This detailed study of the career of Anthony Mann argues Mann's prominence and influence alongside contemporaries like John Ford. Mann (1906-1967), who was active in Hollywood and Europe, directed or produced more than 40 films, including ""The Fall of the Roman Empire"" and ""God's Little Acre"". He was best known for his film noir and westerns and his work starring Jimmy Stewart, but Mann later moved into Cold War and epic films. The book features a filmography and 50 movie stills and photographs.

While its obvious purpose is to make people laugh, film and television comedy is much more than that. From the birth of motion pictures until today, comedies have reflected and reinforced the evolving cultural milieu which defined American society. This book analyzes the evolution of film and television comedy from the advent of talking motion pictures in the 1930s through the present, defining five separate and distinct periods of this evolution and revealing how each period has been characterized by a dominant trend in film and television comedy. Chapter One examines the period spanning 1934 to 1942, an era defined by screwball comedies that deflected public attention from the grim realities of the Great Depression. Chapter Two deals with the period form 1940 to 1951 and the emergence of suspense comedy, which, like the concurrent film noir, reflected a yet darker social outlook in light of America's involvement in World War II. Chapter Three examines the battle-of-the-sexes comedy, extremely popular throughout the 1950s, looking at ""I Love Lucy"", ""The Honeymooners"", and other husband-and-wife sitcoms that seemingly reinforced post-war sexism. Chapter Four details the shift from the outlandish physical and exaggerated comedy of the 1950s to more realistic characters and plotlines, especially ""The Dick Van Dyke Show"" and its semi-autobiographical reflection of creator Carl Reiner's early years in show business. Chapter Five explores the resurrection of suspense comedy since the 1970s and 1980s, particularly the era's wildly popular 'dumb cop' or 'dumb spy' movie series like ""The Pink Panther"" and ""The Naked Gun"", along with 21st century remakes such as 2006's ""The Pink Panther"" and 2008's ""Get Smart"".

This volume introduces ways to use film to ease the difficulty of introducing complex literary theories to students. By coupling works of literature with attendant films the author provides instructors with accessible avenues for encouraging classroom discussion. Literary theories covered include psychoanalytic criticism (""The Awakening"" and film adaptations ""The End of August"" and ""Grand Isle""), cultural criticism (""A Streetcar Named Desire"" and the film adaptation of the same name), and thematic criticism (""Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"" and the film adaptation ""Splendor in the Grass""). The work then offers a survey of the image patterns into which film adaptation theories can be grouped and how these theories relate to literary theory.

Lengthy biographies are provided for 28 of the most prominent trendsetting morning men, including Gene Rayburn, Buffalo Bob Smith, Wolfman Jack, Don Imus, and Howard Stern. The focus is on their careers and their contributions to radio. These are followed by brief concise biographies of more than 200 lesser known morning personalities.

No American television show of the past decade has been vilified as has ""Comedy Central's South Park"". This is the show that has featured, in turn, a nine-year-old boy enmeshed in an affair with Ben Affleck, a maniacal Mel Gibson smearing feces everywhere, and the misadventures of Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, a talking, bouncing, singing piece of poop. While it's not always an exercise in good taste, ""South Park"" is a socially significant satire that has also devoted entire episodes to interpretations of ""Great Expectations"", Ken Burns' ""Civil War"", and ""Hamlet"". This volume explores the popularity and cultural relevance of ""South Park"" and its place as an artistically and politically worthy satire. Among the topics explored are the show's parody of the processes of manufacturing political consent; its treatments of Shakespeare's plays; the interrogation of anti-tobacco legislation; and the show's creators' seemingly irreverent and dismissive treatment of environmentalism.

The topos of memory has played a significant role in anime over the course of its evolution as an art form and as a popular form of entertainment. Anime's handling of memory is multifaceted, bringing it into collusion with diverse symbolic motifs, narrative themes, and aesthetic issues. This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of a range of anime titles wherein different aspects of this cultural phenomenon are articulated. It explores anime films and series which exemplify the distinctive signatures placed by particular directors or studios on the treatment of memory, while also highlighting the prominence of memory in anime with reference to specific philosophical, artistic, and historical contexts.

