Download or read book Waxworks written by Michelle E. Bloom and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London, 1921. The world's greatest wax sculptor watches in horror as flames consume his museum and melt his uncannily lifelike creations. Twelve years later, he opens a wax museum in New York. Crippled, disfigured, and driven mad by the fire, he resorts to body snatching and murder to populate his displays, preserving the bodies in wax. "In a thousand years you will be as lovely as you are now, " he assures one victim. In The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), director Michael Curtiz perfectly captures the macabre essence of realistic wax figures that have excited the darker aspects of the public's imagination ever since Madame Tussaud established her famous museum in London in 1802. Artists, too, have been fascinated by wax sculptures, seeing in them--and in the unique properties of wax itself--an eerie metaphoric power with which to address sexual anxiety, fears of mortality, and other morbid subjects. In Waxworks, Michelle E. Bloom explores the motif of the wax figure in European and American literature and art. In particular, she connects the myth of Pygmalion to the obsession with wax statues of women in the nineteenth-century fetishization of prostitutes and female corpses and as depicted in such "wax fictions" as Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). Filmmakers, too, have sought inspiration from wax museums, and Bloom analyzes works from the silent era to such waxwork-themed Hollywood horror films as Mad Love (1935) and House of Wax (1953). Bringing her discussion to the present, Bloom examines the work of contemporary artists who use the medium of wax in ways never imagined by Madame Tussaud. As extravagant new wax museums open in Las Vegas, Times Square, and Paris, Waxworksoffers a provocative cultural history of this enduring--and disturbing--art form.
Download or read book Madame Tussaud written by Pamela Pilbeam and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-08-10 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tussaud's catered for the public's fascination with monarchy, whether Henry VIII and his wives or Queen Victoria, as well as for their love of history, acting as an accessible and enjoyable museum. This work looks at Madame Tussaud herself and her exhibition as part of the wider history of wax modelling and of popular entertainment.
Download or read book The Shows of London written by Richard Daniel Altick and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of London entertainment from 1600 to the end of the 1850's.
Download or read book Thunderbolt s Waxwork written by Philip Pullman and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Cut Gang is a group of urchins ranging from 6-year-old Sharkey Bob to 13-year-old Bridie Malone. They inhabit the streets around Lambeth Walk and the New Cut. In 1892, it is a place full of gangsters, bookies, pickpockets, swindlers, horse thieves and the occasional tentative policeman.
Download or read book Wax Museum Movies written by George Higham and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-10-02 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning over a century of cinema and comprised of 127 films, this book analyzes the cinematic incarnations of the "uncanniest place on earth"--wax museums. Nothing is as it seems at a wax museum. It is a place of wonder, horror and mystery. Will the figures come to life at night, or are they very much dead with corpses hidden beneath their waxen shells? Is the genius hand that molded them secretly scarred by a terrible tragedy, longing for revenge? Or is it a sinner's sanctum, harboring criminals with countless places to hide in plain sight? This chronological analysis includes essential behind the scenes information in addition to authoritative research comparing the creation of "real" wax figures to the "reel" ones seen onscreen. Publicly accessible or hidden away in a maniac's lair, wax museums have provided the perfect settings for films of all genres to thrillingly play out on the big screen since the dawn of cinema.
Download or read book The American Shire Horse Stud Book written by American Shire Horse Association and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Joe Smith His Waxworks written by Bill Smith and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Victorian Marionette Theatre written by John Mccormick and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2004-04 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this fascinating and colorful book, researcher and performer John McCormick focuses on the marionette world of Victorian Britain between its heyday after 1860 and its waning years from 1895 to 1914. Situating the rich and diverse puppet theatre in the context of entertainment culture, he explores both the aesthetics of these dancing dolls and their sociocultural significance in their life and time. The history of marionette performances is interwoven with live-actor performances and with the entire gamut of annual fairs, portable and permanent theatres, music halls, magic lantern shows, waxworks, panoramas, and sideshows. McCormick has drawn upon advertisements in the Era, an entertainment paper, between the 1860s and World War I, and articles in the World’s Fair, a paper for showpeople, in the first fifty years of the twentieth century, as well as interviews with descendants of the marionette showpeople and close examinations of many of the surviving puppets. McCormick begins his study with an exploration of the Victorian marionette theatre in the context of other theatrical events of the day, with proprietors and puppeteers, and with the venues where they performed. He further examines the marionette’s position as an actor not quite human but imitating humans closely enough to be considered empathetic; the ways that physical attributes were created with wood, paint, and cloth; and the dramas and melodramas that the dolls performed. A discussion of the trick figures and specialized acts that each company possessed, as well as an exploration of the theatre’s staging, lighting, and costuming, follows in later chapters. McCormick concludes with a description of the last days of marionette theatre in the wake of changing audience expectations and the increasing popularity of moving pictures. This highly enjoyable and readable study, often illuminated by intriguing anecdotes such as that of the Armenian photographer who fell in love with and abducted the Holden company’s Cinderella marionette in 1881, will appeal to everyone fascinated by the magic of nineteenth-century theatre, many of whom will discover how much the marionette could contribute to that magic.
