Tag Archives: Hollywood

A Year in Books/Day 211: Leading Ladies

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  • Title: Leading Ladies
  • Author: Don Macpherson
  • Year Published: 1986/This edition: 1989 (Conran Octopus Limited/Crescent Books)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: It was a Christmas gift from my Aunt Lauree.
  • About: This is a coffee table book, not a scholarly work. The text is nice, but not genre-shattering; it’s the standard drill for this kind of product. The images are from The Kobal Collection, so the writing stands no chance of taking first place, anyway. The whole gang is here, from Theda Bara to Doris Day, Jean Harlow to Jean Seberg, Anna Magnani to Debra Winger, represented by an array of unusually stunning photographs. Since that is the dominant reason for buying a book like this, you’ll walk away happy.
  • Motivation: I’ve been fond of old movies since I was a child.
  • Times Read: Multiple
  • Random Excerpt/Page 22: “By the time she was twenty-five, Colleen Moore was earning a weekly salary of $12,500, a reflection of her value to a studio for whom she was a highly profitable jazz baby. With her bobbed hair, cheeky face and alert eyes, she resembles to modern eyes an uncanny combination of the better remembered Clara Bow and Louise Brooks. But in the 1920s, it was Moore who was the incarnation of the twenties flapper girl.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10++
    Publicity photo of Colleen Moore for Argentine...

    Publicity photo of Colleen Moore for Argentinean Magazine. (Printed in USA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia). Here, in her post-Flapper days.

     

A Year in Books/Day 208: Forgotten Films to Remember

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  • Title: Forgotten Films to Remember
  • Author: John Springer
  • Year Published: 1980 (The Citadel Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: Some of the best classic movies aren’t, well, classic. At least not in the sense of having wide, lasting cultural impact. Maybe they were box office winners in their day, quiet sleepers or cheapie programmers, critically acclaimed or unappreciated gems; most have been long forgotten by the masses, embraced and beloved by fanatics alone. Hollywood studios churned out hundreds of films a year, so it is no wonder that, of those hardy survivors, few are truly iconic. If you want to learn more but are too cowed to wade through the classic film jungle alone and bewildered, Forgotten Films to Remember makes it easy. Covering the years 1928-1959 (with a quick overview of the 1960s and 1970s), John Springer devotes a paragraph each to dozens of remarkable movies that you really need to watch. In the process, a clear, workmanlike but interesting narrative of studio-era Hollywood emerges. The accompanying photographs are mostly from the author’s archive.
  • Motivation: I love old movies, especially obscure ones.
  • Times Read: 4 or 5
  • Random Excerpt/Page 18: “Howard Hawks made a strong movie out of Martin Flavin’s play, The Criminal Code, aided impressively by the performance of Walter Huston. He played a district attorney who becomes the warden of a prison, populated by men he has sent up. Constance Cummings and Phillips Holmes had the love interest such as it was and Boris Karloff skulked about as a squealer.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9

A Year in Books/Day 206: Crazy Sexy Cool

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  • Title: Crazy Sexy Cool
  • Authors: The Editors of Us Magazine
  • Year Published: 1996
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: My mom
  • About: The editors of Us Magazine seemingly created this photography volume for the sole purpose of making the definitive cultural statement of their age. That is rarely a good idea, and it falls flat here. The text by David Wild is the problem. It’s dated in a way that the 1990s era photographs aren’t. Although limited to an introduction, his writing is so self-consciously important and self-indulgent that it’s embarrassing. No amount of evoking Let Us Now Praise Famous Men or You Have Seen Their Faces (with photography and text by, respectively, Walker Evans and James Agee/Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell) will magically elevate this book to their level. There’s nothing of intellectual substance here; it’s all empty, pithy-sounding word combinations. Skip the text and go straight to the photographs. You’ll thank me. The images are genuinely captivating, and do their job of capturing the transitory nature of celebrity as it was experienced in the late 20th century. That’s enough. Too bad the editors of Us Magazine didn’t realize that.
  • Motivation: My mom knows how much I like coffee table books, movies, pop culture, and photography. She found this book at a community sale for a dollar or two.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 12: The preceding anticommercial message comes to you directly from John Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn”, written way back in 1819, a romantic, carefree era long before the fall of Communism and the rise of Courtney Love. At the risk of having my poetic license revoked, I would like to think if the old Keatster were still around putting quill to Powerbook he might forget about urns entirely and instead be penning “Ode to Mark Seliger’s Portrait of Drew Barrymore.”
  • Happiness Scale: Text-2/Photographs: 8

