Cagney

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If you're looking for an impersonal, gossipy, take-no-prisoners account of James Cagney's life, this is not the book for you. Author John McCabe is in love with his subject. After ghost-writing Cagney's autobiography in the 1970s, the two remained close until Cagney's death in 1986. But his bias toward the actor, whom McCabe describes as "a great artist and an even greater man," has opened many doors. In particular, it has allowed McCabe to collect an immense repository of quotations and testimonials from Cagney's friends and from the actor himself. Dipping frequently into his archive, McCabe has fashioned a book that makes for a thrilling, revelatory read. Many readers find the section devoted to the actor's impoverished childhood the most riveting, but I was just as captivated by the account of his professional career. McCabe recounts Cagney's many successes at Warner Brothers studios, his Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1943, his tussle with the beloved S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall during the shooting of that film, his command of the Yiddish language (picked up on the streets of New York and a great help to him when negotiating with Jack Warner), his escape (just barely) from the seductions of gorgeous actress Merle Oberon, his decision to retire while still at the peak of his power, and many other wonderful stories and anecdotes. I love the section, late in the book, where the author and Cagney meet, and biography suddenly becomes autobiography. --Raphael Shargel

Book Description

John McCabe's participation in the writing of James Cagney's autobiography, the many years of friendship that followed, and an intense period of interview and discussion in preparation for a musical comedy based on Cagney's life--a show that never saw the light of day--make him Cagney's ideal biographer. And, indeed, he has written a searching chronicle of this major actor's life and career, packed with history and anecdote, and profusely illustrated.

Cagney came from a poor Irish-American New York family but once he found his métier as an actor, it was not long before he was recognized as a brilliantly energetic and powerful phenomenon. After the tremendous impact of Public Enemy--in which he notoriously pushed half a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face--he was typecast as a gangster because of the terrifying violence that seemed to be pent up within him. Years of pitched battle with Warner Brothers finally liberated him from those roles, and he went on to star in such triumphs as the musicals Yankee Doodle Dandy (winning the 1942 Oscar for best actor) and Love Me or Leave Me. Even so, one of his greatest later roles involved a return to crime--as the psychopathic killer in the terrifying White Heat. He retired from films in 1961 after making Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three, only to return twenty years later for Ragtime.

But however much Cagney personified violence and explosive energy on the screen, in life he was a quiet, introspective, and deeply private man, a poet, painter, and environmentalist, whose marriage to his early vaudeville partner was famously loyal and happy. His story is one of the few Hollywood biographies that reflect a fulfilled life as well as a spectacular career.

Customer Reviews:

a faraway fella..........2007-01-18

this autobiography by the ghostwriter of Cagney by Cagny is a fine, loving and detailed portrait of an artist with humility, integrity and boundless talent. One of the finest autobiographies I've read. Cagney the man is so much more interesting then Cagney the actor and Cagney the actor was one hell of a talented soul. The writer makes us understand Jim Cagney so well and develop so much empathy for the man that it's like he's sitting across from you and telling his own life story.

A Yankee Doodle Dandy of a Bio!.......2006-12-10

Seen the Movies? Read this book!

A great bio of one of Filmdom's Gods.

You will learn alot about the man as actor, and human being, and about Hollywood in the Golden Age here.

Like many Leading Men of the Golden Age there was a lot of There THERE in that pretty little head of his, in the performance of his craft, and in his personal life, and we are fortunate to have had him performing on screen into is old age.

Fantastic!

Superlative actor with a beautiful mind.......2006-04-20

This biography is a great find. McCabe is a magisterial writer - he analyzes his star like a specimen under the microscope - and as film-critic he is in a class by himself: a few well-chosen words, a picked-out scene, some psychoanalysis here, an anecdote there - you will SEE what he describes.

The star of his book however is worth every trouble! In a profession that attracted so many elbow-people and phonies James Cagney remained unpretentious and helpful. His moral courage is legendary. He gave an ambulance to Americans who fought in Spain, supported the Mexican cotton worker's strike and the Scottsboro boys, was one of the founders of the SAG. No wonder he was a thorn in the sides of some people. They forced him to appear before the DIES committee. Gangsters planned to kill him...