Download or read book The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm written by Norman Hunter and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rediscover Professor Branestawm this Christmas – soon to become a brand new drama on BBC ONE written by Charlie Higson and starring Harry Hill ‘Once you started anything in Professor Branestawm’s house you never knew when it might finish or even if it ever would’ Poor Mrs Flittersnoop! It’s not easy being Professor Branestawm’s housekeeper. People may say he’s a genius, but all his inventions always make life more complicated, alarming and extraordinary than it was before. An innocent bottle of old cough mixture turns out to be an elixir that makes all the waste paper in the bin come to life, the burglar-catcher and the pancake-maker operate just a little too efficiently, and about the spring-cleaning machine, the less said the better. You could write a book about it, but nobody would believe it. Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can find out about accidental inventions that changed our lives and try a few experiments of your own! Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Download or read book The works of Charles Dickens Complete ed written by Charles Dickens and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Oxford India paper Dickens written by Charles Dickens and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 726 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Red Polled Herd Book of Cattle Descended from the Norfolk and Suffolk Red Polled written by Red Polled Cattle Club of America and published by . This book was released on 1891 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gothic Tourism written by Emma McEvoy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Strawberry Hill to The Dungeons, Alnwick Castle to Barnageddon, Gothic tourism is a fascinating, and sometimes controversial, area. This lively study considers Gothic tourism's aesthetics and origins, as well as its relationship with literature, film, folklore, heritage management, arts programming and the 'edutainment' business.
Download or read book Q written by Craig Brown and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2024-10-01 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With equal measures of wit and wisdom, the author of 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret draws a deeply original, hilarious, and telling portrait of the Queen herself. She was the most famous person on earth; she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. When she died, few people were old enough to recall a time when she was not alive. Her likeness has been reproduced—in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies—more than any since Jesus. It is probable that, over the course of her ninety-six years, she was introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone else who has ever lived—likely well over half a million. Yet this most closely observed of all women rarely left any real impression on those she encountered beyond vague notions of her "radiance" and "sense of duty." A high proportion of those she met can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them. Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous—and most guarded— woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.
Download or read book The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz written by R. Barton Palmer and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2018-07-02 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood—Casablanca , Yankee Doodle Dandy , The Sea Hawk , White Christmas, and Mildred Pierce, to name only a few. The most prolific and consistently successful Hollywood generalist with an all-embracing interest in different forms of narrative and spectacle, Curtiz made around a hundred films in an astonishing range of genres: action, biopics, melodramas/film noir, musicals, and westerns. But his important contributions to the history of American film have been overlooked because his broadly varied oeuvre does not present the unified vision of filmmaking that canonical criticism demands for the category of “auteur.” Exploring his films and artistic practice from a variety of angles, including politics, gender, and genre, The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz sheds new light on this underappreciated cinematic genius. Leading film studies scholars offer fresh appraisals of many of Curtiz’s most popular films, while also paying attention to neglected releases of substantial historical interest, such as Noah’s Ark , Night and Day, Virginia City, Black Fury, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and Female. Because Curtiz worked for so long and in so many genres, this analysis of his work becomes more than an author study of a notable director. Instead, The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz effectively adds a major chapter to the history of Hollywood’s studio era, including its internationalism and the significant contributions of European émigrés.
Download or read book The Essential Monster Movie Guide written by Stephen Jones and published by Watson-Guptill Publications. This book was released on 2000 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide alphabetically lists 4000 plus horror movies and television shows, some very obscure, that featured monsters. Each entry provides a plot synopsis, identifies the cast and director, and rates the film on a five star scale. No index. Originally published by Billboard Books. c. Book News Inc.
Download or read book A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles written by and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
