Vividly bringing to light the tradition of physical comedy in the French cabaret, cafe-concert, and early French film comedy, this book answers the perplexing question, "Why do the French love Jerry Lewis?" The extraordinary emphasis on nervous pathology in the Parisian cafe-concert, where the genres of the Epileptic Singer and the Idiot Comic took center stage, and where popular comic monologues and songs included "Man with a Tic" and "I'm Neurasthenic," points to a fascinating intersection between medicine and popular culture. The French tradition of comic performance style between 1870 and 1910 nearly exactly duplicates the movements, gestures, tics, grimaces, and speech anomalies found in nineteenth-century hysteria; the characteristics of hysteria became a new aesthetics.
Early French film comedy carried on this tradition of frenetic gesture and gait, as most film performers came from these entertainments and from the circus. Even before Chaplin's films triumphed in France, film comics were instantly recognizable from their pathological gait, just as Jacques Tati would be a half-century later. Comedy, a genre that dominated French cinema until World War I, has often been linked to a mass public for film; the author elucidates this link by proposing a broadly generalized cultural-medical phenomenon as the explanation for the dominance of the comic genre. Comic performance style drew from a group of nervous disorders characterized by the psychological automatism emanating from the "lower faculties" nervous reflex, motor impulses, sensation, and instinct.
Building on her previous work on hysteria, the cabaret, and pathologies of movement in the films of Georges Melies, and drawing on over 400 French films made between 1896 and 1915, the author contributes to a new theory of spectatorship at work in the cabaret, in shows of magnetizers, and in early French film comedy. Jerry Lewis touches a nerve in French cultural memory because, more than any other film comic, he incarnates this tradition of performance style.

Largely overlooked today, actress Bebe Daniels had one of the most diverse and lengthy careers in show business. From her beginnings as a child on the vaudeville circuit to her resurgence as a radio and television star in postwar Britain, Daniels' story has not been told since the years immediately following her death in 1971. Best remembered for her work in silent films, Daniels was a child actress in the earliest days of the West Coast film industry before becoming Harold Lloyd's first leading lady. Later she was one of Cecil B. DeMille's vamps before reaching the pinnacle of success with Paramount in the 1920s. With the advent of talkies, she was able to reinvent herself, enjoying a resurgence in the 1930s until her eventual retirement to England. Daniels' life was filled with high-profile romances and the glitz and glamour of early Hollywood but her story is one of endless determination and steadfast principles.

In his time theatre actor and manager Jack Langrishe (1825-1895) could claim to be as well known in the American frontier West as General Grant was in the East. He gained his fame providing welcome entertainment to prospectors and miners pursing gold and silver bonanzas in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota and Idaho. He led a life as thrilling as any drama he presented. He participated in the tumultuous life of mining camps as he followed the expanding American frontier from the old Northwest Territory to early Denver, Deadwood and Idaho's Coeur D'Alene. He survived the Chicago Fire of 1872 and crossed the same Indian territory at the time when Custer made his last stand. While best known as a gifted comic actor and producer of fine dramas, Langrishe also edited western newspapers, won election as an Idaho state senator and served as a justice of the peace. Here for the first time is the complete tale of Jack Langrishe, a major figure in the epic of the American frontier, how he gained and lost fortunes, left audiences weak with laughter and became recognized as the father of theatre in Colorado and Montana.

Eugenio Barba is one of Europe's leading theatre directors, at the forefront of experimental and group theatre for more than twenty years. Ian Watson provides the most comprehensive and systematic study of Barba's work, including his training methods, dramaturgy, productions and theories, as well as his work at the International School of Theatre Anthropology.