The actor was outrageously bright and original. THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931) with the grapefruit - splash! - in Mae Clarke's face. His whining, begging-for-mercy death on the electric chair in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) and of course YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942), his quintessential role where he was literally dancing on the wall.

Some fans are astonished that the average filmgoer remembers Cagney less well than say, Tracy or Bogart. He was forty-three-years old and at the zenith of his creative powers when he won his oscar. The audience idolized him. The following years should have been the best of his career, the years of harvest. They certainly were for Tracy (who worked with Hepburn) and Bogart (who worked with Bacall). Cagney's filmography before his sensational comeback as epileptic, mother-dominated gangster in WHITE HEAT (1949) However shows a gap. It was not only the war (he entertained troups in England). He was also tired of his "gangster-image" - and who could blame him? He left Warner Bros. with the declared intention to make "art".

As a result he made just four films when he could have made twenty, two of them ambitious but costly Art-House films. JOHNNY COME LATELY (1943) raised eyebrows. THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE (1948) lost half a million dollars. He spent years paying back the banks, a task not made easier by the fact that his subsequent films were sabotaged by ignorance and malice in high places. COME FILL THE CUP (1951), the story of an alcoholic who is nursed back to health by an African-American friend could have been great. Producer Jack Warner insisted on a white actor and a gangster-story...Nearly everything good that Cagney made during those years landed on the cutting-room-floor...

Insiders can probably appreciate the degree of his professional risk-taking - this is why artists, critics and film-buffs esteem him so highly - but the average filmgoer prefers stars with "legendary" affairs and reliable filmographies to a star who never caused a scandal and threw his career casually away for his art...They don't know what they're missing! Cagney kept to himself in private - painted, wrote poetry, sailed - and freezed his most agonizing emotions in his heart - no wonder, in view of the burden imposed on him early in life! (Cagney grew up in New York's "meaner" streets, with a father who was so sick from alcohol that he had fits. He worked from childhood and dropped out of college to help finance not only his mother and his little sister, but the college-education of his three brothers!). But he found a vent: His roles! Cagney's "real life" is not buried in the yellowed pages of old tabloids. It's right here, on screen! His performances are matchless in their immediacy, inventiveness and originality. No other star from the "golden era" is so "modern".

Incredible, but this admirable biography alienated some readers. One reviewer was so disappointed that the actor failed to live up to his public image that he circulated trumped-up charges: That the actor was not a "real man" (People who think that crime is cool will consider Cagney a very unsatisfactory hero. A pity, since he is exactly the shining example they need). That he treated his children "like cattle" (What an idea! Since he could not have children of his own, he adopted two children from an orphanage. True, to lodge them in a separate house was odd, but he played with them, read to them, gave them valuable property. He was often absent, but his wife stayed at home. Should he have given up his job?). And his little slip with Merle Oberon! Take it easy - he was not the pursuer but the pursued, he said "no" late, but not too late...I liked him even more after reading this hilarious anecdote. He was a man of flesh & blood & virtue is easy when nobody comes (even the bible prefers remorseful sinners to hypocrites!).

To discover James Cagney is like hitting the jackpot in the cineastic lottery. Every lover of classic films should have this book on his (or her) shelf. But you will become spoiled: It's lonely at the top...

Jimmy, say it ain't so!.......2003-05-02

I have loved Cagney for years, and would have prefered not to know all the bubble bursting details brought out in this story. His early years, telling of his family of origin and bowery boy childhood was fascinating. I should have stopped reading there. When he marries the strong willed Billie early on, he is not the powerhouse man of his movies. She becomes an obstacle between his family and their adoptive children. If this is not disappointing enough, you will also plow through excessive analysis of every character Cagney ever played. I've seen most of those movies, haven't you? Having to imply deeper content to pure entertainment is a bore. If you love the magic of Cagney's film charisma, skip this read. Your Jimmy will be gone.

John McCabe delivers James Cagney!!!.......2002-12-27

John McCabe really brought Cagney to life for me. It was a total pleasure reading about the actor/artist. I was always a fan but John McCabe really did a great service to Cagney fans with this one.

Television's Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to Er : Hill Street Blues/Thirtysomething/St. Elsewhere/China Beach/Cagney & Lacey/Twin Peaks/Moonlighting/Northern Exposure/L.

