This book reveals and reflects upon Janet Leigh's life and extraordinary career and also extensively analyzes all of her films and television appearances, and the like. For the first decade of her career Leigh's screen persona was restricted almost exclusively to Hollywood's most conventional image of the ""nice girl."" She was cast opposite some of the industry's biggest names including Robert Mitchum in Holiday Affair, Stewart Granger in Scaramouche, James Stewart in The Naked Spur, and Charlton Heston in Orson Welles' masterpiece Touch of Evil. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho supplied her most memorable role: Marion Crane, who is murdered before the picture is half over. The part earned Leigh an Academy Award nomination. Two years later, she starred opposite Frank Sinatra in John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate. From 1951 to 1962, Leigh was married to favorite co-star Tony Curtis; the iconic couple of 50's Hollywood starred together in five films. They had two daughters, Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis, both of whom followed in their parents' professional footsteps.

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 oral history of television sitcom writing offers the perspectives of 22 of the best and most prolific early comedy writers. How they broke into the business; how they wrote scripts (and where they got their ideas); what it was like to work on hits--and on flops; what the sitcom actors were like; how they collaborated with other writers and producers; and why they retired are just some of the topics they speak to. The book documents insider knowledge and gives the reader a better understanding of what makes great television comedy. The writers' observations about the changes that took place during their long careers help explain why television comedy has evolved so greatly in recent years.

L. Frank Baum's novel, The Wizard of Oz, has spawned 39 official sequels, over 100 unofficial sequels, well nearly 40 films, several TV series, music videos, commercials, computer games, radio shows and more. It has received a number of different interpretations: an African-American slant, a Turkish low-budget fantasy, Japanese anime, and American pornography, among others. This book provides synopses and basic bibliographical information for the forty Oz books in the original series and a number of related books by the Royal Historians of Oz; synopses and credits for live performances (videos and made-for-television performances are included here) based on the Oz books and on Baum's non-Oz fantasies; comic book and comic strip adaptations of Oz; synopses and credits for radio shows and dramatic performances on audiobook or vinyl records; synopses and credits for theatrical films and shorts; documentaries and educational films; synopses and credits for television series and episodes based on Oz; video and computer games; useful websites; and short scenes on television or in movies that have an Oz element.

If you went to a big rodeo in the 1940s, you might have seen Gene Autry singing and jumping his horse, Champ, through a flaming hoop. In the same era, familiar rodeo personalities like Hoot Gibson, Texas Rose Bascom, Slim Pickens and Ben Johnson could be seen in movies or television shows. At a rodeo in the 1960s, you might have seen Lorne Greene and Dan Blocker acting out a skit from their hit television show Bonanza. This reference book provides career profiles of both types of performers who crossed over between acting and cowboying in the period from the 1930s to the 1970s, when Hollywood and the rodeo circuit were closely linked. The first part, ""Rodeo Personalities with a Hollywood Connection,"" traces the careers of notable rodeo stars who also appeared on film or television. The next two sections detail the rodeo appearances of stars better known for their work on the screen (whether small or silver); one of these two sections focuses on performers who tended to appear solo, while the other focuses on famous casts, such as the folks of Bonanza or Gunsmoke. A fourth section alphabetically lists rodeo-related films. Appendices present further information on golden age rodeo personalities, rodeos presenting western stars, and eleven special rodeos distinguished by such features as size, prestige and Western star power.

This work seeks to illuminate the art of George Cukor, the director of some of the most acclaimed and popular films ever to come out of Hollywood. Eight films, ranging in time from David Copperfield (1935) to Rich and Famous (1981) and in mood from the fairy-tale comedy of The Philadelphia Story to the intense melodrama of Cukor's masterpiece, A Star is Born, are closely analysed in search for the elusive secret of Cukor's art. The search reveals that through his long and varied body of work Cukor was preoccupied with certain themes of enduring significance that found expression through his mastery of film direction. More than a mere Hollywood craftsman or the congenial collaborator of such Hollywood luminaries as Hepburn, Grant, Tracy, and Monroe, George Cukor was a true film artist.