The silent-film era was known in part for its cliffhanger serials and air of suspense that kept audiences returning to theaters week after week. Icons such as Douglas Fairbanks, Laurel and Hardy, Lon Chaney and Harry Houdini were among those who graced the dark and shadowy screen. This encyclopedic guide to silent films with mystery and detective content lists over 1,500 titles in one of entertainment's most popular and enduring genres. While most of the examined films are from North America, mystery films from around the world are included.

This collection of 20 essays pays homage to a filmmaker who had a reputation for delivering the most movie for the least amount of money. Edgar G. Ulmer delivered classics like ""The Black Cat"", starring Bela Lugosi, and was nicknamed 'The King of the Bs' and 'The King of Poverty Row'. Ulmer's stealing away the wife of a producer led to his exile from Hollywood, and working outside the studio system and with low budgets, he turned out film noir, science fiction, and ethnic films that achieved cult status and limited critical acceptance. Among the contributors are Ulmer historians Bill Krohn, Greg Mank, and Sharon Pucker Rivo. Illustrations and a filmography are included in this title.

This work examines a selection of film series representative of three periods in American film history - silent cinema, Classic Hollywood cinema, and the post - Classic or New Hollywood cinema - as well as the place of the film series in other national cinemas, including those of France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and India. It offers an expanded definition of the industry practice of producing film series and examines the series themselves from a variety of cultural and critical perspectives, broadening the dialogue on the film series within the discipline of popular film studies.In the initial chapter the editor analyzes the series form, providing a point of departure for the discussions to follow. Part One examines early cinema, outlining the events and situations after 1907 that allowed early filmmakers to begin creating series based on and reproduced from the complex narratives of popular fiction. Part Two explores the cultural implications of Classic Hollywood cinema series, including Tarzan, Nancy Drew, and Maisie. Chapters in Part Three analyze James Bond and Star Wars, two of the most widely recognized series in post-Classic or New Hollywood cinema. Part Four examines mid-century European film series, including Germany's Fridericus and France's Angelique and Caroline. The final part presents studies of other international film series, including the postwar Japanese series Godzilla and Torasan, the popular ""Better Tomorrow"" series from Hong Kong, and several Hindi series from postcolonial India.

Hollywood films have presented audiences with stories of campus life for nearly a century, shaping popular perceptions of our colleges and universities and the students who attend them. In the process, these cinematic depictions of campus life have even altered the attitudes and behavior of college students themselves, serving as both a mirror of and a model for collegiate attitudes and behavior. One can only imagine how many high school seniors enter college today with the hopes of living the proverbial Animal House or PCU Greek experience, or how many have worried over the SAT and college admissions after watching more recent movies like 2004's ""The Perfect Score"".This book explores themes of college life in 680 live-action, theatrically released, feature-length films set in the United States and released between 1915 and 2006, evaluating how these movies both reflected and distorted the reality of undergraduate life. The topics include college admissions, the freshman experience, academic work, professor-student relations, student romance, fraternity and sorority life, sports, political activism, and other extracurricular activities. The book also includes a complete filmography and 65 illustrations.

The early history of American settlement, pioneering, and independence is marked by fascinating characters and events who are often shrouded in legend. Through the eye of the movie camera, filmmakers have sought to capture these characters and to penetrate the mists of time. Films and television programs have been based on figures as diverse as Daniel Boone, Francis Marion, and Pocohantas, and events as disparate as the disappearance of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the Boston Tea Party, and the French and Indian War. This comprehensive filmography provides production information and commentary on all films and television episodes set during the years between the first settlements in the future United States and the fledgling country's War of 1812 with Britain. Films are arranged alphabetically, and a detailed introduction provides a thorough overview of the period, with references to films chronicling specific events. Photographs accompany many of the entries. Helpful for those interested in either film or in this particular period in history, the text is thoroughly indexed.