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An essential book for understanding the development of TV in the past quarter century
Memories of Great Television
The case for television dramas as the mediums high art form
the place to start
Required reading for students of television

Television's Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to Er : Hill Street Blues/Thirtysomething/St. Elsewhere/China Beach/Cagney & Lacey/Twin Peaks/Moonlighting/Northern Exposure/L.
Robert J. Thompson
Manufacturer: Continuum Intl Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Amazon.com

It's fashionable to assert that television is bad and is inherently doomed to be worse, even evil. However, every now and then, the rabbit ears capture spasms of glory -- and this book makes a reasonably convincing case that shows such as Hill St. Blues, Moonlighting, Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, and ER are not only good television, but possibly even works of high culture. The flip side of the story is also compellingly reported: that in many cases, these anomalous movements towards quality will be suppressed or even suffocated by the industry, regardless of public sentiment. A good book -- possibly excellent.

Customer Reviews:

An essential book for understanding the development of TV in the past quarter century.......2006-06-23

This excellent book on the development of what is widely known as Quality TV remains one of the finest books published in the field of television studies. Although television has now been around for sixty years, good writing about television shows has only developed in the past twenty years. Not that there wasn't a great deal of writing about television before then; it is merely that most writing was about the medium of television in a somewhat sociological/anthropological mode rather than in a textual analysis mode. Many earlier television scholars were as or more apt to write about the interaction of shows and commercials embedded within them as the shows themselves. In fact, prior to the last fifteen years it is difficult to find many writers who wrote directly about the shows as artistic productions.

The book's greatest strength is in its identification of the qualities that make up quality television shows and the discussion of the development of a series of shows in the eighties and early nineties that encapsulated those qualities. These parts of the book are very, very good indeed and one will be hard pressed to find better discussions of why HILL STREET BLUES, ST. ELSEWHERE, and MOONLIGHTING were great shows. The lead-up chapters that detail the pre-history of quality TV are also outstanding. Most of my review is going to argue with several of Thompson's points, but I want to be explicit that one of the virtues of a good book is that it makes you want to argue with it. Ludwig Wittgenstein told one of his students that a mark of a great book was that it made you want to throw it across a room and yell at it. I think Thompson is very wrong at several points, but he is wrong in important ways, and a reader can learn a great deal by debating Thompson as he or she reads.

One of the parts I want to argue with he is characterization of what counts as a Quality TV show. I'm not quite sure he is correct in dismissing, for instance, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, as a quality TV show. I guess my complaint is that Thompson wants to establish a genre, one that would exclude unrealistic shows such as STAR TREK. But what of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER? This is very widely considered to be one of the truly great series of the past decade. Several of the television critics he quotes with approval--in particular David Bianculli and Ken Tucker--were both passionate admirers of BUFFY, lavishing praise on the show unequaled by any other show. Furthermore, Thompson seems to view the way that shows are received on college campuses as a mark of a show's quality. No show comes anywhere close to BUFFY in the way that it has been received by the academic community. In fact, academic papers on BUFFY come close to matching all papers written on all other shows combined in the past ten years. Yet, Thompson clearly states that two marks of quality shows are that they tend to win awards and that they are realistic. BUFFY received vast critical acclaim (and its reputation seems to grow with each passing year), but much to the consternation of the critics that praised it, it failed to receive any Emmys (apart from some minor ones) or even major nominations. And while it was a hybrid show (a blend of fantasy, drama, comedy, romance, and teen genres), one of the marks of a quality show as identified by Thompson, it was a show about vampires, which would clearly seem to violate the realism rule. Perhaps Thompson would have adjusted his criteria with the appearance of BUFFY (and perhaps he already has). My point is that the criteria of quality TV as outlined by Thompson describes no necessary or sufficient conditions, but more in the way of the "family resemblances" of which Wittgenstein (to refer to him again) wrote in his work. There are qualities that shows tend to have, though some will lack. But I suggest the "realism" criterion should be jettisoned entirely.

