Although Lee Marvin is best known for his icy tough guy roles—such as his chilling titular villain in The ManWho Shot Liberty Valance or the paternal yet brutally realistic platoon leader in The Big Red One—very little is known of his personal life; his family background; his experiences in WWII; his relationship with his father, family, friends, wives; and his ongoing battles with alcoholism, rage, and depression, occasioned by his postwar PTSD. Now, after years of researching and compiling interviews with family members, friends, and colleagues; rare photographs; and illustrative material, Hollywood writer Dwayne Epstein provides a full understanding and appreciation of this acting titan’s place in the Hollywood pantheon in spite of his very real and human struggles.

    This meticulously researched book contains interviews with Frawley's and Vance's colleagues, friends, and relatives, and explores their personal and professional lives before, during, and after I Love Lucy. With a complete filmography and videography of each, Meet the Mertzes finally sets the record straight on the lives and legacies of these compelling stars who detested one another.You'll learn about:-Vance's successful Broadway career prior to I Love Lucy-Frawley's vaudevillian roots and his passion for baseball-Vance's nervous breakdown after the collapse of her first marriage-Frawley's drinking and carousing-Lucille Ball's caustic relationship with both of her costars-Vance's hatred of being known to the world as Ethel Mertz

    One of the most exquisite and enigmatic beauties of her generation, she intrigued the public for decades. Now, in this stunning biography, new light is shed, at last, on the mystery that was... OONA The daughter of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, Oona mixed easily among Manhattan's cafe society and was named New American Debutante of the 1941-42 social season. But at just eighteen she shocked the world by running off to Hollywood and marrying a man thirty-six years her senior: the brilliant and controversial Charlie Chaplin. From the child who yearned for her absent father's love, to the woman who became the mainstay in an extraordinary marriage; from the dedicated wife and devoted mother of eight to the devastated widow, this book reveals a spirit as fascinating as the geniuses who surrounded her. Extensively researched, Oona's story is rich with exciting insights into her successful union, her world of celebrity--Hollywood in its heyday--and the allure and intellect that made her a heroine in her own right.

    Their romance on and off screen made them Hollywood's most celebrated couple and together they produced some of the most electric scenes in movie history. But when Bogart died of cancer in 1957, Bacall had to find a way of living beyond the fairytale and ironic way she had evolved. In a time of post war communism, Hollywood blacklisting and revolutionary politics she moved with the legends: Hemingway, the Oliviers, Katharine Hepburn, Bobby Kennedy, an engagement to Frank Sinatra and a second turbulent marriage to Jason Robards. Now at 80, BY MYSELF AND THEN SOME brings her story up to date including her recent films and Broadway runs, fond memories of her children and many close lifelong friendships, not least the greatest love of her life, Humphrey Bogart.

    Here are the great divas, Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson; the great flappers, Colleen Moore and Clara Bow; the great cowboys, William S. Hart and Tom Mix; and the great lover, John Gilbert. Basinger also includes the quintessential slapstick comedienne, Mabel Normand, with her Keystone Kops; the quintessential all-American hero, Douglas Fairbanks; and, of course, the quintessential all-American dog, Rin-Tin-Tin.

    Sharon Tate: Recollection is a celebration of her life and career, her influence as a fashion icon throughout the world, and presents a sociological portrait of 1960s Hollywood. All of this comes from the one-of-a-kind perspective of her sister, Debra Tate, and through stunning images and stories from those who knew her best.In this impressive photo book, Sharon Tate’s story emerges through quotes and short essays—�Recollections”—by Debra Tate, as well as by those who knew her personally and who have been influenced by her. An all-star cast contributing memories and thoughts on Sharon includes Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Robert Evans, Mia Farrow, Raquel Welch, Hugh Hefner, Michelle Phillips, Patty Duke, and Barbara Parkins. And the book is filled with hundreds of rare and unpublished photos of Sharon Tate taken by the likes of Milton Greene, Richard Avedon, Bert Stern, Norman Parkinson, Philippe Halsman, John Engstead, and more.Unlike all other books on Sharon Tate that focus on her tragic death in one of the most notorious crimes of the twentieth century, Sharon Tate: Recollection is a stunningly gorgeous tribute to her life.

    The arc of Lyle Talbot’s career is in fact the story of American entertainment. Born in 1902, Lyle left his home in small-town Nebraska in 1918 to join a traveling carnival. From there he became a magician’s assistant, an actor in a traveling theater troupe, a romantic lead in early talkies, then an actor in major Warner Bros. pictures with stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Carole Lombard, then an actor in cult B movies, and finally a part of the advent of television, with regular roles on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver. Ultimately, his career spanned the entire trajectory of the industry.In her captivating, impeccably researched narrative—a charmed combination of Hollywood history, social history, and family memoir—Margaret Talbot conjures warmth and nostalgia for those earlier eras of ’10s and ’20s small-town America, ’30s and ’40s Hollywood. She transports us to an alluring time, simpler but also exciting, and illustrates the changing face of her father’s America, all while telling the story of mass entertainment across the first half of the twentieth century.

    

    While the role may have given him eternal life on the silver screen, it doomed him to a career plagued by typecasting. After a decade of trying vainly to broaden his range and secure parts to challenge his acting abilities, Lugosi finally resigned himself to a career as the world's most recognizable vampire. His last years were spent as a forgotten and rather tragic figure.

    It covers such characters as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy.

    Whether you've watched "Casablanca" countless times or you're going to see it for the first time, "The Casablanca Companion" will both deepen your understanding and heighten your enjoyment.

    Cary Grant...Hollywood's ultimate ladies' man...the silver screen's most ardent lover. But beyond his portrayal of the sophisticated romantic hero in movies like "The Philadelphia Story" and "Notorious" was a man haunted by fear and self-doubt which affected his career as well as his personal life.

    The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe reviews the unreliable and unverifiable--but highly significant--stories that have framed this Hollywood legend, all the while revealing the meanings behind the American myths that have made Marilyn what she is today.In incisive and passionate prose, cultural critic Sarah Churchwell uncovers the shame, belittlement, and anxiety that we bring to the story of a woman we supposedly adore and, in the process, rescues a Marilyn Monroe who is far more complicated and credible than the one we think we know.

    1958) is the youngest of Hollywood's most successful directors. He has the knack of making films with a very broad appeal, taking the silliness out of the representation of children, while remaining in touch with the child within himself and his audiences. Burton emerged as a director and storyteller after working as an animator for Disney. His meeting with Johnny Depp enabled him to give physical form to the heroes of his imaginary worlds, where fear is mixed with laughter, strange is normal and those who are not normal, such as "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), must be preserved. After "Beetlejuice" (1988) and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005), the resolutely boyish Burton, now in his fifties, presents his version of "Alice in Wonderland" (2010).

    Moving Pictures is his fascinating remembrance of growing up amidst the glamour, swank, courage, triumphs, defeats, cabals, and double-crosses of an industry in the making. His utterly candid account includes unsparing portraits of outsized characters in all their power, venality, charm, pettiness, and vindictiveness. As a book on the early days of the movies in Hollywood, this one is hard to beat. Abundantly illustrated with black-and-white photographs.