Download or read book Joan Blondell written by Matthew Kennedy and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2009-09-28 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio. Born the child of vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal, distinctive cello voice, megawatt smile, luminous saucer eyes, and flawless timing, she came into widespread fame in Warner Bros. musicals and comedies of the 1930s, including Blonde Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade. Frequent co-star to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years. Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and features numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues.
Download or read book Joan Blondell written by Matthew Kennedy and published by Hollywood Legends. This book was released on 2014-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio. Born the child of itinerant vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal, distinctive cello voice, megawatt smile, luminous saucer eyes, and flawless timing, she came into widespread fame in Warner Bros. musicals and comedies of the 1930s, including Blonde Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade. Frequent co-star to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years. Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and featuring numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes traces the changing face of Twentieth Century American entertainment through the career of this extraordinary actress.
Download or read book Center Door Fancy written by Joan Blondell and published by Graymalkin Media. This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is a fascinating novel of the World of vaudeville and the world of Hollywood by a woman who was born into one and became a major star in the other. At 16, Nora set out on her own. A hit in a Broadway play led to Hollywood and stardom. She played the big musicals, the comedies, the leading ladies, and the Gal Fridays, and was married to three of the most glamorous men around.
Download or read book Nightmare Alley written by William Lindsay Gresham and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2011-04-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon to be a major motion picture from Academy Award–winning director Guillermo del Toro and starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Toni Collette. Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him. And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.
Download or read book Ann Dvorak written by Christina Rice and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2013-11-14 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The forgotten screen legend who made Hollywood history by challenging the all-powerful studio system is revealed in this first full-length biography. Seemingly destined for A-list fame, Ann Dvorak was touted as “Hollywood’s New Cinderella” after film mogul Howard Hughes cast her in the 1932 gangster film Scarface. But Dvorak’s journey to superstardom was derailed when she walked out on her contractual obligations to Warner Bros. for an extended honeymoon. Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel explores the life and career of one of the first individuals who dared to challenge the studio system. Dvorak reached her pinnacle during the early 1930s, when the film industry was relatively uncensored and free to produce movies with more daring storylines. She played several female leads in films including The Strange Love of Molly Louvain, Three on a Match, and Heat Lightning, but after her walk-out, Warner Bros retaliated by casting her in less significant roles. Following the casting conflicts and illness, Dvorak filed a lawsuit against the Warner Bros. studio, setting a precedent for other stars who eventually followed suit. In this insightful memoir, Christina Rice explores the spirited rebellion of a talented actress whose promising career fell victim to the studio empire.
Download or read book Bette Joan written by Shaun Considine and published by Graymalkin Media. This book was released on 2017-01-25 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This joint biography of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford follows Hollywood's most epic rivalry throughout their careers. They only worked together once, in the classic spine-chiller "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" and their violent hatred of each other as rival sisters was no act. In real life they fought over as many man as they did film roles. The story of these two dueling divas is hilarious, monstrous, and tragic, and Shaun Considine’s account of it is exhaustive, explosive, and unsparing. “Rip-roaring. A definite ten.” - New York Magazine.
Download or read book People Will Talk written by John Kobal and published by Alfred A. Knopf. This book was released on 1985 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book About Face written by Dorothy Ponedel and published by . This book was released on 2018-02-25 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sinners and saints without greasepaint make for memorable close-ups. Enjoy Dottie's confidential revelations about Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Joan Blondell, Paulette Goddard, Barbara Stanwyck, and others.
Download or read book Bohemian New Orleans written by Jeff Weddle and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2010-01-06 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2007 Welty Prize In 1960, Jon Edgar and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb founded Loujon Press on Royal Street in New Orleans's French Quarter. The small publishing house quickly became a giant. Heralded by the Village Voice and the New York Times as one of the best of its day, the Outsider, the press's literary review, featured, among others, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, and Walter Lowenfels. Loujon published books by Henry Miller and two early poetry collections by Bukowski. Bohemian New Orleans traces the development of this courageous imprint and examines its place within the small press revolution of the 1960s. Drawing on correspondence from many who were published in the Outsider, back issues of the Outsider, contemporary reviews, promotional materials, and interviews, Jeff Weddle shows how the press's mandarin insistence on production quality and its eclectic editorial taste made its work nonpareil among peers in the underground. Throughout, Bohemian New Orleans reveals the messy, complex, and vagabond spirit of a lost literary age. Learn about Director Wayne Ewing's documentary film The Outsiders of New Orleans: Loujon Press and watch a trailer at http://www.loujonpress.com/
Download or read book Killer Tomatoes written by Ray Hagen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No delicate ingenues, these. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Mary Pickfords of the movie world were replaced by a different sort of woman--drop-dead gorgeous, witty, not afraid to speak their minds, they could slay you with a look--and if that didn't work, look out for the pistol in the garter. These ground-breaking actresses helped change the course of movie history, charting a path for generations to come. These profiles of fifteen leading ladies--Lucille Ball, Lynn Bari, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Gloria Grahame, Jean Hagen, Adele Jergens, Ida Lupino, Marilyn Maxwell, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Claire Trevor and Marie Windsor--include overviews of their lives and careers, and excerpts from interviews. Five photos supplement each profile. Jane Russell (one of the actresses profiled) provides a foreword.
