Movie Dynasty Princesses Irene Mayer Selznick And Edith Mayer Goetz

The fascinating lives of celebrated Broadway producer Irene Mayer Selznick ("A Streetcar Named Desire"; "The Chalk Garden"), and leading socialite Edith Mayer Goetz, are explored in this revealing double bio. As the daughters of iconic MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, they were Hollywood royalty. Through their marriages to high profile film producers -- Irene to David O. Selznick ("Gone with the Wind") and Edith to future Universal mogul William Goetz -- the sisters each carved out her own distinctive niche in Hollywood, while supporting and influencing their husbands' work.Edie rose to prominence as queen bee of movie industry society. Irene left her husband and started a new life in New York, where she embarked on an ambitious career as a theatrical producer, not only succeeding with major hit plays, but blazing a trail for women in the theater. Set against the glamorous backdrop Hollywood's Golden Age and post-war Broadway, "Movie Dynasty Princesses" chronicles the exciting, inspiring and sometimes heartbreaking journeys of these rivalrous sisters who strove to make their dreams come true.

The making of the Oscar(r) Award-winning classic Rebecca is detailed in this enlightening and fascinating book which delves into the behind the scenes drama, struggles and passion that went into the filming of this iconic movie. Biographical sketches of key figures such as author Daphne du Maurier and leading actors Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier are included, along with photographs and trivia.

The fascinating lives of celebrated Broadway producer Irene Mayer Selznick ("A Streetcar Named Desire"; "The Chalk Garden"), and leading socialite Edith Mayer Goetz, are explored in this revealing double bio. As the daughters of iconic MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, they were Hollywood royalty. Through their marriages to high profile film producers -- Irene to David O. Selznick ("Gone with the Wind") and Edith to future Universal mogul William Goetz -- the sisters each carved out her own distinctive niche in Hollywood, while supporting and influencing their husbands' work. Edie rose to prominence as queen bee of movie industry society. Irene left her husband and started a new life in New York, where she embarked on an ambitious career as a theatrical producer, not only succeeding with major hit plays, but blazing a trail for women in the theater. Set against the glamorous backdrop of Hollywood's Golden Age and post-war Broadway, "Movie Dynasty Princesses" chronicles the exciting, inspiring and sometimes heartbreaking journeys of these rivalrous sisters who strove to make their dreams come true.

"The most revealing, penetrating book on filmmaking I know of . . ."--King Vidor David O. Selznick was a unique figure in the golden Hollywood studio era. He produced some of the greatest and most memorable American films ever made--notably, Rebecca, A Star Is Born, Anna Karenina, A Farewell to Arms, and, above all, Gone With the Wind. Selznick's absolute power and artistic control are evidenced in his impassioned, eloquent, witty, and sometimes rageful memos to directors, writers, stars and studio executives, writings that have become almost as famous as his films. Newsweek wrote,"I can't imagine how a book on the American movie business could be more illuminating, more riveting or more fun to read than this collection of David Selznick's memos.

Take a trip down memory lane to witness 22 years (1976-1998) of Mortimer's, one of the most notable restaurant hotspots that ever existed for an international celebrity clientele. Found in these pages is a feast of ephemera, including menus, recipes, invitations, proprietor Glenn Birnbaum's personal letters, and publicity clips. Overall, the book provides a glimpse into the culture, food, entertainment, fashion, and basic social intercourse during the heyday of the New York social scene.

Winner of the 2020 Peter C. Rollins Book Award Longlisted for the 2020 Moving Image Book Award by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Named a 2019 Richard Wall Memorial Award Finalist by the Theatre Library Association Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture’s only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing All About Eve, which also won Best Picture. Despite triumphs as diverse as Monkey Business and Cleopatra, and Pride of the Yankees and Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have—a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué, New York Times and New Yorker theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct Cleopatra by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered. For this award-winning dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.

This first-ever biography of American actress Anne Francis will enlighten her casual fans and earn a nod of agreement from her diehard admirers. The star of such 1950s cinematic classics as Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle and Forbidden Planet, Anne made the risky decision to transplant her talents to television--and as a result, her acting has often been taken for granted. But TV supplied her with the groundbreaking title role in Honey West (1965-66), where she became the first leading actress to portray a private detective on a regular weekly series. All of Anne Francis' film and television appearances are chronicled, including a full episode guide for Honey West and a complete listing of her guest roles on such series as The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables and Murder, She Wrote.

New York Times Bestseller • Edgar Award winner for Best Fact Crime The 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 largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence. Yet Hollywood’s glittering ascendency was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies—including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now. In a fiendishly involving narrative, bestselling Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to unpack the story of the enigmatic Taylor and the diverse cast that surrounded him—including three beautiful, ambitious actresses; a grasping stage mother; a devoted valet; and a gang of two-bit thugs, any of whom might have fired the fatal bullet. And overseeing this entire landscape of intrigue was Adolph Zukor, the brilliant and ruthless founder of Paramount, locked in a struggle for control of the industry and desperate to conceal the truth about the crime. Along the way, Mann brings to life Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties: a sparkling yet schizophrenic town filled with party girls, drug dealers, religious zealots, newly-minted legends and starlets already past their prime—a dangerous place where the powerful could still run afoul of the desperate. A true story recreated with the suspense of a novel, Tinseltown is the work of a storyteller at the peak of his powers—and the solution to a crime that has stumped detectives and historians for nearly a century.