Talk radio can be one of the most effective ways of promoting a new book, business, product, or personal story. It's fast, it's easy, and, for the most part, it's free. But for all of talk radio's benefits, there is one significant challenge facing prospective talk radio guests: trying to get on the show. While smaller, terrestrial radio stations are more likely to accept and respond to guests' requests, these stations are also far more likely to have websites that are poorly designed or infrequently maintained. More often than not, these sites contain little information regarding guest criteria or procedures, and many don't even specify whether or not the show welcomes guests at all.This book seeks to bridge the gap between show hosts and prospective guests, providing a reference guide to roughly 700 talk radio shows from the U.S. and around the world. Based on interviews and submissions from the radio hosts themselves, it provides readers with all of the information they will need before contacting a talk radio program, including show titles, descriptions, themes, guest criteria, hosts' biographies, host-preferred contact information, and helpful tips on how to best pitch your ideas to the shows' hosts or producers. Entries are organized under categories of show themes, including Religion, Travel, Addiction and Recovery, Sports, Entertainment, and many more. The book also includes information on many of ""Talkers Magazine's"" Top 250 Radio Talk Shows, interview tips for radio guests, and tips for conducting a radio interview over the phone.

The sound of chainsaws revving on 'haunted' Halloween trails has evoked untold screams since Tobe Hooper's 1974 ""The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"" hit the cinemas. Since that first take-no-prisoners horror movie, Hooper's reputation as a master of horror has been secured by his adaptations of Stephen King (""Salem's Lot"", 1978, and ""The Mangler"", 1995), his blockbuster breakthrough ""Poltergeist"" (1982) and a variety of cult hits, from the underrated ""Lifeforce"" (1985) to the remake of ""Invaders from Mars"" (1986). This reference work is divided into five parts. Part I provides a history and overview of Tobe Hooper's career. Part II offers entries (with synopses, complete credits, critical reception and commentaries) on every feature film by year of release. Part III provides chronological information on Hooper's television movies and miniseries. Part IV offers entries on his episodes from horror television series. Part V is a critical essay and conclusion which places Hooper in horror film history and compares his work to all-time greats such as Romero, Craven and Carpenter.

Text & Presentation is an annual publication devoted to all aspects of theatre scholarship. It represents a selection of the best research presented at the international, interdisciplinary Comparative Drama Conference.

This anthology includes papers from the 32nd annual conference held in Los Angeles, California. Topics covered include masculinity in the plays of Tennessee Williams and Frederico Garcia Lorca; Moliere's revolutionary dramaturgy; motherhood in Medea; Electronovision and Richard Burton's Hamlet; and Jose Carrasquillo's all-nude production of Macbeth, among many others.

This is the first book to explore the notion of sacred places from the perspective of performance studies and presents both practice-as-research accounts alongside theoretical analysis. It is multidisciplinary, bringing together religious studies, philosophy and anthropological approaches under the umbrella of performance studies. By focusing on practice and performance rather than theology it also expands the notion of sacred places to non-religious contexts. This new collection offers a multi-layered and contemporary approach to the question of sacred sites, their practices, politics and ecologies. The overarching critical framework of inquiry is performance studies, a multidisciplinary methodological perspective that stresses the importance of investigating the practices and actions through which things are conducted and processes activated. This is an innovative perspective that recognizes the value, function and role that practices and their materialities have in the constitution of special places, their developments in culture, and the politics in place for the conservation of their sense of specialness. The questions investigated are: what is a sacred place? Is a place inherently sacred or does it become sacred? Is it a paradigm, a real location, an imaginary place, a projected condition, a charged setting, an enhanced perception? What kind of practices and processes allow the emergence of a sacred place in human perception? And what is its function in contemporary societies? The book is divided into three sections that evidence the three approaches that are generally engaged with and through which sacred places are defined, actualized and activated: Crossing, Breathing and Resisting. There is a strong field of international contributors including practitioners and academics working in the United Kingdom, the United States, Poland and Australia. Primary interest will be students, academics and practitioners studying or working in theatre and performance studies; fine art; architecture; cultural and visual studies; geography; religious studies; and psychology. Potential for classroom use, and very strong potential for inclusion on reading lists as a secondary text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in fine art, live art, performance art, performance and theatre studies.

It is often said that the greater Los Angeles area is the largest movie set in the world, and if a person lives there long enough their home or street will probably be featured in a film or television show. The tourism industry in Tinseltown is huge business, with thousands of devoted fans each day flocking to see just where their favorite star's blockbuster was filmed.

This work documents locations used in over 335 motion pictures and 86 television series filmed in Los Angeles and San Diego. The locations were identified and verified after an extensive review of films, video tapes, site photographs, and personal interviews with film industry personnel. Included are synopses of the motion pictures and television series cited; an exhaustive index provides instant access to names, places, monuments, landmarks, film studios, film titles and television titles.