The book's greatest flaw is in more or less assuming that the age of quality television had ended. In fact, the group of shows that came after this book went to press far surpasses in literateness and intelligence the group of shows Thompson focuses on. If you watch an episode of THE SOPRANOS and then watch an episode of HILL STREET BLUES, you will immediately be struck by how much more complex and intelligent the former is. I recently started rewatching MOONLIGHTING and doing so confirmed how far television has come since that show, both in intellectual complexity and in production quality. The latter is an important point since as Thompson points out MOONLIGHTING was one of the most expensive shows ever produced. But my main point is this: I'll take THE X-FILES, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, THE SOPRANOS, FARSCAPE, SIX FEET UNDER, ANGEL, THE GILMORE GIRLS, DEAD LIKE ME, THE SHIELD, OZ, FIREFLY, SMALLVILLE, LOST, DEADWOOD, WONDERFALLS, THE WEST WING, ALIAS, 24, and VERONICA MARS over Thompson's group of shows any day.

I should note that in the final chapter Thompson does express some hope that the age of quality television has not ended, but there is definitely an overarching "rise and fall" tone to the book as a whole. The fact that he bizarrely finds such shows as TWIN PEAKS and NORTHERN EXPOSURE as harbingers that quality TV has pretty much exhausted its possibilities shows this. Thompson may hope that the era of quality TV is not over, but it is pretty clear that he fears that it is.

How did Thompson get it so wrong? I think the answer comes from his assessment of the effect that TWIN PEAKS had on television. Late in the book he writes, "TWIN PEAKS had an overall negative effect on quality drama." This is an absurd statement and I think it stems from Thompson's missing the overall effect that TWIN PEAKS had on television narrative. Although Thompson writes penetratingly and insightfully about most of the shows he takes up, he neglects one aspect of television that TWIN PEAKS changed. Thompson was a contributor to a book on the soap opera entitled WORLDS WITHOUT END: THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA. One thing all of the shows Thompson writes about except TWIN PEAKS is that none of them is structured around a master narrative. ST. ELSEWHERE and HILL STREET BLUES might contain six or seven or more lesser story arcs, but there isn't a real overarching story. There is a sense in which none of these shows is about anything in particular. The closest would be MOONLIGHTING with the ongoing flirtation between David and Maddie. What Thompson misses is that TWIN PEAKS introduced for the first time into a series an overarching master narrative. Although the show itself failed to produce a compelling long story arc in its second and disastrous season, the notion of a show being structured around a very long central story had been introduced. The first show that would profit from this would be THE X-FILES, with its seasons-long narrative dealing with alien colonization. The form would first be perfected in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER with each of its seven seasons structured primarily around a single main narrative, although there were also a host of smaller arcs as well, some extending over several seasons. This narrative form has been taken to its logical extreme by LOST, which will in the course of its currently projected six seasons tell a single story, very much the way an epic novel would. A substantial number of the shows that I list in the previous paragraph have absorbed the formal structures developed by TWIN PEAKS, THE X-FILES, and BUFFY.

In fact, while Thompson was lamenting what he imagined to be end of television's second golden age, what he was writing about was a group of shows that laid the foundation for an even better group of shows in the nineties and our decade. I have searched to see what Thompson has written since the publication of this book to see if he has repented of his own prophecies, but without success. It is quite possible that Thompson disapproves, but hopefully he has been delighted that television not only did not regress to standards of a previous age, but has actually continued to improve.

The book is out of date in other ways as well. For instance, Thompson speculates that the reason the hour-long drama was fading from the airwaves (a fading away that turned out not to occur) was its poor performance in syndication. This is true, but Thompson was writing before the advent of the DVD and one thing that we have learned is that hour long shows excel on DVD. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER has dramatically out performed on DVD most half-hour shows (as well as most hour long shows) that out did it in ratings during that show's seven-year run. LOST with its enormously complex plot, has done exceptionally well on DVD. The economics of DVD packaging is still being worked out, but in conjunction with syndication quality shows have a economic life that continues to make them viable in the industry.

Despite my disagreements with the book, this remains essential reading for anyone interested in the development of television in the past twenty-five years. Unlike Thompson, I remain optimistic about the future of quality TV. I have had my heart broken by a number of asinine cancellations (especially on FOX, where I have had to witness the demise of such great shows as WONDERFALLS, FIREFLY, and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT). I suffer a bit in reading this book about how networks would stick with shows that were doing poorly in ratings to develop and promote them. That happens so rarely now, though I am delighted that the new CW network has stuck with VERONICA MARS, a ratings failure despite being one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV. But as excellent as the book is, it remains a cautionary tale about prognostication. The unstated theme of the book seems to be the rise and decline of quality TV, whereas actual history has proclaimed the rise and further rise of it.

