Hollywood Buzz
Hollywood Buzz

Author: Margit Liesche

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Published: 2011-09-30

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1615951156

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Pucci Lewis was used to ferrying fighter planes and undercover work. But it is the dark hours of WWII, and Hollywood's biggest stars, studio moguls, and Washington bureaucrats are working hand-in-glove to merge entertainment and propaganda. Pucci has been dispatched to the First Motion Picture Unit, where a make-or-break documentary on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) is underway. Pucci is stepping in for a sister-WASP, now hospitalized in critical condition after an all-too-deliberate plane crash. But who's the saboteur? Why the cover-up? Pucci is drawn into a high-profile homicide. A big-name director has been murdered, possibly by Nazi operatives. Military intelligence wants Pucci to learn what she can from her inside position. Bela Lugosi is a frequent visitor to the Beverly Hills mansion where Pucci is temporarily billeted. His niece, a rising starlet and also the housekeeper, has a history with the Hungarian resistance. But Pucci doesn't trust the girl. Can Pucci steadfastly maneuver through movie land and its narcissistic denizens, finally unraveling the uncertainties to prove she has the right stuff?

Sleepless in Hollywood
Sleepless in Hollywood

Author: Lynda Obst

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1476727759

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"With a new epilogue by the author"--Cover.

Buzz
Buzz

Author: Jeffrey Spivak

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0813126436

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The Great Depression was defined by poverty and despair, but visionary American filmmaker Busby Berkeley (1895-1976) managed to divert the public's attention away from the economic crash with some of the most iconic movies of all time. Known for his kaleidoscopic dance numbers featuring multitudes of performers in extravagant costumes, his musicals provided a brief respite for an audience whose reality was hard and bitter. Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley is a revealing study of the director, drawing from interviews with his colleagues, newspaper and legal records, and Berkeley's own unpublished memoirs to uncover the life of a Hollywood legend renowned for his talent and creativity. Jeffrey Spivak examines how Berkeley's career evolved from creating musical numbers for other directors in films such as 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) to directing his own pictures, such as Strike up the Band (1940) and The Gang's All Here (1943). Though Berkeley claimed he was no choreographer, his movies revitalized the public's waning interest in musical pictures. While other popular filmmakers advertised their works specifically as nonmusical, Berkeley embraced his niche, eventually becoming the premier dance director of his time. However, the happy face Berkeley presented publicly did not necessarily reflect his life. Offstage and away from the set, the director met with scandal, and his fondness for liquor and women was well known. In September 1935, he was involved in a car accident that left three people dead and four others severely injured. Accused of driving under the influence, he was put on trial for second-degree murder. The accident significantly changed the nature of his stardom.

Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip
Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip

Author: Val Holley

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2010-06-28

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780786480869

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In 1954, Mike Connolly, the gay gossip columnist for the Hollywood Reporter from 1951 to 1966, was described by Newsweek as "probably the most influential columnist inside the movie colony," the one writer "who gets the pick of trade items, the industry rumors, the policy and casting switches." He was indeed one of the most talented and influential members of the Hollywood press of his time, and his column, for those who could read between the lines, was a daily chronicle of gay goings-on. Fifty years later, his cumulative output is a virtually untapped lode of gay Hollywood history. Mike Connolly's life and work are the focus of this book. It considers his formative years, his pre-World War II life at the University of Illinois and in Chicago, and the ways in which the homosexual community in Hollywood lived lives both secretive and open in the forties, fifties and sixties. It also examines the literary merit, power and newsworthiness of Connolly's "Rambling Reporter" column in the Hollywood Reporter and its significance as a chronicle of gay Hollywood life; the previously unexplored role of Connolly's column in the Hollywood blacklist and how his anti-Communist crusade was rooted in his earlier campaign to close down the brothels in his college town; and how his life informed his column and his column shaped his life.

Hollywood and the Best of Los Angeles Alive
Hollywood and the Best of Los Angeles Alive

Author: Robert White

Publisher: Hunter Publishing, Inc

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 601

ISBN-13: 158843334X

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Los Angeles and its suburbs have been attracting stars since film was invented, and hundreds have now opted to make their home there. The authors of this guide to the area wrote for film and TV in the Hollywood studios and know the industry intimately. They both grew up in Hollywood and lived there most of their lives. Join them on this tour of the neighbourhoods of the rich and famous and of the ritzy shopping avenues. Sightseeing is also covered, with information about trips to the nearby beach towns, west LA, the foothills and Palm Springs.

Hollywood Musicals You Missed
Hollywood Musicals You Missed

Author: Edwin M. Bradley

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2020-06-05

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 1476639930

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Pre-World War II Hollywood musicals weren't only about Astaire and Rogers, Mickey and Judy, Busby Berkeley, Bing Crosby, or Shirley Temple. The early musical developed through tangents that reflected larger trends in film and American culture at large. Here is a survey of select titles with a variety of influences: outsized songwriter personalities, hubbub over "hillbilly" and cowboy stereotypes, the emergence of swing, and the brief parade of opera stars to celluloid. Featured movies range from the smash hit Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), to obscurities such as Are You There? (1930) and Swing, Sister, Swing (1938), to the high-grossing but now forgotten Mountain Music (1937), and It's Great to Be Alive (1933), a zesty pre-Code musical/science-fiction/comedy mishmash. Also included are some of the not-so-memorable pictures made by some of the decade's greatest musical stars.

American Singing Groups
American Singing Groups

Author: Jay Warner

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 634

ISBN-13: 9780634099786

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Offers a decade-by-decade history of American singing groups, from the Ames and Mills Brothers, to the Platters and the Beach Boys, to Destiny's Child, the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and many others, covering more than 380 artists and furnishing information on each group's career, key members, influences, photos, and discographies. Original.

The Postman Always Purls Twice
The Postman Always Purls Twice

Author: Anne Canadeo

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-04-28

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1476767513

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In the seventh installment in the “entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) Black Sheep Knitting Mystery series, the knitters see the darker side of Hollywood when Maggie’s shop is used as a set for a big budget, star-studded movie. When the cast and crew of a Hollywood movie arrive to film on location in quiet Plum Harbor, the village is aflutter at the A-list actresses. The Knitters are dazzled by the glamour and since Maggie’s shop is an important set, they are privy to the backstage excitement and inside gossip. But from the first day of filming, accidents and menacing coincidences abound. The show must go on, but no sooner have the lights, action, and stitching begun when the killer strikes again—this time, cutting one character from the script for good. The Black Sheep, an attentive audience to this tangled drama, are determined to unmask the real villain of this story before they can eliminate another member of this deadly cast.