Close Up On Sunset Boulevard

Author : Sam Staggs
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2003-02-04
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781466830462

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Close-up on Sunset Boulevard by Sam Staggs Pdf

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, a classic film noir and also a damning dissection of the Hollywood dream factory, evokes the glamour and ruin of the stars who subsist on that dream. It's also one long in-joke about the movie industry and those who made it great-and who were, in turn, destroyed by it. One of the most critically admired films of the twentieth century, Sunset Boulevard is also famous as silent star Gloria Swanson's comeback picture. Sam Staggs's Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard tells the story of this extravagant work, from the writing, casting and filming to the disastrous previews that made Paramount consider shelving it. It's about the writing team of Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett-sardonically called "the happiest couple in Hollywood"-and their raucous professional relationship. It's about the art direction and the sets, the costumes, the props, the lights and the cameras, and the personalities who used those tools to create a cinematic work of art. Staggs goes behind the scenes to reveal: William Holden, endlessly attacked by his bitter wife and already drinking too much; Nancy Olson, the cheerful ingenue who had never heard of the great Gloria Swanson; the dark genius Erich von Stroheim; the once famous but long-forgotten "Waxworks"; and of course Swanson herself, who-just like Norma Desmond-had once been "the greatest star of them all." But the story of Sunset Boulevard doesn't end with the movie's success and acclaim at its release in 1950. There's much more, and Staggs layers this stylish book with fascinating detail, following the actors and Wilder into their post-Sunset careers and revealing Gloria Swanson's never-ending struggle to free herself from the clutches of Norma Desmond. Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard also chronicles the making of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical production of Sunset Boulevard and the explosive diva controversies that dogged it. The book ends with a shocking example of Hollywood life imitating Hollywood art. By the last page of this rich narrative, readers will conclude: We are those "wonderful people out there in the dark."

Author : Ed Sikov
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 675 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2017-06-14
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781496812650

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On Sunset Boulevard by Ed Sikov Pdf

On Sunset Boulevard, originally published in 1998, describes the life of acclaimed filmmaker Billy Wilder (1906-2002), director of such classics as Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, The Seven Year Itch, and Sabrina. This definitive biography takes the reader on a fast-paced journey from Billy Wilder's birth outside of Krakow in 1906 to Vienna, where he grew up, to Berlin, where he moved as a young man while establishing himself as a journalist and screenwriter, and triumphantly to Hollywood, where he became as successful a director as there ever was. Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment"Wilder's cinematic legacy is unparalleled. Not only did he direct these classics and twenty-one other films, he co-wrote all of his own screenplays. Volatile, cynical, hilarious, and driven, Wilder arrived in Hollywood an all-but-penniless refugee who spoke no English. Ten years later he was calling his own shots, and he stayed on top of the game for the next three decades. Wilder battled with Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, and Peter Sellers; kept close friendships with William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau; amassed a personal fortune by way of blockbuster films and shrewd investments in art (including Picassos, Klees, and Mir's); and won Oscars--yet Wilder, ever conscious of his thick accent, always felt the sting of being an outsider. On Sunset Boulevard traces the course of a turbulent but fabulous life, both behind the scenes and on the scene, from Viennese cafes and Berlin dance halls in the twenties to the Hollywood soundstages of the forties and the on-location shoots of the fifties and sixties. Crammed with Wilder's own caustic wit, On Sunset Boulevard reels out the story of one of cinema's most brilliant and prolific talents.

Author : Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
Page : 440 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2018-07-13
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780748675654

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Designs on the Past by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Pdf

Author : Sam Staggs
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Page : 505 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2001-06-23
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781466830431

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All About "All About Eve" by Sam Staggs Pdf

To millions of fans, All About Eve represents all that's witty and wonderful in classic Hollywood movies. Its old-fashioned, larger-than-life stars--including Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, and Celeste Holm--found their best roles in Eve and its sophisticated dialogue has entered the lexicon. But there's much more to know about All About Eve. Sam Staggs has written the definitive account of the making of this fascinating movie and its enormous influence on both film and popular culture. Staggs reveals everything about the movie--from who the famous European actress Margo Channing was based on to the hot-blooded romance on-set between Bette Davis and costar Gary Merrill, from the jump-start the movie gave Marilyn Monroe's career and the capstone it put on director Joseph L. Mankeiwicz's. All About "All About Eve" is not only full of rich detail about the movie, the director, and the stars, but also about the audience who loved it when it came out and adore it to this day.

