When it comes to living life to its fullest, Rosalind Russell's character Auntie Mame is still the silver screen's exemplar. And Mame, the role Russell (1907-1976) will always be remembered for, embodies the rich and rewarding life Bernard F. Dick reveals in his biography, "Forever Mame: The Life of Rosalind Russell," now available in paperback.

Drawing on personal interviews and information from the archives of Russell and her producer-husband Frederick Brisson, Dick begins with Russell's childhood in Waterbury, Connecticut, and chronicles her early attempts to achieve recognition after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Frustrated by her inability to land a lead in a Broadway show, she headed for Hollywood in 1934 and two years later played her first starring role, the title character in Craig's Wife.

Dick discusses all of her films along with her triumphal return to Broadway, first in the musical "Wonderful Town" and later in "Auntie Mame." "Forever Mame" details Russell's social circle of such stars as Loretta Young, Cary Grant, and Frank Sinatra. It traces an extraordinary career, ending with Russell's courageous battle against the two diseases that eventually caused her death: rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. Russell devoted her last years to campaigning for arthritis research. So successful was she in her efforts to alert lawmakers to this crippling disease that a leading San Francisco research center is named after her.

The theatre of Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players has received significant international recognition over the past ten years. The company has received three OBIEs, for House (1999), Drummer Wanted (2002) and Good Samaritans (2005). Maxwell received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010 and has been commissioned by venues in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland. Although his productions generate a plethora of reviews, there is a deficit of material providing a critical and sustained engagement with his work. The aim of The Theatre of Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players is to provide a critical survey of Maxwell's work since 1992, including his early participation in Cook County Theater Department. Touching upon the acting, production and rehearsal processes of NYC Player's work, and Maxwell's representations of space, community, race, and gender, this volume provides scholars with an important overview of a key figure in contemporary drama.

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.

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.

In 1942 Ernest Jennings Ford married nineteen-year-old Betty Jean Heminger, whom he had met at Victorville Army Air Base in California. 'River of No Return: Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Woman He Loved' is the recounting of their life together, of Ernie's spectacular success as an entertainer, of their growing spiral of self-destruction as his career flourished, and of their two sons' despair as they watched the light slowly fade from their parents' eyes and the joy vanish from their lives. For Betty it was vodka, valium, and tranquilizers. For Ernie, it was beer for breakfast, Cutty for lunch at the club, and whatever later in the day. In 'River of No Return' their son Jeffery remembers when his family's joy of being together was infectious, when the promise of every day and the thrill of being at the center of the spotlight was rapturous. It was a time when the name Ernie Ford was in the air and his fame worldwide.

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."

May all beings enjoy 'The Enlightenment.' The Enlightenment and Captain James Cook, The Lono-Cook-Kirk-Regenesis, is a thoroughly informative and a deeply personal read. It is a fictionalized biography that takes place during Britain's 'Age of Enlightenment and Discovery' and it is highly 'truth based, ' integrating the 'first written and compiled' Polynesian facts and mythology that includes the diaries and actual journals of the many men on board Cook's ships. No writer has better put together a more complete compilation of the facts integrated with mythology and told in novel form, giving the reader a bird's eye view of the action. She touches on James Cook and his co-relation with Gene Roddenberry's James T. Kirk and how it inter-relates with her own account of learned spiritual wisdom and her 'mythic writers journey.' She gives a personal account of her journey that was guided by the 'Aumakua' (Hawaiian and British ancestors alike) and Archangel Metatron, to create a feature film script about James Cook that led her on a spiritual pilgrimage where she encountered the truth behind, reincarnation, remanifestation, archetypes and extraterrestrial realities. She then made a trip to Sarnath, India and also discovered a link to Polynesia with the name 'Lono' (or Rono; the name Cook was referred to as when he arrived in Polynesia) and the 'Phurba Diety' in ancient Tibet. Reviews This is an important story that needs to be told and your writing is very good. See to it that the film gets produced. Jagdish P. Sharma, Professor, Department of History, University of Hawaii at Manoa

By the mid-1920s, Buster Keaton had established himself as one of the geniuses of cinema with such films as Sherlock, Jr., The Navigator, and his 1927 work The General, which was the highest ranked silent on the American Film Institute's survey of the 100 greatest films. Before Keaton ventured into longer works, however, he had honed his skills as an actor, writer, and director of short films produced in the early 1920s. In Buster Keaton s Silent Shorts: 1920-1923, James L. Neibaur and Terri Niemi provide a film-by-film assessment of these brilliant two-reelers. The authors discuss the significance of each short The High Sign, One Week, Convict 13, The Scarecrow, Neighbors, The Haunted House, Hard Luck, The Goat, The Playhouse, The Boat, The Paleface, Cops, My Wife s Relations, The Blacksmith, Frozen North, Daydreams, The Electric House, The Balloonatic, and The Love Nest to the Keaton filmography, as well as each film s importance to cinema. Offering a clear and in-depth perspective on these 19 films, the authors explain what makes these shorts effective and why they re funny. Buster Keaton s Silent Shorts will enlighten both scholars and casual fans alike about the early work produced by one of cinema's most gifted comedians and filmmakers."

