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Hollywood 1900-1950 in Vintage Postcards
by Tommy DangcilWith the advent of new, inexpensive photographic technology emerging in the United States during the mid-19th century, communication by postcard became a very popular way to exchange travel stories, news, and gossip over the decades. Drawing on a private collection of vintage postcards, this new book features a history of Hollywood, spanning half a century. Exploring Hollywood before and after it became the entertainment capital of the world, these images offer readers a glimpse of some of the city's most interesting places during its Golden Years. Long before motion pictures arrived, when the area was a residential neighborhood of beautiful homes and lemon groves, Hollywood was just another suburb of Los Angeles striving to become a community. From the familiar sights of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and the ChinesTheater, to the horse-and-buggy driven dirt roads and pineapple fields at the turn of the century, Hollywood in Vintage Postcards will guide the curious through the city's progress in the first half of the 20th century.
Hollywood 1940-2008
by Marc WanamakerSince World War II, Hollywood has fought and won that same war many times, won the West even more often--plus got the girl--and laughed like crazy, too. The postwar era in the dream factory was a prosperous time of expansion and wealth through the 1970s, decline in the 1980s, and rebirth in the new century. Vintage photographs from the rare collections of Hollywood Heritage and Bison Archives depict the municipal, business, residential, and entertainment industry growth in Hollywood proper, from 1940 until the beginning of the 21st century. This companion volume to Arcadia Publishing's Early Hollywood completes the pictorial saga of the world's most renowned storytelling capital. These images depict the rise of the television industry, changes along Hollywood Boulevard, and movers and shakers whose visions and influence have made Hollywood the entertainment industry's Mecca.
The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film (New Approaches to Film Genre)
by Yvonne TaskerThe Hollywood Action and Adventure Film presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of the history, myriad themes, and critical approaches to the action and adventure genre in American cinema. Draws on a wide range of examples, spanning the silent spectacles of early cinema to the iconic superheroes of 21st-century action films Features case studies revealing the genre’s diverse roots – from westerns and war films, to crime and espionage movies Explores a rich variety of aesthetic and thematic concerns that have come to define the genre, touching on themes such as the outsider hero, violence and redemption, and adventure as escape from the mundane Integrates discussion of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality alongside genre history Provides a timely and richly revealing portrait of a powerful cinematic genre that has increasingly come to dominate the American cinematic landscape
Hollywood and Anticommunism: HUAC and the Evolution of the Red Menace, 1935-1950 (Studies in American Popular History and Culture)
by John J. GladchukThis work concentrates on tracing the evolution of the so-called "red menace" phenomenon as a means of demonstrating the correlation between growing American paranoia and the success of the anticommunist campaign (1935-1955). The House Committee on Un-American Activities 1947 investigation of Hollywood, the nation's most visible industry, served a critical role in conjuring up anti-red hysteria and fanning the flames of virulent anticommunism. Using conveniently unjust tactics, the Committee "painted" targeted Hollywood personalities red and established the infamous blacklist - certified proof in the minds of many that "subversives" were indeed conspiring from within. A failed attempt on behalf of the "Hollywood Ten" to demonstrate the Committee’s undemocratic nature allowed HUAC to forge ahead with its investigation and establish the anticommunist foundation upon which Joseph McCarthy would construct his campaign. Hollywood and Anticommunism stands as an important contribution to McCarthy-era literature and should appeal to all interested in the early Cold War and the impact that unwarranted hysteria has had and continues to have on the growth and development of the nation.
Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 (Film and Culture Series)
by Thomas DohertyBetween 1933 and 1939, representations of the Nazis and the full meaning of Nazism came slowly to Hollywood, growing more ominous and distinct only as the decade wore on. Recapturing what ordinary Americans saw on the screen during the emerging Nazi threat, Thomas Doherty reclaims forgotten films, such as Hitler's Reign of Terror (1934), a pioneering anti-Nazi docudrama by Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr.; I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany (1936), a sensational true tale of "a Hollywood girl in Naziland!"; and Professor Mamlock (1938), an anti-Nazi film made by German refugees living in the Soviet Union. Doherty also recounts how the disproportionately Jewish backgrounds of the executives of the studios and the workers on the payroll shaded reactions to what was never simply a business decision. As Europe hurtled toward war, a proxy battle waged in Hollywood over how to conduct business with the Nazis, how to cover Hitler and his victims in the newsreels, and whether to address or ignore Nazism in Hollywood feature films. Should Hollywood lie low, or stand tall and sound the alarm?Doherty's history features a cast of charismatic personalities: Carl Laemmle, the German Jewish founder of Universal Pictures, whose production of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) enraged the nascent Nazi movement; Georg Gyssling, the Nazi consul in Los Angeles, who read the Hollywood trade press as avidly as any studio mogul; Vittorio Mussolini, son of the fascist dictator and aspiring motion picture impresario; Leni Riefenstahl, the Valkyrie goddess of the Third Reich who came to America to peddle distribution rights for Olympia (1938); screenwriters Donald Ogden Stewart and Dorothy Parker, founders of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League; and Harry and Jack Warner of Warner Bros., who yoked anti-Nazism to patriotic Americanism and finally broke the embargo against anti-Nazi cinema with Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939).
