In Search Of Donna Reed

Author : Jay Fultz
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015047067312

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In Search of Donna Reed by Jay Fultz Pdf

This first biography of Donna Reed also contains the first extended discussion of her television show. The personal richness that Reed brought to her television role has been filtered out in the caricature perpetuated by pop critics. In the media "Donna Reed" is Donna Stone distorted as a female-manque who wears pearls and high heels around the house. But Donna Reed's long hold on viewers depends on irreducible qualities that have nothing to do with this fixed image, as Fultz suggests. He follows her development from Iowa farm girl to apprentice in Hollywood to mature juggler of the demands of family and career to antiwar activist. Drawing on Reed's letters and on interviews, Fultz looks for what was real in a very private person without discarding what is romantic in any pursuit of a public one. He shows why the rich and principled life of Donna Reed matters in this more cynical time.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 72 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1962
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:17665491

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The Donna Reed Show by Anonim Pdf

Author : Brenda Scott Royce
Publisher : Greenwood
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1990-11-26
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015019421810

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Donna Reed by Brenda Scott Royce Pdf

Donna Reed has been called "America's favorite mother" and her recognition as such has stood the test of time. But before she became known as the ultimate mom on The Donna Reed Show, she was already a veteran film actress with almost 40 films to her credit--including roles in It's a Wonderful Life and From Here to Eternity. This book contains a brief biography, a detailed examination of her work, a listing of reviews of her work and of her awards and nominations, a chronology of major events in her life, and an annotated bibliography of writings from major magazines, fan magazines, books and newspapers.

Author : Joanne Morreale
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2012-11-01
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780814338087

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The Donna Reed Show by Joanne Morreale Pdf

At a time when television offered limited opportunities for women, Donna Reed was an Oscar-winning Hollywood actress who became both producer (though largely uncredited) and star of her own television show. Distinct from the patriarchal family sitcoms of the era, The Donna Reed Show's storylines focused on the mother instead of the father, and its production brought a cinematic aesthetic to television situation comedy. In The Donna Reed Show, author Joanne Morreale illustrates how the program pushed the boundaries of the domestic sitcom at a time when the genre was evolving and also reflected the subtle shifts and undercurrents of unrest in the larger social and political culture. Morreale begins by locating Donna Reed in relation to her predecessors Gertrude Berg and Lucille Ball, both of whom were strong female presences in front of and behind the camera. She also explores the telefilm aesthetics of The Donna Reed Show and argues that the series is a prime example of the emergent synergy between Hollywood and the television industry in the late fifties. In addition, Morreale argues that the Donna Stone character's femininity acts as a kind of masquerade, as well as provides a proto-feminist model for housewives. She also examines the show's representation of teen culture and its role in launching the singing careers of its two teenaged stars. Finally, Morreale considers the legacy of The Donna Reed Show in the representation of its values in later sitcoms and its dialogue with contemporary television texts. Morreale illustrates the interplay of gender, industry, and culture at work in the history of this classic TV series. Fans of the show, as well as students and teachers of television history, will enjoy this close look at The Donna Reed Show.

Author : Michael Newton
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 170 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2023-09-07
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781839023507

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It's a Wonderful Life by Michael Newton Pdf

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is one of the best-loved films of Classical Hollywood cinema, a story of despair and redemption in the aftermath of war that is one of the central movies of the 1940s, and a key text in America's understanding of itself. This is a film that remains relevant to our own anxieties and yearnings, to all the contradictions of ordinary life, while also enacting for us the quintessence of the classic Hollywood aesthetic. Nostalgia, humour, and a tough resilience weave themselves through this movie, intertwining it with the fraught cultural moment of the end of World War II that saw its birth. It offers a still compelling merging of fantasy and realism that was utterly unique when it was first released, and has rarely been matched since. Michael Newton's study of the film investigates the source of its extraordinary power and its long-lasting impact. He begins by introducing the key figures in the movie's production - notably director Frank Capra and star James Stewart - and traces the making of the film, and then provides a brief synopsis of the film, considering its aesthetic processes and procedures, touching on all those things that make it such an astonishing film. Newton's careful analysis explores all those aspects of the film that are fundamental to our understanding of it, particularly the way in which the film brings tragedy and comedy together. Finally, Newton tells the story of the film's reception and afterlife, accounting for its initial relative failure and its subsequent immense popularity.