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) is widely acknowledged as one of the twentieth century's most significant masters of vocal music-solo, choral and operatic-quite apart from his achievements in instrumental spheres. But what it cost him has been underestimated. In this seminal biography, which will serve as the definitive guide to the songs, Graham Johnson shows that it is in Poulenc's extraordinary songs and seeing how they fit into his life-his hidden sexuality, addiction and all-that we discover the composer's essential artistic being. With Jeremy Sams's song translations, the first in over forty years, and the insight that comes from a lifetime of performing this music, Johnson provides an essential volume for singers, pianists, listeners and readers interested in the artistic milieu of modernism in the first half of the twentieth century.

The riveting story of the rivalry between the two most renowned actresses of the nineteenth century: legendary Sarah Bernhardt, whose eccentricity on and off the stage made her the original diva, and mystical Eleonora Duse, who broke all the rules to popularize the natural style of acting we celebrate today.Audiences across Europe and the Americas clamored to see the divine Sarah Bernhardt swoon--and she gave them their money's worth. The world's first superstar, she traveled with a chimpanzee named Darwin and a pet alligator that drank champagne, shamelessly supplementing her income by endorsing everything from aperitifs to beef bouillon, and spreading rumors that she slept in a coffin to better understand the macabre heroines she played. Eleonora Duse shied away from the spotlight. Born to a penniless family of itinerant troubadours, she disappeared into the characters she portrayed--channeling their spirits, she claimed. Her new, empathetic style of acting revolutionized the theater--and earned her the ire of Sarah Bernhardt in what would become the most tumultuous theatrical showdown of the nineteenth century. Bernhardt and Duse seduced each other's lovers, stole one another's favorite playwrights, and took to the world's stages to outperform their rival in her most iconic roles. A scandalous, enormously entertaining history full of high drama and low blows, Playing to the Gods is the perfect "book for all of us who binge-watched Feud" (Daniel de Vise, author of Andy & Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show).

An illustrated celebration of Grace Kelly, one of Hollywoods brightest stars, is already long overdue. Following on from the popular full-sized edition, this must-have gift-sized version was published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Grace Kelly's death and is now reissued to coincide with the release of the film Grace of Monaco, starring Nicole Kidman. A fascinating look at one of the world's most enduring and glamorous icons, the book includes a detailed biography and over 160 pictures and contact sheets, many of which are reproduced for the first time. Hand-written documents and famous quotes on and from Grace Kelly complement impressive iconographic research (family pictures, national archives, private collections, press agencies, newspapers). Also included are images and contact sheets from prestigious photographers, all of which give us a highly individual portrait of a cinematic legend.

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.

Bob Hope got his start in show business when he was in his twenties, remained active past the age of 90, and lived to be 100. His longevity was remarkable, especially when one considers that he was active in vaudeville, radio, motion pictures and television. He excelled in each of these popular forms of entertainment, but his films are the most genuine testaments to his timeless comedy. His smart quips, fast pace, and breezy manner were perfect ingredients for the brand of comedy that was popular during World War II and the years immediately following the war. This book begins with a discussion of Bob Hope's early career and the short films that he starred in, and then covers each of the Hope films beginning with The Big Broadcast of 1938. The Hope films, the author says, do not have deep subtexts or clever cinematic innovations, but provide clever, uplifting entertainment that continues to inspire laughter and offer solid examples of the humor that made Americans smile during and after World War II. Cast and credit information is provided for each film.

"So smart and entertaining it should come with its own popcorn"-People Coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the film version of Truman Capote's Breakast at Tiffany's, the acclaimed, New York Times bestseller that is the definitive account of Audrey Hepburn and the making of the cultural landmark film-now updated with a new introduction by the author. In Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M., Sam Wasson goes beyond the legend to explore the woman inside the little black dress and the film that captured the imagination of the nation in 1961-when the staid propriety of the Eisenhower years gave way to the glamorous modernity of the Kennedys. With a colorful cast of characters including Truman Capote, Edith Head, Givenchy, Moon River composer Henry Mancini, and, of course, the iconic Audrey Hepburn herself, Wasson immerses us in the America of the late fifties and early sixties before Woodstock and birth control, when an alluring, not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly melted hearts, raised eyebrows, and forever transformed Americans' notions of fashion, film, sex, and culture. Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. includes an 8-page black-and-white photo insert.

