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"Julia's book will make you both laugh and cry. It's filled with wonderful insights about what Hollywood was like for a child actor who started working professionally when she was 6 and continued right on into adulthood. Julia was talented enough to be hand-picked by Shirley Booth to play Susie Baxter in the fifth and final season of Hazel. Her successful career continued into her young adult years. But then something tragic happened to Julia that would change her life forever. Her whole story is here - the good, the bad, the terrifying, and the eventual recovery. Julia Benjamin is a survivor, and now for the first time, she shares her life with everyone in one of the most emotional books ever written." Stu Shostak, TV Historian "I first met Julia Benjamin at Columbia Pictures when she signed on to the popular Hazel television series. She was, then and now, adorable. When A Minor Consideration started up in the early 90's Julia came back into my life as she began her courageous recovery from a vicious dog attack on Valentine's Day. Julia's will to bravely face Life's ups and downs is remarkable." Paul Petersen

A fascinating analysis of the film magazines in their larger context as cultural artifacts of bygone eras.

This is the HARDBACK version. Once hailed by acclaimed director D. W. Griffith as "the greatest natural actress now in pictures," Una Merkel (1903-1986) was a rare individual in Hollywood's Golden Age. Humble, self-effacing, and egoless, she confessed to having great insecurities and an inferiority complex. Never aspiring to be a star, she was more interested in good roles, regardless of their size, which often meant supporting the more important actors of her day-Jean Harlow, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, James Stewart, Carole Lombard, and Marlene Dietrich, to name a few. But Una didn't mind playing second fiddle to them. She was able to parlay these parts into a career that lasted more than forty years and included not only film, but also theater, television, and radio. Her career achievements went on to be acknowledged by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Tony Award, and an Oscar nomination. Whether she played harebrained ingénues, wisecracking best friends, feisty pioneer women, or cantankerous matrons, critics appreciated her quirky characterizations, which were made even better with her trademark Southern accent, deft comic delivery, and incomparable stage presence. Filmmakers and co-workers respected her tireless work ethic and professionalism, while her family, friends, and fans loved her sweet, kindhearted disposition; genuine concern for others, and down-to-earth personality. This book, the first full-length biography devoted to Una Merkel, will finally give this endearing actress her just due, examining not only her extraordinary career, but also her amazing life, which may have seemed idyllic and storybook from the outside, but was actually filled with a great amount of tragedy and pain. Scrupulously researched, this biography is enhanced by information gleaned from some of Merkel's personal correspondence, rare archival documents, interviews, and recollections shared by her friends and colleagues.

This is the HARDBACK version. The stories behind some of cinema's great movies by the people who made them. Here, in their own words, are insights, reminiscences and candid comments by the directors (and, occasionally, stars) of films as diverse as The Exorcist, Men in Black, Sleepy Hollow and Twelve Monkeys. The line-up is truly stellar. William Friedkin rubs shoulders with Barry Sonnenfeld and Will Smith. Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam recall the creation of their individual and unique projects. John Carpenter looks back at The Thing, once misunderstood but now lauded as a masterpiece. Zombie king George A. Romero retraces the corpse-strewn road that led to his return to movies with Land of the Dead. Quentin Tarantino talks passionately about the 'Grindhouse' experiment of Death Proof. And acclaimed newcomer Ben Wheatley, hailed as the savior of new British horror, reveals the background to Kill List. Just some of the filmmakers who have made a dent in the genre of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. TONY EARNSHAW has interviewed hundreds of film personalities while writing for such diverse publications as Fangoria, Cinema Reiro, Sight & Sound, Diabolique, Starburst, Film Review, Little Shoppe of Horrors and Scarlet Street. He is the author of An Actor and a Rare One -- Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Beating the Devil -- The Making of Night of the Demon, Made in Yorkshire (with Jim Moran), The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark (Ed.), Studies in the Horror Film: Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot (Ed.) and Under Milk Wood Revisited: The Wales of Dylan Thomas (with Mark Davis). His debut piece of horror fiction, 'Flies', appeared in The Eleventh Black Book of Horror, published by Mortbury Press in 2015.