Hollywood and Hitler 1933-1939
by Thomas DohertyThe behind-the-scenes story of Hollywood's struggle with Nazism before the outbreak of war.
Hollywood and Israel: A History
by Tony Shaw Giora GoodmanFrom Frank Sinatra’s early pro-Zionist rallying to Steven Spielberg’s present-day peacemaking, Hollywood has long enjoyed a “special relationship” with Israel. This book offers a groundbreaking account of this relationship, both on and off the screen. Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman investigate the many ways in which Hollywood’s moguls, directors, and actors have supported or challenged Israel for more than seven decades. They explore the complex story of Israel’s relationship with American Jewry and illuminate how media and soft power have shaped the Arab-Israeli conflict.Shaw and Goodman draw on a vast range of archival sources to demonstrate how show business has played a pivotal role in crafting the U.S.-Israel alliance. They probe the influence of Israeli diplomacy on Hollywood’s output and lobbying activities, but also highlight the limits of ideological devotion in high-risk entertainment industries. The book details the political involvement with Israel—and Palestine—of household names such as Eddie Cantor, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Vanessa Redgrave, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert De Niro, and Natalie Portman. It also spotlights the role of key behind-the-scenes players like Dore Schary, Arthur Krim, Arnon Milchan, and Haim Saban.Bringing the story up to the moment, Shaw and Goodman contend that the Hollywood-Israel relationship might now be at a turning point. Shedding new light on the political power that images and celebrity can wield, Hollywood and Israel shows the world’s entertainment capital to be an important player in international affairs.
Hollywood and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American (Film and Culture Series)
by Peter DecherneyAs Americans flocked to the movies during the first part of the twentieth century, the guardians of culture grew worried about their diminishing influence on American art, education, and American identity itself. Meanwhile, Hollywood studio heads were eager to stabilize their industry, solidify their place in mainstream society, and expand their new but tenuous hold on American popular culture. Peter Decherney explores how these needs coalesced and led to the development of a symbiotic relationship between the film industry and America's stewards of high culture. Formed during Hollywood's Golden Age (1915-1960), this unlikely partnership ultimately insured prominent places in American culture for both the movie industry and elite cultural institutions. It redefined Hollywood as an ideal American industry; it made movies an art form instead of simply entertainment for the masses; and it made moviegoing a vital civic institution. For their part, museums and universities used films to maintain their position as quintessential American institutions.As the book delves into the ties between Hollywood bigwigs and various cultural leaders, an intriguing cast of characters emerges, including the poet Vachel Lindsay, film producers Adolph Zukor and Joseph Kennedy, Hollywood flak and censor extraordinaire Will Hays, and philanthropist turned politician Nelson Rockefeller. Decherney considers how Columbia University's film studies program helped integrate Jewish students into American culture while also professionalizing screenwriting. He examines MoMA's career-savvy film curator Iris Barry, a British feminist once dedicated to stemming the tide of U.S. cultural imperialism, who ultimately worked with Hollywood and the U.S. government to fight fascism and communism and promote American values abroad. Other chapters explore Vachel Lindsay's progressive vision of movies as reinvigorating the public sphere through film libraries and museums; the promotion of movie connoisseurship at Harvard and other universities; and how the heir of a railroad magnate bankrolled the American avant-garde film movement. Amid ethnic diversity, the rise of mass entertainment, world war, and the global spread of American culture, Hollywood and cultural institutions worked together to insure their own survival and profitability and to provide a coherent, though shifting, American identity.