Author : Joseph McBride
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 983 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2011-02-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781496800565

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Searching for John Ford by Joseph McBride Pdf

John Ford's classic films—such as Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, and The Searchers—have earned him worldwide admiration as America's foremost filmmaker, a director whose rich visual imagination conjures up indelible, deeply moving images of our collective past. Joseph McBride's Searching for John Ford, described as definitive by both the New York Times and the Irish Times, surpasses all other biographies of the filmmaker in its depth, originality, and insight. Encompassing and illuminating Ford's myriad complexities and contradictions, McBride traces the trajectory of Ford's life from his beginnings as “Bull” Feeney, the nearsighted, football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Portland, Maine, to his recognition, after a long, controversial, and much-honored career, as America's national mythmaker. Blending lively and penetrating analyses of Ford's films with an impeccably documented narrative of the historical and psychological contexts in which those films were created, McBride has at long last given John Ford the biography his stature demands.

Author : James Gilbert Ryan,Leonard C Schlup
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 1220 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03-26
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781317468646

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Historical Dictionary of the 1940s by James Gilbert Ryan,Leonard C Schlup Pdf

The only available historical dictionary devoted exclusively to the 1940s, this book offers readers a ready-reference portrait of one of the twentieth century's most tumultuous decades. In nearly 600 concise entries, the volume quickly defines a historical figure, institution, or event, and then points readers to three sources that treat the subject in depth. In selecting topics for inclusion, the editors and authors offer a representative slice of life as contemporaneous Americans saw it - with coverage of people; movements; court cases; and economic, social, cultural, political, military, and technological changes. The book focuses chiefly on the United States, but places American lives and events firmly within a global context.

Author : Paul Petersen
Publisher : TV Classics Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2018-11-18
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1944068813

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The Donna Reed Show by Paul Petersen Pdf

This Donna Reed Show tribute book is just in time to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this iconic TV Classic. With special commentary by Paul Petersen who played Jeff Stone on the series and photographs from the archives of the Donna Reed Foundation, this is a must have for TV Classic Fans. Take a step back into a simpler time with nostalgic memories of the family many of us wished was our own.

Author : Greg Mitchell
Publisher : The New Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2020-07-07
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781620975749

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The Beginning or the End by Greg Mitchell Pdf

The shocking and significant story of how the White House and Pentagon scuttled an epic Hollywood production. Soon after atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, MGM set out to make a movie studio chief Louis B. Mayer called “the most important story” he would ever film: a big budget dramatization of the Manhattan Project and the invention and use of the revolutionary new weapon. Over at Paramount, Hal B. Wallis was ramping up his own film version. His screenwriter: the novelist Ayn Rand, who saw in physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer the model for a character she was sketching for Atlas Shrugged. Greg Mitchell’s The Beginning or the End chronicles the first efforts of American media and culture to process the Atomic Age. A movie that began as a cautionary tale inspired by atomic scientists aiming to warn the world against a nuclear arms race would be drained of all impact due to revisions and retakes ordered by President Truman and the military—for reasons of propaganda, politics, and petty human vanity (this was Hollywood). Mitchell has found his way into the lofty rooms, from Washington to California, where it happened, unearthing hundreds of letters and dozens of scripts that show how wise intentions were compromised in favor of defending the use of the bomb and the imperatives of postwar politics. As in his acclaimed Cold War true-life thriller The Tunnels, he exposes how our implacable American myth-making mechanisms distort our history.

Author : Vincent LoBrutto
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 1278 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2018-01-04
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781440829734

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TV in the USA [3 volumes] by Vincent LoBrutto Pdf

This three-volume set is a valuable resource for researching the history of American television. An encyclopedic range of information documents how television forever changed the face of media and continues to be a powerful influence on society. What are the reasons behind enduring popularity of television genres such as police crime dramas, soap operas, sitcoms, and "reality TV"? What impact has television had on the culture and morality of American life? Does television largely emulate and reflect real life and society, or vice versa? How does television's influence differ from that of other media such as newspapers and magazines, radio, movies, and the Internet? These are just a few of the questions explored in the three-volume encyclopedia TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. This expansive set covers television from 1950 to the present day, addressing shows of all genres, well-known programs and short-lived series alike, broadcast on the traditional and cable networks. All three volumes lead off with a keynote essay regarding the technical and historical features of the decade(s) covered. Each entry on a specific show investigates the narrative, themes, and history of the program; provides comprehensive information about when the show started and ended, and why; and identifies the star players, directors, producers, and other key members of the crew of each television production. The set also features essays that explore how a particular program or type of show has influenced or reflected American society, and it includes numerous sidebars packed with interesting data, related information, and additional insights into the subject matter.