The legendary Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) had many identities. He first broke into Hollywood as a fresh-faced young actor in the 1950s, redefined himself as a rebel director with "Easy Rider" in the late 1960s, and became a bad boy outcast for much of the 1970s. He returned in the 1980s with standout performances in films like "Blue Velvet" and "Hoosiers," was one of the great blockbuster baddies of the 1990s, and ended his career as a ubiquitous actor in genre movies.Hopper, however, was much more than just an actor and director: he was also a photographer, a painter, and an art collector--not to mention a longtime hedonist who kicked his addiction to drugs and alcohol and became a poster boy for sobriety."Dennis Hopper: Interviews" covers every decade of his career, featuring conversations from 1957 through to 2009, and not only captures him at the significant points of his tumultuous time in Hollywood but also focuses on the lesser-known aspects of the man. In this fascinating and highly entertaining volume--the first ever collection of Hopper's interviews--he talks in depth about film, photography, art, and his battles with substance abuse and, in one instance, even takes the role of interviewer as he talks with Quentin Tarantino.

In this essay collection, established experts and new researchers, reassess the performances and cultural significance of Ellen Terry, her daughter Edith Craig (1869-1947) and her son Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), as well as Bram Stoker, Lewis Carroll and some less familiar figures.

Insecure, Awkward, and #Winning: Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Works of Issa Rae is the first project dedicated exclusively to Issa Rae and her works. Her work offers a fertile space where contemporary issues intersect, encouraging audiences to discuss meaning and impact within their own lives, society, and cultural identities. The text offers analysis informed by Critical Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality research. The book features a collection of provocative contributions from scholars from multiple disciplines-including literary, history, and communication. The project offers varying perspectives on Rae, insecure, her memoir, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, and the relevance of her work to American culture. Throughout the book are dispersed brief reflections from veteran scholars, content creators, and industry professionals on the significance of Rae and her work. These pieces speak to the impact of Rae's cultural productions. The book contains five thematic sections that include a total of twelve chapters. Those chapters address a range of topics including Black sexuality, humor, gentrification, race in the workplace, white allies, and blackness in digital spaces. Our goal is to reach audiences both popular and scholarly. We hope this project sparks the interest of fans and those new to Rae's work. Among others, this book could be used in the following courses: Representation in the Media; Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (in the Media); Research Seminar in Black Studies; Womanism, Black Feminist/Queer Theories; The African American Storytellers.

Insecure, Awkward, and #Winning: Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Works of Issa Rae is the first project dedicated exclusively to Issa Rae and her works. Her work offers a fertile space where contemporary issues intersect, encouraging audiences to discuss meaning and impact within their own lives, society, and cultural identities. The text offers analysis informed by Critical Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality research. The book features a collection of provocative contributions from scholars from multiple disciplines-including literary, history, and communication. The project offers varying perspectives on Rae, insecure, her memoir, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, and the relevance of her work to American culture. Throughout the book are dispersed brief reflections from veteran scholars, content creators, and industry professionals on the significance of Rae and her work. These pieces speak to the impact of Rae's cultural productions. The book contains five thematic sections that include a total of twelve chapters. Those chapters address a range of topics including Black sexuality, humor, gentrification, race in the workplace, white allies, and blackness in digital spaces. Our goal is to reach audiences both popular and scholarly. We hope this project sparks the interest of fans and those new to Rae's work. Among others, this book could be used in the following courses: Representation in the Media; Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (in the Media); Research Seminar in Black Studies; Womanism, Black Feminist/Queer Theories; The African American Storytellers.

Dramatic Comedy / 3m, 2f / Simple Sets The play is based on the life of Saul Alinsky, who, starting out from Chicago's mean streets, became a master organizer in American cities from the '30's through the '60's. With his imaginative techniques, colorful language, and wild humor, Alinsky taught communities how to win over an indifferent "establishment" and resurrect themselves. His ideas are still a force today. We see Alinsky on the road in 1972, at the end of his career and exhausted after an off-day, weighing the worth of all his efforts. Alone in his motel room, he conjures up the trials and triumphs of past campaigns-in urban ghettos, middle-class neighborhoods, and colleges. He relives encounters with Al Capone, Mayor Daley, Marshall Field, Senator Joe McCarthy, Albert Einstein, Catholic bishops, and Vietnam vets. He revives his passion for democracy that enabled him time and again to succeed against the odds. The next day, rejuvenated, Alinsky sets out on what will be his final campaign for a "newer world." Advocating the simplest of means to effect change, he prevails on his audience to find within their everyday lives the tools to rebuild their communities and secure "something of what we are all looking for-laughter, beauty, love, and the chance to create."

