Download or read book Chester Morris written by Scott Allen Nollen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-01-03 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:  The prodigious but humble scion of a New York theatrical family, Chester Morris acted on Broadway as a teenager and earned an Academy Award nomination for his first role in a Hollywood "talkie," Alibi (1929). He became leading man to filmdom's top female stars and starred in the popular series of "Boston Blackie" mysteries before creating substantial characters in the theater and the burgeoning medium of television. This first book about Morris provides a detailed account of his life and career on stage, film, radio and television, and as a celebrated magician. It also constructs a fascinating record of his previously undocumented labor activism during the early years of the Screen Actors Guild and his tireless efforts to aid U.S. troops on the home front during World War II.

Download or read book Ruth Page written by Joellen A. Meglin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Ruth Page: The Woman in the Work, the Chicago ballerina emerges as a highly original choreographer who, in her art, sought the iconoclastic as she transgressed boundaries of genre, gender, race, class, and sexuality. Author Joellen A. Meglin shows how her works were often controversial andsometimes censored even as she succeeded in roles usually reserved for men in the ballet world: choreographer, artistic director, and impresario.From extensive dramaturgical analysis of her most famous ballets - La Guiablesse, Frankie and Johnny, Billy Sunday, Revenge, The Merry Widow, Camille, Carmina Burana, and Alice - to embodied re-imagining of an avant-garde solo performed in a "sack" designed by Isamu Noguchi, this biography followsthe global reach of Ruth Page's career spanning the greater part of the twentieth century. In the process of discovering the woman in the work, it also offers encounters with an international cast of dancers (Anna Pavlova, Harald Kreutzberg, Frederic Franklin, Alicia Markova), composers (WilliamGrant Still, Aaron Copland, Jerome Moross, Darius Milhaud), visual artists (Noguchi, Pavel Tchelitchew, Antoni Clave), and companies (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Ballets des Champs-Elysees, London Festival Ballet). In doing so, it also disrupts notions that New York was the only cradle of theAmerican ballet, and George Balanchine, its exponent to eclipse all others, Ruth Page explores the woman's unique sensibility, corporeal praxis, and collaborative ethos to reveal her Chicago-centered network of creativity.

Download or read book The Complete Book of 1960s Broadway Musicals written by Dan Dietz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-04-10 with total page 623 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the 1960s may have been a decade of significant upheaval in America, it was also one of the richest periods in musical theatre history. Shows produced on Broadway during this time include such classics as Bye, Bye Birdie; Cabaret; Camelot; Hello Dolly!; Fiddler on the Roof; How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying; Oliver!; and Man of La Mancha. Performers such as Dick Van Dyke, Anthony Newley, Jerry Orbach, and Barbara Streisand made their marks, and other talents—such as Bob Fosse, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Jerome Robbins, and Stephen Sondheim—also contributed to shows. In The Complete Book of 1960s Broadway Musicals, Dan Dietz examines every musical and revue that opened on Broadway during the 1960s. In addition to providing details on every hit and flop, Dietz includes revivals and one-man and one-woman shows that centered on stars like Jack Benny, Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich, Danny Kaye, Yves Montand, and Lena Horne. Each entry consists of: Opening and closing dates Plot summaries Cast members Number of performances Names of all important personnel, including writers, composers, directors, choreographers, producers, and musical directors Musical numbers and the names of performers who introduced the songs Production data, including information about tryouts Source material Critical commentary Tony awards and nominations Details about London and other foreign productions In addition to entries for each production, the book offers numerous appendixes: a discography, film and television versions, published scripts, Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and lists of productions by the New York City Center Light Opera Company, the New York City Opera Company, and the Music Theatre of Lincoln Center. A treasure trove of information,this significant resource will be of use to scholars, historians, and casual fans of one of the greatest decades in musical theatre history.

