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Ever wonder why so many stars and featured players, male or female,
in movies of Hollywood’s “Golden Age” look like they just
stepped out of a beauty parlor even if the story places them in a
jungle, a hospital bed, or the ancient past? All for
Beauty examines how and why makeup and hairdressing evolved
as crafts designed partly to maintain the white flawlessness of men
and women as a value in the studio era. The book pays
particular attention to the labor force, exploring the power and
influence of cosmetics inventor and manufacturer Max Factor and the
Westmore dynasty of makeup artists but also the contributions of
others, many of them women, whose names are far less known. At the
end of the complex, exciting, and at times dismaying chronicle, it
is likely that readers will never again watch Hollywood films
without thinking about the roles of makeup and hairdressing in
creating both fictional characters and stars as emblems of an
idealized and undeniably mesmerizing visual perfection.
Hollywood has long been associated with scandal--with covering it
up, with managing its effects, and, in some cases, with creating
and directing it. In putting together Headline Hollywood, Adrienne
McLean and David Cook approach the relationship between Hollywood
and scandal from a fresh perspective. The contributors consider
some of the famous transgressions that shocked Hollywood and its
audiences during the last century, and explore the changing meaning
of scandal over time by zeroing in on issues of power: Who decides
what crimes and misdemeanors should be circulated for public
consumption and titillation? What makes a Hollywood scandal
scandalous? What are the uses of scandal? The essays are arranged
chronologically to show how Hollywood scandals have evolved
relative to changing moral and social orders. This collection will
prove essential to the field of film studies as well as to anyone
interested in the character and future direction of American
culture. Contributors are Mark Lynn Anderson, Cynthia Baron, James
Castonguay, Nancy Cook, Mary Desjardins, Lucy Fischer, Lee
Grieveson, Erik Hedling, Peter Lehman, William Luhr, Adrienne L.
McLean, Susan McLeland, and Sam Stoloff. Adrienne L. McLean is an
assistant professor of film studies at the University of Texas at
Dallas. David A. Cook is a professor of film and media studies at
Emory University. He is the author of A History of Film Narrative.
Dogs have been part of motion pictures since the movies began. They
have been featured onscreen in various capacities, from any number
of "man's best friends" (Rin Tin Tin, Asta, Toto, Lassie, Benji,
Uggie, and many, many more) to the psychotic Cujo. The contributors
to Cinematic Canines take a close look at Hollywood films and
beyond in order to show that the popularity of dogs on the screen
cannot be separated from their increasing presence in our lives
over the past century.
The representation and visualization of dogs in cinema, as of other
animals, has influenced our understanding of what dogs "should" do
and be, for us and with us. Adrienne L. McLean expertly shepherds
these original essays into a coherent look at "real" dogs in
live-action narrative films, from the stars and featured players to
the character and supporting actors to those pooches that assumed
bit parts or performed as extras. Who were those dogs, how were
they trained, what were they made to do, how did they participate
as characters in a fictional universe? These are a just a few of
the many questions that she and the outstanding group of scholars
in this book have addressed.
Often dogs are anthropomorphized in movies in ways that enable them
to reason, sympathize, understand and even talk; and our shaping of
dogs into furry humans has had profound effects on the lives of
dogs off the screen. Certain breeds of dog have risen in popularity
following their appearance in commercial film, often to the
detriment of the dogs themselves, who rarely correspond to their
idealized screen versions. In essence, the contributors in
"Cinematic Canines" help us think about and understand the meanings
of the many canines that appear in the movies and, in turn, we want
to know more about those dogs due in no small part to the power of
the movies themselves.
Shirley Temple, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland,
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and
Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, William Powell and
Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, and Gary Cooper-"Glamour in a Golden Age"
presents original essays from eminent film scholars that analyze
movie stars of the 1930s against the background of contemporary
American cultural history.
Stardom is approached as an effect of, and influence on, the
particular historical and industrial contexts that enabled these
actors and actresses to be discovered, featured in films,
publicized, and to become recognized and admired-sometimes even
notorious-parts of the cultural landscape. Using archival and
popular material, including fan and mass market magazines, other
promotional and publicity material, and of course films themselves,
contributors also discuss other artists who were incredibly popular
at the time, among them Ann Harding, Ruth Chatterton, Nancy
Carroll, Kay Francis, and Constance Bennett.
"This book reexamines Rita Hayworth's star image and her
proficiency as a dancer in order to challenge received wisdom about
the objectification of female stars in classical Hollywood cinema.
This is a superior piece of scholarship and an outstanding
contribution to star studies." Ina Rae Hark, University of South
Carolina "McLean's argument is complex, coherent, and eminently
readable. Through meticulous research, she productively opens up
the notion of star as worker." Mary R. Desjardins, Dartmouth
College Who was Rita Hayworth? Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, she
spent her life subjected to others' definitions of her, no matter
how hard she worked to claim her own identity. Although there have
been many "revelations" about her life and career, Adrienne
McLean's book is the first to show that such disclosures were part
of a constructed image from the outset. McLean explores Hayworth's
participation in the creation of her star persona, particularly
through her work as a dancer-a subject ignored by most film
scholars. The passive love goddess, as it turns out, had a unique
appeal to other women who, like her, found it extraordinarily
difficult to negotiate the competing demands of family,
domesticity, and professional work outside the home. Being Rita
Hayworth also considers the ways in which the actress has been
treated by film scholarship over the years to accomplish its own
goals, sometimes at her expense. Several of Hayworth's best-known
star vehicles-among them Gilda (1946), Down to Earth (1947), The
Lady from Shanghai (1948), and Affair in Trinidad (1952)- are
discussed in depth. Adrienne L. McLean is an assistant professor of
film studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is the
co-editor of Headline Hollywood: A Century of Film Scandal.
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