James Kotsilibas-Davis's Books

The Man Who Seduced Hollywood

The Life and Loves of Greg Bautzer, Tinseltown's Most Powerful Lawyer

By: B. James Gladstone

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The Man Who Seduced Hollywood

The Life and Loves of Greg Bautzer, Tinseltown's Most Powerful Lawyer

By: B. James Gladstone

In Hollywood history, no other lawyer has achieved the movie star–like fame and glamour that Greg Bautzer enjoyed. This revealing biography tells, for the first time, the amazing story of a self-made man who for 50 years used his irresistible charm and prodigious legal talent to dominate the courtrooms, boardrooms, and bedrooms of Hollywood. Columnists of the 1930s through 1950s dubbed him “Hollywood Bachelor Number One,” and for good reason. His long-term relationships and momentary conquests were a who’s who of leading ladies. Through exclusive interviews with those who knew him best, the book uncovers the inner workings of not only Bautzer the high-powered Hollywood lawyer—whose clients included billionaire Howard Hughes—but Bautzer the man.

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Page Count

415

Publisher

Chicago Review Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1613745826

ISBN 13

9781613745823

The Casablanca Man

The Cinema of Michael Curtiz

By: Dr James C Robertson,James Robertson

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The Casablanca Man

The Cinema of Michael Curtiz

By: Dr James C Robertson,James Robertson

Michael Curtiz (1888-1962) was without doubt one of the most important directors in film history, yet he has never been granted his deserved recognition and no full-scale work on him has previously been published. The Casablanca Man surveys Curtiz' unequalled mastery over a variety of genres which included biography, comedy, horror, melodrama, musicals, swashbucklers and westerns, and looks at his relationship with the Hollywood studio moguls on the basis of unprecedented archive research at Warner Brothers. Concentrating on Curtiz' best-known films - Casablanca, Angels With Dirty Faces, Mildred Pearce and Captain Blood among them - Robertson explores Curtiz' practical creative struggles and his friendships and rivalries with other film celebrities including Errol Flynn, Bette Davis and James Cagney, and his discovery of future stars. Casablanca Man is the first comprehensive critical exploration of Curtiz' entire career and, linking his European work and his subsequent American work into a coherent whole, Robertson firmly re-establishes Curtiz' true standing in the history of cinema.

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Page Count

209

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1136158448

ISBN 13

9781136158445

Historical Dictionary of American Theater

Beginnings

By: James Fisher

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Historical Dictionary of American Theater

Beginnings

By: James Fisher

Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Beginnings covers the history of theater as well as the literature of America from 1538 to 1880. The years covered by this volume features the rise of the popular stage in American during the colonial era and the first century of the United States of America, with an emphasis on its practitioners, including such figures as Lewis Hallam, David Douglass, Mercy Otis Warren, Edwin Forrest, Charlotte Cushman, Joseph Jefferson, Ida Aldridge, Dion Boucicault, Edwin Booth, and many others. The Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Beginnings covers the history of early American Theatre through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1000 cross-referenced entries on actors and actresses, directors, playwrights, producers, genres, notable plays and theatres. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the early American Theater.

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Page Count

571

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

081087833X

ISBN 13

9780810878334

100 Guilty Pleasure Movies

By: James Stratton

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100 Guilty Pleasure Movies

By: James Stratton

Along with such familiar titles as The Devil Wears Prada and Remember the Titans, Stratton introduces readers to lesser-known gems like Diplomatic Courier, The Narrow Margin, Prime Cut and Under Fire. The selections represent every major genre of film: domestic drama, musical, film noir, Western, science fiction, comedy, biopic, war, espionage, sports, superhero and horror. Among the acting careers examined are those of Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Greer Garson, Burt Lancaster, Meryl Streep, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington, Daniel Craig and many others. Covering over ninety years of film history, this is a book for the casual fan as well as the seasoned student. Easy to read and to navigate, it is a must-have reference.

