(Applause Books). For decades, Screen World has been the film professional's, as well as the film buff's, favorite and indispensable annual screen resource, full of all the necessary statistics and facts. Now Screen World editor Barry Monush has compiled another comprehensive work for every film lover's library. In the first of two volumes, this book chronicles the careers of every significant film actor, from the earliest silent screen stars Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks to the mid-1960s, when the old studio and star systems came crashing down. Each listing includes: a brief biography, photos from the famed Screen World archives, with many rare shots; vital statistics; a comprehensive filmography; and an informed, entertaining assessment of each actor's contributions good or bad! In addition to every major player, Monush includes the legions of unjustly neglected troupers of yesteryear. The result is a rarity: an invaluable reference tool that's as much fun to read as a scandal sheet. It pulsates with all the scandal, glamour, oddity and glory that was the lifeblood of its subjects. Contains over 1,000 photos!
A comprehensive filmography, this book is composed of lengthy entries on about 75 films depicting legendary New Mexico outlaw Billy the Kid--from the lost Billy the Kid (1911) to the blockbuster Young Guns (1988) to the direct-to-video 1313: Billy the Kid(2012) and everything in between. Each entry gives a synopsis, cast and credits, critical reception, and a discussion of the events of the films compared to the historical record. Among the entries are made-for-TV and direct-to-video films, foreign movies, and continuing television series in which Billy the Kid made an appearance.
Ideal for high school and college students studying history through the everyday lives of men and women, this book offers intriguing information about the jobs that people have held, from ancient times to the 21st century. This unique book provides detailed studies of more than 300 occupations as they were practiced in 21 historical time periods, ranging from prehistory to the present day. Each profession is examined in a compelling essay that is specifically written to inform readers about career choices in different times and cultures, and is accompanied by a bibliography of additional sources of information, sidebars that relate historical issues to present-day concerns, as well as related historical documents. Readers of this work will learn what each profession entailed or entails on a daily basis, how one gained entry to the vocation, training methods, and typical compensation levels for the job. The book provides sufficient specific detail to convey a comprehensive understanding of the experiences, benefits, and downsides of a given profession. Selected accompanying documents further bring history to life by offering honest testimonies from people who actually worked in these occupations or interacted with those in that field.
Surfers loathed them, teenagers flocked to them, critics dismissed them, producers banked on them--surf and beach movies. For a short time in the 1960s they were extremely popular with younger audiences--mainly because of the shirtless surfer boys and bikini-clad beach girls, the musical performers, and the wild surfing footage. This lavishly illustrated filmography details 32 sizzling fun-in-the-sun teenage epics from Gidget to the Beach Party movies with Frankie and Annette to The Sweet Ride plus a few offshoots in the snow!) Entries include credits, plot synopses, memorable lines, reviews and awards, and commentary from such as Aron Kincaid of The Girls on the Beach, Susan Hart of The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, Peter Brown of Ride the Wild Surf, Chris Noel of Beach Ball, and Ed Garner of Beach Blanket Bingo. Biographies of actors and leading actresses who made their marks in the genre are included.
Despite having been made into three TV movies, a radio drama, a stage play, a Broadway musical, a feature-film remake in color, and a book adaptation, the 1947 black-and-white film of Miracle on 34th Street still remains the favorite version of this modern Christmas classic. The American public seems to echo what Macy’s stated when declining to participate in the 1994 remake: “We felt there was nothing to be improved upon.” In many ways, it is a perfect film in the sense that there really is nothing that could have been done better: the story, the casting, the acting were all spot-on. The decade from 1941–1951 saw a bumper crop of classic Christmas including Christmas in Connecticut, Holiday Inn, and It’s a Wonderful Life, but with the exception of the latter film none have had the staying power of Miracle on 34th Street. This book describes the origins of the story, the casting and production of the film, its marketing and publicity, and even how it elevated the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from a local New York event to a national celebration. Finally, it looks at the film’s legacy, including its high ranking among best Christmas movies of all time as well as its placement as ninth overall on the American Film Institute’s list of the most inspiring films.
This multi-volume work began as a biography of Martha Wadsworth Coigney, who was a pioneering thought leader and advocate of internationalism in the American theatre during one of the most challenging periods in modern U.S. history. Coigney served as President of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) from 1966 to 2011. An independent NGO, ITI was devoted to the UNESCO mission of peace through mutual understanding, and, after World War II, often single-handedly sustained cultural exchange between artists on either side of the Iron Curtain, across religious divides, and in war zones. ITI was consistently in the vanguard of UNESCO's multi-lateral aim to bring all voices to the table, including former colonial peoples, developing nations, and indigenous cultures. In partnership with Rosamond Gilder and Ellen Stewart of La Mama E.T.C., Coigney led these landmark initiatives, including the representation of U.S. multicultural theatre leadership in Moscow in 1973. What was set in motion then is playing out today. Owing to the scope of Coigney’s work, William Wadsworth and Jim O’Quinn interviewed a wide range of her dramatist friends and professional colleagues. These conversations illumined a liberal cultural epoch (1954-86) and the U. S. Culture Wars that followed. The authors also recovered substantive original materials from Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library and the Rockefeller Archives about the life and work of Coigney, her mentor Rosamond Gilder, and Coigney’s longtime employer, the producer Roger Stevens. These materials document a sustained political effort by theatre people to socialize and liberalize post-WWII America. For these reasons, the work became much more than the story of one amazing person. It became a living history about relations between great artists and their milieu, told by the artists themselves. The Martha Coigney story has several key elements: • Coigney embodied the principle of internationalism as a counterforce to nationalism and fascism. • He career is a virtual how-to manual for re-visualizing and revitalizing American theatre. • Her life demonstrates the power of people-to-people diplomacy, based on the principles of individual human rights as established by the United Nations, the support of artistic freedom of expression, and the concept that every policy and funding mechanism finds its essence in the individual artist. • Coigney was one of the great theatre matchmakers and promoters of experimental and devised theatre work. Within this sector, she can be said to have revolutionized the theatre profession worldwide. • Gilder and Coigney, in their roles at ITI, led the movement to establish international theatre festivals in Europe, the USA, and globally. • Gilder and Coigney were collaborators with Roger Stevens, Donald Oenslager, Hal Prince, Nancy Rhodes, Edward Albee, and scores of other distinguished figures in the transmission of American dramatic art overseas. • Coigney served as advisor to and instrument for private theatre funders determined to create a national theatre accessible to working-class citizens and the poor, an investment, they believed, that was necessary to U.S. ascendency and world peace. In this they followed the inspiration of President John F. Kennedy, who articulated that to be influential, a great nation must have a great culture to contribute to the world.
