I Died A Thousand Times In Africa

As a boy I listened avidly to all those romantic yarns of the elephant hunters and of the daring and prowess of the hunters on the ivory trail (stories like mine) with hairbreadth escapes. In dreams I saw myself in deserts and jungles... on the ivory trail... after the solitary buffalo.... dreaming of incredible adventures. Had I but known how true all my dreams would one day become...

As a boy I listened avidly to all those romantic yarns of the elephant hunters and of the daring and prowess of the hunters on the ivory trail (stories like mine) with hairbreadth escapes. In dreams I saw myself in deserts and jungles... on the ivory trail... after the solitary buffalo.... dreaming of incredible adventures. Had I but known how true all my dreams would one day become...

The headline of the Variety extra on October 27, 1926, proclaimed “Vitaphone1 Thrills L.A.!” Vitaphone, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. formed in association with Western Electric, was one of the major producers of talkies, even though its sound-on-disc technology barely lasted four years. The Vitaphone features and shorts that have survived intact, or that have been so carefully restored, preserve much of the show business history that might otherwise have been lost with the industry’s fast-paced advances in movie making. This book is a catalogue of Vitaphone features and shorts. The first section lists the features and shorts by release number. The New York productions (1926–1940) are listed first, followed by the West Coast productions (1927–1970). For shorts, the following particulars, if known and if applicable, are given: title, alternate title(s), instrumental and vocal selections performed on screen, composer(s) and performers of instrumental and vocal selections, release date and synopsis of the film, names of major cast members and directors, set information if two or fewer sets were used, and the amount paid to early performers. For features, entries list release dates, genre, and major cast members. The section on performers includes only those who appeared in shorts, listing dates and places of birth when known.

The 525 notable works of 19th and 20th century American fiction in this reference book have many stage, movie, television, and video adaptations. Each literary work is described and then every adaptation is examined with a discussion of how accurate the version is and how well it succeeds in conveying the spirit of the original in a different medium. In addition to famous novels and short stories by authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Willa Cather, many bestsellers, mysteries, children's books, young adult books, horror novels, science fiction, detective stories, and sensational potboilers from the past two centuries are examined.