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Page Count

536

Publisher

Dog Ear Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1457555883

ISBN 13

9781457555886

The A to Z of American Theater

Modernism

By: James Fisher,Felicia Hardison Londré

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The A to Z of American Theater

Modernism

By: James Fisher,Felicia Hardison Londré

The 50-year period from 1880 to 1929 is the richest era for theater in American history, certainly in the great number of plays produced and artists who contributed significantly, but also in the centrality of theater in the lives of Americans. As the impact of European modernism began to gradually seep into American theater during the 1880s and quite importantly in the 1890s, more traditional forms of theater gave way to futurism, symbolism, surrealism, and expressionism. American playwrights like Eugene O'Neill, George Kelly, Elmer Rice, Philip Barry, and George S. Kaufman ushered in the Golden Age of American drama. The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism focuses on legitimate drama, both as influenced by European modernism and as impacted by the popular entertainment that also enlivened the era. This is accomplished through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced entries on plays; music; playwrights; great performers like Maude Adams, Otis Skinner, Julia Marlowe, and E.H. Sothern; producers like David Belasco, Daniel Frohman, and Florenz Ziegfeld; critics; architects; designers; and costumes.

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Page Count

618

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810870479

ISBN 13

9780810870475

Dana Andrews

The Face of Noir

By: James McKay

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Dana Andrews

The Face of Noir

By: James McKay

Dana Andrews, arguably the finest minimalist actor of his generation, as one critic commented, could convey more with one look than many actors could with a soliloquy. In a film career spanning nearly five decades, Andrews appeared in some of Hollywood's most prestigious productions, including The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). His unique screen presence was shown at its best in such film noir classics as Laura (1944) and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950). Beginning with an absorbing biographical chapter, this critical survey of Dana Andrews' screen career features a complete filmography with synopses, reviews, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and insightful comments from Andrews and his coworkers. A chronological list of television, radio and theater credits is included.

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Page Count

256

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786456760

ISBN 13

9780786456765

Spencer Tracy

A Biography

By: James Curtis

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Spencer Tracy

A Biography

By: James Curtis

A rich, vibrant portrait—the most intimate and telling yet of this complex man considered by many to be the actor’s actor. Spencer Tracy’s image on-screen was that of a self-reliant man whose sense of rectitude toward others was matched by his sense of humor toward himself. Whether he was Father Flanagan of Boys Town, Clarence Darrow of Inherit the Wind, or the crippled war veteran in Bad Day at Black Rock, Tracy was forever seen as a pillar of strength. His full name was Spencer Bonaventure Tracy. He was called “The Gray Fox” by Frank Sinatra; other actors called him the “The Pope.” “The best goddamned actor I’ve ever seen!”—George M. Cohan In his several comedy roles opposite Katharine Hepburn (Woman of the Year and Adam’s Rib among them) or in Father of the Bride with Elizabeth Taylor, Tracy was the sort of regular American guy one could depend on. Now James Curtis, acclaimed biographer of Preston Sturges (“Definitive” —Variety), James Whale, and W. C. Fields (“By far the fullest, fairest, and most touching account . . . we have yet had. Or are likely to have” —Richard Schickel, The New York Times Book Review, cover review), gives us the life of one of the most revered screen actors of his generation. Curtis writes of Tracy’s distinguished career, his deep Catholicism, his devoted relationship to his wife, his drinking that got him into so much trouble, and his twenty-six-year-long bond with his partner on-screen and off, Katharine Hepburn. Drawing on Tracy’s personal papers and writing with the full cooperation of Tracy’s daughter, Curtis tells the rich story of the brilliant but haunted man at the heart of the legend. We see him from his boyhood in Milwaukee; given over to Dominican nuns (“They drill that religion in you”); his years struggling in regional shows and stock (Tracy had a photographic memory and an instinct for inhabiting a character from within); acting opposite his future wife, Louise Treadwell; marrying and having two children, their son, John, born deaf. We see Tracy’s success on Broadway, his turning out mostly forgettable programmers with the Fox Film Corporation, and going to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and getting the kinds of roles that had eluded him in the past—a streetwise priest opposite Clark Gable in San Francisco; a screwball comedy, Libeled Lady; Kipling’s classic of the sea, Captains Courageous. Three years after arriving at MGM, Tracy became America’s top male star. We see how Tracy embarked on a series of affairs with his costars . . . making Northwest Passage and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which brought Ingrid Bergman into his life. By the time the unhappy shoot was over, Tracy, looking to do a comedy, made Woman of the Year. Its unlikely costar: Katharine Hepburn. We see Hepburn making Tracy her life’s project—protecting and sustaining him in the difficult job of being a top-tier movie star. And we see Tracy’s wife, Louise, devoting herself to studying how deaf children could be taught to communicate orally with the hearing and speaking world. Curtis writes that Tracy was ready to retire when producer-director Stanley Kramer recruited him for Inherit the Wind—a collaboration that led to Judgment at Nuremberg, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and Tracy’s final picture, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner . . . A rich, vibrant portrait—the most intimate and telling yet of this complex man considered by many to be the actor’s actor.

