Tag Archives: Movies

A Year in Books/Day 87: Hollywood Kids

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: Hollywood Kids Child Stars of the Silver Screen from 1903 to the Present
  • Author: Thomas G. Aylesworth
  • Year Published: 1987 (E.P. Dutton)
  • Year Purchased: 1990?
  • Source: B. Dalton
  • About: Being a child actor has never been easy. You’re pushed and pulled between your parents and the studio powers-that-be. If you’re lucky, your parents aren’t crooks and the studio heads aren’t criminals (see: Coogan, Jackie and Garland, Judy for some chilling cautionary tales). While ‘Hollywood Kids’ doesn’t gloss over the grubby reality of what it meant to be a kiddie star during cinema’s breathless heyday, spilling sordid secrets is certainly not its focus, either. Aylesworth treats his subjects as the talented professionals they were; this is really just a typical mix of film history and biography seasoned with anecdotes. It’s well written and features standout stills and publicity photographs.
  • Motivation: When I bought this, I was a kid myself: hopeful and in love with Hollywood.
  • Times Read: 3
  • Random Excerpt/Page 10: “Griffith sized her [Mary Pickford] up as being too pretty, too short, and having a reedy voice-in a word, all wrong for the stage. But on screen, since this was the silent movie era and voice didn’t count, her petite beauty would be a big asset. He offered her $5 a day. Drawing herself up to her full five-foot height, she replied haughtily that she was “an actress and an artist” and must be paid “twice what ordinary performers” received. Griffith agreed.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9
    Lobby card showing Mary Pickford about to punc...

    Lobby card showing Mary Pickford about to punch actor Francis Marion during a scene from the film "Little Lord Fauntleroy". 1 photomechanical print : collotype, color. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 78: Hollywood Glamor Portraits

Posted on by
1
  • Title: Hollywood Glamor Portraits 145 Photos of Stars 1926-1949
  • Editor: John Kobal
  • Year Published: 1976 (Dover Publications, Inc., New York)
  • Year Purchased: 1990’s
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: The front cover boasts the timeless beauty of Louise Brooks; the back cover features the lovely, glamorous Carole Lombard. Everything in-between is equally stunning: two decades of Hollywood’s greatest stars as shot by movieland’s best photographers are sumptuously laid out, one per page. It has certainly lived up to the publisher’s promise: A DOVER EDITION DESIGNED FOR YEARS OF USE!
  • Motivation: I’m human-I enjoy looking at beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes whilst striking interesting poses. The work gracing the pages of modern-day ‘Vogue’ and ‘Harper’s BAZAAR’ usually bores me to tears. My solution is to step back in time! The re-touching done by photographers during Hollywood’s Golden Age, although ubiquitous, was much more subtle (if highly glossy and stylized) than the current mania for out-of-control Photoshopping that results in mangled limbs and plastic visages. Also, please see: John Gilbert! Ronald Colman! Buster Keaton! Frances Farmer! Myrna Loy! Rita Hayworth! Gloria Swanson! Clara Bow! Nancy freaking Carroll!
  • Times Read: Multiple
  • Random Excerpt/Page xi: “I was taking pictures at ten on my father’s ranch-from the saddle. In 1916, when I was sixteen, a company came to film ‘The Sunset Princess’ on the ranch and all I did was get in the cameraman’s hair from morning to night. The very next year, I was in Hollywood with Billy Beckay, learning.” -Bob Coburn (RKO; UA; COLUMBIA)
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++
    Publicity photo of Nancy Carroll from Stars of...

    Publicity photo of Nancy Carroll from Stars of the Photoplay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 74: ‘Tis Herself

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: ‘Tis Herself An Autobiography
  • Authors: Maureen O’Hara with John Nicoletti
  • Year Published: 2004 /This Edition: 2005 (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks)
  • Year Purchased: 2005
  • Source: Barnes & Noble
  • About: The autobiography of Hollywood’s most famous Irishwoman was a long time coming. She was 84 at publication. Tucked inside amongst the expected (but interesting) stories of living and working with lots of larger-than-life stars are some stellar, little-known accomplishments that help to flesh out her legacy, leaping from legend to true trailblazer between covers. It’s worth a read for that alone (and the stunning photographs).
  • Motivation: Maureen O’Hara is one of my favourite actresses (and co-redhead). Her talent and ridiculously unattainable beauty graced so many of the movies I loved as a kid (and still do). I obsessively watched them over and over whenever they were on television (and still do). She injected her characters with intelligence, strength, spirit and wit-making her one of the best role models a girl (or grown woman, ahem) could ask for. I loved her then (and still do). Now go watch ‘The Quiet Man’.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 83: “I went downstairs and asked Wilmon to go get Will. He found him in a drunken stupor right where the lady had said he would be, at a whorehouse in a seedy part of the city. He’d apparently been there for days, bragging and shooting his mouth off. We had been married less than sixty days.”

