A one-woman play in two-acts about the life and times of Carole Lombard. [Acting Edition] "LOMBARD is an engrossing one-woman show...Druxman's writing is crisp and informative, his direction spry." -- Glendale News-Press. This study of Hollywood's favorite "screwball" comedienne begins on the eve of her death. Following a successful war bonds tour, she awaits word in an Indianapolis hotel room to see if she's been successful in securing plane reservations for a flight back to Los Angeles. She's anxious to get home, because she suspects that her husband, Clark Gable, is cheating on her. Drawing liberally upon her legendary sailor's vocabulary, Ms. Lombard talks about her tragic affair with singer Russ Columbo, ex-husband William Powell, as well as George Raft, Gary Cooper, Joseph P. Kennedy and, of course, David O. Selznick and her ill-fated attempt to secure the role of Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND. Michael B. Druxman's LOMBARD is not a depressing play of approaching doom. It is a warm, funny story of a woman -- the highest paid film actress of her day -- who was a "fighter," both in her career and personal life.
What if you hated your next door neighbor...and he has just been elected President of the United States? In Michael B. Druxman's outrageous comedy, HAIL ON THE CHIEF!, cantankerous gentleman rancher Oliver Pettridge hates his neighbor, a former cowboy movie star. He's hated him for years over a property line dispute. As the play begins, the neighbor has just been elected President of the United States. Now, Oliver must deal with all the inconveniences that anyone living next to the President must endure...including a paranoid Secret Service Agent. After the agent "bugs" Oliver's house, Pettridge decides to declare "war" on the Secret Service. (5m, 2w; simple unit set)
PUTZ, Michael B. Druxman's two-character comedy, explores the vicissitudes of the father & son relationship. Alan Nathan is a twice-divorced Jewish screenwriter who can't understand why his beloved son, Marty, is suddenly causing him problems. Not only has the high school senior begun criticizing Alan's self-indulgent lifestyle, but he's now decided to quit school and go on the road as a rock musician. "If only he had lived with me all these years," Alan bemoans, "instead of his mother, my son's head wouldn't be so screwed up." Tragedy strikes. Alan gets his wish. The boy moves in, and it's a disaster. He now has to "deal" with his son on a day-to-day basis...and Alan's psyche is not equipped for that... especially after Marty suddenly announces that he's become a "Jew for Jesus." 2 men; 1 set
On September 14, 1951, the front page of virtually every major newspaper in the United States carried the story of how B picture actor Tom Neal had brutally beaten dapper leading man Franchot Tone's face into a bloody pulp over the affections of sultry blonde actress Barbara Payton.The sordid narrative surrounding this ill-fated triangle would have “legs”. Only Franchot Tone's career would survive the disgraceful events. Barbara Payton would soon descend into a desperate world of drugs and prostitution and, in the 1960s, Tom Neal would be prosecuted for first degree murder.B MOVIE dramatizes the most notorious scandal to hit Hollywood during the first half of the 1950s.2 Men; 1 Woman. Simple Open Set.
A One-Person Play About the Life and Times of Al Jolson (Acting Edition). "Play relies on good writing and research by Druxman...." - Daily Variety "Michael B. Druxman has written a fine play which captures the many moods of Jolson." - The Longboat Observer "An exciting, withering portrait...." - Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Al Jolson was the "world's greatest entertainer." He made immortal such songs as "Swanee" and "April Showers," and starred in THE JAZZ SINGER, the movies' first talkie. He was also one of the most disliked men in show business. Revolving around the making of THE JOLSON STORY in 1946, the play looks in on "Jolie" at the lowest point of his career. He's a wealthy show business "has been," unwanted on the set of his own film biography. As he sits in his dressing room, he recalls the early years: an unloving father, a feud with his older brother, and his four marriages, including one to Ruby Keeler. We see that Jolson was ruthless, both in his career and personal life. JOLSON is the story of a great performer, a "lovable s.o.b." and the most sensational comeback in the history of show business.
THE HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS is a series of one and two person, two-act plays by Hollywood biographer, historian, screenwriter and playwright Michael B. Druxman that explore the life and times of some of filmdom's most glittering personalities.This is the first time that all ten plays have been incorporated into one volume.From Clara Bow, “The 'It' Girl” of the silent era, through the birth of the talkies with Al Jolson and Maurice Chevalier, on through the thirties and forties with superstars like Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Carole Lombard, Errol Flynn, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Basil Rathbone and, finally, Hollywood's “boy genius,” Orson Welles, these anecdote-filled dramatic pieces present a humorous, often touching portrait of each star and the era in which he/she lived.The plays, many of which have seen several productions, utilize simple costumes and props, and are designed to be staged on a single setting, with shifts in lighting to denote changes in time and place.