The thinkers of ancient Egypt, Greece and India recognized that numbers governed much of what they saw in their world and hence provided an approach to its divine creator. Robert Lawlor sets out the system that determines the dimension and the form of both man-made and natural structures, from Gothic cathedrals to flowers, from music to the human body. By also involving the reader in practical experiments, he leads with ease from simple principles to a grasp of the logarithmic spiral, the Golden Proportion, the squaring of the circle and other ubiquitous ratios and proportions. This book is part of the Art and Imagination series, gloriously illustrated paperbacks which cover Eastern and Western religion and philosophy, including myth and magic, alchemy and astrology. The distinguished authors bring a wealth of knowledge, visionary thinking and accessible writing to each intriguing subject.

Using interviews with Jerry Lewis and many of his co-stars, this book analyses his collaborative efforts with Dean Martin, his subsequent solo work, his writing and directorial careers, and more recent movies such as Hardly Working (1979) and The King of Comedy (1982). Comprehensive filmographic data are provided for each of the films, with cast and production credits, studio, release date, and running time. Lewis's own reflections on his work are included for many of the entries.

A thorough survey of great interest and value to scholars in this field.

This analysis examines several recent reimagined science fiction franchises (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, V, and Star Wars) in order to capture how ""reboots"" work from a fan perspective. Previous encounters with these stories make the reboot experience distinct for fan-viewers, who bring with them a set of expectations and knowledge, often tied to franchise canon, that cannot be separated from the new film or television series. Even when elements of the original versions are maintained, memories of them influence the narrative encounter. This book considers reimagined texts from several levels, including the medium, the characters and the world building, to break down and then explore the reboot experience.

While much of Tom Stoppard's early work (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Real Inspector Hound, for instance) is postmodern, the remainder of his career essentially tracks backward from there--becoming ""late modernist"" in the 1970s (Travesties) and fully modernist in the 80s and 90s (The Real Thing and Arcadia). This pattern also makes sense of Stoppard's recent and uncharacteristic foray into dramatic realism with The Coast of Utopia (2002) and Rock 'n' Roll (2006). The playwright seems to embrace what he sees as the more straightforward rhetorical advantages of literary realism.

Arranged chronologically, this reference work provides production company-written plot synopses or, when a synopsis was not available, trade paper reviews of 476 films about moonshining, feuding, coal mining, mountain love triangles, and many other topics. Also provided are studio, date of release, and length.

What happens when freedom of artistic expression offends freedom of religion? A nationwide controversy arose when America's first professional Passion play, staged in San Francisco in 1879, was pronounced a ""sacrilege"" by Protestant ministers. (Author Salmi Morse's play, The Passion, was in reality a pious description of the Gospel story). This work shows that Morse and his play were actually the victims of the Protestant church's struggle to maintain power during the late 1800's a time when America was changing into a more urban nation. This saga of a society's attempt to control ""immoral""art by government intervention is also a disconcerting look at how easily artistic freedom can be sacrificed on the alter of political expediency.

Break out your favourite pencil and roll up your sleeves! The Save the Cat! (R) Beat Sheet Workbook provides key writing prompts and asks all the important questions-but you bring the story, filling out the pages that walk you step-by-step through the Save the Cat! process. The official hands-on companion to the best-selling Save the Cat! and Save the Cat! Writes for TV, this interactive workbook helps you dig deep into every aspect of your story. It's inspiring, easy to manage, and your guide to: * Idea and Concept Brainstorming - Unlock your idea engine with a series of exercises and prompts geared to help you find your best story idea. * Meaningful Themes - Explore yourself, matching your story to something that speaks to your soul and represents your tastes and personality. * Story Genre Identification - Nail down that pesky question of ""What is your story?"" with the Save the Cat! Story Genres. * Create Fully Developed Characters - Give life to main characters who have wants, needs, and flaws. Surround them with a supporting cast that provides opportunities for conflict and thematic tension. * The Save the Cat! Beat Sheet - Discover the tools and detailed exercises to give your story the structure to succeed