    Maureen O'Hara in a screenshot from the traile...

    Maureen O'Hara-Image via Wikipediawhorehouse in a seedy part of the city. He'd apparently been there for days, bragging and shooting his mouth off. We had been married less than sixty days."

  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 70: Vamp The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara

Posted on by
1
  • Title: Vamp The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara
  • Author: Eve Golden
  • Year Published: 1996 (Emprise Publishing, Inc.)
  • Year Published: 1996/1997
  • Source: A book club (I cannot remember which one)
  • About: Written forty years after Bara’s death, ‘Vamp’ was the first biography of film’s original bad girl superstar (who, incidentally, played her fair share of classic and/or good girl roles). It’s a well-balanced account of how publicity turned the comfortably middle class Ohioan into a seething, exotic sexpot. The manufactured stories about Goodman are truly a hoot! It also gives substance to the fact that Theda was actually a talented actress, something that has largely been lost to time and under the weight of her outlandish get-ups and the often naive or contrived plots of her films. Although her career proper lasted barely five years, it is rather melodramatic to call the natural slowing down of her fame a ‘fall’; considering the truly tragic fates that ensnared many of her contemporaries, her slide into prosperous and happy anonymity comes off as a blessing.
  • Motivation: I’m a silent movie junkie, as you well know by now. I’ve always had a fondness for the big-eyed Buckeye Vamp (psst, here’s a little secret: if we have a daughter, we plan on naming her Theda). Like Theda, I’m an Ohioan (albeit one from two hours North). I bought this book a full ten years before moving South to her hometown. Oddly enough, I live just a few minutes from the neighborhood she called home for her first twenty years!
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 47: “At least her ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ reviews provided some good news: it was a big hit, mostly due to curiosity about Theda. “Startling and remarkable,” according to one reviewer; another said of Theda and O’Neil, “their acting is splendidly realistic and emotionally powerful.” Being favorably compared to a stage diva like Nance O’Neil must have given Theda strength to continue filming.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10
    A photograph of Theda Bara.

    Ohio's Theda Bara-Image via Wikipedia

     

A Year in Books/Day 57: Inside Oscar

Posted on by
Reply
English: Actors Natalie Wood and Tab Hunter ar...

Image via Wikipedia

  • Title: Inside Oscar The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards 10th Anniversary Edition
  • Authors: Mason Wiley and Damien Bona
  • Year Published: 1986/This Edition: 1996 (Ballantine Books)
  • Year Purchased: 1996/1997
  • Source: Birthday gift
  • About: Everything that you could ever want to know about Hollywood’s most important event in one ridiculously long volume (nearly 1200 pages). It includes data up to 1994. It’s a reminder that the Oscar telecast is a gaudy, self-congratulatory but mostly entertaining display of vanity gone wild.
  • Motivation: You’re going to get sick of me telling you that I am a film buff and write about old movies. However, I am and I do! This is just one of many handy reference books in my library.
  • Times Read: Cover-to-cover: 1/As reference tool: Countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page 50: “Louella Parsons was upset at what she considered Hepburn’s indifference to the honor. “Katy was not very gracious,” Louella wrote in her column. “She didn’t send a telegram of appreciation when unable to attend. Someone at RKO realized this and sent one.” There was mail waiting for Best Director loser Frank Capra when he returned home-his relatives from Sicily had sent letters of congratulation, mistaking his nomination for a victory.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 52: Hollywood Babylon

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: Hollywood Babylon
  • Author: Kenneth Anger
  • Year Published: 1975/This Edition: 1981 (Dell Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2011
  • Source: This was a Christmas gift from my best friend.
  • About: I first read Kenneth Anger’s trash classic as a sophomore in high school. My English teacher loaned me her copy because she knew that I was a budding film buff. This collection of movie colony scandals is sordid and full of minor inaccuracies, neither of which lessens the fun one bit! Just don’t take it too seriously.
  • Motivation: My best friend knows how much I love classic movies and their stars. It was a great gift and, since I hadn’t read it since high school, it was pretty much like reading it for the first time.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 108: “If Wally Reid’s robin’s egg blue McFarlan was no longer seen cruising down Sunset, there was enough gaudy horsepower to take its place: Clara Bow in her red Kissel convertible with Chow dogs to match; Valentino’s custom-built Voisin tourer with its coiled-cobra radiator cap; Mae Murray’s canary yellow Pierce-Arrow or more formal white Rolls-Royce with liveried chauffeur and ever-present Borzoi; Olga Petrova’s purple Packard touring sedan; Gloria Swanson’s leopard-upholstered Lancia.”
  • Happiness Scale: 8
    English: Mae Murray

    Image via Wikipedia

     

