Book Description
Bestselling author and Hollywood historian David Wallace unveils 25 enchanting buildings and homes from Hollywood's glorious Golden Age. Hollywood buffs and architecture enthusiasts alike will savor this in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the histories of these spectacular structures, as well as the titillating revelations about many of their famous occupants.
Each restored to its original grandeur, the buildings here-from private homes to theaters, hotels, restaurants, and hot spots of the day-are showcased in 200 sumptuous photographs, all specially commissioned for this book, as well as rare historic shots. The intimate portraits of these famed spaces-including the homes of Hollywood superstars such as Cary Grant, Gloria Swanson, Cecil B. DeMille, and Charlie Chaplin, plus locations like Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Max Factor building-demonstrate the innovation, ingenuity, and drive that gave birth to Hollywood.
Customer Reviews:
poor images and quality.......2007-01-31
The images and text in this book are of poor quality. If you are expecting a coffee table quality book of the same caliber as an Architectural Digest, look somewhere else.
FANTASTIC!.......2006-12-05
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from cover to cover. There are so many interesting stories and tid bits about the stars of Hollywood's golden age. From the suave Cary Grant to the powerful DeMille to the comic W.C. Fields. The homes are anywhere from spectacular to homey. This book also covers some famous theaters and restaurants. I highly recommend it!
Life can be unbearably sweet.......2006-08-21
Fantastic book that gives you access to the lifestyles of the truly privledged in Los Angeles. Jaw dropping pictures that other books can only dream of publishing. This is a must buy for anyone interested in Southern California architecture.
Voyeur.......2006-04-27
I loved this book. Something about the pictures... one feels like you're actually there... technically part of it is that the human eye sees inside and outside. Photographers get one of the other... but not both. In these pictures it feels like you are walking through a house... seeing it as a guest of the famous resident... and seeing it as you would if you were there in person. You can look at the room, the furniture, or out the window. There's an emotional quality that was stirred in me.
Likewise, the text is telling tidbits and gems that the famous owner might reveal to a friend... One learns things that you wouldn't dare ask. Its a great marriage between the past private and public lives of people that we all know. Though they are long in their graves, they come to life in this fascinating book.
I'd been in some of these homes. The Charles Laughton home in Palos Verdes, Portugese Bend, was a fascinating journey as a kid... walking over Peacock Flats, through the Vanderlip estate... looking for feathers, and hoping not to be caught. The fear that Quasimodo would emerge and chase us, I can still feel it. I think that going back there in the book, this was my favorite.
A Bricks and Mortar Tour of Hollywood Elegantly Presented.......2006-03-13
When Lucy and Ethel took the bus tour of the movie star homes on "I Love Lucy", you will undoubtedly recall Lucy finding herself bobbing for grapefruit at Richard Widmark's palatial estate. Now we can all see what is behind the other side of the barrier wall thanks to this elegant coffee table book compiled by fervent Hollywood historian David Wallace. With some beautiful photos and descriptive, trivia-laden text, he includes twenty-five buildings and homes that were designed and built during Hollywood's golden era.
Painstakingly restored to their original grandeur, they represent a variety of eclectic architectural styles from Art Deco to Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial. While the typical landmarks such as Graumann's Chinese Theater are here, the book is highlighted by the homes of screen legends like Carole Lombard, Gloria Swanson, Cecil B. DeMille, Chales Laughton, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, and Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard. The furnishings within the homes are not so much lavish as surprisingly idiosyncratic and insightful to the personalities inhabiting the settings. The photographs by Juergen Nogai are often stunning and give evidence of both the creativity and decadence pervasive at the time. This is definitely a fun one to peruse.
Book Description
In Hollywood Cartoons, Michael Barrier takes us on a glorious guided tour of American animation in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, to meet the legendary artists and entrepreneurs who created Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Wile E. Coyote, Donald Duck, Tom and Jerry, and many other cartoon favorites. Beginning with black-and-white silent cartoons such as Winsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur," Barrier offers an insightful account of animation's first flowering, taking us inside early New York studios and such Hollywood giants as Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. Barrier excels at illuminating the creative side of animation--revealing how stories are put together, how animators develop a character, how technical innovations enhance the "realism" of cartoons. Here too are colorful portraits of the giants of the field, from Walt and Roy Disney and their animators (including Ub Iwerks, Bill Tytla, and Ward Kimball), to Dave and Max Fleischer, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, and Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. And along the way, Barrier gives us an inside look at the making of such groundbreaking cartoons as "Out of the Inkwell" (with KoKo the Clown), "Steamboat Willie" (the first successful sound cartoon), "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and "Bambi." The years from the Depression through World War Two witnessed a golden age of American animation. Based on hundreds of interviews with veteran animators, Hollywood Cartoons gives us the definitive inside look at this colorful era and at the creative process behind these marvelous cartoons.