GHOUL CITY is an original screenplay by Michael B. Druxman.The first thing that Greg Hemmings did when he arrived in the quiet, Midwestern manufacturing town of Silo City was to shoot down the neighborhood grocer and his wife. He followed that by blowing away a farmer and his son, a deputy sheriff, plus several other of the townsfolk.When Sheriff Abel McIntire finally captured Greg and threw him into jail, the former high school science teacher from Canada told him that Silo City was a town of flesh-eating ghouls and that it was his intention to wipe out every one of them. Naturally, the peace officer scoffed at that allegation, but then, maybe there was something he knew that he wasn't about to tell.After all, there's really no such thing as a ghoul, is there?
A Play in Two Acts: Inspired by a true story, THE SUMMER FOLK is a memory piece, a Jewish American saga featuring a cast of rich, colorful characters and taking place in a small resort town in central Washington State during the late 1940s/early 1950s. The narrator recalls his childhood when his family spent their summers in the town of Mineral Lake which, despite opposition from many anti-Semitic residents, his father hoped to develop into a Palm Springs of the Pacific Northwest. 7 men; 4 women. Simple Open Set.
In 1934 the FBI gun down Dillinger, but the wrong one - his brother. The real Dillinger gets away to start a new life with his family. But Al Capone knows where he is and wants him to pull one more heist, and Capone has an offer that Dillinger can't refuse.
The narrator recalls his childhood when his family spent their summers in the town of Mineral Lake, a small resort in central Washington State that his father hoped to develop into a Palm Springs of the Pacific Northwest.
The last time anybody heard from Sam Landers, he was running from the Mob. His sister, Molly, and her boy friend, Roy, as well as a Mob enforcer, are looking for him. What they discover is that Sam may have taken refuge on a secluded mountain estate owned by Evelyn, an attractive, seductive woman, and Pat, her reclusive husband, who are concealing a dark secret. People who learn their secret seldom escape alive. THE AMUSEMENT is a twist-filled erotic thriller.
An Original Screenplay by Michael B. Druxman, inspired by a sensational Hollywood murder. The Seattle police claim that Robby Abbott, 20, has murdered his mother, a former internationally-known high fashion model. When first assigned to defend the young man, attorney Rebecca Gleason believes her client to be guilty, as does her former husband, Harry Gleason, a private investigator of dubious reputation. Yet, as they delve deeper into the case, both Harry and Rebecca come to realize that they have more than a simple murder on their hands. A subsequent homicide and the appearance of the F.B.I. on the scene makes them realize that they have stumbled onto an international conspiracy, involving long hidden dark secrets capable of bringing down a powerful monarchy. Now, both Harry and Rebecca's lives, as well as that of their young son, are in danger, and the only thing that will save them from the killers who are stalking them is to learn the truth from a dying potentate, currently undergoing medical treatment in Canada.
A one-person play about the life and times of Clark Gable. [Acting Edition] ..".we actually forget our surroundings and believe we're listening to Gable's life story." -- News Enterprise. For nearly thirty years, Clark Gable was "the King" of Hollywood. Female fans swooned, male admirers were made envious of his unaffected masculinity. Through jaunty, self-assured performances in films like IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, SAN FRANCISCO, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and GONE WITH THE WIND, he carved a niche for himself as the quintessential American movie star. The play is set on the Nevada location of Gable's last picture, THE MISFITS. While waiting for his perennially tardy co-star Marilyn Monroe to arrive on the set, Gable reminisces about his Horatio Alger life and career, touching on his stormy relationship with his oil wildcatter father, his marriages to older women, his numerous affairs and his great love, wife Carole Lombard, who died in a 1942 plane crash...a tragedy from which Gable never recovered. "Insightful," "funny," and "racy" are words that audiences have used to describe Michael B. Druxman's GABLE.
UNCLE LOUIE is an original screenplay by Michael B. Druxman. If Damon Runyon had written THE KARATE KID, it might've turned out like this, because Uncle Louie is an aging fugitive from GUYS AND DOLLS. When he comes to Los Angeles to live with the nephew that he hasn't seen in thirty years, he meets Andy, his grand nephew. Andy is a likable high school student who loves playing his guitar, but also has some problems. Inadvertently, the youth has incurred the wrath of a local drug dealer. And, even though he has his own troubles with an East Coast Mafia chieftain plus the F.B.I., Louie takes it upon himself to help the boy find himself. This screenplay has action, laughs and also a few warm tears along the way.
