Many early radio stars, writers, and producers later migrated to television, but the crossover left the ""American Radio Archives"" with a treasure trove of television documents. The collected scripts span more than 40 years of American television history, from live broadcasts of the 1940s to the late 1980s. They also cover the entire spectrum of television entertainment programming, including comedies, soap operas, dramas, crime and westerns. The archives of this title cover nearly 1,200 programs represented by over 6,000 individual scripts. It includes an index of actors, crew, titles and production companies, as well as a glossary of industry terms and 38 photographs.

This work features interviews with 51 leading ladies who starred in B-westerns, A-westerns, and television westerns. Some were well-known and others were not, but they all have fascinating stories to tell and they talk candidly about their careers and the many difficulties that went along with their jobs. Back then, conditions were often severe, locations were often harsh, and pay was often minimal. The actresses were sometimes the only females on location and they had to provide their own wardrobe and do their own make-up, as well as discourage the advances of over-affectionate co-stars. Despite these difficulties, most of the women interviewed for this agree that they had fun. Claudia Barrett, Virginia Carroll, Francis Dee, Lisa Gaye, Marie Harmon, Kathleen Hughes, Linda Johnson, Ruta Lee, Colleen Miller, Gigi Perreau, Ann Rutherford, Ruth Terry, and June Vincent are among the 51 actresses interviewed.

Spiritualists in the nineteenth century spoke of a place they called the 'Borderland', a shadowy threshold where the living communed with the dead, and where those in the material realm could receive comfort or advice from another world. Drawing upon the skilled performances of mostly female actors and performers, the 'borderland' became a theatre, of sorts, in which dramas of revelation and recognition were produced in the forms of seances, trances, and spiritualist lectures. This book examines some of the most fascinating American and British actresses of the Victorian era, whose 'borderland' performances fairly mesmerized their audiences of amused skeptics and ardent believers. The book also focuses on the transformative possibilities of the spiritualist theatre, revealing how the performances allowed Victorian women to speak, act, and create outside the boundaries of their restricted social and psychological roles.

Gladiator was one of the great commercial successes of the early twenty-first century, a fascinating example of how an old genre can be resuscitated for a new generation. The film's story is not complex yet the ways in which it is told says much about mainstream narrative techniques. And beneath its action-packed scenes and richly detailed sets, Gladiator carries specific values and messages which deserve close scrutiny. In Studying Gladiator, Sandy Irvine considers:
Film language -- how Gladiator overcomes incredulity with compelling use of sound, costume and mise-en-scA]ne;
The industrial context -- Gladiator as a product of a partnership between an infant studio (DreamWorks) and a transnational corporation (Universal);
Genre and Narrative -- what do we mean by an 'epic', and can we describe Gladiator as such?
Audience -- how did the makers of Gladiator 'win the crowd' and appeal to today's block-buster audience?
Film-makers -- what did Ridley Scott personally bring to Gladiator, and can he be considered an auteur?
Representation and Ideology -- can we relate historical representations to contemporary society?

Occurring alongside the Women's Rights, Gay Rights, Civil Rights, and other identity movements of the 1960s, the Vietnam War was part of an era that rescripted gender and other social identity roles for many, if not most, Americans. This book examines the ways in which the war and its accompanying movements greatly altered traditional American conceptions of masculinity, looking particularly at discourses ranging from fictional narratives to memoirs, films, and military recruiting advertisements. Analysis of two canonical fiction texts - John Del Vecchio's ""The 13th Valley"" and Bobbie Ann Mason's ""In Country"" - illustrates the interrelatedness of race, sexuality, disability and masculinity, an approach appearing in no other book-length study. Finally, the book illustrates how, decades later, the masculine anxieties of the Vietnam era are still evident in discourses ranging from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to recent presidential campaigns.

Cinema is ideally suited to render the fantastic world of ESP and other psychic or paranormal abilities tangible to an audience. A technique as simple as a voice-over can simulate mental telepathy, while unusual lighting, set design, or creative digital manipulation can conjure clairvoyant visions, precognition, or even psychokinesis. This book explores the depiction of paranormal powers in fiction films, examining how popular films like ""Star Wars"", ""Independence Day"", ""The Green Mile"", and dozens of others both reflect and influence the way modern society perceives the notion of psychic abilities. The psychic theme is explored in nearly 100 films from a variety of genres including drama, comedy, horror, science fiction, crime melodrama, and children's films, providing a concise review of the history and concepts of mainstream cinematic parapsychology.

This book demonstrates how horror films of the 1930s and 1940s reflected specific events and personalities of the era, most notably the Great Depression and World War II. Beginning with ""Dracula"" and ""Frankenstein"" (1931), it relates the many ways that horror films and society intersected: Franklin D. Roosevelt's skepticism toward conventional wisdom and the public's distrust of experts was mirrored in ""Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"" and ""Murders in the Rue Morgue""; the freaks in Tod Browning's 1932 film of the same name revolted against the powerful people of the circus, much like the Bonus Army protested the sufferings of the Depression; King Kong's rampage on New York personified the anti - New York sentiment in the nation at large; Lon Chaney Jr.'s ""Wolf Man"" symbolized the experience of his creator, Curt Siodmak, as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.