Customer Reviews:
Behind the Hi-Jinx.......2004-03-18
This was a very good book, with a few caveats.
The first chapter, on silent cartoons, is hard going. Not until Walt Disney shows up does that chapter start flowing.
BUT from that point on, until the chapter on UPA, I had a hard time putting "Hollywood Cartoons" down. Barrier doesn't take the usual perspective on cartoons. He doesn't care how they appeal to the casual viewer but how they look to the pro. I didn't agree with all his judgments, but I respect his judgments.
I have read several histories of cartoons, and Barrier still managed to surprise me or say something new. He had the best discussion of the origins of Bugs Bunny I've ever read. His description of the working of MGM's cartoon studio was fascinating, and his views on Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones showed real insight.
Barrier states his opinions strongly. He doesn't like Fleischer or UPA cartoons, and he doesn't think Friz Freleng is worth a lot of discussion. (I would disagree about Friz, but agree on the other stuff.)
In all, this was a fine book on this subject, and I am glad I read it.
Comprehensive look at a dying artform.......2003-10-19
Covering much of the same ground as Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic, Hollywood Cartoons is packed with interesting insights and comments from both the author and those that participated in the creation of an American art form. Michael Barrier's exhaustively researched book covers the Golden Age of Hollywood animation and the movers and shakers that had an impact on the art form.
At nearly 650 pages Barrier's book takes a fair balanced look at Disney, Warner Bros., Fleischer and other contributors to this dying art form. It's actually a perfect companion piece to the newely released boxed set of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes classics. Barrier avoids the Disney worship that marred other books of this type and, like Maltin's marvelous but less indepth book, he manages to point out the key contributions of the most important animation directors/producers of the era.
While it does overlook or give only a cursory overview of some important figures in the industry, Barrier's scholarly aproach manages to recognize the merits and flaws of each studio, their system and directors. Although not as well illustrated as Maltin's book, the pictures do provide a glimpse of many of the essential classics that impacted the art of animation. Since much of the documentation for the creation of some of the early Warner classics are long gone, Barrier has to rely on many of the same sources and pictures as other authors. The book could have been improved if he had gone more to private collectors for rare animation cels, production photos, model drawings and notes. I also would have liked many of these illustrations to be reproduced in color. Seeing them in dark black and white illustrations does little justice to the artistry of these pioneers.
Maltin's book was clearly the work of an informed fan; his approach focused on the creation of many of the important classics but didn't lose track of the fun in the finished product. Barrier's scholarly approach is a bit drier and doesn't quite communicate the excited of Maltin's less authoriative book on the same subject. It's still an important look at the pioneers of animation's Golden Age and, as such, should be read by those who love the shorts from the various eras examined here.
golden age...what golden age?.......2003-07-21
Michael Barrier's "Hollywood Cartoons" is impeccably researched and intellectually sophisticated; a milestone in its way, it also poses a few problems, one being the inescapable conclusion that the golden age of Hollywood scarcely existed at all. Mr. Barrier casts a baleful eye on some of animation's finest: Chuck Jones' "What's Opera, Doc?" is 'an empty triumph'; "Fantasia", hopelessly puerile and retrograde; "The Tell-Tale Heart", recently chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress, 'a total flop'. Even "Pinocchio" inspires more vitriol than praise (too much airbrush, poor planning and characterizations - Disney 'took the guts out of it', etc...) Can't these guys do anything right? Terrytoons are characterized by 'pervasive squalor', and he assures us UPA, once the shining avatar of cutting-edge animation, could be as dull, insipid and uninspired as any other studio. That's good to know. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Barrier feels a special affinity for Disney's Grumpy (Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs) though this he attributes to Bill Tytla's masterful character animation. Hubley's "Rooty Toot Toot" also receives the Barrier seal of approval. But, in general, there are few pearls to be found among the prevailing dross. There's no question Barrier takes his subject seriously...perhaps, too seriously. Lighten up...they're just cartoons!