Download or read book Before the Parade Passes By written by John Anthony Gilvey and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005-11 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Golden Age of the Broadway musical, few director-choreographers could infuse a new musical with dance and movement in quite the way Gower Champion could. From his earliest Broadway success with Bye Bye Birdie to his triumphant and bittersweet valedictory, 42nd Street, musicals directed by Champion filled the proscenium with life. At their best, they touched the heart and stirred the soul with a skillful blend of elegance and American showmanship. He began his career as one-half of "America's Youngest Dance Team" with Jeanne Tyler and later teamed with his wife, dance partner, and longtime collaborator, Marge Champion. This romantic ballroom duo danced across America in the smartest clubs and onto the television screen, performing story dances that captivated the country. They ultimately took their talent to Hollywood, where they starred in the 1951 remake of Show Boat, Lovely to Look At, and other films. But Broadway always called to Champion, and in 1959 he was tapped to direct Bye Bye Birdie. The rest is history. In shows like Birdie, Carnival, Hello, Dolly!, I Do! I Do!, Sugar, and 42nd Street, luminaries such as Chita Rivera, Dick Van Dyke, Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Robert Preston, Tony Roberts, Robert Morse, Tammy Grimes, and Jerry Orbach brought Champion's creative vision to life. Working with composers and writers like Jerry Herman, Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, and Bob Merrill, he streamlined the musical making it flow effortlessly with song and dance from start to finish. John Gilvey has spoken with many of the people who worked with Champion, and in Before the Parade Passes By he tells the life story of this most American of Broadway musical director-choreographers from his early days dancing with Marge to his final days spent meticulously honing the visual magic of 42nd Street. Before the Parade Passes By is the life story of one man who personified the glory of the Broadway musical right up until the moment of his untimely death. When the curtain fell to thunderous applause on the opening night of 42nd Street, August 25, 1980, legendary impresario David Merrick came forward, silenced the audience, and announced that Champion had died that morning. As eminent theatre critic Ethan Mordden has firmly put it, "the Golden Age was over." Though the Golden Age of the Broadway musical is over, John Gilvey brings it to life again by telling the story of Gower Champion, one of its most passionate and creative legends.

Download or read book Hearings written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 1854 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cash an American Man written by Bill Miller and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A longtime friend of "The Man in Black" offers a slim coffee-table-size scrapbook of photos and memorabilia of the legendary country singer. A transcript of his last interview and the poem he wrote longhand after June Carter Cash's funeral are included.

Download or read book Movie Roadshows written by Kim R. Holston and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work examines a film distribution system paralleling the rise of early features and persisting until 1972, when Man of La Mancha was the final roadshow to require reserved seating. Synonymous with Hollywood's star-studded premieres, roadshows were longer and cost more than regular features, making the experience similar to attending the legitimate theater. Roadshows, often epic in subject matter, played selected (usually only one) theaters in major urban centers until demand decreased. De rigueur by the 1960s were musical overtures, intermissions, entre'acte and exit music and souvenir programs for sale in the lobby. Throughout the text are recollections by people who attended roadshows, including actor John Kerr and actresses Barbara Eden and Ingrid Pitt. The focus is on roadshows released in the United States but an appendix identifies international roadshows and films forecast but not released as roadshows. Included are plots, contemporary critical reaction, premiere dates, production background, and methods of promotion--i.e., the ballyhoo.

Download or read book The Lower East Side written by Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.) and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Dedalus Book of the 1960s written by Gary Lachman and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2022-01-23 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the 60s – yes it is magic, sex, drugs and rock and roll. In The Dedalus Book of the 1960s: Turn Off Your Mind, Gary Lachman uncovers the Love Generation's roots in occultism and explores the dark side of the Age of Aquarius. His provocative revision of the 1960s counterculture links Flower Power to mystical fascism, and follows the magical current that enveloped luminaries like the Beatles, Timothy Leary and the Rolling Stones, and darker stars like Charles Manson, Anton LaVey, and the Process Church of the Final Judgment. Acclaimed by satanists and fundamentalist Christians alike, this edition includes a revised text incorporating new material on the 'suicide cult' surrounding Carlos Castaneda; the hippy serial killer Charles Sobhraj; the strange case of Ira Einhorn, 'the Unicorn'; the CIA and ESP; the new millennialism and more. From H.P. Lovecraft to the Hell’s Angels, find out how the Morning of the Magicians became the Night of the Living Dead.

Download or read book Blackface White Noise written by Michael Rogin and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1996-06-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tangled connections that have bound Jews to African Americans in popular culture and liberal politics are at the heart of Michael Rogin's arresting and unnerving book. Looking at films from Birth of a Nation to Forrest Gump, Rogin explores blackface in Hollywood films as an aperture to broader issues: the nature of "white" identity in America, the role of race in transforming immigrants into "Americans," the common experiences of Jews and African Americans that made Jews key supporters in the fight for racial equality, and the social importance of popular culture. Rogin's forcefully argued study challenges us to confront the harsh truths behind the popularity of racial masquerade.

Download or read book D W Griffith s 100th Anniversary The Birth of a Nation written by Ira H. Gallen and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2014 with total page 675 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hundred years have passed since the masterpiece of David Wark Griffith, The Birth of a Nation, first appeared on the screens of America, in the winter of 1915. It demonstrated that the cinema, no less than literature and no less than the stage, could become a topic of serious critical, esthetic, intellectual, political, social, and technical discussion. In this way it brought the motion picture into a position of commanding influence in the social life of the American nation. The denunciation continues, and the storm over the film serves as a barometer of the global conflict, involving forces and issues set in motion by, but no means limited to, race. As Griffith's official biographer, Seymour Stern's main purpose of his book was to assemble, as extensively as possible, the rapidly vanishing record of what happened.

