"Brackett's diaries read like a funnier, better-paced version of Barton Fink." — NewsweekScreenwriter 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 w...

Just a Regular Bloke: The Ted Ray Story is the third in a trilogy of volumes on legends of British comedy, that began with Jimmy Edwards and continued with Arthur Askey. Ted Ray became a star as British Music Hall came to an end, and continued into radio, television and motion pictures. He never stopped performing on stage as Music Hall morphed into Variety, and could always be relied upon to make audiences laugh with his quick wit and rapid-fire humor. It might be said that it was on radi...

With A Journey Through Film History, film historian Anthony Slide offers a detailed account of his life and career over the last 80 years. In a humorous and entertaining style, he speaks of his memories, both good and bad. Interviewer Matthew Renoir is the great grandson of Jean Renoir (and the great, great grandson of impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir), and a perfect fit as an interviewer for Anthony Slide, who knew Jean Renoir well in the late 1970s, and provides many memories ...

Stanley Unwin was unique among British comedians in that he invented his own language, Unwinese,with which he entertained audiences from the 1940s until his death in 2002. Continuing his book-length studies of the British comedy fraternity, Anthony Slide discusses in detail Stanley Unwin's life and career, including his years as a BBC engineer prior to embarking on a new career as a comedian, at first with the BBC. The text may not be totally in "basic engly twenty fido,"

Collected together here are Anthony Slide's writings on film and television history from the 1960s through the present. Subjects and individuals discussed are varied, including Lillian Gish, Val Guest, Vivienne Segal, Wendy Richard, Elisabeth Welch, Lawrence Welk, and Betty White. All illustrate the author's scholarship, dedication to the serious study of the history of popular culture, and also his unique sense of humor.The book is a reminder of a career that has included time spe...

New York City Vaudeville provides a unique pictorial record of America�s preeminent entertainment medium in the late 1800s through the early 1930s. New York�s Palace Theatreserved as the flagship for vaudeville, on which stage everyvaudevillian aspired to perform. New York City Vaudevillefeatures photographs of some of the greatest names fromthe Palace Theatre, including Jack Benny, George Burnsand Gracie Allen, Anna Held, the Marx Brothers, and Eva Tanguay, as well as legendary African Am...

A diminutive, frenetic comedian, known for catchphrases that were once part of the English language, Arthur Askey was one of Britain's most popular entertainers throughout much of the 20th Century. Immediately after World War One, Askey made his professional debut in concert parties at British seaside resorts. He began to appear on the stage and on radio, and in 1938, with Richard Murdoch, he introduced Band Wagon to BBC radio listeners. It soon became the most popular program on the air, ...

A timely and captivating account of America’s first women directors who, with little recognition, helped pave the way for females in the film industry today.Originally published in 1977 as Early Women Directors, Anthony Slide’s The Silent Feminists was the first volume to recognize and honor the work of female directors in the American silent film industry. With a new foreword by the author, this invaluable resource documents these pioneering women...

The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville provides a unique record of what was once America's preeminent form of popular entertainment from the late 1800s through the early 1930s. It includes entries not only on the entertainers themselves, but also on those who worked behind the scenes, the theatres, genres, and historical terms. Entries on individual vaudevillians include biographical information, samplings of routines and, often, commentary by the performers. Many former vaudevillians wer...

Searching for an introduction to the shadowy, intriguing world of early 20th century gay-themed fiction?In Lost Gay Novels, respected pop culture historian Anthony Slide resurrects fifty early 20th century American novels with gay themes or characters and discusses them in carefully researched, engaging prose. Each entry offers you a detailed discussion of plot and characters, a summary of contemporary critical reception, and biographical information on the often-obscure writer. In...

Extras, bit players, and stand-ins have been a part of the film industry almost from its conception. On a personal and a professional level, their stories are told in Hollywood Unknowns, the first history devoted to extras from the silent era through the present.Hollywood Unknowns discusses the relationship of the extra to the star, the lowly position in which extras were held, the poor working conditions and wages, and the sexual exploitation of many of the hardw...

A Special Relationship provides not only a historical overview of the British in Hollywood, but also a detailed study of the contributions made by American individuals and companies to British cinema from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards. The story begins with Ohio-born Charles Urban who came to London in 1898 and deserves credit for major involvement in the creation of a British film industry. While Ireland was still a part of Britain, the New York-based Kalem Compa...