A Year in Books/Day 49: Hollywood Dressed & Undressed

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: Hollywood Dressed & Undressed A Century of Cinema Style
  • Author: Sandy Schreier
  • Year Published: 1998 (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 2002-2004
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: With the attention to detail of an insider and the adoration of the most giddy fan, designer Schreier takes us on a 100 year tour of film-land’s most famous and enduring costumes.
  • Motivation: I’m an ex-actress (stage) and write extensively about early cinema. I’m just one ridiculous movie nerd. I also love fashion in all of its iterations, from the silly to the avant-garde to the iconic.
  • Times Read: Countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page 2: “Costume designer Edith Head, Hollywood’s most prolific designer, reflected on the Golden Age of costuming: ‘Then the designer was as important as the star-when you said Garbo, you thought Adrian; when you said Dietrich, you thought Banton. Their magic was part of selling a picture.'”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

    Garbo with Ricardo Cortez in Torrent (1926)

    Image via Wikipedia: 10

A Year in Books/Day 37: The Reel List

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: The Reel List An Irreverent Guide Arranged by Uncommon Categories, from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Revisionist Westerns
  • Author: Lynne Arany, Tom Dyja, and Gary Goldsmith
  • Year Published: 1995 (A Detal Book/Published by Dell Publishing)
  • Year Purchased: 1996/1997
  • Source: Little Professor Book Company
  • About: The subtitle gets to the point better than I could. I’ll add that some of the categories are a hoot, and let them ‘speak’ for themselves-The Butler Did It; Hot Rock Rip-Offs & Other Capers; The Aesthetics of Elvis; Adulteries to Remember.
  • Motivation: One of the points you will see me assert repeatedly is how much I love movies. I really, really do. Mostly old ones, but I digress. I also love lists. No, let me take that a step of 932 further: I need lists. They are a lifelong and basic requirement to my happiness and well-being, one of the tools I use to keep my untidy and wildly fertile mind in some semblance of order. This book is a winner on dual fronts.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 110: “The best thing about movie cats is that precious few of them belong to sensitive tykes with no friends. These cats have sex, work for the FBI, come from outer space, even rise from the dead, and the last thing they’d ever do is wander cross-country to find a beloved owner. Apparently these inert lumps of fur can be interesting when they want to be.

    A photograph promoting the film Jailhouse Rock...

    Image via Wikipedia

A Year in Books/Day 23: Leave Her to Heaven

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: Leave Her to Heaven
  • Author: Ben Ames Williams
  • Year Published: 1945/This Edition-1947 (The Sun Dial Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1990/1991
  • Source: The Columbus Public Library, Library Sale
  • About: This melodramatic tale shows the unstable Ellen Berent’s twisted devolution from lovely, beguiling and charming young woman into a jealous, devious and vindictive murderess.
    English: Screenshot of Gene Tierney from the f...

    Image via Wikipedia

     

  • Motivation: I caught the 1945 film adaptation on television at 16. It stars the gorgeous, under-rated Gene Tierney, Vincent Price and Cornel Wilde. I found this book at the bottom of a pile of $1.00 clearance books at the annual library sale a couple of years later.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 72: “She knew better than Harland how serious this might be; nevertheless perversely she delayed to clean up their picnic ground; prolonging in every possible fashion these pregnant hours. She gathered the paper in which his lunch had been wrapped, burning it in the embers of the little fire, wetting down the ashes till not even steam arose.”
  • Happiness Scale: 6 (writing)/7 (plot)

A Year in Books/Day 17: King of Comedy

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: King of Comedy
  • Author: Mack Sennett with Cameron Shipp
  • Year Published: 1954/This Edition: 1990 (Mercury House)
  • Year Purchased: 1994/1995
  • Source: Walden Books
  • About: This autobiography of one of the progenitors of film-and the creator of The Keystone Kops and
    English: This image of Mr Sennett was publishe...

    Image via Wikipedia

    Sennett Bathing Beauties-needs to be taken with a generous grain of salt. Fortunately, even a well-scrubbed telling of the heady early days of Hollywood-where Sennett oversaw Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand at the start of their careers-remains considerably more entertaining than fiction.

  • Motivation: Mabel Normand, Mabel Normand, Mabel Normand! Oh, and a genuine-behind-the-scenes peek at movie-making when it was still being invented and defined.
  • Times Read: 3
  • Random Excerpt/Page 138: “We became scientists in custard. A man named Greenburg, who ran a small restaurant-bakery near the studio, became a pie-throwing entrepreneur. Our consumption was so enormous that this man got rich. After several experiments he invented a special Throwing Pie, just right in heft and consistency, filled with paste and inedible. He lost most of his eating customers when he began to sell them throwing custards by mistake.”
  • Happiness: 9 for atmosphere/6 for veracity