Download or read book Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism written by Sally Banes and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing of the postmodern perspective and concerns that informed her groundbreaking Terpsichore in Sneakers, Sally Banes’s Writing Dancing documents the background and developments of avant-garde and popular dance, analyzing individual artists, performances, and entire dance movements. With a sure grasp of shifting cultural dynamics, Banes shows how postmodern dance is integrally connected to other oppositional, often marginalized strands of dance culture, and considers how certain kinds of dance move from the margins to the mainstream. Banes begins by considering the act of dance criticism itself, exploring its modes, methods, and underlying assumptions, and examining the work of other critics. She traces the development of contemporary dance from the early work of such influential figures as Merce Cunningham and George Balanchine to such contemporary choreographers as Molissa Fenley, Karole Armitage, and Michael Clark. She analyzes the contributions of the Judson Dance Theatre and the Workers’ Dance League, the emergence of Latin postmodern dance in New York, and the impact of black jazz in Russia. In addition, Banes explores such untraditional performance modes as breakdancing and the “drunk dancing” of Fred Astaire. Ebook Edition Note: Ebook edition note: All images have been redacted.

Download or read book Bernstein Meets Broadway written by Carol J. Oja and published by Broadway Legacies. This book was released on 2014 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A super-star of 20th-century music, Leonard Bernstein is famous for his multi-faceted artistic brilliance. Best-known on Broadway for "West Side Story," a tale of immigrant struggles and urban gang warfare, Bernstein thrived within the theater's collaborative artistic environments, and he forged a life-long commitment to advancing social justice. In 'Bernstein meets Broadway: collaborative art in a time of war', award-winning author Carol J. Oja explores a youthful Bernstein-a twenty-something composer who was emerging in New York City during World War II. Devising an innovative framework, Oja constructs a wide-ranging cultural history that illuminates how Bernstein and his friends violated artistic and political boundaries to produce imaginative artistic results. At the core of her story are the Broadway musical On the Town, the ballet Fancy Free, and a nightclub act called The Revuers. A brilliant group of collaborators joins Bernstein at center-stage, including the choreographer Jerome Robbins and the writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green. With the zeal of youth, they infused their art with progressive political ideals. On the Town focused on sailors enjoying a day of shore leave, and it featured a mixed-race cast, contributing an important chapter to the desegregation of American performance. It projected an equitable inter-racial vision in an era when racial segregation was being enforced contentiously in the U.S. military.

Download or read book The History of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Canada written by John O'Flynn and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2008-04 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canada's embrace of Gaelic games has provided wonderful memories for those of the Irish-Canadian community and has created an opportunity for all to discover an exciting facet of Ireland's culture.

Download or read book Ben Hur written by Jon Solomon and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 929 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ben-Hur was the first literary blockbuster to generate multiple and hugely profitable adaptations, highlighted by the 1959 film that won a record-setting 11 Oscars. General Lew Wallace's book was spun off into dozens of popular publications and media productions, becoming a veritable commercial brand name that earned tens of millions of dollars. Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster surveys the Ben-Hur phenomenon's unprecedented range and extraordinary endurance: various editions, spin-off publications, stage productions, movies, comic books, radio plays, and retail products were successfully marketed and sold from the 1880s and throughout the twentieth century. Today Ben-Hur Live is touring Europe and Asia, with a third MGM film in production in Italy.Jon Solomon's new book offers an exciting and detailed study of the Ben-Hur brand, tracking its spectacular journey from Wallace's original novel through to twenty-first century adaptations, and encompassing a wealth of previously unexplored material along the way

Download or read book The Hero in Transition written by Ray Broadus Browne and published by Popular Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation of society's heroes during any time period will reveal the personnel deemed worthy of being emulated at that particular time by that particular society. There will be many old and time-tested figures, sometimes with new faces and new profiles; there will also be a mix of new faces. Thus the hero--like history itself--is constantly in transition, and both the hero and the transition are fundamental to the study of a culture. These essays turn the pantheon of heroes around before our eyes and reveal the many complicated aspects of hero worship.

Download or read book Rebels Rubyfruit and Rhinestones written by James Thomas Sears and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Fact Sheet. A richly told history of queer Southern life in the 1970s, after the Stonewall uprising.