From the 2nd century CE to the 19th century, the people of the fertile estuary of the great Mekong River created treasures of sacred art, architecture and accomplished feats of water engineering that are coming to light in Vietnam’s vigorous new archaeological research programmes. The large stilted wooden houses of Oc Eo, the early Venice of the maritime routes of the East in the earliest centuries of the first millennium, drew in ships with precious cargoes from Rome, India and China to trade while waiting for the change of the monsoon wind to continue their voyages. Chinese annals record that the early polity they called 'Funan' ruled 1,000 km of coastline along the shipping route. Among the earliest Mekong Delta Buddhist icons are a breathtakingly elegant 2.7m tall Buddha carved in hardwood that has survived more than 1000 years in the delta mud and a 29cm bronze Buddha that arrived on a trading ship from the 6th century Chinese Northern Qi dynasty. Very early Vishnu statues wear high, floral mitres and clasp war conch-trumpets on their left hip, and Shiva's face stares out from stone lingas. The Ho Chi Minh Museum collection conserves diverse masterpieces of the art from Vietnam, from the prehistoric Dong Son drums of the Red River Delta in the north to the vibrant Hindu and Buddhist statuary of the former kingdoms of Champa in Central Vietnam. In addition, there is an immense array of art and imperial furnishings of the last Vietnamese dynasty, the Nguyen, which was founded in the Mekong Delta at the beginning of the 19th century. There are refined inlaid wooden cabinets, sets of the finest blue and white ceramics and embroidered silken court costumes worn by the royal family, as well as huge wooden and ceramic Buddha statues which played crucial social and political roles in establishing the dynasty and quelling its foes.

References to western movies scattered over some 250 narrative works by more than 130 authors constitute the subject matter of this book, arranged in an encyclopedic format. The entries are distributed among western movies, television series, big screen and television actors, western writers, directors and miscellaneous topics related to the genre. The entries vary in size, from a classic like High Noon to a more obscure title such as Drum Beat, or from, a mega-star like John Wayne to someone like Tom Tyler. While the time span of the presented data exceeds a period of a hundred years--from The Great Train Robbery (1903) to No Country for Old Men (2007)--the entries include many western film milestones (from The Aryan through Shane to Unforgiven), television classics (Gunsmoke, Bonanza) and great screen cowboys of both the ""A"" and ""B"" productions.

When Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve bid farewell to Fibber McGee and Molly and left Wistful Vista on a train in 1941, no one could have predicted that he would be riding the airwaves until 1957. But when one listens to episodes of radio's first spinoff, it becomes clear the The Great Gildersleeve succeeded because its likable and amusing characters were appealingly fallible, much like the folks each of us knew in our hometowns. This book is a guide to more than 500 episodes of The Great Gildersleeve that are in circulation and also to the scripts of 46 episodes for which no recordings exist. Background on the development of the program is included, and the appendices include a list of episodes as well as provide information about cast members, notable occurrences on the program, ratings, and the films and TV series.

From 1906 until 1922, Geraldine Farrar was the Metropolitan Opera's most popular and glamorous prima donna. Convinced that music must always serve the drama, this beautiful and magnetic singer often sacrificed tonal beauty to dramatic effect. Her acting was noted for its intensity and realism. Nevertheless, Farrar was a superb singer, possessing a beautiful lyric soprano voice. Enrico Caruso was her frequent operatic partner, guaranteeing sold-out houses. She performed 493 times in 29 roles, creating Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1906. Farrar was also a star of the silent screen, appearing in 14 films from 1915 to 1920. In retirement, she was mentor and friend to the African-American diva Camilla Williams, enabling her to become the first African American to have a regular contract with a major American opera company.