Interesting, but often unfair to brilliant directors.......2001-03-13
Books on the history of animation, especially the early ones, tend to fall into the trap of Disney-worshipping, which Barrier thankfully avoids. However, in his zeal to prove he is not Disney's lap dog, he unfairly bashes some of the studio's features (including one I consider on a par with the best of them, "Lady and the Tramp.") He gives the same slash-and-burn treatment to the Warner Bros. studio--Clampett, in his view, was apparently nothing more than a second-rate hack, when Clampett in fact hit a period of sheer brilliance in the early to mid forties. "Book Revue", "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", "The Old Grey Hare" and "Baby Bottleneck" were all Clampett creations, and occupy many of the top slots in Jerry Beck's book "The Fifty Greatest Cartoons Ever." Barrier dismisses them all, as well as Clampett's abilities as a draftsman. I would say he is partial to Jones in his longtime feud with Clampett, but Jones falls victim as well. Still, it is worth reading if you like behind-the-scenes stories of the animation industry.
Barrier's Tome, Decades-Long in the Making--Finally.......2000-07-14
Beautiful, complete, if Disney-centric (but then again, that's the reality, isn't it?) epic of the much-maligned and still underappreciated Hollywood animated cartoon. Barrier leaves no stone unturned in this definitive scholarly thesis on his subject, as well he shouldn't: this thing has been in the works--on and off--for almost two decades. (Only one minor quibble: not enough stuff on the Jones-Clampett feud and other non-Disney political issues.) Animation scholars rejoice!
Average customer rating:
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The Lost Artwork of Hollywood: Classic Images from Cinema's Golden Age
Fred E. Basten
Manufacturer: Watson-Guptill Publications
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ASIN: 0823083454 |
Book Description
The first book to bring together these interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute’s renowned seminars—a series that has been in existence for almost forty years, since the founding of the Institute itself.
Here are the legendary directors, producers, cinematographers and writers—the great pioneers, the great artists—whose work led the way in the early days of moviemaking and still survives from what was the twentieth century’s art form. The book is edited—with commentaries—by George Stevens, Jr., founder of the American Film Institute and the AFI Center for Advanced Film Studies’ Harold Lloyd Master Seminar series.
Here talking about their work, their art—picture making in general—are directors from King Vidor, Howard Hawks and Fritz Lang (“I learned only from bad films”) to William Wyler, George Stevens and David Lean.
Here, too, is Hal Wallis, one of Hollywood’s great motion picture producers; legendary cinematographers Stanley Cortez, who shot, among other pictures, The Magnificent Ambersons, Since You Went Away and Shock Corridor and George Folsey, who was the cameraman on more than 150 pictures, from Animal Crackers and Marie Antoinette to Meet Me in St. Louis and Adam’s Rib; and the equally celebrated James Wong Howe.
Here is the screenwriter Ray Bradbury, who wrote the script for John Huston’s Moby Dick, Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man, and the admired Ernest Lehman, who wrote the screenplays for Sabrina, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and North by Northwest (“One day Hitchcock said, ‘I’ve always wanted to do a chase across the face of Mount Rushmore.’”).
And here, too, are Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini (“Making a movie is a mathematical operation. It’s absolutely impossible to improvise”).
These conversations gathered together—and published for the first time—are full of wisdom, movie history and ideas about picture making, about working with actors, about how to tell a story in words and movement.
A sample of what the moviemakers have to teach us:
Elia Kazan, on translating a play to the screen: “With A Streetcar Named Desire we worked hard to open it up and then went back to the play because we’d lost all the compression. In the play, these people were trapped in a room with each other. As the story progressed I took out little flats, and the set got smaller and smaller.”
Ingmar Bergman on writing: “For half a year I had a picture inside my head of three women walking around in a red room with white clothes. I couldn’t understand why these damned women were there. I tried to throw it away . . . find out what they said to each other because they whispered. It came out that they were watching another woman dying. Then the screenplay started—but it took about a year. The script always starts with a picture . . . ”
Jean Renoir on actors: “The truth is, if you discourage an actor you may never find him again. An actor is an animal, extremely fragile. You get a little expression, it is not exactly what you wanted, but it’s alive. It’s something human.”