Stanislavsky in Focus brilliantly examines the history and actual premises of Stanislavsky's 'System', separating myth from fact with forensic skill. The first edition of this now classic study showed conclusively how the 'System' was gradually transformed into the Method, popularised in the 1950s by Lee Strasberg and the Actor's Studio. It looked at the gap between the original Russian texts and what most English-speaking practitioners still imagine to be Stanislavsky's ideas. This thoroughly revised new edition also delves even deeper into: the mythical depiction of Stanislavsky as a tyrannical director and teacher yoga, the mind-body-spirit continuum and its role in the 'System' how Stanislavsky used subtexts to hide many of his ideas from Soviet censors. The text has been updated to address all of the relevant scholarship, particularly in Russia, since the first edition was published. It also features an expanded glossary on the System's terminology and its historical exercises, as well as more on the political context of Stanislavsky's work, its links with cognitive science, and the System's relation to contemporary developments in actor-training. It will be a vital part of every practitioner's and historian's library.

Live theatre was once the main entertainment medium in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The preeminent dramatists and actors of the day wrote and performed in numerous plays in which crime was a major plot element. This remains true today, especially with the longest-running shows such as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Sweeney Todd. While hundreds of books have been published about crime fiction in film and on television, the topic of stage mysteries has been largely unexplored. Covering productions from the 18th century to the 2013-2014 theatre season, this volume is the first history of crime plays according to subject matter. More than 20 categories are identified, including whodunits, comic mysteries, courtroom dramas, musicals, crook plays, social issues, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie. Nearly 900 plays are described, including the reactions of critics and audiences.

Robert Clary (born Robert Max Widerman in Paris in 1926) is best known for his portrayal of the spirited Corporal Louis Lebeau on the popular television series Hogan's Heroes (on the air from 1965 to 1971 and widely syndicated around the globe). But it is Clary's experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust that infuse his compelling memoir with an honest recognition of life's often horrific reality, a recognition that counters his glittering five-decade career as an actor, singer, and artist and distinguishes this book from those by other entertainers. Clary describes his childhood in Paris, the German occupation in 1940, and his deportation in 1942 at the age of sixteen to the infamous transit camp Drancy. He recounts his nightmarish, two-and-a-half-year incarceration in Nazi concentration camps like Ottmuth, Blechhammer, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald. In April 1945, the Allies liberated Clary and other inmates. But the news that his parents, two sisters, two half-sisters, and two nephews had not survived the Nazis' genocidal campaign against the Jews reduced his joy to grief. After the war, Clary made his way to the United States and, against great odds, achieved fame on Broadway and in Hollywood. From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes is Robert Clary's extraordinary account of his remarkable life both as a survivor and as an entertainer. Once read, it will not be forgotten.

The films of Georges MEliEs (1861-1938) are landmarks in the early history of narrative filmmaking and cinematic special effects. He was a harbinger of modern aesthetics and media manipulation, and this book, written by his granddaughter, is the only one that tells his full story. Magnificent MEliEs is a thoroughly researched but highly accessible book that is a crucial source for the scholar and an entertaining read for the nonspecialist. The core of the biography provides detailed accounts of MEliEs's filmmaking years (1896-1912), from his first motion pictures shortly after the public premiere of the LumiEre CinEmatographe through such worldwide successes as his film Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) and his eventual marginalization by the very industry he had helped to found. The biography also chronicles MEliEs's formative work as director of Paris's preeminent magic theater, the ThEAtre Robert-Houdin; his subsequent career staging operettas for the ThEAtre des VariEtEs Artistiques (1917-1923) in Montreuil on the site of one of his former film studios; and his later years selling toys and candy at the Gare Montparnasse (1926-1932) before being rediscovered by journalists and the avant-garde. These and other fascinating chapters highlight the remarkable range of MEliEs's creative work while suggesting how his singular life was nevertheless shaped by the seismic historical shifts of Second Empire and Third Republic France.

Daniel Lewis's legacy as a hugely influential choreographer and teacher of modern dance is celebrated in this biography. It showcases the many roles he played in the dance world by organizing his story around various aspects of his work, including his years at the Juilliard School, dancing and touring with the Jose Limon Company, staging Limon's masterpieces around the world, directing his own company (Daniel Lewis Dance Repertory Company), writing and choreographing operas and musicals, and his years as dean of dance at New World School of the Arts. His life has spanned a particular period of growth of modern and contemporary dance, and his biography gives insight into how the artistic and journalistic perspectives on modern dance were influenced by what was occurring in the broader dance and arts communities. The book also offers rarely seen photographs and interviews with unique perspectives on many dance luminaries.