Hollywood and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American
by Peter DecherneyPeter Decherney explores how the concerns of intellectuals and the needs of Hollywood studio heads led to the development of a mutually beneficial relationship during Hollywood's Golden Age (1915-1960). During this period, museums, universities, and government agencies used films to maintain their position as quintessential American institutions, transforming movies into an art form and making moviegoing a vital civic institution. Decherney's history features an intriguing cast of characters, including the poet Vachel Lindsay, film producers Adolph Zukor and Joseph Kennedy, Hollywood flak Will Hays, and philanthropist Nelson Rockefeller. He shows how Columbia and Harvard started film studies programs in the 1910s and 1920s to remake American education and American culture. And he shows how the Museum of Modern Art, the U.S. Office of War Information, and the National Endowment for the Arts worked with Hollywood to fight fascism and communism and to promote American values abroad. Hollywood and the Culture Elite offers a unique glimpse into the collaboration between Hollywood and the stewards of high culture to ensure their own survival and profitability.
Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher--Television
by Foster HirschA fascinating look at Hollywood&’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system—set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shiftsHollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions—from Cinerama, CinemaScope, and VistaVision to the epic film and lavish musical. It was a decade that saw the rise of the anti-hero; the smoldering, the hidden, and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios; the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the &“small screen&” television.Here is Eisenhower&’s America—seemingly complacent, conformity-ridden revealed in Vincente Minnelli&’s Father of the Bride, Walt Disney&’s Cinderella, and Brigadoon, among others.And here is its darkening, resonant landscape, beset by conflict, discontent, and anxiety (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Asphalt Jungle, A Place in the Sun, Touch of Evil, It Came From Outer Space) . . . an America on the verge of cultural, political and sexual revolt, busting up and breaking out (East of Eden, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, Sweet Smell of Success, The Wild One, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Jailhouse Rock).An important, riveting look at our nation at its peak as a world power and at the political, cultural, sexual upheavals it endured, reflected and explored in the quintessential American art form.
Hollywood and War, The Film Reader (In Focus: Routledge Film Readers Ser.)
by J. David SlocumDiscussing such classic films as Sergeant York, Air Force, and All Quiet on the Western Front, as well as more modern blockbusters like Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan, this outstanding volume focuses on Hollywood and its production of war films.Topics covered include:the early formation of war cinemathe apotheosis of the Hollywood war filmthe ascendancy of ambivalenceHollywood and the war since Vietnamwar as a way of seeing. For any student of film studies or American cultural studies, this is a valuable companion.
Hollywood Angels: Historical Cozy Mystery (Mercy Allcutt Mystery #8)
by Alice DuncanTalent Scout Found Murdered in Hollywood Angels, a Historical Cozy Mystery from Alice DuncanLos Angeles, California, January 1927Mercy Allcutt’s friend, Lulu LaBelle, has an unwelcomed encounter with an alleged talent scout, producer, and director in the burgeoning motion-picture business in Los Angeles.When the philandering producer is found dead in his office, police arrest Lulu when witnesses report seeing Lulu coming and going from the office.With her friend accused of murder, Mercy comes to Lulu’s aid and begs her employer, Ernie Templeton, PI, for help. But uncovering secrets can be a risky business. Publisher Note: Readers who enjoy cozy mysteries in historical settings will surely appreciate the Mercy Allcutt series set in 1920s Los Angeles, California. No vulgarity or explicit sex for those who appreciate a clean and wholesome read.The Mercy Allcutt Mystery SeriesLost Among the AngelsAngels FlightFallen AngelsAngels of MercyThanksgiving AngelsAngels AdriftChristmas AngelsHollywood Angels
Hollywood at the Intersection of Race and Identity
by Ruth Mayer Alice Maurice Ellen C. Scott Delia Malia Konzett Jonna Eagle Ryan Jay Friedman Charlene Regester Matthias Konzett Chris Cagle Dean Itsuji Saranillio Graham Cassano Priscilla Peña Ovalle Ernesto R Acevedo-Muñoz Mary Beltrán Jun Okada Louise WallenbergHollywood at the Intersection of Race and Identity explores the ways Hollywood represents race, gender, class, and nationality at the intersection of aesthetics and ideology and its productive tensions. This collection of essays asks to what degree can a close critical analysis of films, that is, reading them against their own ideological grain, reveal contradictions and tensions in Hollywood’s task of erecting normative cultural standards? How do some films perhaps knowingly undermine their inherent ideology by opening a field of conflicting and competing intersecting identities? The challenge set out in this volume is to revisit well-known films in search for a narrative not exclusively constituted by the Hollywood formula and to answer the questions: What lies beyond the frame? What elements contradict a film’s sustained illusion of a normative world? Where do films betray their own ideology and most importantly what intersectional spaces of identity do they reveal or conceal?