CLARA BOW is a one-woman play in two acts about the life and times of Clara Bow. [Acting Edition] The "It" Girl was the movies' first American sex goddess. The star of WINGS, the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar, Clara Bow's unhappy life, in many ways, paralleled that of her successor, Marilyn Monroe. A longtime victim of insomnia, Ms. Bow lies awake on the morning of her estranged husband's funeral and painfully remembers the mentally ill mother who once tried to kill her; her career as the ultimate "flapper"; her many nervous breakdowns; and affairs with the likes of Gary Cooper, Gilbert Roland, director Victor Fleming, and, as is said, the USC football team. Michael B. Druxman's CLARA BOW is a tragi-comic tale about another of Hollywood's victims.
ORSON WELLES is a one-person play in two acts about the life and times of Orson Welles. [Acting Edition] Some say that Orson Welles was a genius, but he always denied that. He did give us CITIZEN KANE, considered by most critics to be the best film ever made, but after that, his career took one long downward plunge. The play finds Welles trying to find the financing for one of his film projects. It's a difficult task, since most of the Hollywood community considers him to be a "screwball." Pondering his life with his "other self," he tells us about his alcoholic father, his lonely years as a "gifted child," his rise as the "boy genius" of Broadway and the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast that panicked America and made his name a household word. But "genius" can be self-destructive -- as was the case with Welles. Time after time, with a new post-KANE success within his grasp, he would knowingly make the wrong move, thereby destroying everything he'd built. Containing wry stories about William Randolph Hearst, Columbia Pictures' Harry Cohn, and Rita Hayworth, Michael B. Druxman's ORSON WELLES is the "boy genius" at his best.
Maurice Chevalier was the quintessential Frenchman. He introduced the world to such memorable songs as "Louise," "Mimi," "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me," and, from the Academy Award-winning film, Gigi, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls." Privately, the man was not anything like his happy-go-lucky public persona. Insecure and dour, the only "true" loves in his life were his mother, who died in the 1930s, and the vast international audiences that adored him. Michael B. Druxman's play is set in 1963, when the star's failing health makes his ability to perform in the future questionable. Reminiscing backstage in his dressing room, he talks about his days of glory in the French music halls, his early Hollywood movies, romantic encounters with Marlene Dietrich and other well-known personalities, as well as the more unnerving times, such as his experiences in France and Germany during WW2 when he was falsely accused of being a Nazi collaborator. CHEVALIER is an affectionate, revealing, song-filled portrait of the man that America once called "the French Al Jolson.
BARRY & THE BIMBO is an original romantic/action/comedy screenplay by Michael B. Druxman. Barry is a young, somewhat naive, aspiring screenwriter, who has got the "hots" for Dawn. She's the cute blonde who lives upstairs and who runs around with a nasty guy involved in the local rackets. When the mob "hits" Dawn's fella, she and Barry become the cops' chief suspects. Then, when they're kidnapped out of a police car by some hoods and both officers are killed, the unlikely couple find themselves on the run...with the law, the mob and an important politician on their tail. It seems that everybody thinks that Dawn has her dead boy friend's secret diary, a little journal can put a lot of people into jail. Events reach a spectacular climax near the historic town of Angels Camp, with the lead heavy pursuing Barry and Dawn in a roller coaster chase on rafts down the American River.
A One-Person Play About the Life and Times of Errol Flynn. [Acting Edition] As Captain Blood, Robin Hood and the Sea Hawk, he was the "King of the Swashbucklers." As Errol Flynn, he was Hollywood's number one rogue. He was married three times, and also was the defendant in three rape trials. Indeed, it's fitting that his last major swashbuckling film cast him in the role of Don Juan. The play joins Flynn a few weeks before his premature death. Knowing that the end is near, he is in a New York airport, waiting to fly west to see his children for the last time. Reminiscing about his life, he talks about his mischievous youth in Tasmania, the mother who always berated him as a "wicked, wicked boy," his days as a New Guinea slave trader, and his Hollywood adventures with the likes of John Barrymore, Jack Warner, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland and director Michael Curtiz. Amusing, yet tragic, Michael B. Druxman's FLYNN is the saga of the screen's most lovable rascal.