A Year in Books/Day 204: Audrey Hepburn An Elegant Spirit

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  • Title: Audrey Hepburn An Elegant Spirit
  • Author: Sean Hepburn Ferrer
  • Year Published: 2003 (Atria Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2003
  • Source: Barnes & Noble
  • About: Audrey Hepburn always seemed so decent. Not goody-goody, but all of those superlatives most of us wish we were (and only sometimes are): compassionate, patient, kind, loyal, curious, gracious, humorous, dignified and empathetic. Decency of character is not something I require of actors, writers, musicians or anyone else whose work I admire; in fact, many of the people I love-those whose talent pierces my core- are at least a bit morally scruffy. Continue reading →

Voices from the Grave #34: Mae West on Mr. Ed

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Yes, I’m serious with this one. Mae West wasn’t just a performer; she was also a playwright and screenwriter. Whether you love or hate her, she still fits the bill for inclusion here.

Mae West on Mr. Ed in March 1964, when she was 70. This is the full episode, so feel free to skip ahead to the tasty/ridiculous bits.

 

A Year in Books/Day 194: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era

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Lon Chaney Sr., still from The Miracle Man (1919)

Lon Chaney Sr., still from The Miracle Man (1919) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • Title: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era
  • Text: Frank Miller/Foreword by Robert Osborne/Introduction by Molly Haskell
  • Year Published: 2006 (Chronicle Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: This book is a TMC Film Guide. It is straightforward but well-done, with each actor receiving a short bio, complete with vital statistics; a breakdown of their ‘essential’ films; and behind-the-scenes trivia. It’s best for classic film neophytes or fanatics-anyone in-between will likely be bored. Among the fabulous fifty, you’ll find: Barrymore, Chaney, Colman, Garfield, Gilbert, Keaton, Kelly, Ladd, Lloyd, Muni, Poitier, Powell, Taylor, and Valentino.
  • Motivation: I’m running out of ways to say that I write about classic (especially silent) cinema and really love old movies. I even buy books that I know I am not going to learn anything from; it’s an addiction (see above).
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 41: “What amazes audiences discovering Lon Chaney’s work for the first time, along with his impressive ability to transform his face and body, is the humanity shining through even the thickest makeup. Chaney was one of the screen’s greatest pantomime artists, a skill he developed as a child in order to communicate with his parents, both of whom were deaf.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 190: Feminist Ryan Gosling

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  • Title: Feminist Ryan Gosling Feminist Theory As Imagined from Your Favorite Sensitive Movie Dude (Unauthorized)
  • Author: Danielle Henderson
  • Year Published: 2012 (Running Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2012
  • Source: This was a birthday gift from my mom.
  • About: Based on the hilarious blog of the same name, this book is every bit as good as the original source. I do not have an opinion on Ryan Gosling. Is he a fine actor? Word-of-mouth and critical response indicates as much. Is he as good-looking as many people think? That’s a matter of opinion. Until a year ago, I never even gave him any thought. As soon as I saw the first blog post, I was in love. With this concept. Feminist theory coming out of the mouth* of an actor known for his positive sentiments about women? Next to photographs of him looking thoughtful and sensitive (really, is there any other kind?). The very idea cracks me up. Hey girl, indeed. *(Naturally, he never said any of the quotes attributed to him in the blog or book. Is that a detraction? Nope. In fact, it makes it even better.)
  • Motivation: I’m a feminist with a sense of humor. There are lots of us, by the way, and this book is proof.
  • Times Read: More than once, and I’ve only had it one week.
  • Random Excerpt/Pages 62 & 99: “Hey girl. We’d be more successful at reclaiming public space for women if we were willing to address the patriarchal fixtures that made it unsafe in the first place.”/ “Hey girl. I literally have no idea how to react to someone who hasn’t read Judy Blume’s Forever.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++