And Hitchcock—on Hitchcock: “Give [the audience] pleasure, the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”
Customer Reviews:
Tales of the Golden Age.......2006-08-27
Would it have been so difficult to supply the names of the questioners? It wasn't like it wsa Joe Public asking the questions, but instead members of the Institute, presumably all of them directors in training. As another reviewer points out, Malick, Zwick, so many more were among the hot shots firing the questions--some of them a bit critical if you take the time to feel for the sense.
But anyhow the book is pretty amazing, when you consider all these guys had done their work back in the day and were still pretty cogent in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties. Stevens doesn't seem the least bit abashed to admit that all his top figures are male--only Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino directed movies for the top studios, among the directors of the opposite sex. An d yet Stevens glides right over them as soon as he's named them, without a word of explanation: was there a reason why the AFI failed to interview Arzner (who lived until 1979) or Lupino (who lived on and on until 1995)? I guess we'll never know. Or, if they were interviewing all these screenwriters, why they couldn't have asked some of the many prominent women screenwriters?
Speaking of screenwriting, sweet old Ray Bradbury is Mr, Caustic when it comes to John Huston's writing ability! It used to be that people said, well, he wasn't a great director, but he sure could write! (As they have said about Francis Coppola.) But Bradbury burns the chrome off Huston's bumpers. "Is Huston a good screenwriter?" asks one of the unidentified young turks. "No, he's not," RB fires back. "John doesn't know how to write. It's s shame." More power to him for firing off this fusillade while Huston was still alive and liable to snipe back! I know most of us would just as soon wait till one's powerful target has passed on.
Surveys of their works and art provide invaluable insights by some of the biggest industry legends.......2006-06-23
Plenty of books feature interviews with film directors and moviemakers: but what other offers interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute's seminars, which have been in existence since the founding of the renowned Institute itself? Here are directors, producers, writers and early pioneers of the art who are featured along with commentaries by great modern Institute members. Surveys of their works and art provide invaluable insights by some of the biggest industry legends, from Hal Wallis to Ray Bradbury and Ingmar Bergman. These conversations vary widely: some offer industry and professional insights, others feature reflections and movie history; still others focus on details on working with actors and translating text to film.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Treasure Trove of Remembrances from the Mid-Century Cinema's Behind-the-Camera Elite.......2006-04-04
As a founding director of the American Film Institute (AFI) and the son of one of the most legendary filmmakers, author George Stevens Jr. is well qualified to present this superb compilation of interviews that the AFI fellows conducted with thirty-two behind-the-camera luminaries from the classic mid-20th century era of cinema, both Hollywood-based and abroad. The fact that most of these interviews took place in the 1970's does not detract from the wealth of relevant insight provided here from not only leading directors and producers but also well-regarded screenwriters and cinematographers.
For the most part, the tone is more celebratory than critical, and given that almost all the subjects were in the twilight of their careers at the time of the interviews, there is a pervasive nostalgia about the comments. That's not to say there are no heaping spoonfuls of vitriol, as the most famously acerbic filmmakers - Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Howard Hawks among them - show unsurprising candor when discussing famously problematic people both onscreen and in the front office. For example, Wilder hurls a sharp zinger at his "Some Like It Hot" and "The Seven Year Itch" star, Marilyn Monroe, when comparing the litany of books about her to those of WWII and then pointing out that the subjects are just about the same. Similarly, Elia Kazan calls James Dean "a twisted boy", and Stanley Kramer admits to choosing an aging Judy Garland for two high-profile films during her most insecure period. Yet none of these filmmakers regret their casting decisions.
Most of the interviewees have little fondness for the Hollywood studio politics and interference that ran rampant during the production on many of their classic films. Probably as a counterpoint to what could have been, Stevens chooses to end the volume with four subjects completely outside the big studios and in fact, outside the country - Jean Renoir, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman and Satyajit Ray. Their comments show how the business aspects do not necessarily have to impede the creative process. At the same time, stalwarts such as George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy and Raoul Walsh unapologetically voice their support of the often reviled studio heads claiming that the family-like atmosphere allowed them the security to make their proudest work. Inevitably, Stevens includes his own father, who gives his famously terse responses to the questions volleyed to him.