Author : Tricia Welsch
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2013-08-21
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781617037504

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Gloria Swanson by Tricia Welsch Pdf

Gloria Swanson: Ready for Her Close-Up shows how a talented, self-confident actress negotiated a creative path through seven decades of celebrity. It also illuminates a little-known chapter in American media history: how the powerful women of early Hollywood transformed their remarkable careers after their stars dimmed. This book brings Swanson (1899–1983) back into the spotlight, revealing her as a complex, creative, entrepreneurial, and thoroughly modern woman. Swanson cavorted in slapstick short films with Charlie Chaplin and Mack Sennett in the 1910s. The popularity of her films with Cecil B. DeMille helped create the star system. A glamour icon, Swanson became the most talked-about star in Hollywood, earning three Academy Award nominations, receiving 10,000 fan letters every week, and living up to a reputation as Queen of Hollywood. She bought mansions and penthouses, dressed in fur and feathers, and flitted through Paris, London, and New York engaging in passionate love affairs that made headlines and caused scandals. Frustrated with the studio system, Swanson turned down a million-dollar-a-year contract. After a wild ride making unforgettable movies with some of Hollywood’s most colorful characters—including her lover Joseph Kennedy and maverick director Erich von Stroheim—she was a million dollars in debt. Without hesitation she went looking for her next challenge, beginning her long second act. Swanson became a talented businesswoman who patented inventions and won fashion awards for her clothing designs; a natural foods activist decades before it was fashionable; an exhibited sculptor; and a designer employed by the United Nations. All the while she continued to act in films, theater, and television at home and abroad. Though she had one of Hollywood’s most famous exit lines—“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”—the real Gloria Swanson never looked back.

Author : Neil Sinyard,Adrian Turner
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1979
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : UVA:X000669405

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Journey Down Sunset Boulevard by Neil Sinyard,Adrian Turner Pdf

Author : Billy Wilder
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 1999-06-24
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0520218558

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Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder Pdf

"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) is one of the most famous films in the history of Hollywood, and perhaps no film better represents Hollywood's vision of itself. This facsimile edition of the screenplay provides intriguing background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.

Author : Patrick Ecclesine
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Los Angeles (Calif.)
ISBN : 1595800409

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Faces of Sunset Boulevard by Patrick Ecclesine Pdf

Faces of Sunset Boulevard: A Portrait of Los Angeles is a collection of photographs of the people who live, work, and play in Los Angeles. Some are making fortunes along the route; others are just trying to survive to see another day. Patrick Ecclesine captures the city's dreams, dreamers, and, at times, nightmares using the most famous boulevard in the world as the setting for his photographs. The individuals featured range from the famous (Governor Schwarzenegger, Larry King, Fernando Valenzuela) to the unknown (a street vendor, an undocumented worker, a bus driver) to the unwanted (a homeless man, a single mother on welfare, a drug addict). Other archetypal Angeleno figures--from a television weather-girl sensation to a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon to surfers in Pacific Palisades to the eccentric and outlandish denizens of the Sunset Strip--stand side by side in these pages, capturing the eclectic nature of the City of Angels and its most colorful thoroughfare, Sunset Boulevard.

Author : Sam Staggs
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2006-07-25
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781466830486

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When Blanche Met Brando by Sam Staggs Pdf

Exhaustively researched and almost flirtatiously opinionated, When Blanche Met Brando is everything a fan needs to know about the ground-breaking New York and London stage productions of Williams' "Streetcar" as well as the classic Brando/Leigh film. Sam Staggs' interviews with all the living cast members of each production will enhance what's known about the play and movie, and help make this book satisfying as both a pop culture read and as a deeper piece of thinking about a well-known story. Readers will come away from this book delighted with the juicy behind-the-scenes stories about cast, director, playwright and the various productions and will also renew their curiosity about the connection between the role of Blanche and Viven Leigh's insatiable sexual appetite and later descent into breakdown. They may also-for the first time-question whether the character of Blanche was actually "mad" or whether her anxiousness was symptomatic of another disorder. "A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most haunting and most-studied modern plays. Staggs' new book will fascinate fans and richen newcomers' understanding of its importance in American theater and movie history.

Author : Wallace Shawn
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 70 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2015-12-24
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780571328147

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Evening at The Talk House by Wallace Shawn Pdf

At Ted's instigation, the old gang gather once more at the almost legendary club The Talk House. Ten years on and presided over still by the kindly Nellie, there's the same genteel atmosphere, familiar drinks, unchanging special snacks. But the era of Walter Barclay is long gone. A playwright, a composer, an actress. The possibility of a pleasant night. Evening at the Talk House by Wallace Shawn premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2015.