Memories of Great Television.......2006-06-14

This book is great at enhancing the viewing pleasure of classic TV shows now coming out on DVD. I read this book after viewing the first season of Hill Street Blues and the first three seasons of Moonlighting. I loved reading this and learned a lot about my favorite TV shows.

The case for television dramas as the mediums high art form.......2003-06-26

The title of this book is provocative but something of a serious misnomer. Robert J. Thompson points out early on that the original "Golden Age of Television" took place in the Fifties and was built on the variety shows like "Texaco Star Theater" and "Your Show of Shows," the anthology dramas like "Playhouse 90" and "Studio One," and, of course, "I Love Lucy." Thompson also acknowledges that in the Seventies the situation comedy reached its "literate peak" with "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "All in the Family," and "M*A*S*H." However, the argument for "Television's Second Golden Age: From 'Hill Street Blues' to 'ER'" covers a period from HSB's debute in 1981 to the present, where "ER" continues to be one of the top dramas on television. That is a period of more than two decades and while Thompson devotes a chapter to "The Second Golden Age of Television: "Cagney & Lacy," "Moonlighting," "L.A. Law," "thirtysomething," and "China Beach," essentially focusing on the Eighties, it is hard to say that the following decade, with "Twin Peaks," "Northern Exposure," "Picket Fences," "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order," "Homicide," "The X-Files," "Chicago Hope," and "ER" was not at least as strong (feel free to add to the list). Even if we are talking about the first decade of the 21st century we have "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "24," "The Practice," "Ally McBeal" and short-lived series like "My So Called Life" and "Once and Again" (and that is without dipping over to HBO and talking about "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under," and the rest of their kind), all of which speak to quality dramatic programming.

That is why in the final analysis I see Thompson's argument as being not so much for a specific time period of great television, but rather advancing the proposition that the hour-long dramatic television series is the chief art form of the medium (yes, even more so than the situation comedy). I would even extend this argument to the mini-series, from "Roots" and "Shogun" to "War and Remembrance" and "Lonesome Dove," because the guiding principle of the extended narrative form remains the common denominator. "24" takes the idea of season-long story arc a unique extreme, but "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did all of its complete seasons have a first-half story arc (e.g., Spike & Dru in Season 2) that then merged with a second-half story arc (e.g., the return of Angelus) that provided a framework for all of the individual episodes. Then there was "Murder One," which rather successfully devoted an entire season to one sensational murder trial. When a series loses its driving story arc, as when Dave and Maddie consummated their love on "Moonlighting," or when what was supposed to be the hook becomes the line and sinker as well, as when the question of who killed Laura Palmer ultimately derailed "Twin Peaks," the demise of the show simply affirms the principle in the negative.

Thompson's starting point is January 1981 when prime-time television was about to make a sudden and dramatic turn towards quality because of "Hill Street Blues," the show that Steven Bocho did not want to make and that nobody wanted to watch, but which became "television's first true masterpiece." However, Thompson argues that it was "St. Elsewhere" that was "TV's greatest show, ever" (having to do with key notions of "intertextuality" and "self-reflexivity"). Ultimately he is not defining a particular time period (especially since the "golden age" in question is clearly not over), but explaining why in the "vast wasteland" that Newton Minnow bemoaned so many years ago "quality" television is flourishing in terms of hour-long dramatic programming. Within that context Thompson clearly makes his case for much of the best television ever made having appeared on the networks since 1980. The book is half critical evaluation of these programs and half insider's tour looking at the decision-making process as well as the social, economic, and artistic forces that ended up revolutionizing the medium. Thompson also more than adequately proves he knows his television history, which is necessary to help convince those of us who are true students of the medium. Consequently, the fact that the title of this book is not a fair representation of its most significant claim, is not to be held against the author, because he has made in public an argument I have been making in private (okay, in class as well), for several years.

the place to start.......2002-10-07

It's all too easy to assume that simply because we vegetate in front of the TV all day, that we have some kind of understanding of its history and how it works. This book summarises the importance of several landmark shows of the 1980s and 1990s, helping to show how a few select producers (chiefly refugees from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) were able to transform the quality of television, at least for a while. Note that the shows are discussed in their American context -- British viewers may be surprised to hear that anything was innovative about the "MASH without the laughter track", because MASH was always broadcast in the UK without a laughter track. But for placing the history of American TV in its natural home habitat, this remains an important and interesting introduction to quality television.