Nelson Eddy was a tall, handsome baritone from the opera and concert stage. Jeanette MacDonald was a beautiful redhead, a soprano who began her career in a Broadway chorus, then was drafted to Hollywood when the movies started to "talk" and sing. Together at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, they were "America's Singing Sweethearts," starring in a series of classic musicals that endeared them to audiences during the 1930s and decades beyond. NAUGHTY MARIETTA, ROSE MARIE, MAYTIME, SWEETHEARTS and NEW MOON are among the films that their legions of fans enjoy to this day. Off-screen, however, the MacDonald/Eddy relationship was not always as amiable as their public might have fantasized. Rumors persisted of their on-set quarrels, as well as a torrid romance, even though both would marry others. NELSON AND JEANETTE, Michael B. Druxman's two-character stage play, takes an affectionate, insightful look at the two beloved stars, joining them in the early 1960s, as they think back on their careers, struggling to decide whether they should work together in one last film. They reminisce about the good times and the bad, recalling Louis B. Mayer, Clark Gable, Maurice Chevalier, Allan Jones, John Barrymore and others, as they sing the songs for which they're warmly remembered
He was "Ben-Hur"..."Moses" in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS...And, he did battle with the "Planet of the Apes".During his long career, Charlton Heston projected an unequaled image of strength and authority, tempered with compassion and wisdom.CHARLTON HESTON, Michael B. Druxman's one-person stage play, finds the Oscar-winning actor in his final years, shortly after it has been discovered that he suffers from Alzheimer's Disease.Struggling to hold onto his memories, he thinks back on his life; its many successes, as well as its disappointments.1 actor; one set.
..".Michael Druxman has done an exemplary job with this 'Films of '- formatted chronicle of the life of Paul Muni. Above and beyond the usual compendium of production credits, Druxman has spoken to many people associated with Muni in order to produce a rounded, intelligent picture of the man and the actor....Grade-A in all departments." - Film Fan Monthly, November 1974 ..".The volume...has special reference value, particularly since Muni will go down in theatrical history as one of the great perfectionists who graced the screen and stage.... Biographer Druxman is concise and informative in his narration of the Muni story. - Don Carle Gille- e, Variety, June 14, 1974 ..".The author carefully analyzes them [Muni's films] to develop an understanding of the man and his method. This close look at Muni's professional life, coupled with a study of his personal life and habits results in a complete picture of a master.... Interesting an informative reading." - Classic Film Collector, 1974
To the average moviegoer, the name of Basil Rathbone conjures an image of fiction's most famous detective – Sherlock Holmes. Certainly, of all the actors who have played the Baker Street sleuth, his interpretation was the most definitive. Yet, for the true aficionado of the cinema, the actor was much more than the personification of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation. He was also Mr. Murdstone in DAVID COPPERFIELD, Richard III in TOWER OF LONDON, Louis XI in IF I WERE KING, Tybalt of ROMEO AND JULIET, Captain Estaban Pasquale in THE MARK OF ZORRO, Sir Guy of Gisbourne from THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and, of course, the SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. For most of his years in motion pictures, Rathbone was the victim of type-casting. During the 1930s, he was known as the screen's ultimate villain – constantly in demand by producers to carry out dastardly deeds. Later, he assumed the guise of Sherlock Holmes and his past accomplishments were virtually forgotten. However, the fame that accompanied that role came at a high price: in a twist of fate, the role of a lifetime managed to irrevocably damage Rathbone's career. Michael B. Druxman's RATHBONE joins the actor near the end of his life while, because of his troubled financial condition, he is working on still another less than memorable film. The play delves into Rathbone's “dark side,” exploring his relationships with his first wife, the son he virtually abandoned and Ouida, the divisive woman to whom he was married for over forty years, yet perhaps never really knew.
While working as Roger Corman's story editor at Concorde-New Horizons Pictures, I discovered that Michael Druxman knows how to spin a good yarn. Reading his Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Hollywood has taught me how thoroughly Michael knows his way around Movieland. It's all here: his years as a publicist, a screenwriter, a playwright, and a hawker of memorabilia at autograph shows. The book's most revealing moments involve his brief encounters with a wide array of stars. He's worked with celebrities who are wonderful, and with others who are rude, forgetful, cheap, backstabbing, drunk-or too honest for their own good." - Beverly Gray, biographer, Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers "Druxman's style flows so beautifully, that you don't realize that what you are, indeed, reading is a contribution to film history! His interactions with so many of the Hollywood elite (and not so elite) really do contribute to a fuller and deeper understanding of them. Some of the stories are predictably humorous. Some are jaw-droppers. Some were sad. ALL-and I mean all-were well framed, beautifully developed, and word-to-word dynamite. I did NOT want this book to end." - Annette Lloyd, film historian
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