Among the more intriguing comments are made by cinematographers James Wong Howe, George Folsey and Stanley Cortez and writers Ray Bradbury and Ernest Lehman, all of whom had to deal with the often singular, sometimes monumentally ego-driven visions of the master directors. It's interesting to note that the interview questions are not coming from adoring fans but aspiring craftsmen in the industry, some of whom eventually reached their goals later, such as Terrence Malick, David Lynch, Paul Schrader, and Ed Zwick. With this type of Q&A format, there are inevitably instances of selective memory as recollections made of the same film vary from different people involved with the production, for example, director Hitchcock and writer Lehman on "North by Northwest" or producer Kramer and director Fred Zinnemann on "High Noon". Regardless, this tome is an invaluable read for anyone interested in the production aspects during Hollywood's golden age.
An essential book on film.......2006-02-15
This is one of the best books on film; it is so by the nature of its intelligent concentration on the great directors of Hollywood. George Stevens, Jr. has collected the transcripts of a series at the AmericanFilm Insitute; the remarks, the illustrations, the discussions are as relevant today as they were then. This book is especially welcome at a time when unqualified writers are spewing out nonsense about film. Renoir, Felline, Bergman, these are among the directors whose work this excellent book illuminates.
Book Description
From the director of The Caine Mutiny, Murder My Sweet, Raintree County, Hitler's Children, Crossfire and many other classic films comes a powerful memoir of Edward Dmytryk's early days in Hollywood. From peeking in at the special effects for The Ten Commandments, the original silent film, to his first job as an editor, slowly, patiently splicing film...Dmytryk's brilliantly written and until now UNPUBLISHED look back on old Hollywood is a joy you won't be able to put down.
Customer Reviews:
Hollywood's Golden Age.......2005-08-14
Beginning in 1923, when the 14-year-old Famous Players-Lasky movie studio message boy Edward Dmytryk met Lillian Gish (`unquestionably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen') until the 1950s, when, according to Dmytryk, the unholy trinity of blacklists, judicial assaults on monopolistic practices, and the one-eyed devil Television conspired to radically change Hollywood, `Hollywood's Golden Age: As Told By One Who Lived It All' is an affectionate memoir of a life spent at or near the center of the film industry.
Easy-going and conversational, Dmytryk approaches his story with a decided lack of rigor. Hot gossip is totally absent and general impressions impose themselves in places where specific details normally dwell. For instance, comedian Jack Oakie is remembered as someone who `pinched a nickel until the Indian (later Thomas Jefferson) begged for mercy' and as the master of the triple-take, but that's about it. If, as Dmytryk indicates, Oakie more than once ate lunch on Dmytryk's dime (or nickel), he shares no personal tidbit or hints at what they may have talked about. In other words, the meat here is definitely not in the details. In fact, the best part of the book is the first half, wherein Dmytryk somewhat distantly recalls his progress from studio factotum to studio projectionist to assistant `cutter' (film editor - `the art is in the cutting'), to first editor. His later career as director seems a little bare in comparison, although many of Dmytryk's greater films - The Caine Mutiny, Murder My Sweet, Crossfire, Warlock - merit a book of their own. If the Oakies of this book flitter through this book with only a passing glance, other Hollywood characters are able to rise to anecdote level. Director Leo McCarey, actors Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and John Carradine, among others, are remembered fondly with wry stories.
`Hollywood's Golden Age' was published in 2003 (Dmytryk died in 1999) with a preface by his widow, Jean Porter Dmytryk. Incidentally, Dmytryk's wife is only briefly alluded to but never mentioned by name. Nor does Dmytryk mention his children. This makes me think - it's nothing more than a guess - that `Hollywood's Golden Age,' with its rough chronology and loose structure, was an early draft of a more ambitious project. As it stands it's less a dispassionate documentation of events and more an impressionistic montage. A montage told in flashback whose images, if not always sharply focused or perfectly centered, are nonetheless compassionately lit. Many of the cameo stars, like Oakie and Gish, are gone in a smile and the wink of an eye. Others, like Spencer Tracy, step forward for a line or two. Considering the author, I can't think of a more appropriate format.