Author : Ralph LaRossa
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2011-07-15
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 9780226467436

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Of War and Men by Ralph LaRossa Pdf

Fathers in the 1950s tend to be portrayed as wise and genial pipe-smokers or distant, emotionless patriarchs. To uncover the real story of fatherhood during the 1950s, LaRossa takes the long view, revealing the myriad ways that World War II and its aftermath shaped men.

Author : David C. Tucker
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2015-03-26
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780786487325

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The Women Who Made Television Funny by David C. Tucker Pdf

Most of the bright and talented actresses who made America laugh in the 1950s are off the air today, but their pioneering Hollywood careers irrevocably changed the face of television comedy. These smart and sassy women successfully negotiated the hazards of the male-dominated workplace with class and humor, and the work they did in the 1950s is inventive still by today’s standards. Unable to fall back on strong language, shock value, or racial and sexual epithets, the female sitcom stars of the 1950s entertained with pure talent and screen savvy. As they did so, they helped to lay the foundation for the development of television comedy. This book pays tribute to 10 prominent television actresses who played lead roles in popular comedy shows of the 1950s. Each chapter covers the works and personalities of one actress: Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy), Gracie Allen (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show), Eve Arden (Our Miss Brooks), Spring Byington (December Bride), Joan Davis (I Married Joan), Anne Jeffreys (Topper), Donna Reed (The Donna Reed Show), Ann Sothern (Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show), Gale Storm (My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna), and Betty White (Life with Elizabeth). For each star, a career sketch is provided, concentrating primarily on her television work but also noting achievements in other areas. Appendices offer cast and crew lists, a chronology, and an additional biographical sketch of 10 less familiar actresses who deserve recognition.

Author : Cary O’Dell
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2013-05-21
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780786471775

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June Cleaver Was a Feminist! by Cary O’Dell Pdf

Long dismissed as ciphers, sycophants and "Stepford Wives," women characters of primetime television during the 1950s through the 1980s are overdue for this careful reassessment. From smart, savvy wives and resilient mothers (including the much-maligned June Cleaver and Donna Reed) to talented working women (long before the debut of "Mary Tyler Moore") to crimebusters and even criminals, American women on television emerge as a diverse, empowered, individualistic, and capable lot, highly worthy of emulation and appreciation.

Author : Michelangelo Capua
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 207 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2020-03-20
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781476675886

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John Derek by Michelangelo Capua Pdf

Actor and director John Derek was born in Hollywood, where his striking good looks helped get him a contract with David O' Selznick. Derek's career took off after Humphrey Bogart made him his costar in the cultish noir Knock at Any Doors. Derek appeared in such Academy Award-nominated films as All the King's Men, Run for Cover, The Ten Commandments and Exodus, and worked with directors like Nicholas Ray, Cecil B. DeMille, Otto Preminger and others. He was a competent, dedicated performer even in his last, trivial roles. In the 1960s, his career in decline, he began directing his own films. Although critics panned the string of movies he made starring his three wives--Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Bo Derek--some were box-office hits, like Tarzan, the Ape Man. This biography covers his extraordinary life and career, with extensive analysis of his films.

Author : Michelangelo Capua
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2014-01-10
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0786460024

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Deborah Kerr by Michelangelo Capua Pdf

Blessed with a natural beauty, Scotland-born actress Deborah Kerr (1921–2007) provided the cinema with memorable studies of English gentility. A star in British pictures before she was 21 and a Hollywood fixture from 1946 on, she projected a cool reserve and stoic nobility, often hinting at passion and insecurity beneath the surface. Frequently portraying selfless, sympathetic women, she was brilliant in such roles as Anna Leonowens in The King and I (1956). And in a fascinating departure from her normal range, her portrayal of the sexually frustrated Army wife in From Here to Eternity (1953) resulted in the screen’s most famous “clinch”—the beach scene with Burt Lancaster. Though she never won an Academy Award despite six nominations, Deborah Kerr received an honorary Oscar in 1994.