"Soundies" were the granddaddies of music videos: single-song musical movies that played in special jukeboxes during the 1940s. Some of the biggest musical stars (and stars of the future) appeared in these films: Louis Armstrong, Spike Jones, Liberace, Fats Waller, Stan Kenton, Cab Calloway, and many others. Thanks to Soundies, hundreds of unique musical performances were photographed for posterity. These mini-musicals were originally nothing more than a ten-cent novelty. Today, to film and music fans, they're a priceless part of history. Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda, authors of the landmark resource book "The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America," now offer this revised and expanded guide to the Soundies musicals. This all-new book picks up where the original left off: more than 1800 titles are classified by performer, title, and date-many with new, individual annotations and all with new cross-references for easy reading and consultation. There is also a historical account of the prolific Soundies production companies, a look at Soundies' many competitors and descendants (including telescriptions and Scopitones), a checklist of the dozens of Soundies home-movie editions, and a listing of alternate titles to help collectors identify the films more easily. All in one handy volume: "The Soundies Book."

Long before his momentous teaming with Oliver Hardy, comedian Stan Laurel (1890-1965) was a motion picture star in his own right. From his film debut in Nuts in May (1917) through his final solo starring effort Should Tall Men Marry? (1928), Laurel headlined dozens of short comedies for a variety of producers and production companies, often playing characters far removed from the meek, dimwitted ""Stanley"" persona that we know and love. This film-by-film look at the pictures Stan made as a solo artist, as well as those he wrote and directed for other stars, shows his development as a movie comedian and filmmaker. Comedy legend Jerry Lewis, a longtime friend and admirer of Stan Laurel, provides an affectionate and eloquent foreword. Included are several rare photographs and production stills.

Monogram Pictures Corporation, one of several famed "poverty row" studios, produced over 700 feature films--cheap, often inept, frequently forgettable, but so inexpensive profit was unavoidable. The Bowery Boys and Charlie Chan series were extremely popular. This, the first such reference book, corrects errors in other sources while giving movie titles, casts, credits, plot synopses, running times, release dates, alternate and remake titles.

Columbia produced over 500 two-reel shorts from 1933 through 1958, with Hollywood's finest comics (the Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, others). Fully illustrated with never-before-published photographs, the book chronicles the history of all, including interviews with the veterans. The filmography covers all of the 526 two-reelers: credits, date, synopsis.

Dorothy Lee is best remembered for her screen appearances with the popular comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. She went from being a struggling vaudeville performer to the female vocalist in one of the most successful bands in the country--to becoming a star in the new-fangled ""talking pictures,"" all within the span of a few short years. During the Great Depression, she lived a fairy-tale existence, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood luminaries and earning an income that most people could only dream of. She retired and balanced domestic life with charity work. And she saw, to her amazement, a revived interest in the movie career she had written off long ago. Based on years of conversations between the authors and their subject, this book is an informative biography filled with revealing insights on navigating the studio system during Hollywood's Golden Age and the ephemeral nature of fame.

Throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, several independent film production companies (referred to a ""poverty row"" studios) turned out hundreds of ""B"" movies--low-budget feature films that were specifically designed to play the bottom half of the double bills. This handy reference focuses on the output of three of these independents--Grand National (1936-1939), Producers Releasing Corporation (1939-1948), and Screen Guild/Lippert (1945-1955). Here are studio histories and details on all their output (title of movie, director, producer, writer, cast, plot, synopsis, running time, release date, and more). Films are covered chronologically by release date.

"Soundies" were the granddaddies of music videos: single-song musical movies that played in special jukeboxes during the 1940s. Some of the biggest musical stars (and stars of the future) appeared in these films: Louis Armstrong, Spike Jones, Liberace, Fats Waller, Stan Kenton, Cab Calloway, and many others. Thanks to Soundies, hundreds of unique musical performances were photographed for posterity. These mini-musicals were originally nothing more than a ten-cent novelty. Today, to film and music fans, they're a priceless part of history. Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda, authors of the landmark resource book "The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America," now offer this revised and expanded guide to the Soundies musicals. This all-new book picks up where the original left off: more than 1800 titles are classified by performer, title, and date-many with new, individual annotations and all with new cross-references for easy reading and consultation. There is also a historical account of the prolific Soundies production companies, a look at Soundies' many competitors and descendants (including telescriptions and Scopitones), a checklist of the dozens of Soundies home-movie editions, and a listing of alternate titles to help collectors identify the films more easily. All in one handy volume: "The Soundies Book."

Charlie Chaplin is universally hailed as the greatest comedic talent in the history of motion pictures. And yet Chaplin's early efforts - which account for more than half of his total output-are often overlooked in favor of his later films. In 1914 Chaplin appeared in a total of 35 films for the Keystone Film Company; the following year he signed with the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, where he wrote, directed and starred in more than a dozen short comedies. Though the resulting pictures were frequently crude and erratic, they reveal the emergence of a formidable comic genius. Charlie Chaplin at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp is a film-by-film examination of this period in Chaplin's career, tracing the birth of his beloved Tramp character and his evolution as an actor and filmmaker. Also discussed are how these movies have been re-edited, recopied, reissued and retitled over the years, with a special section that matches pseudonym titles to their original source film. Charlie Chaplin at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp is a fascinating look at the first celluloid steps taken by this legendary laughmaker, and is a must for all Chaplin fans, old and new.