This is the HARDBACK version. A BROADWAY LEGEND OF 1924 Includes more than eighty rare photographs, some published here for the first time. Before they made the films which are their principal legacy, the Marx Brothers were the stars of three Broadway musicals in the 1920s. Two of these, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers, are popular classics, familiar from the Brothers' immortal film versions, and from numerous stage revivals. But the boys' 1924 Broadway debut, I'll Say She Is, was never filmed or revived, and it slipped through history's fingers. Although it was the most successful thing the Marx Brothers ever did on stage, it was unseen for ninety years after the original production closed, and has been considered a lost work. In 2009, writer, performer, lyricist, and Groucho Marxist Noah Diamond began a seven-year odyssey which led to the restoration, adaptation, and finally the historic first revival of this legendary entry in the Marx and musical theatre canons. Gimme a Thrill tells the whole story for the first time-the complete history of I'll Say She Is from 1923 to 2014. Noah Diamond adapted the book and lyrics for I'll Say She Is and has a long history of playing Groucho, on and off the stage. He is among the organizers of Marxfest, New York City's Marx Brothers festival, and has written and lectured widely on the Marxes and their work. With his partner Amanda Sisk, he wrote and produced the Nero Fiddled musicals, a series of political satires. His previous books are 400 Years in Manhattan and Love Marches On.

This is the HARDBACK version. This is a memoir about the career of Logan Fleming, top wax artist and Creative Director of Movieland Wax Museum and the Palace of Living Art in Buena Park, CA. During Movieland's life span, Mr. Allen Parkinson, who created Movieland, saw traffic of over one million visitors per year come to enjoy the more than two hundred wax figures of Hollywood's most popular, beloved movie stars that graced the museum building (and the silver screen). Logan Fleming was extremely instrumental in making these stars come to "life" within the Movieland arena, as well as bringing the artful masterpieces of the world to life in the Palace of Living Art. These creations were made for the public to adore, and adore they did! It was Logan Fleming's eyes, hands, personality and artistic vision that created the eternal wax likenesses of some of our favorite and most beloved movie stars of Old Hollywood. To have your wax figure created for Movieland was an amazing honor for a movie star back then, and no one's hands could do you better justice than Logan's. These stories help bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. They are your stories now.

This is the HARDBACK version. I found Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts fascinating, touching, and revealing of Orson and Roger. It certainly is the Orson I knew in all his complexity and brilliance. - PETER BOGDANOVICH, American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and author I read A Friendship in Three Acts with absolute delight. At last I have got what I have been looking for in vain till now: the sound of Welles's private voice, the warmth, easiness, modesty, fantasy of which so many have spoken but which none have been able to reproduce... - SIMON CALLOW, English actor, writer, director, and author The major and longest-lasting close friendship of Orson Welles's life was with one of his earliest role models-his teacher, advisor, and theatrical mentor at the Todd School who later became the school's headmaster, Roger Hill. Hill's grandson, Todd Tarbox, has given us invaluable and candidly intimate glimpses into many of its stages... - JONATHAN ROSENBAUM, American film critic and author

This is the HARDBACK version. Everyone loved Andy Devine, who starred on radio, television, films, and the New York stage. Just look at his credits in the back of this book and you will be amazed. Devine was discovered by accident, then struggled for many years. But success would be his, and he would appear in some of the greatest films ever made. Andy Devine would be married to the same woman for forty-three years and they would live on a farm just outside Hollywood. They raised two sons who would graduate from college and be successful in their own right. In this book you will meet many Hollywood characters who were clever, funny and unpredictable. You will experience both the golden age of film and radio plus the early years of television. You will be involved with the deal makers and the deal breakers. Our author, Dennis Devine, is a dramatic and compelling story teller who will capture the reader. Just try to put it down! "Making friends was what Andy Devine was all about," writes his son Dennis Devine in his loving, respectful memoir of his beloved father. Dennis is a good storyteller (perhaps an inherited trait?) as he relates he and his father's evolving relationship. - Western Clippings

