A fascinating look at Hollywood’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system—set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shifts“The definitive book on 1950s Hollywood.” —Booklist“Lavish. . . insightful, rich, expansive, penetrating.” —KirkusHollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry bo...

Edna Ferber’s classic paean of love to the Mississippi River and the showboats that ran up and down it is once again available in hardcover as a facsimile of the first edition. First published in 1926, this timeless tale of the Cotton Blossom, Cap’n Andy, his shrewd wife Parthy, and their beautiful daughter Magnolia her remarkable daughter Kim was made famous on Broadway in 1927, when the legendary Jerome S. Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II collaborated on the musical. Since then it has becom...

The first full-scale life of the controversial, greatly admired yet often underrated director/producer who was known as “Otto the Terrible.”Nothing about Otto Preminger was small, trivial, or self-denying, from his privileged upbringing in Vienna as the son of an improbably successful Jewish lawyer to his work in film and theater in Europe and, later, in America.His range as a director was remarkable: romantic comedies (The Moon Is Blue); musicals (Carmen Jones...

A revised and updated edition of the definitive study of the most original genre of American cinema.Foster Hirsch's The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir is by far the most thorough and entertaining study of the themes, visual motifs, character types, actors, directors, and films in this genre ever published. From Billy Wilder, Douglas Sirk, Robert Aldrich, and Howard Hawkes to Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, and Paul Schrader, the noir themes o...

From 1905 to the crash of 1929, Sam Shubert (1874-1905) and his brothers Lee (1874-1953) and J. J. (1878-1963), despite poor beginnings and near-illiteracy, created a theater monopoly unrivaled in history. Their ruthless business tactics and showmanship made 42nd Street the heart of American popular theater and won them the most sought-after stars of the day, including Al Jolson, Carmen Miranda, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Mae West, and Fred Astaire.

A fascinating look at Hollywood’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system—set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shifts“The definitive book on 1950s Hollywood.” —Booklist“Lavish. . . insightful, rich, expansive, penetrating.” —KirkusHollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry bo...

New York Times Bestseller • Edgar Award winner for Best Fact CrimeThe Day of the Locust meets The Devil in the White City and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in this juicy, untold Hollywood story: an addictive true tale of ambition, scandal, intrigue, murder, and the creation of the modern film industry.By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime, and one of the nation's...

The secret history of the American women who served as codebreakers during World War II is revealed in this New York Times bestseller.**"Prodigiously researched and engrossing." —**New York TimesRecruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, t...

Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half-truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century and remain widespread today.‘A deeply researched history of the interplay between the two ways of understanding the world.’ ECONOMIST, BEST BOOKS OF 2023The true history of science and religion is a human one. It’s about the role of religion in inspiring, and strangling, science before the scientific r...

Filled with rare images and untold stories from filmmakers, exhibitors, and moviegoers, Forbidden Hollywood is the ultimate guide to a gloriously entertaining era when a lax code of censorship let sin rule the movies.Forbidden Hollywood is a history of "pre-Code" like none other: you will eavesdrop on production conferences, read nervous telegrams from executives to censors, and hear Americans argue about "immoral" movies. You will see decisions a...

The heroic, #1 New York Times bestselling tale of the men who saved the world's greatest art from the Nazis, and the basis for the acclaimed motion picture starring George Clooney.At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuhrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art h...

There’s no such thing as a former KGB man...'A gripping story filled with remarkable revelations.' Tom Bower, author of RevengeAgents of Influence reveals the secret history of an intelligence agency gone out of control, accountable to no one but itself and intent on subverting Western politics on a near-inconceivable scale. In 1985, 1,300 KGB officers were stationed in the USA. The FBI only had 350 counter-intelligence of...