He was Red Skelton's favorite director, and mentored Lucille Ball in the art of physical comedy. In his 15-year Hollywood career, S. Sylvan Simon (1910-1951) directed and/or produced more than 40 films, with stars like Lana Turner, Abbott and Costello, and Wallace Beery. Though he loved to make moviegoers laugh, he demonstrated his versatility with murder mysteries, war stories, and musicals. After a decade at MGM, he moved to Columbia, where he produced his own projects, including the Western melodrama Lust for Gold, and popular slapstick comedies like The Fuller Brush Girl. As head of production, reporting to irascible Harry Cohn, he produced the award-winning Born Yesterday, and was working on From Here to Eternity when his life ended tragically at the age of 41. This first-ever account of Simon's life and career draws on interviews with family and colleagues, genealogical records, archival materials, and his own annotated scripts to tell the story of a stage-struck boy from Pittsburgh whose talent and tenacity made him a Hollywood success. The filmography provides production histories, critical commentary, and excerpts from published reviews. An appendix covers books written or edited by Simon, including his anthologized plays for amateur groups.

Rochelle Hudson's career as an actress was planned from the start by her ambitious stage mother, who gave birth to her in 1916. Given rigorous dance and musical training as a child, Hudson won her first film contract at the age of fourteen. A WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931, she co-starred with actors such as W.C. Fields, Henry Fonda, Claudette Colbert, Will Rogers and Fredric March in classic films like Imitation of Life (1934) and Les Miserables (1935). But within a few years, she was stuck in B movies and frustrated. Stepping away from Hollywood, Hudson worked as a realtor and a rancher, and even did wartime espionage work for the Navy. She continued acting occasionally, in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the TV sitcom That's My Boy (1954-55), and the campy horror film Strait-Jacket (1964). A timeless beauty, she was married (and divorced) four times before her untimely death in 1972 at age 55. Drawing on personal papers, interviews with family and friends and genealogical research, this first account of Rochelle Hudson's life and work depicts a talented and outspoken woman who built a successful career on her own terms. The annotated filmography provides synopses, critical commentary and reviews for nearly 60 feature films.

The Emmy-nominated star of the classic 1950s sitcom I Married Joan, Joan Davis (1912-1961) was also radio's highest paid comedienne in the 1940s and she displayed her unique brand of knockabout comedy in more than forty films. This book provides a complete account of her career, including a filmography with critical commentary, and the most detailed episode logs ever compiled for her radio and television programmes. A biographical chapter offers never-before-published information about her family background, marriage to vaudeville comedian Si Wills, relationships with other men and her tragic early death.

The remarkable career of American actress Eve Arden (1908-1990) is thoroughly chronicled from her earliest stage work in 1926 (under her given name Eunice Quedens) to her final television role in a 1987 episode of Falcon Crest. Included are detailed descriptions and critical commentaries of the actress's 62 feature film appearances between 1929 and 1982, notably her Oscar-nominated performance as Joan Crawford's sardonic confidante in 1945's Mildred Pierce. Complete coverage is provided of Eve Arden's work in the popular radio and television series Our Miss Brooks, and her later costarring stint with Kaye Ballard in the two-season TV sitcom The Mothers-in-Law. Also listed are her many other radio and television appearances, as well as her theatrical roles in such Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 and Let's Face It.

An Oscar-winning Best Actress for her tour-de-force role in ""Come Back, Little Sheba"", Shirley Booth would ultimately win every major acting award that could be bestowed on an actress. Awarded three Tony Awards, two Emmys, and a Golden Globe, Booth was described by the judges at the Cannes Film Festival as 'The World's Best Actress.' Yet today fans know her best as the warm-hearted, busybody maid of television's ""Hazel"".This, the first biography of the beloved star, provides complete coverage of a career that encompassed theater, film, radio, and television, and co-stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. It begins with Shirley's childhood in Brooklyn, and her rebellious decision to become an actress against the wishes of her strict father. Included is complete coverage of her tumultuous marriage to radio comedian Ed Gardner (of ""Duffy's Tavern"" fame), and a second, happier union that ended abruptly with her husband's death of a heart attack. Readers of this exhaustively researched biography will come to know a versatile and gifted star whose career spanned almost 60 years. Appendices provide extensive details of her Broadway, film, radio and television (episode-by-episode) credits.