This is the HARDBACK version. Question: What do Bob Barker, Dick Clark, Pat Sajak, and Alex Trebek have in common? Answer: Bill Cullen hosted more game shows than all of them combined. And all of them have referred to Bill as the best game show host of all time. Quizmaster: The Life & Times & Fun & Games of Bill Cullen is the remarkable story of a "a kid with polio" who became a mechanic, truck driver, photographer, pilot, disc jockey, and the finest master of ceremonies that a game show could ever have. On the game show Quick as a Flash in 1949, host Bill Cullen was assisted for some of the questions by actress Mercedes McCambridge. In 1973, McCambridge supplied the voice for a child in what horror movie? THE EXORCIST On an episode of the game show Catch Me If You Can in 1948, host Bill Cullen welcomed a contestant who was unemployed and seeking work as an actor. That night, he won a gas range. The following year, that actor made his film debut, playing a painter in The Lady Takes a Sailor. His final film role, in 2000, was playing elderly Hardy Greaves in The Legend of Bagger Vance. Who was that actor? JACK LEMMON The long-running game show I've Got a Secret was created and produced by a comedy writer who later became a star in his own right with a wildly popular series of albums featuring his parodies of popular songs. Who was he? ALLAN SHERMAN In 1956, The Price is Right premiered with host Bill Cullen. Bill got the job after an actor-comic said no. In 1961, that actor's legendary sitcom made its debut on CBS. Who said no to The Price is Right? DICK VAN DYKE

This is the HARDBACK version. For Jackey Neyman Jones, who played Debbie in Manos: The Hands of Fate, the "worst movie ever made" is, at its heart, a home movie that just happens to be shared with the world. Equal parts memoir/family saga/film book, Growing Up with Manos: The Hands of Fate shares the behind-the-scenes story of the making of Manos: from creator Hal Warren's alleged bet with TV producer Stirling Silliphant that "anyone could make a movie," to the tragic suicide of John Reynolds (Torgo), right up through the newest Manos-related projects that are carrying the film into the digital age. Jackey's stories dispel much of the Manos mythology while crystallizing a unique time and place in America, where a crew of actors with a bad script and a rented camera set out to make a bad movie-and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Jackey Neyman Jones is a professional artist living in the Great Northwest. Laura Mazzuca Toops is a writer/editor with more than 30 years' experience in business and fiction writing. She is the author of three historical novels.

This is the HARDBACK version. Comments from Un-Blacklisted Celebrities "Things that they would think up had no value. The would print them and then the sponsors and the networks wouldn't hire you if your name was even mentioned in one of those rags. You were thoroughly blacklisted." Shirley Mitchel "They ruined a lot of lives. It was a terrible, terrible thing." George Fenneman "Counterattack people and many others were making it hard on nearly everyone." Ralph Bellamy "Writers had to use a front because they couldn't get hired. After all, they had families to support." Evelyn Keyes "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, America dies." Edward R. Murrow Jason Hill, Author Life for Jason Hill has always been interesting. Twenty years a commercial pilot, including movies . . . twenty-five years in recording and radio. His long time mentor was Norman Corwin, who finally convinced him to write. Mr. Hill's published and upcoming works include Life in the Past Lane-Volumes One, Two & Three: and some poetry. He lives in the Chicago area.