Required reading for students of television.......2002-02-20

This is a brief but entertaining and convincing argument for the artistic value of one of the most unfairly condemended media outlets -- television. Working from the hypothesis that the quirky dramas that dominated television from the '70s to the '90s (Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, thirtysomething, ect.) actually made up television's second golden age, author Robert J. Thompson actually makes a pretty good argument for taking TV seriously. Each chapter provides detailed (and refreshingly witty) analysis of all the TV shows that we previously took for granted and shows how the writers and producers of those shows were able to create great art in the guise of great entertainment. Of particular worth was Thompson's long and informative chapter on St. Elsewhere, over the course of which he manages to break down a few of that show's intricate inside jokes and show how the show's controversial final episode actually served as a powerful and still-relavent statement on the state of television and American culture today. This book is a must read for anyone who sees television as more than just a distraction.

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a faraway fella...
interesting, but not enlightening
Cagney by Cagney : I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Wonderful Book!!!!!
Absolutely wonderful!!!

Cagney by Cagney
James Cagney
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

a faraway fella... .......2007-01-10

James Cagney writes like he acts..you walk in the scene...you look the other actor in the eye and you tell him the truth....a rich portrait of e legend and the incredible down to earth qualities that made him into a star and legend..

interesting, but not enlightening.......2006-03-27

Cagney By Cagney seems to be narrated in such an honest and unpretentious voice that I was surprised to learn that it was ghostwritten but the ghostwriter did a decent job, in terms of tone at least.

The book is at its best when Cagney is talking of his impoverished childhood, the text really comes alive with his many anecdotes and memories. Once he gets to Hollywood though he seems to quickly tire of the movies he made and is disparaging of the scripts of nearly all of his films.

Cagney litters the book with selections of his poetry which, while not terrible, is not at home here and the reader gets annoyed each time another one turns up.

The revelation, if there is one, is Cagney's passionate ecological message which comes out in the later chapters and is quite thought provoking. His explanation as to how we turned from a socialist/liberal to a conservative is not.

Good fun, a tad bitter and jaded, but an interesting view of his life.

Cagney by Cagney : I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2003-09-10

I could not put this book down! I read it in a day! I recently rediscovered this book, and boy am I glad that I did. I love the passages about his early childhood they were so vibrant so full of life. His loving relationship with his mother and siblings. There were many funny stories like the one about the Eastside Kids and Bogart. There were also many touching stories. Especially the one about his mom's death. Reading this book also reminded me that not only was he a good tough guy, but he was a great song and dance man too!! Cagney by Cagney is reccommended to anyone who loves James Cagney. He was definitely one of a kind.

A Wonderful Book!!!!!.......1999-04-06

Iam a big James Cagney fan!!!! I got this book when it first came out and read it in about a week!!!!! I still have it in my collection of books on Mr. Cagney. He wonderfully goes through his childhood. His love of his family and how much he loved his mother. A very gentle man, who showed such a mean side on the screen, goes to show what a great actor he was!!!! To learn he painted and was a fine poet too was interesting. Reading of his career and how he looked at acting as just a job, nothing more. There is humor too, that Mr. Cagney always had and expresses very much so in his book!!!!! Iam glad I got it back in 1976, but for all Cagney fans, if your able to find this book, it is a must read. Very enjoyable!!!!!

Absolutely wonderful!!!.......1998-06-28

Fascinating insights into the man who captured Americas heart. I've had this book since it was published the first time...it's yellowed with age, but worth reading again...and again. THIS is the book he wanted to reveal himself in and I think this is the only book about his life that really counts.