A final word - Dmytryk was one of the `Hollywood Ten' who were among the first artists to be blacklisted by the industry. Dmytryk's involvement in events is more complicated than most of the other participants. `Hollywood's Golden Age' doesn't include any information on Dmytryk and the blacklist beyond some rather superficial observations on `the inquisition.' If, like me, you're interested in Dmytryk's side of the story, he directs our footnoted attention to his book `Odd Man Out,' currently out of print but apparently readily available on the used book market.
Book Description
The first book to bring together these interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute’s renowned seminars, Conversations with the Great Moviemakers offers an unmatched history of American cinema in the words of its greatest practitioners.
Here are the incomparable directors Frank Capra, Elia Kazan, King Vidor, David Lean, Fritz Lang (“I learned only from bad films”), William Wyler, and George Stevens; renowned producers and cinematographers; celebrated screenwriters Ray Bradbury and Ernest Lehman; as well as the immortal Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini (“Making a movie is a mathematical operation. It’s absolutely impossible to improvise”). Taken together, these conversations offer uniquely intimate access to the thinking, the wisdom, and the genius of cinema’s most talented pioneers.
Amazon.com
Until Backstory burst on the scene in 1986, not much had been written about the early days of Hollywood screenwriting. But as Patrick McGilligan states in his fine introduction, those days were quite different from the ones that followed. The whole craft of the screenplay didn't develop until the end of the silent era, and after it had developed, writers tended to be isolated from one another. Screenwriting was seen as hack work, something a legitimate playwright, novelist, or even a journalist did to raise money. Backstory 1 features interviews with 15 of the finest Hollywood scenarists from the 1920s and '30s, including Charles Burnett, James M. Cain, Lenore Coffee, Philip Dunne, Julius J. Epstein, Albert Hackett, Norman Krasna, Richard Maibaum, Casey Robinson, and Donald Ogden Stewart. These writers may not be familiar, but their movies surely are. This anthology of interviews is invaluable for its insights into a budding craft and into artists whose work has been obscured by critics and audiences who preferred to propel actors, directors, and producers into stardom.
Book Description
The illustrious line-up in this volume includes Hitchcock collaborator Charles Bennett, the sophisticated husband-and-wife team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, the Astaire-Rogers writer Allan Scott, and many more.
Customer Reviews:
A must-have resource.......2005-01-21
I own a library of approximately 1,000 titles relating to film-as well as having worked for several years in a film-specific bookshop. That said-this particular volume, a collection of interviews with some of the most important names in the history of screenwriting, is one I'd rank among the top ten must-have titles for anyone seriously interested in movies. It's that good.
First off, in my opinion there's no better source for history than first-person statements of professionals, and that's what these interviews are all about. It's great when a talented author produces an interesting biography or history of the Hollywood studios' "golden age"-but how much better to read the raw, (virtually, presumably) uncensored memories! From this book, with its several dozen subjects, you'll get a taste of just about everything to do with filmmaking: the dealings with the front office, studio politics, actors, directors, censorship, the blacklist(BOTH sides of that terrible period-from SEVERAL perspectives-fascinating and unusual), life in general during the depression and oh, yes--the peculiar job of screenwriting.
I can't think how often I've pulled this one down off the shelf to refresh my memory, and also-it's tremendously entertaining reading--some of it is laugh-out-loud hilarious. These were talented men and women, folks-witty, often brilliant, with a unique perspective on the art of film. Patrick McGilligan does a masterful job of editing; reading his cogent and sensitive introductions to each interview is a great added bonus. My hat's off to him as to all too few other writers on this subject(Kevin Brownlow among them). Really, if you're the least bit interested in the history of Hollywood OR in screenwriting, you've got to have this.
Book Description
Thirteen of Hollywood's horror classics in detail: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), The Old Dark House(1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Mark of the Vampire (1935), Mad Love (1935), The Black Room (1935), The Walking Dead (1936), Cat People (1942), Bluebeard (1944), The Lodger (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Hangover Square (1945) and Bedlam (1946). From original interviews and research, the styles of the various studios (from giant M-G-M to Poverty Row's PRC), along with the performers, directors, and backstage events, are examined.
Customer Reviews:
Full of details.......2004-11-06
Like the other books by this author, this one is full of little-known details and facts. Written in a style that's easy to read, it will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in classic horror movies and serious students of film.
The author has a real talent for digging up information, and this book was a joy for an old horror movie buff like myself. And it has pictures of the stars and directors of these movies, some of which I've not seen before.
