Performing Arts category: 25753 books

When sound arrived in Hollywood in the late 1920s, Canadians were already holding some of the most important roles in the motion picture industry. Louis B. Mayer, from New Brunswick, was boss at MGM; Jack Warner, from Ontario, was head of Warner Bros. Studio; and Mack Sennett, from Quebec, was still...

" She was homely, overweight, and over the hill, but there was a time when Marie Dressler outdrew such cinema sex symbols as Garbo, Dietrich, and Harlow. To movie audiences suffering the hardships of the Great Depression, she was Everywoman, and in the early 1930s her charming mixture of pathos...

Revisit Hollywood’s Golden Age with insider Charles Foster, who befriended the many Canadian stars that peppered the film sets. Foster reveals the stories of the amazing influence Canadians had in the early days of the film biz. Includes: Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood A...

Best remembered for the iconic classics Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939) to the silver screen, Victor Fleming also counted successful films such as Red Dust (1932), Captains Courageous (1937), Test Pilot (1939), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), and the groundbreaking Joan of Arc...

The history of Hollywood is often seen only through the lens of the major studios, forgetting that many of Tinseltown�s early creations came from micro-studios stretched along Sunset Boulevard in an area disparagingly known as Poverty Row. Here, the first wave of West Coast moviemakers migrated to...

In this first major study of the captivating life of Audrey Hepburn, Ian Woodward uncovers the truly sensational story of one of Hollywood's most enduring legends. Ranked number 50 in Empire Magazine's 'Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time', her appeal as a screen icon is set to last for years to come. From...

Roman Holiday is the heady tale of Rome during the 1950s and 1960s, when the cafes and nightclubs were filled with movie stars and film directors as Hollywood productions flocked to the city to film at Cinecittá studios. Reinvigorating the city after the darkness of fascism and Nazi occupation during...

“I like the surprise of the curtain going up, revealing what’s behind it.” –John Schlesinger The British director John Schlesinger was one of the cinema’s most dynamic and influential artists. Now, in Conversations with John Schlesinger, acclaimed writer Ian Buruma, Schlesinger’s...

He's the man who made millions laugh with a twitch of his perfectly coiffured moustache and rebooted the Internet's funny bone as one of the masterminds behind the comedy trove, FunnyOrDie.If there is comedy to be mined, you can be sure Will Ferrell will find it. From playing the school joker as a...

No recent television creator has generated more critical, scholarly, and popular discussion or acquired as devoted a cult following as Joss Whedon (b. 1964). No fewer than thirty books concerned with his work have now been published (a forthcoming volume even offers a book-length bibliography), and...

Bruce Forsyth is known across four generations as the face of family entertainment classics such as The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right and The Price is Right. His is an amazing story that spans more than two thirds of the twentieth century. In the late 1950s, over half of Britain would...

The hilarious, heart-warming and tear-jerking memoir from one of Britain's best-loved comedians and actors, Matt Lucas. Hello there. Welcome to my autobiography. Throughout this book I talk about my life and work, including Little Britain, Come Fly With Me, Bridesmaids, Les Miserables, Alice In Wonderland...

Hedy Lamarr's life was punctuated by salacious rumors and public scandal, but it was her stunning looks and classic Hollywood glamour that continuously captivated audiences. Born Hedwig Kiesler, she escaped an unhappy marriage with arms dealer Fritz Mandl in Austria to try her luck in Hollywood, where...

Often typecast as a menacing figure, Peter Lorre achieved Hollywood fame first as a featured player and later as a character actor, trademarking his screen performances with a delicately strung balance between good and evil. His portrayal of the child murderer in Fritz Lang's masterpiece M (1931)...