Hollywood at the Races: Film's Love Affair with the Turf
by Alan Shuback“An informative and amusing look at the close relationship between Golden Age Hollywood and West Coast horse racing. A fascinating read.” —Christina Rice, author of Mean . . . Moody . . . Magnificent!Horse racing was so popular and influential between 1930 and 1960 that nearly 150 racing themed films were released, including A Day at the Races, Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, and National Velvet.This fast-paced, gossipy history explores the relationship between the Hollywood film industry, the horse racing industry, and the extraordinary participation of producers, directors, and actors in the Sport of Kings. Alan Shuback details how all three of Southern California’s major racetracks were founded by Hollywood luminaries: Hal Roach was cofounder of Santa Anita Park, Bing Crosby founded Del Mar with help from Pat O’Brien, and Jack and Harry Warner founded Hollywood Park with help from dozens of people in the film community.The races also provided a social and sporting outlet for the film community—studios encouraged film stars to spend a day at the races, especially when a new film was being released. The stars’ presence at the track generated a bevy of attention from eager photographers and movie columnists, as well as free publicity for their new films. Moreover, Louis B. Mayer, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Betty Grable, and Don Ameche were all major Thoroughbred owners, while Mickey Rooney, Chico Marx, and John Huston were notorious for their unsuccessful forays to the betting windows.“The more entertaining vignettes pair the names of old-time screen stars with ribald tales of racetrack depravity.” —Thoroughbred Daily News
Hollywood at Your Feet
by Stacey Endres Robert Cushman Ginger RogersBuilt by Sid Grauman in 1927, the most famous motion picture palace in the world towers majestically above the 6900 block of Hollywood Boulevard. The Chinese Theatre's Forecourt of the Stars attracts more than two million visitors annually. Throughout its history and up to the present day, the theatre has served as a magnet to thousands of fans and tourists who flock to the site daily to view the flamboyant architecture and the historic cement squares in the theatre's forecourt. The footprints, handprints, and signatures of 176 of Hollywood's most famous celebrities have been placed here, plus those of three comedy teams, one group of quintuplets, two robots and a villainous sci-fi character, on ventriloqist's dummy, a radio character, and the world's best known duck.
Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers (Turner Classic Movies)
by Donald BogleThe films, the stars, the filmmakers-all get their due in Hollywood Black, a sweeping overview of blacks in film from the silent era through Black Panther, with striking photos and an engrossing history by award-winning author Donald Bogle.The story opens in the silent film era, when white actors in blackface often played black characters, but also saw the rise of independent African American filmmakers, including the remarkable Oscar Micheaux. It follows the changes in the film industry with the arrival of sound motion pictures and the Great Depression, when black performers such as Stepin Fetchit and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson began finding a place in Hollywood. More often than not, they were saddled with rigidly stereotyped roles, but some gifted performers, most notably Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind (1939), were able to turn in significant performances.In the coming decades, more black talents would light up the screen. Dorothy Dandridge became the first African American to earn a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Carmen Jones (1954), and Sidney Poitier broke ground in films like The Defiant Ones and 1963's Lilies of the Field. Hollywood Black reveals the changes in images that came about with the evolving social and political atmosphere of the US, from the Civil Rights era to the Black Power movement. The story takes readers through Blaxploitation, with movies like Shaft and Super Fly, to the emergence of such stars as Cicely Tyson, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Whoopi Goldberg, and of directors Spike Lee and John Singleton.The history comes into the new millennium with filmmakers Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Ava Du Vernay (Selma), and Ryan Coogler (Black Panther); megastars such as Denzel Washington, Will Smith, and Morgan Freeman; as well as Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Viola Davis, and a glorious gallery of others.Filled with evocative photographs and stories of stars and filmmakers on set and off, Hollywood Black tells an underappreciated history as it's never before been told.
Hollywood Blockbusters: The Anthropology of Popular Movies
by Peter Wogan David SuttonCertain Hollywood movies are now so deeply woven into the cultural fabric that lines of their dialogue - for example, 'Make him an offer he can't refuse' - have been incorporated into everyday discourse. The films explored in this book, which include The Godfather, Jaws, The Big Lebowski, Field of Dreams and The Village, have become important cultural myths, fascinating windows into the schisms, tensions, and problems of American culture. Hollywood Blockbusters: The Anthropology of Popular Movies uses anthropology to understand why these movies have such enduring appeal in this age of fragmented audiences and ever-faster spin cycles. Exploring key anthropological issues from ritual, kinship, gift giving and totemism to literacy, stereotypes, boundaries and warfare, this fascinating book uncovers new insights into the significance of modern film classics for students of Film, Media, Anthropology and American Cultural Studies.
