page 983 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Ford's classic films—such as Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, and The Searchers—have earned him worldwide admiration as America's foremost filmmaker, a director whose rich visual imagination conjures up indelible, deeply moving images of our collective past. Joseph McBride's Searching for John Ford, described as definitive by both the New York Times and the Irish Times, surpasses all other biographies of the filmmaker in its depth, originality, and insight. Encompassing and illuminating Ford's myriad complexities and contradictions, McBride traces the trajectory of Ford's life from his beginnings as “Bull” Feeney, the nearsighted, football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Portland, Maine, to his recognition, after a long, controversial, and much-honored career, as America's national mythmaker. Blending lively and penetrating analyses of Ford's films with an impeccably documented narrative of the historical and psychological contexts in which those films were created, McBride has at long last given John Ford the biography his stature demands.

Download or read book It s a Wonderful Life written by Michael Newton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-07 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is one of the best-loved films of Classical Hollywood cinema, a story of despair and redemption in the aftermath of war that is one of the central movies of the 1940s, and a key text in America's understanding of itself. This is a film that remains relevant to our own anxieties and yearnings, to all the contradictions of ordinary life, while also enacting for us the quintessence of the classic Hollywood aesthetic. Nostalgia, humour, and a tough resilience weave themselves through this movie, intertwining it with the fraught cultural moment of the end of World War II that saw its birth. It offers a still compelling merging of fantasy and realism that was utterly unique when it was first released, and has rarely been matched since. Michael Newton's study of the film investigates the source of its extraordinary power and its long-lasting impact. He begins by introducing the key figures in the movie's production - notably director Frank Capra and star James Stewart - and traces the making of the film, and then provides a brief synopsis of the film, considering its aesthetic processes and procedures, touching on all those things that make it such an astonishing film. Newton's careful analysis explores all those aspects of the film that are fundamental to our understanding of it, particularly the way in which the film brings tragedy and comedy together. Finally, Newton tells the story of the film's reception and afterlife, accounting for its initial relative failure and its subsequent immense popularity.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of the 1940s written by James Gilbert Ryan and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 2006 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains entries for individuals, institutions, and events, focusing mostly on the U.S. Entries cover topics in science, history, literature, theater and entertainment, and many other areas.

Download or read book The Beginning or the End written by Greg Mitchell and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking and significant story of how the White House and Pentagon scuttled an epic Hollywood production. Soon after atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, MGM set out to make a movie studio chief Louis B. Mayer called “the most important story” he would ever film: a big budget dramatization of the Manhattan Project and the invention and use of the revolutionary new weapon. Over at Paramount, Hal B. Wallis was ramping up his own film version. His screenwriter: the novelist Ayn Rand, who saw in physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer the model for a character she was sketching for Atlas Shrugged. Greg Mitchell’s The Beginning or the End chronicles the first efforts of American media and culture to process the Atomic Age. A movie that began as a cautionary tale inspired by atomic scientists aiming to warn the world against a nuclear arms race would be drained of all impact due to revisions and retakes ordered by President Truman and the military—for reasons of propaganda, politics, and petty human vanity (this was Hollywood). Mitchell has found his way into the lofty rooms, from Washington to California, where it happened, unearthing hundreds of letters and dozens of scripts that show how wise intentions were compromised in favor of defending the use of the bomb and the imperatives of postwar politics. As in his acclaimed Cold War true-life thriller The Tunnels, he exposes how our implacable American myth-making mechanisms distort our history.

Download or read book The Women Who Made Television Funny written by David C. Tucker and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of the bright and talented actresses who made America laugh in the 1950s are off the air today, but their pioneering Hollywood careers irrevocably changed the face of television comedy. These smart and sassy women successfully negotiated the hazards of the male-dominated workplace with class and humor, and the work they did in the 1950s is inventive still by today's standards. Unable to fall back on strong language, shock value, or racial and sexual epithets, the female sitcom stars of the 1950s entertained with pure talent and screen savvy. As they did so, they helped to lay the foundation for the development of television comedy. This book pays tribute to 10 prominent television actresses who played lead roles in popular comedy shows of the 1950s. Each chapter covers the works and personalities of one actress: Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy), Gracie Allen (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show), Eve Arden (Our Miss Brooks), Spring Byington (December Bride), Joan Davis (I Married Joan), Anne Jeffreys (Topper), Donna Reed (The Donna Reed Show), Ann Sothern (Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show), Gale Storm (My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna), and Betty White (Life with Elizabeth). For each star, a career sketch is provided, concentrating primarily on her television work but also noting achievements in other areas. Appendices offer cast and crew lists, a chronology, and an additional biographical sketch of 10 less familiar actresses who deserve recognition.

Download or read book In Search of The Thin Man written by Philip Zwerling and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-02-14 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The man who created the boldest hard boiled fiction, Dashiell Hammett, wrote The Thin Man in 1933 and launched the fun-loving, booze-swilling, mystery-solving couple Nick and Nora Charles into American culture. MGM sold millions of movie tickets by casting William Powell and Myrna Loy as this classiest of romantic couples. Over 14 years and six films, these stars navigated grave periods of history: the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. The novel and films live on as gems of a unique gritty sophistication. This complete history of The Thin Man series covers the brightest stars, tastiest scandals, headlines and conflicts behind these classic films. With a cast of hundreds, we see Hammett, his lover Lillian Hellman, and their friend Dorothy Parker fight alcoholism, sexual convention and Senator Joe McCarthy in culture wars of eerie contemporaneity.