On March 12, 1993, Lillian Gish's memorial service was attended by a host of celebrities whose lives had been touched by her long and remarkable career. From her first film, ""An Unseen Enemy"" (1912), to her last, ""The Whales of August"" (1987), Lillian Gish personified film.With a theatrical career spanning nearly 100 years, Gish saw motion pictures evolve from flickers to blockbusters. Almost always playing someone who needed to be rescued or protected, her trademark delicacy and vulnerability were, however, only part of her persona. She was a strong and complex woman whose painful childhood taught her frugality, love for her mother and her sister, Dorothy, and a distrust of men. In this, her most complete biography, the author, who was her friend, chronicles the hardships, heartaches, and fierce determination that shaped her from her days as a fatherless child to those as head of her family, and on to a time when she became nearly a legend. Featuring rare photographs and intimate recollections of Lillian, Dorothy, and other important figures, the biography is helpful in understanding film history as well as one of its most beautiful and important figures.

Barcelona-born, New York-based artist Francesc Torres (born 1948), a pioneer of installation art, is one of the most important European artists of his generation. In What Does History Know of Nail-Biting, which borrows its subtitle from Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, the artist explores a body of work made by Harry Randall, a photographer and filmmaker who was one of 3,500 Americans who joined the International Brigades to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Many of the so-called Abraham Lincoln Brigade did not make it home, but Randall did. Forty-five minutes of 16mm film, shot by Randall between 1937 and 1938, becomes the material for Torres' new limited-edition artist's book, which explores what history looks like outside of concrete historical events, trying to capture the fragmentation and confusion that silently seeps through the official narratives of history.

Rowan and Martin's ""Laugh-In"" was one of the quirkiest and most unusual programs on television, defying definition as simply comedy, variety, or burlesque. The show had audiences laughing for six seasons and continues to make appearances in revivals, reunions, and salutes. Even with corny and now dated humor, the show's signature lines and gags are ingrained in popular American culture.This critical history of ""Laugh-In"" is arranged chronologically and includes background details on the show's creators and the events leading up-to ""Laugh-In's"" creation. In addition to an analysis of the original six seasons, the text includes information on lookalike shows that emerged after ""Laugh-In's"" success, and on the various resurgences of the show that continued up into the nineties. An appendix contains a complete program history with principal production credits and episode guides.

Though they were close friends, Rudyard Kipling and Sir Henry Rider Haggard wrote about adventure and the exotic in very different ways. Examined together, their works illuminate each other. The writings of both authors have been adapted to the screen, stage, television, and radio numerous times (with varying degrees of fidelity) and this is a complete guide to those adaptations. In the main section of the book each original literary work is summarized, followed by a complete filmography and analysis for each film based on that story or poem. Separate sections provide information on adaptations created for radio, stage, and television. Photographs are included from films ranging from ""The Jungle Book"" (Kipling) to King Solomon's ""Mines"" (Haggard).

This book focuses on the mother-daughter relationship as it features in a number of films from the 1990s onwards. Bringing the insights of psychoanalysis and feminism to bear on a diverse and compelling range of representations of the mother-daughter dynamic, the author addresses a range of questions relating to the social, historical and cultural conditions which go to inform the female experience. These include, in relation to Dolores Claiborne, Heavenly Creatures and The Others, an exploration of different forms of familial violence and resistance to it and in One True Thing, Stepmom and Pieces of April, questions about the construction of the ideal mother and her loss. From The Piano’s engagement with French feminism and Losing Chase’s reworking of the life and work of Virginia Woolf to the depiction of cross-racial relationships during apartheid in Friends, the films that go to make up this study all share a central concern with both the literal and symbolic forms that the mother-daughter relationship encompasses.