A Year in Books/Day 188: Hollywood Royalty

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HearstAbout1910

William Randolph Hearst, circa 1910. He threw all of the best parties, thanks to his sweetheart Marion Davies. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • Title: Hollywood Royalty
  • Author: Gregory Speck
  • Year Published: 1992 (Birch Lane Press Book/Carol Publishing Group)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: Library sale
  • About: San Simeon, William Randolph Hearst’s estate, was the setting of countless celebrity-gilded parties. An invitation for a weekend stay was not only a passport to bask in temporary opulence so extreme it made members of the movie colony seem like paupers in comparison, it meant that you had truly arrived on the Hollywood scene. Close your eyes. Conjure up a dinner party of seven courses, attended by some of the most fabulous classic movie stars. Your curiosity probably takes the form of many questions, with the big one being: What would they talk about? The setting of Hollywood Royalty is real, the occasion is imaginary and the conversation is composed of snippets from published interviews. Fact and fiction cross borders, on an evening removed from time, to mingle as seductively as the stars in Hearst’s dining room.
  • Motivation: I like when lines are blurred. I love classic film.
  • Times Read: 1 or 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 160: “I (Olivia de Havilland) learned a lot from Jimmy Cagney, and he was always so sweet to me. On A Midsummer Night’s Dream he was very nice to me, and I was so flattered. He would come into my little canvas dressing room, and we would just talk about everything. I couldn’t believe it, for he was already a great star, and it was my first film, way back in 1935.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 181: Legends of the Silent Screen

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  • Title: Legends of the Silent Screen A Collection of U.S. Postage Stamps
  • Authors: Charles Champlin and Linda Klinger (for the United States Postal Service)
  • Year Published: 1994 (U.S. Postal Service)
  • Year Purchased: 1994
  • Source: This was a gift from my mom, received after some pleading on my part.
  • About: In 1994, the U.S. Postal Service released a set of stamps commemorating ten of the silent screen’s greatest stars (which was, itself, part of a larger series dedicated to entertainers). This book was published as a companion piece, but is good enough to stand on its own merits. The detailed individual biographies are underpinned by amazing photographs and a time-line of the first 100 years of American film history. It’s a handsome volume, and the Al Hirschfeld caricatures commissioned for the stamps render the subjects instantly recognizable. The stars covered in this volume are: Rudolph Valentino; Clara Bow; Charlie Chaplin; Lon Chaney; John Gilbert; ZaSu Pitts; Theda Bara; the Keystone Cops; Harold Lloyd; and Buster Keaton.
  • Motivation: I was already totally captivated with silent films, even at a relatively young age.
  • Times Read: A few
  • Random Excerpt/Page 39: “Film historians note that (Theda) Bara’s producer actually cast her in quite a few sympathetic-not evil-roles, knowing that after her vamp image had been accepted, the public would continue to read treachery into all her characters, regardless of their motivations.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

    Bara in the title role as Cleopatra (1917)

    Bara in the title role as Cleopatra (1917) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Year in Books/Day 175: Memo from David O. Selznick

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  • Title: Memo from David O. Selznick
  • Selected and Edited by: Rudy Behlmer (With an Introduction by S.N. Behrman)
  • Year Published: 1972 (The Viking Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: Antique Barn, Ohio State Fair
  • About: Over the years, and quite by accident, I have amassed a nice sub-section to my Cinema Library, what I call The Lives and Times of Ruthless Moguls. This book started it all. The memos, covering the years 1926-1962, provide us with intimate access to the professional dealings and private concerns of one of the most powerful men in Hollywood during the greatest years of the studio system. Continue reading →