Lucille Ball's comic genius made them famous, but many of the unforgettable plot lines for "I Love Lucy" came from the life of their writer, Madelyn Pugh Davis. In "Laughing with Lucy, " Davis and her long-time writing partner, Bob Carroll Jr., recount her rise in television and her many years working on the set and behind the scenes with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Lighthearted and witty, this book offers a trip back in time to the tumultuous early days of television.

Hollywood superstar; Oscar-winning director; greatest stage actor of the twentieth century. His era abounded in greats - Gielgud, Richardson, Guinness, Burton, O'Toole - but none could challenge Laurence Olivier's range and power. By the 1940s he had achieved international stardom. His affair with Vivien Leigh led to a marriage as glamorous and as tragic as any in Hollywood history. He was as accomplished a director as he was a leading man: his three Shakespearian adaptations are among the most memorable ever filmed. Off-stage, Olivier was the most extravagant of characters: generous, yet almost insanely jealous of those few contemporaries whom he deemed to be his rivals; charming but with a ferocious temper. With access to more than fifty hours of candid, unpublished interviews, Philip Ziegler ensures that Olivier's true character - at its most undisguised - shines through as never before.

Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) was one of most charismatic and protean figures to emerge from the American independent film movement of the 1960s and '70s, an incredibly compelling screen presence who helped give cult classics like Easy Rider and Blue Velvet their off-kilter appeal. But his artistic interests went far beyond acting, and this collection of essays is the first major work to take in Hopper as a creative artist in all his fields of endeavour, from acting and directing to photography, sculpture, and expressionist painting. Stephen Naish doesn't skimp on covering Hopper's best-known work, but he breaks new ground in putting it in context with his other creative enterprises, showing how one medium informs another, and how they offer a portrait of an artist who was restless, even flawed at times, but always aiming to live up to his motto: create or die. Follow the podcasts by Steve Naish here

Late in Claude Rains's distinguished career, a reverent film journalist wrote that Rains "was as much a cinematic institution as the medium itself." Given his childhood speech impediments and his origins in a destitute London neighborhood, the ascent of Claude Rains (1889--1967) to the stage and screen is remarkable. Rains's difficulties in his formative years provided reserves of gravitas and sensitivity, from which he drew inspiration for acclaimed performances in The Invisible Man (1933), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1942), Notorious (1946), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and other classic films. In Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, noted Hollywood historian David J. Skal draws on more than thirty hours of newly released Rains interviews to create the first full-length biography of the actor who was nominated multiple times for an Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. Skal's portrait of the gifted actor also benefits from the insights of Jessica Rains, who provides firsthand accounts of the enigmatic man behind her father's refined screen presence and genteel public persona. As Skal shows, numerous contradictions informed the life and career of Claude Rains. He possessed an air of nobility and became an emblem of sophistication, but he never shed the insecurities that traced back to his upbringing in an abusive and poverty-stricken family. Though deeply self-conscious about his short stature, Rains drew notorious ardor from female fans and was married six times. His public displays of dry wit and good humor masked inner demons that drove Rains to alcoholism and its devastating consequences. Skal's layered depiction of Claude Rains reveals a complex, almost inscrutable man whose nuanced characterizations were, in no small way, based on the more shadowy parts of his psyche. With unprecedented access to episodes from Rains's private life, Skal tells the full story of the consummate character actor of his generation. Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, gives voice to the struggles and innermost concerns that influenced Rains's performances and helped him become a universally respected Hollywood legend.

Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies is a paradox; a famous actress whose career spanned most of the twentieth century she is now largely forgotten. Drawing on material held in Ffrangcon-Davies's personal archive, Grime argues that the representation of the actress, on and off the stage, can be read in terms of its constructions of normative female behaviours.