The theatre had a difficult time establishing itself in Massachusetts. Colonial authorities in Boston were adamantly opposed to theatrical amusements of any kind. In the mid-eighteenth century, even theatricals performed in the homes of private citizens aroused the indignant ire of puritanically minded authorities. In 1750 the General Court of Massachusetts passed an act prohibiting stage plays or any other theatrical entertainment. In 1762, the New Hampshire House of Representatives refused a theatre troupe admission to the town of Portsmouth on the ground that plays had a 'peculiar influence on the minds of young people and greatly endangered their morals by giving them a taste for intriguing amusement and pleasure.'The first public dramatic performance in Boston was produced at a coffeehouse on State Street by two English actors and some local volunteers. In 1775 General John Burgoyne, himself an actor and playwright, converted Boston's Faneuil Hall into a theatre, where he presented, among other pieces, ""The Blockade of Boston"". After the Revolutionary War, in February 1794, the dramatic history of Boston may be said to have begun with the opening of the Boston Theatre.The history of Boston theatres from the eighteenth century through the present is covered in this well illustrated work. Although the theatre had a somewhat rocky beginning, by 1841 more than 15 theatre houses - including the Boston Theatre, Concert Hall, Merchants Hall, Boylston Hall, the Washington Gardens Amphitheatre, the Tremont Theatre, the Washington Theatre, the American Amphitheatre, the Federal Street Theatre, Mr. Saubert's Theatre, the Lion Theatre, the National Theatre (which boasted gas lighting), and the Howard Athenaeum - were all established.After these first theatres paved the way and puritanical restraint had been overcome, the public's enthusiasm for varied entertainment prevailed and theatres proliferated in the city. This book details the long and storied history of Boston theatre construction, alteration, restoration, and, in many cases, destruction. Information is also provided about building architecture, types of performances, ticket prices and other interesting data about each theatre's history.

Paul Bern was second only to Irving Thalberg at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1930s. Known throughout the movies as 'Hollywood's Father Confessor', Bern had earned a reputation for being a loyal and supportive friend and for becoming one of MGM's most respected and creative directors. In short, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who would say anything negative about Paul Bern. Until he died. Then he would be accused of becoming so depressed and despondent over his own impotence that he had no choice but to commit suicide, and he would be denounced for attempting to rape his new bride, Jean Harlow, and of beating her bloody with a cane on their wedding night just two months earlier.But MGM publicity people and studio police knew how Paul Bern really died. They knew a long-ago common-law wife had recently emerged from the fog of mental illness believing she was still married to Paul, and they knew she had visited him the night before he was found dead. They knew she had killed him, but they also knew that publicly revealing Bern's first marriage would mark his current marriage - a marriage to MGM's now fastest rising star - as bigamous. So, they staged a suicide and embarked on a very public tarnishing of Bern's memory and legacy, leaving the world to believe he was impotent and suicide-obsessed and killed himself out of frustration with his marriage to a sex symbol. This biography rights that wrong by uncovering startling facts about Bern and MGM's tarnishing of his memory. It features almost 100 rare photos, many never before seen, along with three appendices examining the handwriting on the alleged suicide note and Bern's will and estate.

This work contains the histories of 17 radio audience participation shows on the air during the 1940s and 1950s. They are Arthur Godfrey's ""Talent Scouts"", Art Linkletter's ""House Party"", ""Break the Bank"", ""The Breakfast Club"", ""Bride and Groom"", ""Can You Top This?"", ""Dr. Christian"", ""Dr. I.Q."", ""Double or Nothing"", ""Information Please"", ""Queen for a Day"", ""Stop the Music!"", ""Strike It Rich"", ""Take It or Leave It"", ""Truth or Consequences"", ""Welcome Travelers"", and ""You Bet Your Life"". Included for each show are the premise it was based upon, the producers, host, announcer, vocalists, orchestra conductor, writers, sponsors, the ratings, and the air dates. Biographical sketches are provided for 177 figures who were connected to radio audience participation shows. A guide to network audience participation shows follows the text as an appendix.

More than a history of Western movies, The American West on Film intertwines film history, the history of the American West, and American social history into one unique volume. The American West on Film chronicles 12 Hollywood motion pictures that are set in the post–Civil War American West, including The Ox-Bow Incident, Red River, High Noon, The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven, Little Big Man, and Tombstone. Each film overview summarizes the movie's plot, details how the film came to be made, the critical and box-office reactions upon its release, and the history of the time period or actual event. This is followed by a comparison and contrast of the filmmakers' version of history with the facts, as well as an analysis of the film's significance, then and now. Relying on contemporary accounts and historical analysis as well as perspectives from filmmakers, historians, and critics, the author describes what it took to get each movie made and how close to the historical truth the movie actually got. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how movies often reflect the time in which they were made, and how Westerns can offer provocative social commentary hidden beneath old-fashioned "shoot-em-ups."