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Page Count

1025

Publisher

Knopf

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307595226

ISBN 13

9780307595225

William Cameron Menzies

The Shape of Films to Come

By: James Curtis

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William Cameron Menzies

The Shape of Films to Come

By: James Curtis

He was the consummate designer of film architecture on a grand scale, influenced by German expressionism and the work of the great European directors. He was known for his visual flair and timeless innovation, a man who meticulously preplanned the color and design of each film through a series of continuity sketches that made clear camera angles, lighting, and the actors’ positions for each scene, translating dramatic conventions of the stage to the new capabilities of film. Here is the long-awaited book on William Cameron Menzies, Hollywood’s first and greatest production designer, a job title David O. Selznick invented for Menzies’ extraordinary, all-encompassing, Academy Award–winning work on Gone With the Wind (which he effectively co-directed). It was Menzies—winner of the first-ever Academy Award for Art Direction, jointly for The Dove (1927) and Tempest (1928), and who was as well a director (fourteen pictures) and a producer (twelve pictures)—who changed the way movies were (and still are) made, in a career that spanned four decades, from the 1920s through the 1950s. His more than 120 films include Rosita (1923), Things to Come (1936), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Kings Row (1942), Mr. Lucky (1943), The Pride of the Yankees (1943), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Address Unknown (1944), It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), Invaders from Mars (1953), and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Now, James Curtis, acclaimed film historian and biographer, writes of Menzies’ life and work as the most influential designer in the history of film. His artistry encompassed the large, scenic drawings of Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad (1924), which created a new standard for beauty on the screen and whose exotic fairy-tale sets are still regarded as pure genius. (“I saw The Thief of Bagdad when it first came out,” said Orson Welles—he was, at the time, a nine-year-old boy. “I’ll never forget it.”) Curtis writes of Menzies’ design and supervision of John Barrymore’s Beloved Rogue (1927), a film that remains a masterpiece of craft and synthesis, one of the most distinctive pictures to emerge from Hollywood’s waning days of silent films, and of his extraordinary, opulent appointments for Gone With the Wind (1939). It was Menzies who defined and solidified the role of art director as having overall control of the look of the motion picture, collaborating with producers like David O. Selznick and Samuel Goldwyn; with directors such as D. W. Griffith, Raoul Walsh, Alfred Hitchcock, Lewis Milestone, and Frank Capra. And with actors as varied as Ingrid Bergman, W. C. Fields, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, John Barrymore, Barbara Stanwyck, Ronald Reagan, Gary Cooper, Vivien Leigh, Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, and David Niven. Interviewing colleagues, actors, directors, friends, and family, and with full access to the William Cameron Menzies family collection of original artwork, correspondence, scrapbooks, and unpublished writing, Curtis brilliantly gives us the path-finding work of the movies’ most daring and dynamic production designer: his evolution as artist, art director, production designer, and director. Here is a portrait of a man in his time that makes clear how the movies were forever transformed by his startling, visionary work. (With 16 pages of color illustrations, and black-and-white photographs throughout.)

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Page Count

449

Publisher

Pantheon

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101870672

ISBN 13

9781101870679

Book's by James Kotsilibas-Davis

The Man Who Seduced Hollywood

The Man Who Seduced Hollywood

The Casablanca Man

The Casablanca Man

Historical Dictionary of American Theater

Historical Dictionary of American Theater

100 Guilty Pleasure Movies

100 Guilty Pleasure Movies

The A to Z of American Theater

The A to Z of American Theater

Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews

Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy

William Cameron Menzies

William Cameron Menzies

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