Author : Gloria Swanson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 519 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1987
Category : Motion picture actors and actresses
ISBN : OCLC:1256509076

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Swanson on Swanson by Gloria Swanson Pdf

Author : Charles Brackett
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 463 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2014-12-16
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780231538220

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"It's the Pictures That Got Small" by Charles Brackett Pdf

“Brackett’s diaries read like a funnier, better-paced version of Barton Fink.” —Newsweek Screenwriter Charles Brackett is best remembered as the writing partner of director Billy Wilder, who once referred to the pair as “the happiest couple in Hollywood,” collaborating on such classics as The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard. He was also a perceptive chronicler of the entertainment industry, and in this annotated collection of writings from dozens of Brackett’s unpublished diaries, film historian Anthony Slide clarifies Brackett's critical contribution to Wilder’s films and enriches our knowledge of Wilder’s achievements in writing, direction, and style. Brackett’s diaries re-create the initial meetings of the talent responsible for Ninotchka, Hold Back the Dawn, Ball of Fire, The Major and the Minor, Five Graves to Cairo, The Lost Weekend, and Sunset Boulevard, recounting the breakthroughs and the breakdowns that ultimately forced these collaborators to part ways. In addition to a portrait of Wilder, this is rare view of a producer who was a president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Screen Writers Guild, a New Yorker drama critic, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table. With insight into the dealings of Paramount, Universal, MGM, and RKO, and legendary figures such as Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Edna Ferber, and Dorothy Parker, this book reveals the political and creative intrigue at the heart of Hollywood’s most significant films. “A fascinating look at Hollywood in its classic period, and a unique and indispensable must-have for any movie buff.” —Chicago Tribune “This feels as close as we can get to being in the presence of Wilder’s genius, and he emerges as the cruelest as well as the wittiest of men.” —The Guardian “Not only rare insight into their often-stormy partnership but also an insider’s view of Hollywood during that era.” —Los Angeles Times “Very entertaining.” —Library Journal

Author : Kathryn Harrison
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2018-10-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780385542685

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On Sunset by Kathryn Harrison Pdf

Born in Los Angeles at the dawn of the 1960s to parents who quickly departed, Kathryn Harrison was received by her maternal grandparents as a late-life child. Harry Jacobs and Margaret Sassoon, true wandering Jews, had emigrated to L.A. after leading whirlwind lives in Shanghai, London, Alaska, Russia, and beyond. Harrison grew up in their fading Tudor mansion on Sunset Boulevard, a kingdom inhabited by gleaming memories from their extraordinary past. Their photos, letters, and souvenirs sparked endless family stories that spanned cultures, dynasties, and continents—until declining finances forced them to sell the house in 1971, and night fell fast. Vivid and poignant, filled with the wisdom of retrospect and the wonder of childhood, On Sunset seeks to recover a foundational time in her life, affirming the power of storytelling and the endurance of memory.

Author : Robert Landau
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2016-09-30
Category : Billboards
ISBN : 1626400326

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Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip by Robert Landau Pdf

The Sunset Strip, circa 1967. What was happening then is now absolutely clear. Rock 'n' roll and the kids who lived it were coming of age - right there on The Strip. And, as if to define the era, a few independent minds in the music industry posted giant, temporary monuments that said it all. Billboards. Bigger than life. Hand-painted homages to rock. In Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip, Robert Landau showcases these signs of the time, a time when rock was the most important music ever recorded, when youth, politics, and art merged to turn counterculture into mainstream culture.

Author : Jane Brown,Marla Hamburg Kennedy
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Los Angeles (Calif.)
ISBN : 1938922735

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Both Sides of Sunset by Jane Brown,Marla Hamburg Kennedy Pdf

Los Angeles is a city of dualities--sunshine and noir, coastline beaches and urban grit, natural beauty and suburban sprawl, the obvious and the hidden. Both Sides of Sunset: Photographing Los Angeles reveals these dualities and more, in images captured by master photographers such as Bruce Davidson, Lee Friedlander, Daido Moriyama, Julius Shulman and Garry Winogrand, as well as many younger artists, among them Matthew Brandt, Katy Grannan, Alex Israel, Lise Sarfati and Ed Templeton, just to name a few. Taken together, these individual views by more than 130 artists form a collective vision of a place where myth and reality are often indistinguishable. Spinning off the highly acclaimed Looking at Los Angeles (Metropolis Books, 2005), Both Sides of Sunset presents an updated and equally unromantic vision of this beloved and scorned metropolis. In the years since the first book was published, the artistic landscape of Los Angeles has flourished and evolved. The extraordinary Getty Museum project Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 focused global attention on the city's artistic heritage, and this interest has only continued to grow. Both Sides of Sunset showcases many of the artists featured in the original book--such as Lewis Baltz, Catherine Opie, Stephen Shore and James Welling--but also incorporates new images that portray a city that is at once unhinged and driven by irrepressible exuberance. Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit Inner-City Arts--an oasis of learning, achievement and creativity in the heart of Los Angeles' Skid Row that brings arts education to elementary, middle and high school students.