This is the HARDBACK version. "Use the combos, keep the feet light. This is it." That's boxing champ Julius, psyching himself up for a showdown with, of all people, unstoppable killer Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Perhaps not familiar with the fact that a goalie mask is meant to stop rock hard vulcanized rubber flying at 100 mph, his fists prove laughably ineffective. Jason's though, are anything but. He punches Julius's head clean off with one right cross. A fist might seem like unconventional weaponry compared with the knives and axes usually deployed by unspeaking, unfeeling, unstoppable killers in horror films. And it is. But it doesn't even scratch the surface when it comes to weird ways people have been killed in horror. Horror movie victims have had ears of corn buried in their backs, they've been decapitated by basketballs, lacerated by avant-garde sculptures, skewered by mounted deer antlers, bludgeoned by pogo sticks, and punctured with unfurled umbrellas. Death by Umbrella! The 100 Weirdest Horror Movie Weapons showcases these oddball deaths and some even stranger ways killers have gone about their grisly business - MOs that would leave even the most seasoned coroner shaking their head provided, of course, that it's still attached, for in the world of horror, no one is safe. Authors Christopher Lombardo and Jeff Kirschner are Toronto horror journalists and hosts of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a weekly celebration of low budget genre film. They also review horror films new and old at ReallyAwfulMovies.com.

This is the HARDBACK version. Lewis J. Stadlen made his Broadway debut as Groucho Marx in the musical comedy Minnie's Boys (1970). His other noted Broadway roles include Senex in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Banjo in a revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner, Milt in Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and Dr. Pangloss in the 1973 production of Candide. He was nominated for three Tony awards over the years. Stadlen's film credits include Portnoy's Complaint, Serpico, The Verdict, To Be or Not to Be, Windy City, and In & Out. On television, Stadlen had a regular role in the first season of Benson. He also has appeared in Law & Order and The Sopranos. When someone asks him what he does for a living, he tells them, "I entertain people." About his autobiography, he explains, "Calling myself an actor would be too immodest. Rarely do I spare them the anarchic and usually hilarious accounts of what it has been like to survive for forty one years in the movies, television, and my first love, the American Theater. During that time I have persevered through a minefield of theatrical personalities, not excluding my parents, in order to emerge the man I am today: a closet optimist, easily fooled, addicted to tall sexy women and serious enough to make thousands of people laugh at any given time (as long as I have the right material). "My autobiography explores my journey with the people I have been blessed to be associated with. Zero Mostel, Neil Simon, Groucho Marx, Nathan Lane, Joseph Papp, David Burns, Harold Prince, Sidney Lumet, Rita Moreno, Mickey Rooney, Agnes DeMille, Henry Fonda, Mel Brooks, Richard Dreyfuss, Stella Adler, Sam Levene and Alan Arkin all have in common the blessing and curse of being born with the creative gene. Their's is a life where only a degree of politeness is advisable. Everytime you think you've seen it all, you are reminded you will always be a virgin. This book is the story of larger-than-life people, who have dedicated their lives to telling the story well. How it's done isn't always pretty, but to quote the great Stella Adler, "It's better to be interesting than be real."

For Jackey Neyman Jones, who played Debbie in Manos: The Hands of Fate, the "worst movie ever made" is, at its heart, a home movie that just happens to be shared with the world. Equal parts memoir/family saga/film book, Growing Up with Manos: The Hands of Fate shares the behind-the-scenes story of the making of Manos: from creator Hal Warren's alleged bet with TV producer Stirling Silliphant that "anyone could make a movie," to the tragic suicide of John Reynolds (Torgo), right up through the newest Manos-related projects that are carrying the film into the digital age. Jackey's stories dispel much of the Manos mythology while crystallizing a unique time and place in America, where a crew of actors with a bad script and a rented camera set out to make a bad movie-and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Jackey Neyman Jones is a professional artist living in the Great Northwest. Laura Mazzuca Toops is a writer/editor with more than 30 years' experience in business and fiction writing. She is the author of three historical novels.

