Conversations with Legendary Television Stars

Conversations with Legendary Television Stars PDF

Author: James Bawden

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 0813177650

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“Insightful, often humorous, and always fascinating remembrances by some of the greatest names in entertainment history . . . a vibrant portrait of a bygone era.” —Brent Phillips, author of Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance During television's first fifty years—long before Hulu, Netflix, and the like—families would gather around their sets nightly to watch such shows as I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, M*A*S*H, The Beverly Hillbillies, Fantasy Island, and The Rockford Files. Seasoned journalists James Bawden and Ron Miller have captured provocative and entertaining interviews with beloved stars of shows like these, important figures from TV’s first half century. These thirty-nine interviews, selected from conversations conducted from 1971-1998, present a fascinating glimpse of some of television’s most influential performers. Featured are exclusive interviews with major stars (including Donna Reed, James Garner, and Ricardo Montalban), icons of comedy (including Lucille Ball, George Burns, and Milton Berle), TV hosts (including Dick Clark and Ed Sullivan), and notable musical entertainers (such as Glen Campbell, Mary Martin, and Lawrence Welk). Each chapter explores the subject’s television work—with detailed behind-the-scenes disclosures—and includes additional information about the subject’s performances in film and on stage.

Conversations with Classic Film Stars

Conversations with Classic Film Stars PDF

Author: James Bawden

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 0813167116

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James Bawden: Seeing the way people behave when they're around you, is it still fun being Cary Grant? Cary Grant: I don't like to disappoint people. Because he's a completely made-up character and I'm playing a part. It's a part I've been playing a long time, but no way am I really Cary Grant. A friend told me once, "I always wanted to be Cary Grant." And I said, "So did I."—from the book In Conversations with Classic Film Stars, retired journalists James Bawden and Ron Miller present an astonishing collection of rare interviews with the greatest celebrities of Hollywood's golden age. Conducted over the course of more than fifty years, they recount intimate conversations with some of the most famous leading men and women of the era, including Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joseph Cotten, Cary Grant, Gloria Swanson, Joan Fontaine, Loretta Young, Kirk Douglas, and many more. Each interview takes readers behind the scenes with some of cinema's most iconic stars. The actors convey unforgettable stories, from Maureen O'Hara discussing Charles Laughton's request that she change her last name, to Bob Hope candidly commenting on the presidential honors bestowed upon him. Humorous, enlightening, and poignant, Conversations with Classic Film Stars is essential reading for anyone who loves classic movies.

They Made the Movies

They Made the Movies PDF

Author: James Bawden

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2023-10-10

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 0813197546

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For decades, James Bawden and Ron Miller have established themselves as maestros of provocative interviews, giving fans unmatched insights into the lives of Hollywood A-listers. In their fourth collection, the authors pay tribute to film pioneers who lit up Tinseltown from the 1930s through the 1960s. They Made the Movies features conversations with legendary directors who created many of film's all-time classics, including Frank Capra (It's A Wonderful Life, 1946), Richard Fleischer (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954), Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, 1960), Ralph Nelson (Lilies of the Field, 1963), Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, 1965), and Chuck Jones (How the Grinch Stole Christmas! 1966). Tantalizing firsthand details about many acclaimed films are revealed, such as the revelation of Mervyn LeRoy's first-choice of lead actress for The Wizard of Oz ("Shirley Temple... but Shirley couldn't sing like Judy [Garland]"), Billy Wilder's insights on directing ("You have to be a sycophant, a sadist, a nurse, a philosopher"), and how megaproducer Hal B. Wallis purchased an unproduced play titled Everybody Comes to Rick's and transformed it into Casablanca ("The part [of Sam] almost went to Lena Horne, but I thought she was too beautiful"). The authors also celebrate the contributions of marginalized filmmakers such as Ida Lupino, James Wong Howe, Oscar Micheaux, and Luis Valdez, who prevailed in Hollywood despite the discrimination they faced throughout their careers. They Made the Movies appeals to film and television enthusiasts of all ages.

Creating Television

Creating Television PDF

Author: Robert Kubey

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-05-20

Total Pages: 650

ISBN-13: 1135694273

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Creating Television brings television and its creators to life, presenting fascinating in-depth interviews with the creators of American TV. Having interviewed more than 100 television professionals over the course of his 15 years of research, Professor Robert Kubey presents here the 40 conversations that provide the most illuminating insights about the industry and the people working in it. These interviews bring television's creators to life, revealing their backgrounds, work, and thoughts about the audience and the television programs they create. Each interview tells a compelling tale of an individual's struggles and successes within a complex collaborative and highly commercial medium, offering readers rare insights on the human component in television's development. Featured in this volume are actors, agents, writers, directors, producers, and executives, representing television's earliest days through to the present day. Spanning shows from I Love Lucy and The Tonight Show through to Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos, these creators share the stories of how they gained entry to the industry and built their careers, offering readers a rare opportunity to meet, up close, the people involved in creating many of the most famous and successful programs in the medium's history, and linking the creators' personal histories to the television programs they create. With its unique insights on the people responsible for making television, this volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers in television history, sociology of culture, human creativity, television production, media studies, and mass media ethics. It will also be a popular reader for undergraduate and graduate students in courses addressing television, mass culture, media and society, American Studies, creativity, television history, and media ethics.

Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age at the American Film Institute

Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age at the American Film Institute PDF

Author: George Stevens, Jr.

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2009-05-27

Total Pages: 734

ISBN-13: 0307518124

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ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME • The first book to bring together interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute’s renowned seminars, Conversations with the Great Moviemakers, offers an unmatched history of American cinema in the words of its greatest practitioners. Here are the incomparable directors Frank Capra, Elia Kazan, King Vidor, David Lean, Fritz Lang (“I learned only from bad films”), William Wyler, and George Stevens; renowned producers and cinematographers; celebrated screenwriters Ray Bradbury and Ernest Lehman; as well as the immortal Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini (“Making a movie is a mathematical operation. It’s absolutely impossible to improvise”). Taken together, these conversations offer uniquely intimate access to the thinking, the wisdom, and the genius of cinema’s most talented pioneers.

Television Series Regulars of the Fifties and Sixties in Interview

Television Series Regulars of the Fifties and Sixties in Interview PDF

Author: Dina-Marie Kulzer

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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In this collection of 22 interviews (with Ralph Bellamy, Angela Cartwright, Barbara Eden, Kathy Garver, Gale Gordon, Don Grady, Linda Kaye Henning, Anne Jeffreys, Meredith MacRae, Gary Owens, Paul Peterson, Kasey Rogers, Rose Marie, James Stacy, Connie Stevens, Deborah Walley, Ray Walston, Julie Newmar, Dawn Wells, Jane Wyatt, Dick York, and Alan Young) some of the biggest stars of 1950s and 1960s television reminisce about their experiences, look at the show's impact on their life, and provide insight into the creative process of those classic television shows.

The Producer's Medium

The Producer's Medium PDF

Author: Horace Newcomb

Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13:

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The Producer's Medium is the first book in which major TV producers look critically at their role in the commercial television industry. Norman Lear, Richard Levinson, Wiliam Link, and eight other producers of prime-time television discuss candidly their artistic aims, their working methods, their social and political views, and their battles with the networks they work for. Combined with these interviews is critical commentary that places the producers' words in perspective and examines TV's cultural role and the problems of creativity within the industry.

Conversations with Wilder

Conversations with Wilder PDF

Author: Cameron Crowe

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 9780571203864

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The renowned director talks to Cameron Crowe about 30 years at the very heart of Hollywood. Wilder's distinct voice provides a fascinating insider's view of the film industry past and present.