Download or read book Hooked on Hollywood written by Leonard Maltin and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Women of Warner Brothers written by Daniel Bubbeo and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-06-21 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lives and careers of Warner Brothers' screen legends Joan Blondell, Nancy Coleman, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Glenda Farrell, Kay Francis, Ruby Keeler, Andrea King, Priscilla Lane, Joan Leslie, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker, Ann Sheridan, Alexis Smith, and Jane Wyman are the topic of this book. Some achieved great success in film and other areas of show business, but others failed to get the breaks or became victims of the studio system's sometimes unpleasant brand of politics. The personal and professional obstacles that each actress encountered are here set out in detail, often with comments from the actresses who granted interviews with the author and from those people who knew them best on and off the movie set. A filmography is included for each of the fifteen.
Download or read book Ice Cream Blonde written by Michelle Morgan and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed look at the charmed life and tragic death of one of Hollywood's earliest stars A vibrant and beloved Golden Age film comedienne who worked alongside the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, Clara Bow, and dozens of others, Thelma Todd was one of the rare actors to successfully cross over from silent films to "talkies." This authoritative new biography traces Todd's life and career, from a vivacious little girl to a young woman who became a reluctant beauty queen to her rapid rise as a Hollywood comedy star to her mysterious death at the age of 29. Increasingly disenchanted with the studio star system, Todd opened the successful Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café, attracting adoring fans, tourists, and Hollywood celebrities. Life appeared blessed for the beautiful and outspoken Hollywood rebel. So the country was shocked when Todd was found dead by her housekeeper in a garage near the café. An inquest concluded that her death was accidental, caused by inhaling the car's exhaust fumes. In a thorough new investigation that draws on FBI documents, interviews, photographs, reports, and extortion notes—much of these not previously available to the public—author Michelle Morgan offers fresh evidence and conclusions about the circumstances surrounding Todd's death, proving what many people have long suspected, that Thelma had been murdered. The cast of suspects includes Thelma's Hollywood-director lover; her gangster ex-husband; assorted thugs who were pressuring her to install gaming tables in the room above her popular café; and a new, never-before-named mobster. Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of Todd's death, The Ice Cream Blonde is sure to interest any fan of Thelma Todd, Hollywood's Golden Age, or gripping real-life murder mysteries.
Download or read book Edmund Goulding s Dark Victory written by Matthew Kennedy and published by Terrace Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the dawn of sound, he wrote the story for the Academy Award-winning musical The Broadway Melody and collaborated memorably with Gloria Swanson and Joseph Kennedy for The Trespasser. He excelled at anti-war drama (White Banners, The Dawn Patrol, We Are Not Alone), fantastic Bette Davis weepies (Dark Victory, The Old Maid, The Great Lie), lilting romantic dramas (The Constant Nymph, Claudia), big-budgeted literary adaptations (The Razor's Edge), and even film noir (Nightmare Alley).
Download or read book The Amateur Cracksman written by E. W. Hornung and published by Namaskar Book. This book was released on 2024-02-02 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Indulge in the witty exploits of a gentleman thief as he maneuvers through a world of crime, blending charm and mischief in equal measure. The Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Hornung: Step into the thrilling world of crime and adventure with the esteemed author E. W. Hornung in The Amateur Cracksman. This classic collection of tales introduces readers to the charismatic A. J. Raffles, a gentleman thief with a penchant for intrigue and a code of honor that adds layers of complexity to his criminal exploits. Why This Book? The Amateur Cracksman invites readers to follow the daring escapades of A. J. Raffles, a character who defies traditional notions of crime and justice. E. W. Hornung's skillful storytelling and the moral ambiguity of Raffles create a narrative that captivates audiences with its blend of suspense, wit, and unexpected twists. E. W. Hornung, a master of crime fiction, leaves an indelible mark with The Amateur Cracksman. Immerse yourself in the world of gentlemanly crime as Hornung weaves tales that challenge perceptions and introduce readers to a character whose criminal exploits are as intriguing as they are morally complex.
Download or read book Warren William written by John Stangeland and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the motion picture screen, Hollywood star Warren William (1894-1948) was a magnificent rogue, often deliciously immoral and utterly callous, yet remarkably likable in his wickedness. Off-screen, the actor was as humble and retiring as his film characters were mean and heartless. This biography examines William's life and career in detail, from his rural Minnesota roots through his service in World War I, his Broadway stage success, and his meteoric rise and gradual fall from Hollywood fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Also analyzed are his film persona and the curious mechanisms by which our culture "selects" certain film personalities to remember and others to forget. Featured is a wealth of biographical material never before available, including rare candid photos of William's early years. Interviews with his surviving nieces provide intimate family details and personal remembrances.
Download or read book June Allyson written by June Allyson and published by Putnam Publishing Group. This book was released on 1982 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From her days as a star at MGM, her marriage to Dick Powell--many years her senior--and the desolation of her life after his death, Allyson recounts her persistent, and ultimately successful, struggle for a life of her own.