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Cagney: A biography
Michael Freedland
Manufacturer: Stein and Day
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield
Robert Sklar
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ASIN: 0691047952

Book Description

Often presented as a gangster, newspaper reporter, or private eye, the "city boy" seemed the quintessential product of urban America, although he was more a model for his audience than a mirror of social actuality. While blending the stories of the professional and political lives of Cagney, Bogart, and Garfield into one fascinating narrative, Robert Sklar probes the cultural forces that produced this vivid cultural icon and examines its power over masculine self-definition. Often presented as a gangster, newspaper reporter, or private eye, the "city boy" seemed the quintessential product of urban America, although he was more a model for his audience than a mirror of social actuality. While blending the stories of the professional and political lives of Cagney, Bogart, and Garfield into one fascinating narrative, Robert Sklar probes the cultural forces that produced this vivid cultural icon and examines its power over masculine self-definition.

Defining Women: Television and the Case of Cagney and Lacey

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Natural flux
Defining Women
Defining Culture.
A Massive Starategy
Boring feminist-extremist work

Defining Women: Television and the Case of Cagney and Lacey
Julie D'Acci
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807844411

Book Description

Defining Women explores the social and cultural construction of gender and the meanings of woman, women, and femininity as they were negotiated in the pioneering television series Cagney and Lacey, starring two women as New York City police detectives. Julie D'Acci illuminates the tensions between the television industry, the series production team, the mainstream and feminist press, various interest groups, and television viewers over competing notions of what women could or could not be—not only on television but in society at large.

Cagney and Lacey, which aired from 1981 to 1988, was widely recognized as an innovative treatment of working women and developed a large and loyal following. While researching this book, D'Acci had unprecedented access to the set, to production meetings, and to the complete production files, including correspondence from network executives, publicity firms, and thousands of viewers. She traces the often heated debates surrounding the development of women characters and the representation of feminism on prime-time television, shows how the series was reconfigured as a 'woman's program,' and investigates questions of female spectatorship and feminist readings. Although she focuses on Cagney and Lacey, D'Acci discusses many other examples from the history of American television.

Customer Reviews:

Natural flux.......2000-03-04

Since I'm a forreigner, maybe my English is not understandable. Please be patient with the following English.

What is naturality? I can't still explain this concept well. While I'm thinking about the concept, the author of this book gave me lots of helps for my elaboration about the cconcept. This book would give you hints to elaborate your aide about production of meaning. Clearly we have to live alone. You may need a help, but when you can't get, you would find what the answer is.

Defining Women.......2000-03-01

A marvelous piece! You should read this book. Feminism in general is boring subject, but you can find many attractive ways of interpretation from this text. I think you won't regret in buying this book. Buy it and read it in detail.

Defining Culture........2000-03-01

Culture is not arbitarily defined, but it's understandable why she talks about issues in that way. I think this book is worth reading. You could learn a lot from her.

A Massive Starategy.......2000-02-25

To understand both TV and Film theories, this book is so useful. Actually the way of writting and explaining is somewhat academic, but the contents are so articulated. Just read it, and you would know what I mean.

Boring feminist-extremist work.......1999-11-22

This is one massively boring book. It reads like a doctoral thesis; for example, never use a short and simple term when a much longer, and much fancier one, can do.

The author says that the show was basically influenced by the women's liberal movement although over time it became less liberal in its approach and somewhat more traditional in how it viewed women. It also had a very troubled history, being cancelled, brought back, cancelled, brought back, cancelled, and then brought back as a series of made-for-tv movies.

The author examines womens' issues in relation to the series. I became somewhat concerned when she began detailing what constituted "women's issues" and what didn't. Let me take a couple of specific examples.

p.136: "For one thing, TV's criteria for choosing these (women's) issues, as we have seen, skewed toward subject matter that can be tapped for its sensationalism. Whereas other potential issues, such as low wages or discrimination based on race, class, age, appearance, disabilities, and gender are also crucial for women, they may lack exploitation potential and are perhaps more difficult to reduce to an individual level."

For one thing Cagney & Lacey was a show that needed to develop and keep and audience and thus needed to "entertain" people. Documentary-type programs can deal with issues such as these in great detail but they are individual programs and do not stretch years in length. Cagney & Lacey covered many of these issues (and discrimination was dealt with many times during the series, actually), but if this examination of such issues would have been constant, in-depth and totally realistic and accurate the series would have become boring over time and would died much sooner than it did.