Highly recommended
Book Description
Martha Sigall worked with all the classic cartoon characters---Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom & Jerry, Droopy, Beany & Cecil, Tweety, Porky Pig, et al.---and the madcap artists who created them, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng, William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, Bill Melendez, and Ben (Bugs) Hardaway.
As a teenager Sigall became an apprentice painter working in the golden age of Hollywood at the Leon Schlesinger studio, making $12.75 per week coloring animation cels that would introduce Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd to the world. She recounts her wild and wonderful experiences with the Warner Bros. cartoon crew, working and laughing all day with the animators, partying all night with the Looney Tunes gang on the bowling and baseball teams, and participating in weekend scavenger hunts. She was made president of the in-house "Looney Tunes Club," co-wrote the company gossip column, and performed in the company's theatrical troupe.
After World War II, Martha joined MGM Animation (Tom & Jerry, Tex Avery) in Culver City as an assistant in the camera room and later freelanced her ink and paint services, creating art for many classic features, shorts, commercials, and TV series---including Garfield, Peanuts, and The Pink Panther.
Written with warmth, humor, and a touch of nostalgia, this is a rarely told story, from one of the day-to-day workers, of what it was like to be a part of a team of artists who were creating masterpieces of animation. Martha recalls her lifelong personal relationships with writer Michael Maltese, animators Ben Washam, Ken Harris, Herman Cohen, Paul Smith, Bob Matz, and many others. She writes of her experiences of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, particularly during the war years when she was one of the first women camera operators in the industry.
Customer Reviews:
A must have for anyone interested in animation history........2007-10-02
If you've read any other animation history books, you've gotten a basic idea of how things were during "Golden Age" of the 30's and 40's. But not only is Living Life Inside The Lines one of the few books written someone who actually worked in animation during that period, it's the only book I've seen written by an ink & paint artist, which gives it a point of view of the animation world that other books never mention.
Sigall also tells stories of people like Irv Spence and Phil Monroe who were a big part of animation history, but have never gotten much mention in books. And having worked at numerous studios and ink & paint houses, she has very broad perspective on how the animation industry has changed from the 30's thorough to the 80's. Plus her pleasant demeanor makes for a nice, easy-going read.
If you're interested in animation, this book is a perfect supplement to your library.
Living Life Inside the Lines--A wonderful treat!.......2006-11-10
I know the son of the writer and was eager to read her book. I have done computer animation and presently am in involved in video production. I found this personal history of the early days of animation to be fun, informative, and came away feeling I had a better knowledge of the people involved in this wonderful form of visual art!
If you love animation, history of early animation days...this book is a wonderful read!
A Joyful, Priceless Personal Memoir.......2006-06-23
When Chuck Jones received his special Academy Award in the mid-1990s, he wondered aloud from the stage where all the "laughing faces of Termite Terrace" had gone. They're right here in Martha Goldman Sigall's wonderful book. Martha was a central participant in the Golden Age of the animated short: she inked and painted on timeless, classic films directed by Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, Bob McKimson, Frank Tashlin, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, and others, and almost certainly contributed to more animated films than all of them combined, probably without receiving a single screen credit in that era. But she sketches the men and women who sketched Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry masterfully in this extremely well-written book, which, like Martha herself, is very warm, funny, and people-oriented. Her personal portraits of artists like Treg Brown, Virgil Ross, Ben Washam, and many others are a crucial contribution to animation history as well as a fun and funny reading experience.
This is the best book on the Schlesinger studio (birthplace of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and many others), and provides perhaps a thousand important details about that historic cartoon studio and MGM's that aren't found elsewhere. Martha sketches the 1941 strike, the Red Scare, wartime Hollywood, and other events from the animation community's perspective, and also sheds light on the historic industry locations such as 861 Seward, where six different studios sought shelter through the years; the neat and clean (but long gone) MGM building in Culver City, and the shabby Van Ness home of Leon Schlesinger and his "kids".
In what may be the last major eyewitness account of the classic era of animation, Martha raises the spirit of those long-gone laughing faces, and humanizes the creation of the great cartoons and timeless characters that will last forever. The joy she obviously felt in her career infuses the book and the reader.