Most of the bright and talented actresses who made America laugh in the 1950s are off the air today, but their pioneering Hollywood careers irrevocably changed the face of television comedy. These smart and sassy women successfully negotiated the hazards of the male-dominated workplace with class and humor, and the work they did in the 1950s is inventive still by today's standards. Unable to fall back on strong language, shock value, or racial and sexual epithets, the female sitcom stars of the 1950s entertained with pure talent and screen savvy. As they did so, they helped to lay the foundation for the development of television comedy. This book pays tribute to 10 prominent television actresses who played lead roles in popular comedy shows of the 1950s. Each chapter covers the works and personalities of one actress: Lucille Ball (""I Love Lucy""), Gracie Allen (""The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show""), Eve Arden (""Our Miss Brooks""), Spring Byington (""December Bride""), Joan Davis (""I Married Joan""), Anne Jeffreys (""Topper""), Donna Reed (""The Donna Reed Show""), Ann Sothern (""Private Secretary"" and ""The Ann Sothern Show""), Gale Storm (""My Little Margie"" and ""The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna""), and Betty White (""Life with Elizabeth""). For each star, a career sketch is provided, concentrating primarily on her television work but also noting achievements in other areas. Appendices offer cast and crew lists, a chronology of 1950s female comedy feature events, and an additional biographical sketch of 10 less familiar actresses who deserve recognition.

On December 31, 1939, radio audiences nationwide listened as 17-year-old Josephine Owaissa Cottle, a Texas schoolgirl, won Gateway to Hollywood's new talent competition. Her prize: a movie contract at RKO, and a memorable stage name - "Gale Storm." Building on that opportunity, she became one of the nation's most beloved entertainers. Gale (1922-2009) appeared in thirty-five films, starred in two hit television series (My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna), and earned a gold record for her pop song "I Hear You Knockin'. This extensively researched survey of her life and career, featuring interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, offers previously unpublished details of her upbringing, personal joys and challenges, and later years out of the Hollywood spotlight. An annotated filmography encompasses Gale's time as a leading lady at the "Poverty Row" studio Monogram Pictures, roles in Westerns opposite stars like Roy Rogers and Audie Murphy, and appearances in classics such as It Happened on 5th Avenue. Her TV stardom is fully covered, with complete production histories and episode guides for her popular sitcoms. The result is a well-rounded portrait of a woman whose charisma and talent won the hearts of audiences from the 1940s to the present.

As a child on stage, Martha Raye (1916-1994) proudly embraced the role of the clown, her gift for slapstick comedy enhanced by a fine singing voice. She became a star with her first feature film, Rhythm on the Range (1936), as the zany, loudmouthed girl looking for love-or chasing it as it ran away. She won popular and critical acclaim with The Martha Raye Show (1954-1956) before it was abruptly cancelled, partly due to her chaotic personal life. Drawing on new interviews with colleagues, this retrospective covers the life and career of an enduringly funny lady who influenced a generation of women comedians. Her reign as a top NBC star of the 1950s is covered, along with her appearances on popular variety shows, her roles in fondly remembered series like The Bugaloos, McMillan and Alice, and her film career that teamed her with the likes of Jack Benny, Charlie Chaplin and Doris Day.

Dubbed "The Dollar Bills," press agents-turned-producers William H. Pine and William C. Thomas made 1940s Hollywood take notice with their B movies for Paramount that gave solid entertainment while cutting costs to the bone. In the 1950s, with television looming, Pine-Thomas Productions began making bigger-budget films with stars including James Cagney and Jane Wyman, and incorporating trends like 3-D. "The public is Hollywood's boss," Pine said, and the company gave moviegoers what they wanted. Written with the assistance of the Pine and Thomas families, this book draws on Thomas' never-published memoir, interviews with colleagues and relatives, and rarely seen photographs to document the story of Pine-Thomas and its founders. An annotated filmography covers their 76 feature films and five shorts. Appendices give biographical sketches of such actors as Robert Lowery, Jean Parker and John Payne, as well as the directors, cinematographers and other crew members who made movies at top speed with more ingenuity than money.