Beginning with Charlie Chaplin's Shoulder Arms, released in America near the end of World War I, the military comedy film has been one of Hollywood's most durable genres. This generously illustrated history examines over 225 Army, Navy and Marine-related comedies produced between 1918 and 2009, including the abundance of laughspinners released during World War II in the wake of Abbott and Costello's phenomenally successful Buck Privates (1941), and the many lighthearted service films of the immediate postwar era, among them Mister Roberts (1955) and No Time for Sergeants (1958). Also included are discussions of such subgenres as silent films (The General), military-academy farces (Brother Rat), women in uniform (Private Benjamin), misfits making good (Stripes), anti-war comedies (MASH), and fact-based films (The Men Who Stare at Goats). A closing filmography is included in this richly detailed volume.

From December 1957 through October 1959, Chicago TV viewers were held in thrall by ""Marvin,"" the ghoulishly hilarious host of WBKB-TV's late-night horror film series Shock Theatre. Marvin and his lady friend ""Dear"" (her face ever hidden from the camera) introduced thousands of Chicagoland youngsters to such classic Universal chillers as Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolf Man. This history of Shock Theatre focuses on the series and its creator, Marvin himself--in real life, the multi-talented Terry Bennett, whose wife Joy played ""Dear."" Terry's son Kerry Bennett provides an affectionate foreword, while celebrated horror host Count Gore De Vol (Dick Dyszel) supplies the afterword. Included are dozens of photos and vintage advertisement reproductions, as well as two appendices featuring a resume of Terry Bennett's career and a list of films telecast during his two-year Shock Theatre run.

The first daytime dramas began as early as 1930, with Painted Dreams. Programmers soon discovered that housewives often controlled the purse strings, and soaps become an advertiser's gold mine. They now generate more than $900 million in network revenues annually. Around 50 million people (reportedly including congressmen and rock stars as well as two-thirds of all American television-watching women) tune in each weekday afternoon for a dosage of love, loss and libido via ""the soaps."" This scholarly study examines the soap phenomenon from a sociological point of view. Included in the analysis is classic research by Rudolf Arnheim, Herta Hartzog and Helen Kaufman as well as contemporary studies and previously unpublished research. The evolution of popular plotlines and characters, as assessment of reality in today's plots, which people watch soaps and why, specific plotlines for the 13 soaps presently aired, 40+ family trees illustrating program changes, the future of soaps--all are covered.

This collection of essays looks at the question ""What is history?"" and how history is shaped in different socioeconomic contexts. The writers take a transdisciplinary approach, in the belief that everyone who deals with history--including professional historians, novelists, and poets--constructs narratives of the past to make sense of the present as well as to determine their future courses of action. With contributions from a variety of specialists in media studies, literature, history and anthropology, this book breaks new ground in adaptation studies.

This book explores the experience and value of dancing for people living with the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson's disease. Linking aesthetic values to wellbeing, Sara Houston articulates the importance of the dancing experience for those with Parkinson's, and argues that the benefits of participatory dance are best understood through the experiences, lives, needs and challenges of people living with Parkinson's who have chosen to dance. Presenting personal narratives from a study that investigates the experience of people with Parkinson's who dance, intertwined with the social and political contexts in which the dancers live, this volume examines the personal and systemic issues as well as the attitudes and identities that shape people's relationship to dance. Taking this new primary research as a starting point, Dancing with Parkinson's builds an argument for how dance becomes a way of helping people live well with Parkinson's.

Test your knowledge of Parks and Recreation -- from the hilarious characters and quotable lines to the funniest and most memorable moments -- with this one-of-a-kind trivia collection based on the entire series: * First brush up on your knowledge with the Parks and Recreation Episode Guide, an 88-page paperback book (3" x 5") packed with 60-word plot synopses of all 125 episodes, including the name of the episode and episode number, with full-color art throughout. * Then gather your favorite friends for a lightning round of trivia with a set of 50 trivia cards (and 1 instruction card), featuring 200 questions to test your expertise of Parks and Recreation. * Store the episode guide and trivia deck together in the handsome full-color printed magnetic closure box.