This biography tells the story of Alice May, a touring prima donna in the nineteenth century who travelled from England to Australia, New Zealand, India and the US, taking part in pioneering performances of the popular light operas of the day. Along the way she took part in many premieres, including the first production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer and the first authorised American production of The Mikado . This colourful life story will appeal to theatre historians, fans of the melodrama, burlesque, and the musical stage.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Edwyna ""Salt"" Evelyn and Jewel ""Pepper"" Welch learned to tap dance on street corners in New York and Philadelphia. By the 1940s, they were black show business headliners, playing Harlem's Apollo Theater with the likes of Count Basie, Fats Waller and Earl ""Fatha"" Hines. Their exuberant men's-style tap performed in men's attire earned the respect of their male peers and the acclaim of audiences, though they were paid less than black male dancers. Based on extensive interviews with Salt and Pepper, this book chronicles for the first time the lives and careers of two overlooked performers who succeeded despite the racism, sexism and homophobia of the Big Band era.

In this absorbing and surprising memoir, one of the biggest names of classic Hollywood-the star of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and Marnie-tells her story, including never-before-revealed experiences on the set of some of the biggest cult films of all time ...now with a foreword by Melanie Griffith For decades, Tippi Hedren's luminous beauty radiated from the silver screen, enchanting moviegoers and cementing her position among Hollywood's elite-beauty and star power that continue to endure. For too long Hedren's story has been told by others through whispered gossip and tabloid headlines. Now, Hedren sets the record straight, recalling how a young and virtuous Lutheran girl from small-town Minnesota became a worldwide legend-as one of the most famous Hitchcock girls, as an unwavering animal activist, and as the matriarch of a powerful Hollywood dynasty that includes her movie star daughter Melanie Griffith, and rising star Dakota Johnson, her granddaughter. For the first time, Hedren digs deep into her complicated relationship with the man who discovered her talent, director Alfred Hitchcock, the benefactor who would become a repulsive and controlling director who contractually controlled her every move. She speaks openly about the dark pain she endured working with him on their most famous collaborations, The Birds and Marnie, and finding the courage she needed to break away. Hedren's incandescent spirit shines through as she talks about working with the great Charlie Chaplin, sharing the screen with some of the most esteemed actors in Hollywood, her experiences on some of the most intriguing and troubling film sets-including filming Roar, one of the most dangerous movies ever made-and the struggles of being a single mother-balancing her dedication to her work and her devotion to her daughter-and her commitment to helping animals. Filled with sixteen pages of beautiful photos, Tippi is a rare and fascinating look at a private woman's remarkable life no celebrity aficionado can miss.

Derek's journey to Albert Square has proved to be an eventful one. A bone fide East Ender, born within the sound of Bow Bells, Derek grew up during the Blitz in a tight-knit, working-class family. In this candid memoir he describes those tough early days, his stint in the police, life on the wrong side of the law and how he turned his dream of being an actor into a reality. But not before trying his hand as a professional gambler and acting as a runner for the notorious East End gangster Charlie Kray, brother of twins Ronnie and Reggie. Determined to be an actor, Derek began his hugely successful stage and screen career firstly as a stuntman; before landing memorable TV roles in series such as Law and Order, Minder, King and Castle, The Governor and doomed soap Eldorado. In this frank and revealing tale, Derek pulls no punches as he admits past mistakes and describes his remarkable transformation into one of our best loved actors. Meet the man behind the character as he shares with readers his heartbreak over two marriage break ups and his devotion to his twin boys. An East End Life is a truly remarkable story spanning nearly seven decades, packed with tears and laughter that will endear you to this popular star.

This book THE LIFE is a tell all book covering 40 years of criminal activity. The book is written by a retired mobster who was the main drug connection to the stars in hollywood (The Candy Man To The Stars). The book is shocking, honest, revealing and real. It is a cover to cover page turner.