Before she achieved immortality on the long-running situation comedy Bewitched, Agnes Moorehead had established a distinguished career as a character actress. After her screen debut in Citizen Kane (1941), Moorehead became one of the most familiar female faces on the silver screen. For moviegoers of the 1940s and '50s, she was the quintessential character actress, earning four Academy Award nominations during a career that saw her gain the respect of her peers in all four major entertainment media: radio, film, theater, and television. In The Films of Agnes Moorehead, Axel Nissen looks at the actress's sixty-three feature films between 1941 and 1973. Each film is profiled here, with particular emphasis placed on the films that merit closer attention: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Mrs. Parkington, Dark Passage, All That Heaven Allows, The Left Hand of God, The Swan, Tempest, The Bat, and Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Arranged in chronological order, the discussion of these films highlights Moorehead's contribution to each feature. In addition to analyzing her performances, the author discusses the development of Moorehead's career as a whole, along with her relationship with various studios, directors, producers, and fellow actors. Based on extensive interviews with the actress's surviving friends and co-workers, as well as detailed archival research into primary sources, this book brings to light new information not just about Moorehead's work in film, but on her life and career in general. Though this book will certainly appeal to movie buffs, The Films of Agnes Moorehead will also be of interest to students and scholars of classic Hollywood films, including those interested in women and film, gender studies, and film history.

This expanded second edition of Contemporary European Theatre Directors is an ambitious and unprecedented overview of many of the key directors working in European theatre over the past 30 years. This book is a vivid account of the vast range of work undertaken in European theatre during the last three decades, situated lucidly in its artistic, cultural, and political context. Each chapter discusses a particular director, showing the influences on their work, how it has developed over time, its reception, and the complex relation it has with its social and cultural context. The volume includes directors living and working in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Russia, Romania, the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, offering a broad and international picture of the directing landscape. Now revised and updated, Contemporary European Theatre Directors is an ideal text for both undergraduate and postgraduate directing students, as well as those researching contemporary theatre practices, providing a detailed guide to the generation of directors whose careers were forged and tempered in the changing Europe following the end of the Cold War.

"Clap your hands, rattle your jewelry, and twist and shout for Erin Hosier's Don't Let Me Down....Fierce, catchy, hilarious--like your favorite vinyl punk 45--this bird can sing. A glorious memoir." -- Brando Skyhorse, author of Take This Man This fierce and witty memoir about a father-daughter relationship "is a beautifully written, honest, and often funny account of what it is to grow up as a woman" (Nancy Balbirer, author of A Marriage in Dog Years). Erin Hosier's coming-of-age was full of contradictions. Born into the turbulent 1970s, she was raised in rural Ohio by lapsed hippies who traded 1960s rock 'n' roll for 1950s-era Christian hymns. Her mother's newfound faith was rooted in a desire to manage her husband's mood swings, which could alternately fill the house with music or with violence. With the Beatles providing the soundtrack, Erin grew up adoring her larger than life father, Jack. Together, they bonded over their iconic songs, even as they inspired Erin to question authority--both her father's and others'. Don't Let Me Down is about a brave girl trying to navigate family secrets and tragedies and escape from small-town small-mindedness. With her lyrical and tender writing, Erin "doesn't shy away from the complications and contradictions of love, sharing both the best and the worst of her volatile, vibrant father and detailing--in her singular and often hilarious voice, the difficulty of leaving childhood, home, and the people who loved you first" (Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest).

A fascinating exploration and celebration of the life and work of the coolest man in Hollywood, Samuel L. Jackson--from his star-making turns in the films of Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino to his ubiquitous roles in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, not to mention the cult favorite Snakes on a Plane. Samuel L. Jackson's embodiment of cool isn't just inspirational--it's important. Bad Motherfucker lays out how his attitude intersects with his identity as a Black man, why being cool matters in the modern world, and how Jackson can guide us through the current cultural moment in which everyone is losing their cool. Edwards details Jackson's fascinating personal history, from stuttering bookworm to gunrunning revolutionary to freebasing addict to A-list movie star. Drawing on original reporting and interviews, the book explores not only the major events of Jackson's life but also his obsessions: golf, kung fu movies, profanity. Bad Motherfucker features a delectable filmography of Jackson's movies--140 and counting!--and also includes new movie posters for many of Jackson's greatest roles, reimagined by dozens of gifted artists and designers. The book provides a must-read road map through the vast territory of his on-screen career and more: a vivid portrait of Samuel L. Jackson's essential self, as well as practical instructions, by example, for how to live and work and be.