In his Nobel speech, entitled Art, Truth and Politics, Harold Pinter explained how he was fighting against the «tapestry of lies». It is indeed those daily lies, lies of love or of state, that are exposed in this book, which emphasises his political agenda. In March 2007, the University of Lyon (Jean Moulin) and the ENS LSH organised VIVA PINTER, a tribute to his work centred on a key notion for the city of Lyon, the Spirit of Resistance. Pinter combined a concise, fragmented and syllogistic style with a keen perception of the metaphors of our time. The most specific instrument of this great humanist lay in his representation of power games. In this volume, scholars, stage-directors and lawyers tell us how his work is highly meaningful for them. Golden Palm winners Volker Schlöndorff and Jerry Schatzberg, film and theatre director David Jones, and BBC radio producer Barbara Bray share with us the memory of how they worked with Pinter on his major plays and films.

From Thomas Hamilton to contemporary artists Tom Normand traces the 200 year history of the Royal Scottish Academy. Featuring both men and women, short summaries precede each reproduction and orient the reader to particular points of interest within each art work. The artist’s history is related side by side with that of the Academy and, as such, they complement descriptions of the paintings. The book chronologically captures different periods as they influenced the style of what was produced in the Academy. Looking forward Normand states that ‘the Academy, in its history, has been a vital part of that international role, freely exhibiting the newest and the best of modern art and respecting the multi-dimensional approaches of contemporary art’. It is this vitality in the Scottish art scene that will sustain its visual culture in the future and place it on the international stage.

This collection of 14 essays explores drama from around the world that depicts the United States and Americans. From Eighteenth Century German dramas about Native Americans through post-Revolutionary War British plays, to the theaters of contemporary Japan, Mexico, Serbia, Ireland, Ghana and other nations, the contributors consider conflicting representations of Americans. Sometimes flattering, often critical, and occasionally insulting, these various international views highlight perceptions of America abroad and how they influence the world's stages.

The state of Wisconsin is unique in the number of historic movie theatres that remain standing today. Many are still open, bringing a sense of history, giving modern moviegoers an experience that simply can't be replicated by multiplexes and mall theatres. This book provides a reference guide to Wisconsin's historic movie theatres, from those built as opera houses, auditoriums, and community halls in the mid - 19th century to the ornate 'movie palaces' of the 1930s and, finally, the quickly and cheaply constructed postwar theatres constructed in the 1950s. More than 900 Wisconsin theatres are arranged alphabetically by town in entries that provide the theatre's name(s), location, number of seats, and opening and closing dates. A historical overview including information specific to each town or county provides a more complete snapshot of the communities which supported these historic theatres and were in turn affected by them. The book includes more than 400 photographs which demonstrate the different styles of theatres still standing throughout the state, including both original and present-day views of the theatres listed.

The Pulitzer Prizing-winning author Studs Terkel is layed bare in an autobiography of modern times - the stirring story of a man whose life has been so vivid that its telling mirrors the events of a century. From Mahalia Jackson to Bertrand Russell, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Frederico Fellini, Studs has met them all and captured their voices for us. With the addition of a marvelous new postscript, Talking to Myself is as enjoyable now as when it was first published--a work that is as unusual as it is compelling.

A tour de force chronicling the development of realism in Chinese cinema   The history of Chinese cinema is as long and complicated as the tumultuous history of China itself. Be it the silent, the Communist, or the contemporary, each Chinese cinematic era has necessitated its own form in conversation with broader trends in politics and culture.  In Chinese Film, Jason McGrath tells this fascinating story by tracing the varied claims to cinematic realism made by Chinese filmmakers, officials, critics, and scholars. Understanding realism as a historical dynamic that is both enabled and mitigated by aesthetic conventions of the day, he analyzes it across six different types of claims: ontological, perceptual, fictional, social, prescriptive, and apophatic. Through this method, McGrath makes major claims not just about Chinese cinema but also about realism as an aesthetic form that negotiates between cultural conventions and the ever-evolving real. He comes to envision it as more than just a cinematic question, showing how the struggle for realism is central to the Chinese struggle for modernity itself.

In the modern film making world, the term 'low-budget' can refer to anything from a $10 million indie flick to a student film produced on borrowed equipment with little to no money at all. Similarly, low budget filmmakers can range from seasoned auteurs attempting to shed the shackles of major studio control to novice talents trying to break into the industry. Designed for would-be filmmakers of all ages and experience levels, this book explains how to make a good, as well as commercially successful, low-budget movie in the current climate of mainstream, multi-million dollar Hollywood films. The purpose is not only to show low-budget filmmakers how to get movies made and distributed, but also how to maximize a film's potential for significant profit. Written in practical, understandable terms, the book covers everything from commercially viable genres to the most efficient film and video formats, along with tips on hiring stars, pursuing investors, distributing and marketing a film, and keeping track of expenses.

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.

In this work, first-hand accounts and original interviews illuminate how the father-son relationship thrives because of baseball, and, sometimes, in spite of it. Each of these men bears a legendary name in baseball broadcasting - Caray, Brennaman, Buck and Kalas - and some can count four generations of men whose voices defined a team. All of the sons relate how their fathers' names opened doors for them but concurrently raised expectations of how they should perform, and all relate how they learned from their fathers' (and grandfathers') triumphs and mistakes. Throughout the work, a clear picture of baseball as a generational bridge emerges. It includes a foreword by Chip Caray, speeches by Joe Buck about his father Jack, and articles by Skip Caray, Chip Caray and Marty Brennaman.

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.