This is the HARDBACK version. Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Comedy Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series. The Andy Griffith Show begat Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C. The Mary Tyler Moore Show spun-off Rhoda and Phyllis. An episode of All in the Family became Maude and another episode became The Jeffersons. You remember the successful spin-offs, but you may now know about the spin-offs that never were. Why did the characters of Fred and Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy never star in their own spin-off? What animated spin-off pilot could be considered a forerunner of The Simpsons? Which situation comedy has had the greatest number of attempted spin-offs? Why did the idea of a Krusty the Clown spin-off from The Simpsons never become a series? What could have been the first gay family comedy? What was the live-action Monsignor Martinez pilot from the King of the Hill series all about? Discover rare summaries of treatments, scripts, and pilots along with comments from fifty writers, directors, producers, and actors involved with proposed spin-offs and sequels: actress Elinor Donahue remarks about the Father Knows Best reunion movies; actor Patrick Cassidy talks about his audition for The Nanny spin-off; former actress Sheila James describes why her character, Zelda from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, never got her own series; Eddie Mekka from Laverne & Shirley comments on the Lenny & Squiggy in the Army spin-off. Richard Irvin is also the author of Forgotten Laughs: An Episode Guide to 150 Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw (Bear Manor Media).

This is the HARDBACK version. Mark McGee, the author of You Won't Believe Your Eyes! once again takes the reader back to the 1950s, this time to explore the careers of three pioneers in bargain basement entertainment -Sam Katzman, James Nicholson and Roger Corman, the first filmmakers to recognize that the kids were the ones who bought most of the movie tickets. While the major studios continued to lose money every year on films that were aimed at an audience that was home watching television, Katzman, Nicholson and Corman were making movies that appealed to the young people. Rock and roll movies. Juvenile delinquent dramas. Science fiction and horror thrillers. They were hated by the critics and chastised by the guardians of public morality. But the exhibitors loved them. They counted on these three guys to keep them in the black, which they did for almost twenty years. It took the studios decades to finally get wise to themselves and now they're flooding the market with mega buck versions of the kinds of movies Katzman, Nicholson and Corman made for $1.98. A lot of these films were junk. Some of them were treasures. You be the judge which was which.

This is the HARDBACK version. Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy had an immense impact upon popular culture. Included in this book are quotations from nearly six hundred literary works-novels, short stories, plays, poems and some nonfiction books-by nearly three hundred authors over the last eighty years, illustrating a diverse and contextually rich multitude of references to both the actors themselves and to a majority of their films. An overwhelming number of allusions have been found to such unforgettable classics as It Happened One Night, Boys Town, Gone with the Wind, Beau Geste, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, High Noon and Inherit the Wind. The authors whose works are quoted here include a large number of highly acclaimed American writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, John O'Hara, Budd Schulberg, Herman Wouk, J. D. Salinger, James Jones, James A. Michener, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, Philip Roth, William Styron, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Tim O'Brien and Paul Auster-and a host of foreign writers, such as Julio Cortázar, Umberto Eco, Romain Gary, Herman Koch, Stieg Larsson, Alan Sillitoe and Markus Zusak. "This is a brilliant book . . . to see the impact that my father, along with the other three seminal stars of Hollywood's golden age, had outside the film world is both enlightening and astounding. I think my father would find it an honor to be included. . . . A must have for anyone who loves movies and loves literature." - Stephen Humphrey Bogart About the Author: Henryk Hoffmann was born and educated (M.A. in English Philology) in Poznań, Poland, where he worked as an English teacher, translator and interpreter. Having immigrated to the USA in 1992, he kept teaching (Latin, German, English and History) and started writing reference books related to film and literature, such as "A" Western Filmmakers: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers, Directors, Cinematographers, Composers, Actors and Actresses-his first publication. Hoffmann is an active member of the Western Writers of America and lives, with his wife Betsy, in Lititz, PA.

Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy had an immense impact upon popular culture. Included in this book are quotations from nearly six hundred literary works-novels, short stories, plays, poems and some nonfiction books-by nearly three hundred authors over the last eighty years, illustrating a diverse and contextually rich multitude of references to both the actors themselves and to a majority of their films. An overwhelming number of allusions have been found to such unforgettable classics as It Happened One Night, Boys Town, Gone with the Wind, Beau Geste, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, High Noon and Inherit the Wind. The authors whose works are quoted here include a large number of highly acclaimed American writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, John O'Hara, Budd Schulberg, Herman Wouk, J. D. Salinger, James Jones, James A. Michener, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, Philip Roth, William Styron, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Tim O'Brien and Paul Auster-and a host of foreign writers, such as Julio Cortázar, Umberto Eco, Romain Gary, Herman Koch, Stieg Larsson, Alan Sillitoe and Markus Zusak. "This is a brilliant book . . . to see the impact that my father, along with the other three seminal stars of Hollywood's golden age, had outside the film world is both enlightening and astounding. I think my father would find it an honor to be included. . . . A must have for anyone who loves movies and loves literature." - Stephen Humphrey Bogart About the Author: Henryk Hoffmann was born and educated (M.A. in English Philology) in Poznań, Poland, where he worked as an English teacher, translator and interpreter. Having immigrated to the USA in 1992, he kept teaching (Latin, German, English and History) and started writing reference books related to film and literature, such as "A" Western Filmmakers: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers, Directors, Cinematographers, Composers, Actors and Actresses-his first publication. Hoffmann is an active member of the Western Writers of America and lives, with his wife Betsy, in Lititz, PA.

This is the HARDBACK version. Dick Jones: Where the Action Was is a nostalgic look back at two of the most action-packed early television Westerns aimed at the juvenile audience, The Range Rider and Buffalo Bill, Jr. One man had a starring role in both of these shows, Dick Jones, a former child actor and talented athlete. The focus is on action. From Dick's tales of fights that took hours of choreography to action sequences that went wrong to rodeo personal appearances with the Range Rider (Jock Mahoney), his friend and co-star, Dick was always where the action was. The reader will be, too, via Dick's stories and commentary by the author. Step back to the fifties and ride again with Dick Jones in The Range Rider and Buffalo Bill, Jr.

This is the HARDBACK edition. "Chuck Tranberg meticulously and painstakingly researched, explored, and carefully chronicled this fascinating time in history. He offers us a glimpse into early Hollywood where the studio system incubated and dominated so many stars, Robert Taylor among them."-Terry Taylor, son of Robert Taylor, in his introduction to this book.Robert Taylor was one of Hollywood's biggest stars for over thirty-years and starred in such classic films as Magnificent Obsession, Camille, A Yank at Oxford, Waterloo Bridge, Johnny Eager, Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe and The Last Hunt. He worked with the cream of Hollywood leading ladies: Irene Dunne, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh,Lana Turner, Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck, who he later married, just to name a few. An open and friendly man who usually tried to avoid controversy, Taylor stepped into it when he became a so-called friendly witness appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the height of the Washington investigations into alleged Communism in Hollywood. It has haunted his reputation to this day. A happy second marriage to actress Ursula Thiess produced two children and gave Taylor a contentment he lacked in his earlier marriage. Author Charles Tranberg takes a fresh look at the actor who was once called, "The man with the perfect profile." This book also takes a fascinating look at the Hollywood Studio system which existed during Taylor's hey-day.

The creators of Total Television, the brains behind Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and many classic cartoons, reveal the origin of one of cartoon's greatest champions - Underdog! From conception to worldwide megahit, the entire story of the birth of Total Television at last closes an important gap in animated television history.Includes* Original sketches for this biography by artist/creator Chet Stover* Unused story ideas for the 25th anniversary Underdog series* Storylines and summaries for The World of Commander McBragg, Underdog, Go Go Gophers, Tennessee Tuxedo, and King Leonardo and His Short Subjects* And more!

This is the second collection of scripts of the hugely popular Bickersons, a radio/TV series starring Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Includes never-before-published versions of their classic routines, plus original radio commercials, both radio pilots, Christmas episode for the unaired animation show, and more!About the AuthorPhilip Rapp began writing for Eddie Cantor's radio show in the early 1930s, then moved to help create Baby Snooks for Fanny Brice. Aside from his immortal Bickersons creation, Rapp wrote hit films for Danny Kaye (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Inspector General), produced the TV series Topper, and wrote and directed the last Marx Brothers TV pilot - among many other accolades.