Sometimes Hollywood gets it wrong - that's the popular belief. Sometimes, Hollywood got it right. But did early woman emerge from the caves in an animal skin bikini, a la Raquel Welch, in One Million Years B.C.? Is the great chariot race in Ben-Hur like the real thing? Was the relationship between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn portrayed fairly? This book is divided into the Seven Ages of Hollywood, from the Creation to the Vietnam War, comparing fact - insofar as it can be ascertained - with the versions presented in Hollywood. Cover shows Charlton Heston being epically (and hopefully accurately) Moses in The Ten Commandments.
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This is Freddy and Philip's story - the true story of a couple who married during the 70 day seige of Singapore and who became prisoners of the Japanese and were interned in Changi Gaol in Singapore. With other imprisoned medical men, Dr. Philip Bloom was forced to perform miracles of improvised surgery, using anything he could lay his hands on to make artificial limbs for crippled fellow-prisoners. Freddy, an American and temporary nurse, was interred in the women's camp. Apart from sharing the suffering with 400 other women and 80 children, she fell victim to the dreaded Kampei Tai and was locked for days and nights in a 'cage' with imprisoned men. Both survived, but suffered terrible hardships. The book is their lives in the prison camps. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
Goldwyn: Arthur Marx
$15.00The incredible tale of Samuel Goldwyn, who emigrated alone to America as a teenager, became a glove salesmen and then made his way to the top of the fledgling film industry by some very questionable ways and means. Did he really ask David O. Selznick, "So, who've you got to play Scarface O'Hara?" And did he really believe that 'a verbal contract wasn't worth the paper it's printed on'? Arthur Marx shows us a Goldwyn who was a highly complex and puzzling individual. He supplies in abundance more famous Goldwynisms - and a good many stories printed here for the first time. Rich in anecdotal detail about both Goldwyn’s personal and professional life, this biography is a testament to his role as both a perfectionist in art and a founder of one of America’s great industries. The author is the son of Groucho Marx and thus had access to many of those mentioned in this biography. -
Mervyn Leroy (1900 - 1987) was the director of such epic and famous films as Waterloo Bridge, Mr. Roberts, Quo Vadis? The Wizard of Oz and the extremely scary The Bad Seed, just to name a few. He began work selling newspapers at the age of ten after his father's death. His love affair with show business began when he got a bit part in a play. He worked in vaudeville before trying his luck in Hollywood, starting as a wardrobe assistant before graduating to a job with William DeMille. He was assigned to direct Mary Astor in No Place To Go - and the rest is history, as he mingled with such film industry founders as Jesse Lasky, Cecil B. DeMille, Jack Warner, Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer. He also discovered such stars as Clark Gable and Lana Turner. Illustrated with black and white photos. One for the very dedicated film buff.
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Dickens was an adept at what he called laying his hand upon the time, and in doing so became the recognised exponent of the English character and society to Victorian England and to the world. He revealed the masses to the classes in one country, and people all over the world understood what he had to say. No-one of his day understood the condition of England better and he appealed to the people with his life long crusade against illiteracy, vile industrial conditions and slumdom. His novels paint the most vivid picture of the appalling conditions that were considered adequate for the poor and the complete lack of interest from those in power who could have changed these conditions, not to mention the corruption endemic amongst those in power. His books were instrumental in creating the awareness needed for lasting and beneficial change. -
Or: Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. There's plenty of books on manners and etiquette, and this book is not about either. It's about the rudeness of modern life and the sense of outrage we all experience when we discover that other people are crass, selfish and inconsiderate. You ask a shop assistant, "Can you tell me the price of this? There doesn't appear to be a label," and she says, "What d'you think I am, psychic?" Whatever happened to please and thank you? Why do people behave in public as if they're in private? It's about that sort of bad manners. A bitingly humorous look at the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life, from maddening mobile phones to stupid slang.
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When John Baker died of cancer, many of his friends in the small Yorkshire village of Cracoe were devastated. During his illness, Tricia had joked with him about creating an alternative W.I. calendar - she and his wife Angela were members - but she had no notion of the events she would set in motion. Expecting only local interest, the ladies were stunned by the media frenzy when the calendar was launched in 1999. Over the next two years, the calendar girls found themselves in newspapers, on television, chosen as Women of the Year and touring America. They raised £500,000 for leukaemia research. This is NOT a film novelisation - this is the true story of the highs, lows, funny moments and sad ones too. 'It's not naked - it's nude!"
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The autobiographical tale of Rick Braithwaite's battle to find work in post-war London. A trained engineer, he could only find work as a teacher. When a woman refuses to sit next to him on the bus, Braithewaite is saddened and angered by her prejudice. In cosmopolitan London, he had hoped for a more enlightened attitude. When he begins his first teaching job in a tough East End school he finds the same hostile prejudice. Yet slowly and painfully, the barriers begin to break. He shames his pupils, wrestles with them, enlightens them and eventually comes to love them - as they come to love and respect him. To Sir With Love is the story of a dedicated teacher who turns hate into love, teenage rebelliousness into energetic self-respect, contempt into consideration for others - the story of a man's own integrity winning through against all the odds. -
Liz: David Heymann
$10.00The ultimate and intimate bio of Elizabeth Taylor. Child star in National Velvet, youthful object of desire controlled by her mother and MGM, Oscar-winning actress in Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, eight-time wife and champion of funding for AIDS research and intimate of celebrities and tycoons for six decades. The volume contains never-before published studio documentation, interviews with stars, directors, friends and family, her battle with weight issues, alcohol and drug addiction, affairs, lovers and husbands, her own million-dollar perfume and jewellery lines - it's all here and more. Lavishly illustrated with black and white photos.
