This reference work provides a comprehensive record of the life and career of Betty Grable. The book begins with a biography that presents and discusses the most significant events in Grable's life. The chronology that follows summarizes her career in capsule form. The succeeding chapters provide a detailed account of Grable's performances in various media, including films, television, radio, stage, nightclubs, videos, and records. The entries in these sections succinctly present the facts concerning each of Grable's performances and offer insightful commentary. The volume concludes with a list of Grable memorabilia, a section of miscellaneous information, and an annotated bibliography of books and articles containing extensive or unique material about Grable and her career.

Scotland's greatest export. The world's first super spy. Voted the sexiest man on the planet. Sir Sean Connery was a titanic figure on screen and off for over half a century. Behind the son of a factory worker, growing up in near-poverty on the harsh streets of pre-war Edinburgh, lay a timeless array of motion pictures that spanned multiple decades and saw Connery work across the globe with directors as diverse as Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. And amongst them his greatest role, whether he liked it or not - Bond, James Bond. Author A. J. Black delves into Connery's life for more than mere biography, exploring not just the enormously varied pictures he made including crowd pleasing blockbusters such as The Untouchables or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, serious-minded fare in The Hill or The Offence, and his strange sojourns into eclectic fantasy with Zardoz or Time Bandits, but also the sweep of a career that crossed movie eras as well as decades. From skirmishes with the angry young men of the British New Wave, via becoming the cinematic icon of the 1960s as 007, through to a challenging reinvention as a unique older actor of stature in the 1980s, this exploration of the Cinematic Connery shows just how much his work reflected the changing movie-going tastes, political realities and cultural trends of the 20th century, and beyond . . .

NewsLady is the memoir of a trailblazing African American woman journalist whose life is about "firsts." Carole Simpson was the first woman to broadcast radio news in Chicago, the first African American woman to anchor a local newscast in the same city, the first African American woman national network television correspondent, the first African American woman to anchor a national network newscast and the first woman or minority to moderate a presidential debate. Hers is a story of survival in a male-dominated profession that placed the highest premium on white males. In this book she recounts how she endured and conquered sex discrimination and racial prejudice to reach the top ranks of her profession. Along the way she covered some of the most important news events over the four decades of her illustrious broadcasting career. Her inspirational story is for all trying to succeed in a corporate environment.

Henry McAvoy was employed by Fox Silent Films as Location Manager from 1915 until his death in 1920. Henry had managed a fire works company, which gave him the experience of handling explosives to becoming an electrician. His job included that whenever Fox needed anything (submarines, war ships, naval aircraft. locations for filming) it was his job to acquire it. It was also his job to handle the explosives that were used in the thrilling scenes. The breathtaking scenes that thrilled the audiences were staged at the location. Many times this almost cost the life of one of the actors or actresses and in one case did. Author George McAvoy was only three months old when his father was killed in a dynamite explosion in his own garage. George only knew of his father, Henry McAvoy, through stories passed down from his mother and two brothers, from the letters his father had written to his mother when they were courting and when he was traveling, and from the thousands of photographs that his father took. George McAvoy uses these photos to tell the story of his entrepreneurial father who during the period of silent films became in charge of Fox Films special effects and finding the right locations for movies to be filmed. It was a much wilder time in the film industry when the center was Fort Lee, New Jersey, before the move to Hollywood. Many more risks were taken and there were few, if any, stuntmen. Unfortunately much of the film history was destroyed in a large fire at the Fort Lee storage warehouse where the highly flammable films were kept. The story includes onsite tales of filming and details of Henry McAvoy's family life.

I'm just a cosmic yob, I suppose.

I change every day. I'm not outrageous. I'm David Bowie.

I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir.

Genre-hopping, gender-bending: Bowie has never been afraid to push the boundaries. Whether masquerading as an alien, a spaceman or a goblin king, this rock 'n' roll hero was a true visionary. The death of the Man Who Fell to Earth shook fans around the world, but his influence lives on.

Pocket Bowie Wisdom is full of insights into music, identity, fame, love and creativity from one of the most pioneering musicians of all time.

This collection of quotes makes a perfect gift for the Bowie fan in your life.

A celebration of contemporary comedy which focuses on the trend for discomfort and the extreme, this title covers major hits of recent years from Borat, Little Britain and The Office.

From Tennessee Williams and Carson McCullers to Arthur Kopit and Brian Friel, New York-based literary agent Audrey Wood encouraged and guided the unique talents of playwrights in the Broadway theatre of her day. Audrey Wood and the Playwrights illuminates the gifts and strategies of the tenacious woman at the Liebling-Wood Agency who melded playwrights with producers, directors, and leading actors and shaped the American theatre and film industry during the mid-twentieth century. Wood's story is told here through her interactions with her clients, now household names, whose works she steered through periods of triumph and failure. In an era when women, with the exception of actresses, were rare in the theatre business, she was known as the "go-to" agent for success in the commercial theater. Dubbed a "guardian agent," her quiet determination and burning enthusiasm brought America's finest mid-century playwrights to prominence and altered stage history.

"Jean Genet: Performance and Politics" is the first book to explore the broad political significance of Genet's performance practice by focusing on his radical experiments, polemical subjects and formal innovations in theater, film and dance. Its new approach brings together the diverse aspects of Genet's work through essays by international scholars and interviews with such key theater directors as Richard Schechner, Terry Hands, Cornerstone Theatre and Jean-Baptiste Sastre.

ERROL FLYNN "Those first thoughts of death, destruction and suicide began to occur within me--which would not easily or perhaps ever vanish. I no longer had such an interest in living. I didn't give a damn, in fact. Much of the will to live had gone." Like Hemingway, he sat with a gun to his head. He contemplated suicide. Three nights in a row he sat at the edge of the bed with a revolver to his head. The third night it was in his mouth. He, Errol Flynn, had power, fame, money, women, yet it was all an empty victory. He had been destroyed by the rape trial. "That which I had, my big house, my yacht, my bank account, seemed hollow. None of these could take the place of self respect, which I had lost." He would write in his autobiography, "Inside I was smarting, terribly wounded from the scar of the rape trial." He had other aspirations for his life than becoming a phallic symbol. Everyone thought they knew Errol Flynn, but they didn't. He was a complicated man who camouflaged his true self from the outside world and only through some of his own writing could one glean the type of person he really was and what he had hoped to be. No one could enter with aplomb and grace like him, who clicked his heels in salute like him, who was the greatest swashbuckler like him, a terrific horseman who held his sword and lance as if they were part of him; no one could be as great a leader like him, tall, handsome, dashing, whose voice, eyes and mannerisms would make ladies fall in love with him and men follow him to the end of the earth. The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Sea Hawk, They Died with Their Boots On, and Objective Burma are some of the finest films ever made, and undoubtedly no one has been able to replace him. He was a natural actor who lived his roles and his characters, but who aspired to be a writer and war correspondent. He was a man marred by an ugly childhood of neglect and abandonment, who rose out of sheer fortitude of his character to become one of the great stars of the golden age. This book is a probing and extensively researched attempt to explore the people, events and factors that made Errol Flynn who he was. It is an analysis of his triumph, his tortured inner self and his ultimate downfall. There is in addition a complete filmography with historical background.

This lavishly-illustrated tour through the film career of Greta Garbo (1905-1990) provides a biographical background of the star and an analysis of her very special mystique. Payne describes how Garbo's timeless beauty worked its magic in such films as Flesh and the Devil, Anna Christie, Mata Hari, Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, Camille, and Ninotchka. Remarkable photos show the transformation of working-class girl Greta Gustafsson into a Hollywood bit player, and later into an icon of cinema glamour.