Martha and her husband Sol, who, happily, is also heard from here, have always been like beloved grandparents to animators in Southern California (one of which this author was for a few years), but in 1996 they kindly donated themselves to the Warner Brothers Museum and are now officially public treasures. If you're not in the area, you can claim your share of them right here in this wonderful book. They should designate a rating higher than five stars for it.
Delightful History.......2005-04-23
I love reading stories from animations golden age and this book is especially charming.
Most people don't know it, but the ink and paint departments in all the major and minor studios were the real unsung heroes of the cartoon business-many ladies being accomplished artists in their own right and having the ability to take well drawn line drawings and just adding the right touch to each cel that the scenes would really shine. Water effects being one of the areas of animation that without great inkers and painters could tend to look "hokey".
I give this book 5 stars, but I wish it had more pictures!!
Want to know the way it really was? It's right here........2005-04-05
Martha Sigall was there when Bugs Bunny was created. She was there when the reigning geniuses of Looney Tunes Cartoons -- Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Frank Tashlin and Bob Clampett -- and such legendary artists and story men as Bob McKimson, Virgil Ross, Michael Maltese and Ben Haradway, were redefining the seven minute cartoon. And that's only the beginning of her story. "Living Life Inside the Lines" is an absolute must for anyone interested in the animated cartoon, from fan to student to historian. Martha Sigall's book is perhaps the ultimate source for what the Golden Age of Cartoons was really like, and is a mandatory read for anyone interested in animation.
Average customer rating:
- The Wonder Within You
- A true Literary Jewel-highly recommended
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The Wonder Within You
David Morgan Jones (editor, introduction)
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Religious
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| New Age
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1412050138
Release Date: 2006-07-06 |
Customer Reviews:
The Wonder Within You.......2007-07-17
David Manners was a successful movie star in the 1930's. He starred in films such as Journey's End, The Last Flight, Dracula, The Mummy, and The Black Cat. He was also a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. At the peak of his success, however, Manners suddenly left Hollywood and acting forever.
After Manners left acting, his focus turned inward. He began searching for personal healing from his childhood issues, from his sexuality, and from his Hollywood experiences. Though he probably didn't recognize this fact until much later in life, Manners was also looking for self-acceptance.
The Wonder Within You: From the Metaphysical Journals of David Manners is a collection of Manners' numerous newsletter works and regular journal entries that he wrote over the years. These pieces range from short comments on life to longer pieces that detail methodology. For those that haven't read Manners' books on Spirituality and Metaphysics, this book is a good primer as it is a good summary of Manners' most perceptive and intriguing pieces.
A true Literary Jewel-highly recommended.......2005-07-30
Genre: Inspirational/ Literary
Title: The Wonder Within You
Author: David Manners, edited by David Morgan Jones
Many of us are not familiar with David Manners, actor and lifelong student of spirituality whose Hollywood debut celebrates its 75th anniversary. He appeared in the films: Dracula, The Mummy, The Black Cat and The Miracle Woman plus over thirty others from 1930 to 1936. He gave up his acting career to pursue his search for spiritual Truth.
The Wonder Within You is a collection of excerpts from David Manner's personal journals and newsletters, as he continued his quest for Truth over a span of more than fifty years. The book is written in three parts with part one written by David Morgan Jones as a biographical introduction, part two contains one or two page articles from the newsletters and part three consists of excerpts from the actual journals. Thought provoking, intense proclamations of a truly enlightened human being make this a wonder filled read for seekers of Truth. The book is pleasantly presented and well laid out. The writing is professional and above reproach. The cover is an enchanting watercolor by Jan Kiker.
David Morgan Jones is a writer, editor and manager of corporate training by day and a researcher and biographer by night. Honored by the opportunity to introduce and edit the metaphysical journals of David Manners, he shows his own diverse writing skills and literary talent in the production of this long awaited book.
A true literary jewel, pick up a copy and discover the wisdom of life, love and God- this book is highly recommended.
Reviewer: Shirley Roe, Allbooks Reviews.
Books:
- The Gatekeeper Trilogy, Book Two: Ghost Roads (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Gatekeeper Trilogy)
- The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style
- The Major Film Theories: An Introduction (Galaxy Book ; Gb450)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Merchant of Marvels and the Peddler of Dreams
- The Phantom of the Opera - piano vocal Selections
- The Power of Face Reading (2nd Edition)
- The Prince Kidnaps a Bride (Lost Princesses, Book 3)
- The Pythons
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