Download or read book June Cleaver Was a Feminist written by Cary O’Dell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-05-11 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long dismissed as ciphers, sycophants and "Stepford Wives," women characters of primetime television during the 1950s through the 1980s are overdue for this careful reassessment. From smart, savvy wives and resilient mothers (including the much-maligned June Cleaver and Donna Reed) to talented working women (long before the debut of "Mary Tyler Moore") to crimebusters and even criminals, American women on television emerge as a diverse, empowered, individualistic, and capable lot, highly worthy of emulation and appreciation.

Download or read book Of War and Men written by Ralph LaRossa and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fathers in the 1950s tend to be portrayed as wise and genial pipe-smokers or distant, emotionless patriarchs. To uncover the real story of fatherhood during the 1950s, LaRossa takes the long view, revealing the myriad ways that World War II and its aftermath shaped men.

Download or read book Print the Legend written by Scott Eyman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-05-29 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." This line comes from director John Ford's film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but it also serves as an epigram for the life of the legendary filmmaker. Through a career that spanned decades and included work on dozens of films -- among them such American masterpieces as The Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, Stagecoach, and How Green Was My Valley -- John Ford managed to leave as his legacy a body of work that few filmmakers will ever equal. Yet as bold as the stamp of his personality was on each film, there was at the same time a marked reticence when it came to revealing anything personal. Basically shy, and intensely private, he was known to enjoy making up stories about himself, some of them based loosely on fact but many of them pure fabrications. Ford preferred instead to let his films speak for him, and the message was always masculine, determined, romantic, yes, but never soft -- and always, always totally "American." If there were other aspects to his personality, moods and subtleties that weren't reflected on the screen, then no one really needed to know. Indeed, what mattered to Ford was always what was up there on the screen. And if it varied from reality, what did it matter? When you are creating legend, fact becomes a secondary matter. Now, in this definitive look at the life and career of one of America's true cinematic giants, noted biographer and critic Scott Eyman, working with the full participation of the Ford estate, has managed to document and delineate both aspects of John Ford's life -- the human being and the legend. Going well beyond the legend, Eyman has explored the many influences that were brought to play on this remarkable and complex man, and the result is a rich and involving story of a great film director and of the world in which he lived, as well as the world of Hollywood legend that he helped to shape. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews and research on three continents, Scott Eyman explains how a saloon-keeper's son from Maine helped to shape America's vision of itself, and how a man with only a high school education came to create a monumental body of work, including films that earned him six Academy Awards -- more than any filmmaker before or since. He also reveals the truth of Ford's turbulent relationship with actress Katharine Hepburn, recounts his stand for freedom of speech during the McCarthy witch-hunt -- including a confrontation with archconservative Cecil B. DeMille -- and discusses his disfiguring alcoholism as well as the heroism he displayed during World War II. Brilliant, stubborn, witty, rebellious, irascible, and contradictory, John Ford remains one of the enduring giants in what is arguably America's greatest contribution to art -- the Hollywood movie. In Print the Legend, Scott Eyman has managed at last to separate fact from legend in writing about this remarkable man, producing what will remain the definitive biography of this film giant.

Download or read book TV in the USA 3 volumes written by Vincent LoBrutto and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-01-04 with total page 1278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This three-volume set is a valuable resource for researching the history of American television. An encyclopedic range of information documents how television forever changed the face of media and continues to be a powerful influence on society. What are the reasons behind enduring popularity of television genres such as police crime dramas, soap operas, sitcoms, and "reality TV"? What impact has television had on the culture and morality of American life? Does television largely emulate and reflect real life and society, or vice versa? How does television's influence differ from that of other media such as newspapers and magazines, radio, movies, and the Internet? These are just a few of the questions explored in the three-volume encyclopedia TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. This expansive set covers television from 1950 to the present day, addressing shows of all genres, well-known programs and short-lived series alike, broadcast on the traditional and cable networks. All three volumes lead off with a keynote essay regarding the technical and historical features of the decade(s) covered. Each entry on a specific show investigates the narrative, themes, and history of the program; provides comprehensive information about when the show started and ended, and why; and identifies the star players, directors, producers, and other key members of the crew of each television production. The set also features essays that explore how a particular program or type of show has influenced or reflected American society, and it includes numerous sidebars packed with interesting data, related information, and additional insights into the subject matter.

Download or read book Dana Andrews written by James McKay and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dana Andrews, arguably the finest minimalist actor of his generation, as one critic commented, could convey more with one look than many actors could with a soliloquy. In a film career spanning nearly five decades, Andrews appeared in some of Hollywood's most prestigious productions, including The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). His unique screen presence was shown at its best in such film noir classics as Laura (1944) and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950). Beginning with an absorbing biographical chapter, this critical survey of Dana Andrews' screen career features a complete filmography with synopses, reviews, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and insightful comments from Andrews and his coworkers. A chronological list of television, radio and theater credits is included.