On the same page (136) she defines some of what constitutes "designated women's issues" and includes rape, woman-battering, incest and sexual harrasment, but she then goes on to complain that designating such things as "women's issues" ends up serving to "contain them, consign them to the domain of 'belonging to women" and once again obscure their more general social, power-oriented and structural characteristics."

In other words she basically complains that issues are not being dealt with but is also complaining that if they are and they are designated as "women's issues" then that is also wrong. Basically, the people making the series could never, under this line of reasoning, satisfy her. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

What confused me many times is the author's approach like in the above, complaining about various things, and then following that section of the book with various details of how this-or-that organization or group of people praised the show's dealing with the issues or approaches that she took issue with. It seemed to me like the author was saying over and over that the show's doing a particular thing that did not fit in to the correct feminist mode was wrong despite the fact that many people were very happy that the show dealt with this-or-that particular topic.

The more I read of the book the more convinced I became that the author's position was that of a feminist extremist. She adds, for example, on page 153 that the show presented some material "that was troublesome and offensive from feminist points of view, among them: the sensational serial murders of women; racist, classist and sexist slurs; graphic portrayals of women as victims; stereotyped depictions of prostitutes; an overly didactic approach; and white women as enlightened teachers about racism."

Somebody explain to me, please, why presenting serial murders of women as being something that is bad should be offensive to anyone. Doing shows that examine how wrong racism or any other -ism is does not seem to me to be something that is bad or offensive. Also, why can't white women be "enlightened teachers about racism"? One female singer I happen to like quite a bit- Joan Baez- was an "enlightened" opponent of racism and a personal friend of Martin Luther King.

The next part of the book that bothered me was the amount of space devoted to a lesbian interpretation of the Cagney and Lacey relationship. Not that lesbianism bothers me; I'm support it fully. Same for homosexuality. But, where I have a problem with the author and others is that the word "bixexual" seems to be permanently removed from many people's vocabulary. Mary Beth was married and had sex with her husband Harvey. Christine had sex with different men. If they would have ever have had sex with each other then they would have been bisexual, not lesbian. Yet a bisexual interpretation of the "gazes" the author refers to between the two women never seems to occur to the author.

A few pages later the author talks about Christine's character. "Her problems with men and her perpetual jibes at macho masculinity coexisted with her continual heterosexual couplings and her oftentimes submissive, 'needing to be taken care of' behavior in scenes of physical intimacy." Basically it seems the author doesn't really care very much for women having sex with men ("couplings"?) and definitely seems to oppose women in any kind of submissive situation. Forget, of course, that it was entirely voluntary on Christine's part, that she was comfortable with having a diverse personality.

To me what could have been a good work on the history of women on television and how Cagney & Lacey fit into (and improved) that history instead turns out to be a boring, feminist-extremist work that seems to be self-contradictory

Cagney and Lacey (Lythway Large Print Books)
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Cagney and Lacey (Lythway Large Print Books)
Serita Deborah Stevens
Manufacturer: G K Hall & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Defining Women: Television and the Case of Cagney and Lacey

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ASIN: 0745105432

James Cagney (Pyramid illustrated history of the movies)
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James Cagney (Pyramid illustrated history of the movies)
Andrew Bergman
Manufacturer: Pyramid
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0515031275

Miles Apart: As I Remember My Irish Childhood...from There to Here--a Memoir
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Heartwarming story

Miles Apart: As I Remember My Irish Childhood...from There to Here--a Memoir
Agnes B. Cagney
Manufacturer: Vantage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0533154456

Customer Reviews:

Heartwarming story.......2006-11-20

This is a heartwarming story of being raised in a simpler time and place. As a first generation American, I liked that this was a positive look at life in Ireland and then success as an immigrant. I hated Angela's Ashes. It was so depressing and not representative of so many Irish families. Miles Apart is a story of a family that many families can relate to -- not rich in money but rich in love. A great read!

Cagney: The Actor As Auteur (Quality Paperbooks Series)

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Cagney: The Actor As Auteur (Quality Paperbooks Series)
Patrick McGilligan
Manufacturer: Da Capo Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306801205

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