Rose Hobart enjoyed an extensive theatrical career in the 1920s, became a Hollywood leading lady in 1930, and had a second film career as a character player in the late 1930s and 1940s. Born into a family of musicians, she recalls childhood summers in Woodstock, NY, the beginnings of her theatrical career in Chautauqua, and an early and misunderstood friendship with the great Broadway star Eva Le Gallienne, which led to her appearing opposite Noel Coward in The Vortex and starring in the original stage production of Death Takes a Holiday. In 1930, she made her Hollywood screen debut in Frand Borzage's production of Liliom. Rouben Mamoulian selected her to co-star opposite Fredric March in his legendary 1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Unhappy in Los Angeles, Miss Hobart returned to New York, but after various misadventures, came back to the screen as a character actress in such films as Tower of London (1939) with Basil Rathbone and Susan and God(1940) with Joan Crawford. During World War II, she toured with the USO in the Aleutians, a difficult but also amusing period. The autobiography is peppered with famous names from Broadway to Hollywood, but it is also a highly personal work, in which Miss Hobart unabashedly discusses her three marriages and her failures. She ends her story with the grim reality of being blacklisted. Rose Hobart is perhaps the only Hollywood star to be immortalized in a modern work of art, an avant-garde short by filmmaker and artist Joseph Cornell, named in her honor and based on footage from the 1931 film East of Borneo. Readers of her autobiography will be as mesmerized by Rose Hobart as was Joseph Cornell more than fifty years ago.

The simple fact is that the utterance 'Brad Pitt' tends to prompt strong reactions--either reflecting hype, excitement, or revulsion concerning one or more of this actor's roles, or reflecting piqued interest in the various issues (be they political, intellectual, or social) that Pitt seems to stand for. In short, Brad Pitt is a productively perplexing subject. "Deconstructing Brad Pitt" attends to these strong reactions, exploring what issues are raised and interrogated by the many manifestations of Brad Pitt. Several chapters look at how Pitt's roles challenge or perpetuate key myths prevalent throughout contemporary American culture; other chapters read Pitt's performances as allegories for dramas that are playing out in larger spheres, such as global capital, new media aesthetics, and celebrity humanitarianism. Still other chapters delineate the intersections of Pitt's celebrity status with his on-screen performances, arguing for expressions of self-awareness and meta-commentaries on celebrity culture and contemporary art practices. Written in accessible prose and drawing from the expertise of a range of scholars and writers in different fields, Deconstructing Brad Pitt will unperplex the mysteries surrounding the star status and numerous roles of Brad Pitt.

Lew Resseguie has known Presidents, worked professionally as an actor in theater, film and television, a songwriter, newspaperman, and theatrical director and producer. He started his professional life as a newspaperman for the Washington Daily News in the Nations Capitol, decided to pursue his passion at the age of 44, in theater, and was highly successful in pursuit of that career working in theater, TV and film in New York City for nearly 30 years.He is married To Diane Lefrancois, a dancer formerly of Norwich, CT whom he met while performing in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

An access-all-areas book marking the 25th anniversary of the era-defining Oasis concerts at Knebworth, with stunning images taken by acclaimed music photographer Jill Furmanovsky - including contributions from Noel Gallagher and Alan McGee, and hundreds of never-before-seen pictures *** "A wonderful document of the last great gathering of the pre-internet age. No camera phones, no social media, just a band and its fans as one" - NOEL GALLAGHER On 10th and 11th August 1996, Oasis played the concerts that would define them, a band at the height of their powers playing to over 250,000 people. Twenty-five years on, this is the inside story of those nights, told through the breathtaking photographs of Jill Furmanovsky, granted unprecedented access to Oasis throughout that summer. Also includes newly obtained first-hand accounts from the people who were there - including Noel Gallagher and Alan McGee - in text by award-winning author Daniel Rachel. From relaxed rehearsals and warm-up concerts to Knebworth itself - backstage, onstage, flying high above the site - many of the stunning photographs in this book have never been seen anywhere before. This the definitive account of two nights that a generation will never forget.

Ellen Terry's correspondence was both exuberant and extensive. Her remaining letters provide a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the Victorian theatre, and the difficulties of life for a woman maintaining a successful public persona whilst raising two illegitimate children.