Hollywood Buzz (Pucci Lewis Mysteries #0)
by Margit LieschePucci 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?
The Hollywood Collection
by Sheila ClaydonAlthough Dominic is the designer, Samantha is the real force behind Dominic Blair Fashions. Cool, efficient and organized, she has a calculator for a heart and ambition for a bedfellow, so when the famous Jonathan Aitken is assigned to photograph their Hollywood Collection for Elite magazine, she is thrilled…until she meets him and decides he’s going to be impossible to work with. When Jonathan makes his own snap judgement about Samantha he sets them on a collision course that can only be avoided if they agree to an armed truce until after the fashion show. What will happen then is anyone’s guess….
The Hollywood Daughter: A Novel
by Kate AlcottFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker and A Touch of Stardust, comes a Hollywood coming-of-age novel, in which Ingrid Bergman's affair with Roberto Rossellini forces her biggest fan to reconsider everything she was raised to believe In 1950, Ingrid Bergman—already a major star after movies like Casablanca and Joan of Arc—has a baby out of wedlock with her Italian lover, film director Roberto Rossellini. Previously held up as an icon of purity, Bergman's fall shocked her legions of American fans. Growing up in Hollywood, Jessica Malloy watches as her PR executive father helps make Ingrid a star at Selznick Studio. Over years of fleeting interactions with the actress, Jesse comes to idolize Ingrid, who she considered not only the epitome of elegance and integrity, but also the picture-perfect mother, an area where her own difficult mom falls short. In a heated era of McCarthyism and extreme censorship, Ingrid's affair sets off an international scandal that robs seventeen-year-old Jesse of her childhood hero. When the stress placed on Jesse's father begins to reveal hidden truths about the Malloy family, Jesse's eyes are opened to the complex realities of life—and love. Beautifully written and deeply moving, The Hollywood Daughter is an intimate novel of self-discovery that evokes a Hollywood sparkling with glamour and vivid drama.From the Hardcover edition.
Hollywood Diplomacy: Film Regulation, Foreign Relations, and East Asian Representations
by Hye Seung ChungHollywood Diplomacy contends that, rather than simply reflect the West’s cultural fantasies of an imagined “Orient,” images of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ethnicities have long been contested sites where the commercial interests of Hollywood studios and the political mandates of U.S. foreign policy collide, compete against one another, and often become compromised in the process. While tracing both Hollywood’s internal foreign relations protocols—from the “Open Door” policy of the silent era to the “National Feelings” provision of the Production Code—and external regulatory interventions by the Chinese government, the U.S. State Department, the Office of War Information, and the Department of Defense, Hye Seung Chung reevaluates such American classics as Shanghai Express and The Great Dictator and applies historical insights to the controversies surrounding contemporary productions including Die Another Day and The Interview. This richly detailed book redefines the concept of “creative freedom” in the context of commerce: shifting focus away from the artistic entitlement to offend foreign audiences toward the opportunity to build new, better relationships with partners around the world through diplomatic representations of race, ethnicity, and nationality.
Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist (Screen Classics)
by Kevin Brianton“Brianton’s well-documented study of a Hollywood controversy delves into one example of the post-WWII Red Scare” (Publishers Weekly).On October 22, 1950, the Screen Directors Guild (SDG) gathered for a meeting at the opulent Beverly Hills Hotel. Among the group’s leaders were some of the most powerful men in Hollywood—John Ford, Cecil B. DeMille, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, John Huston, Frank Capra, William Wyler, and Rouben Mamoulian—and the issue on the table was nothing less than a vote to dismiss Mankiewicz as the guild’s president after he opposed an anticommunist loyalty oath that could have expanded the blacklist. The dramatic events of that evening have become mythic, and the legend has overshadowed the more complex realities of this crucial moment in Hollywood history.In Hollywood Divided, Kevin Brianton explores the myths associated with the famous meeting and the real events that they often obscure. He analyzes the lead-up to that fateful summit, examining the pressure exerted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Brianton reveals the internal politics of the SDG, its initial hostile response to the HUAC investigations, the conservative reprisal, and the influence of the oath on the guild and the film industry as a whole. Hollywood Divided also assesses the impact of the historical coverage of the meeting on the reputation of the three key players in the drama.Brianton’s study is a provocative and revealing revisionist history of the SDG’s 1950 meeting and its lasting repercussions on the film industry as well as the careers of those who participated. Hollywood Divided illuminates how both the press's and the public's penchant for the “exciting story” have perpetuated fabrications and inaccurate representations of a turning point for the film industry.Huffington Post Best Film Books of 2016Praise for Hollywood Divided“An authoritative reassessment of the meetings held by the Screen Directors Guild in 1950 to consider the adoption of a loyalty oath. Brianton traces the implications for the film industry and the reputations of key filmmakers, including Cecil DeMille and John Ford. He also offers sharp and illuminating reflections on the making of Hollywood history and myth.” —Brian Neve, author of The Many Lives of Cy Endfield: Film Noir, the Blacklist and Zulu“A breakthrough book on a topic that historians, for the most part, have considered settled. Brianton’s landmark study is fresh, thorough, and balanced, a model of Hollywood historiography. In clear prose, he takes the reader through the detailed twists and turns that created both the myth and the subsequent legend of the fateful Directors Guild Meeting that occurred during a critical time in American history.” —James D’Arc, Curator, Cecil B. DeMille Papers, Brigham Young University
Hollywood Double Agent: The True Tale of Boris Morros, Film Producer Turned Cold War Spy
by Jonathan GillThis true story of Golden Age Hollywood and Cold War espionage is a “captivating, fast-paced narrative [that] reads like a thriller” (Library Journal). Boris Morros was a major figure in the 1930s and ’40s. The head of music at Paramount, nominated for Academy Awards, he then went on to produce his own films with Laurel and Hardy, Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, and others. But as J. Edgar Hoover would discover, these successes were a cover for one of the most incredible espionage tales in the history of the Cold War—Boris Morros also worked for Russian intelligence.Morros’s assignments took him to the White House, the Vatican, and deep behind the Iron Curtain. The high-level intel he provided the KGB included military secrets and compromising information on prominent Americans: his friends. But in 1947, Morros flipped. At the height of the McCarthy era, he played a leading role in a deadly tale. Jonathan Gill’s Hollywood Double Agent is an extraordinary story about Russian spies at the heart of American culture and politics, and one man caught in the middle of the Cold War.“Well-written and perceptive . . . Morros was an empty vessel who could be turned left or right depending on how it satisfied his personal interest.” —New York Journal of Books“Reads like an espionage thriller . . . with malevolent, powerful—and sometimes bumbling—characters.” —Kirkus Reviews“A fascinating and swift-reading biography.” —The Wall Street Journal
The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality behind the Movies
by Edward Jay EpsteinIn a Freakonomics meets Hollywood saga, veteran investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein goes undercover to explore Hollywood's "invisible money machine," probing the dazzlingly complicated finances behind the hits and the flops, while he answers the surprisingly puzzling question: How do the studios make their money? Along the way we also learn much about star system and what makes the business tick: + What it costs to insure Nicole Kidman's right knee ... + How and why the studios harvest silver from old film prints ... + Why stars do--or don't do--their own stunts ... + Why Arnold Schwarzenegger is considered a contract genius ... + How Hollywood goes about doping outside investors and hedge fund managers ... + Why Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is considered a "masterpiece" of financing.
Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise
by Joel Selvin“Hollywood Eden brings the lost humanity of the record business vividly back to life … [Selvin’s] style is blunt, unpretentious and brisk; he knows how to move things along entertainingly … Songs about surfboards and convertibles had turned quaint, but in this book, their coolness is restored.” — New York Times From surf music to hot-rod records to the sunny pop of the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, the Byrds, and the Mama’s & the Papa’s, Hollywood Eden captures the fresh blossom of a young generation who came together in the epic spring of the 1960s to invent the myth of the California Paradise. Central to the story is a group of sun-kissed teens from the University High School class of 1959 — a class that included Jan & Dean, Nancy Sinatra, and future members of the Beach Boys — who came of age in Los Angeles at the dawn of a new golden era when anything seemed possible. These were the people who invented the idea of modern California for the rest of the world. But their own private struggles belied the paradise portrayed in their music. What began as a light-hearted frolic under sunny skies ended up crashing down to earth just a few short but action-packed years later as, one by one, each met their destinies head-on. A rock ’n’ roll opera loaded with violence, deceit, intrigue, low comedy, and high drama, Hollywood Eden tells the story of a group of young artists and musicians who bumped heads, crashed cars, and ultimately flew too close to the sun.