500 color illus.

    Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade, The Monster Show is a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

    Cultural Studies. In the new INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC, VOL. 1, the editors push way beyond the cheesy TV-celebs-do-pop-faves LP's beloved by garden-variety music cultists. Less a practical guide than a treatise on the philosophical underpinnings of such ephemeria. -- Rolling Stone.

    The timeless magic of Dark Shadows continues years after the first episode was presented on ABC - TV, June 27, 1966.The Dark Shadows Companion is a special 25th anniversary celebration of the show everyone "ran home from school to watch."

    In the spring of 1991 they decided to grapple with the beast, taking a theatrical tour that would exaggerate their differences. By turns enraptured by and disdainful of America and its obsession with celebrity they brushed shoulders with the famous (Axl Rose, Liza Minelli and Joni Mitchell) travelled, played and uttered their detached commentary on what was happening. Throughout they were shadowed by the author Chris Heath and photographer Pennie Smith.

    Films widely disparate in subject, sentiment, and technique, they nonetheless shared one dual purpose: to provide the audience (of women, primarily) with temporary liberation into a screen dream - of romance, sexuality, luxury, suffering, or even wickedness - and then send it home reminded of, reassured by, and resigned to the fact that no matter what else she might do, a woman's most important job was...to be a woman. Now, with boundless knowledge and infectious enthusiasm, Jeanine Basinger illuminates the various surprising and subversive ways in which women's films delivered their message. Basinger examines dozens of films, exploring the seemingly intractable contradictions at the convoluted heart of the woman's genre - among them, the dilemma of the strong and glamorous woman who cedes her power when she feels it threatening her personal happiness, and the self-abnegating woman whose selflessness is not always as "noble" as it appears. Basinger looks at the stars who played these women (Kay Francis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, Susan Hayward, Myrna Loy, and a host of others) and helps us understand the qualities - the right off-screen personae, the right on-screen attitudes, the right faces, the right figures for carrying the right clothes - that made them personify the woman's film and equipped them to make believable drama or comedy out of the crackpot plots, the conflicting ideas, and the exaggerations of real behavior that characterize these movies. In each of the films the author discus

    Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann's Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music quickly became an essential book for country music scholars and fans. Now back in print, with updated material, an additional chapter, and new photos, Finding Her Voice is poised to reach a whole new generation of country music fans.From country's earliest pioneers to its greatest legends, Finding Her Voice documents the lives of the female artists who have shaped the music for over two hundred years. Through interviews, photos, and primary texts, Bufwack and Oermann weave a vast and complex tapestry of personalities and talent. Long overlooked and underappreciated by scholars, female country music artists have always been immensely popular with fans. This book gets to the heart of the special bond female artists have with their audiences. People seeking to understand the context out of which mega-stars such as Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and the Dixie Chicks emerged need look no farther than this book.Co-published with the Country Music Foundation Press

    From the call of the wild to the vagaries of love to the art of curing a hangover, this is a veritable aurora borealis of Chris's own recollections, speculations, dreams, and philosophies.

    Along the way you'll find hilarious anecdotes about his adventures as a Monkee: the girls, the parties, the celebrities as well as the harder-edged realities of a life lived in front of a camera.

    Includes bibliography, filmography, glossary, notes, index, and 6 timelines.

    These photographs document the enduring charisma of the young actor whose phenomenal popularity is based on only three movies: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant. 51 plates.

    But off camera the situation couldn't have been less comic, with backstage battles, oversized egos, drinking, philandering, and the demands of phenomenal success undermining what was once a storybook romance.With exclusive access to family members (including daughter Lucie Arnaz) and rare photographs, Desilu is the first candid, inside account of a celebrated, complex, passionate, but ultimately tragic relationship -- as well as a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Desilu Studios, the Golden Age of Television's most powerful production empire.

    Richard Dyer's analyses consider representations of 'out' groups and traditionally dominant groups alike, and encompass the eclectic texts of contemporary culture, from queers to straights, political correctness, representations of Empire and films including Gilda, Papillon and The Night of the Living Dead. Essays new to the second edition discuss Lillian Gish as the ultimate white movie star, the representation of whiteness in the South in Birth of a Nation, and society's fascination with serial killers.The Matter of Images is distinctive in its commitment to writing politically about contemporary culture, while insisting on the importance of understanding the formal qualities and complexity of the images it investigates.

    Named "pulps" for the cheap paper on which they were printed, these wildly inventive periodicals featured bold titles, such as Weird Tales, Astounding Stories, and Spicy Detective. Adorned with bright, often garish covers they could be bought for as little as a dime, yet they offered outrageous selections of burgeoning popular fiction, from tales of horror and science fiction to lurid romances and hard-boiled detective stories. As the popularity of the pulps increased, certain fictional characters, such as Tarzan, Zorro, Doc Savage, Sam Spade, Hopalong Cassidy, and Conan the Barbarian were immortalized, and a new eccentric and hearty breed of writer emerged. Churning out these stories for a penny-a-word or less became the proving ground for hundreds of struggling authors, many of whom have since become the most widely read writers of this century, including Edgar Rice Burroughs, Dashiell Hammett, Louis L'Amour, Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, and Raymond Chandler. Danger Is My Business is about the rise and fall of the colorful pulps and the legendary publishers, editors, and writers who made them an unforgettable sensation. Capturing the mood of America in the Roaring Twenties and the years of the Great Depression, the text features exclusive, firsthand recollections by pulp veterans, who offer comical and poignant anecdotes and give this history a lively, behind-the-scenes perspective. With over 100 rare illustrations, including dozens of magazine covers, interior illustrations, and archival photos of pulp notables, Danger Is My Business is an essential item for both collectors and pop-culture enthusiasts.

    This fully authorized biography complements their greatest hits CD, ABBA GOLD, and contains over 250 photos and a complete discography.

    Discusses the real authors behind the name Carolyn Keene, changes in the series, and screen adaptations of the series.

    And for anyone who insights that Hollywood never actually sets out to make an awful film, please rent The Sandpiper immediately. Just when you thought you 'd have to yawn your way through another gushing coffee-table tome on Hollywood comes this hip, irreverent, devastingly witty tour through more than 200 of the most hyped, highly touted, and wonderfully bad movies of all time. Compiled by the caustic authors of Movieline magazine's popular feature "Bad Movies We Love," this outrageous book leaves no stone (including Sharon) unturned as it skewers some of Hollywood's biggest big-budget film fiasco ever, and the stars who made it all happen - frrom Airport to Cocktail, from Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier to Julia Roberts and Kevin Costner.Hear eye-rolling dialogue! Gasp at scenery chewing performance! Marvel at gloriously absurd plot lines! Packed with provocative behind-the-scenes information and 216 pages of hilarriously captioned stills, this high-camp homage -to-garbage is side splitting proof that sometimes movie-making means having to say you're sorry - very sorry!

    John Margolies traces the entertaining and significant tradition of gas station design, history, and lore - from horse-drawn pumps at the turn of the century to the convenience stores and self-serve pumpers of today. Particular attention is given to "the golden age" from 1920 to 1940, when humble curbside stations evolved into palaces of petroleum. Then, the whole experience became much more than just filling the tank: attendants in spiffy uniforms bustled about among gleaming pumps, eye-catching signs, and strings of pennants flapping in the wind. Those days are gone now, but John Margolies brings this era back to life by combining rare archival photographs, postcards, advertisements, and other service station artifacts and collectibles with his own trademark color photographs. He delves into such diverse and unusual topics as the hoopla of the sparkling and sometimes not-so-sparkling rest room; the evolution of road maps; and the development of gas pumps from jerrybuilt hot water tanks to the sleek, computerized vending machines of today. Pump and Circumstance is the definitive book of its kind - a nostalgic and lighthearted remembrance of the gas stations of our youth.

    S. Gutman's American Diner Then and Now covers the history, architecture, menus, and the appeal of this uniquely American creation. With 275 photographs in color and black and white, this book is the landmark work on its subject, a revised and expanded edition of Gutman's classic American Diner—the book, published in 1979, that inspired people to buy, restore, and reopen diners across the country. This edition includes a state-by-state directory, "Where the Diners Are," listing locations for currently operating diners.