Once Upon A Time In West Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in West Hollywood is a personal journey, a portrait of '70s Los Angeles based on different chapters of my life, and the photographs I took along the way, starting when I was only 10 years old. People have asked me what it was like growing up in Hollywood. Apartment living is tough, especially coming from the Midwest suburbs and having to share a bedroom but when you are seven you don't know what you don't have anymore. Personal memories like ditching Bancroft Junior High School, walking up Highland past Sunset to Hollywood Boulevard, playing pinball for hours at long-forgotten arcades that were popular then. Hanging out at the rooftop pool at the legendary Hyatt (Riot) House on Sunset or hanging out at Tower Records during the memorable summer of 1974, too young at 14 to appreciate the classic rock n' roll scene that was The Strip in the '70s. Working in my father's hardware store in East Los Angeles, a boy of 15, or riding the bus to Dodger Stadium alone at night, no fear. I hope the book brings back memories for the reader, wherever you grew up.

West Hollywood, which began as Sherman, a rail yard town, played an integral role in creating the "Hollywood" film industry while it grew up alongside the fashionable Beverly Hills to house the service industries needed by these wealthy neighbors. During Prohibition, the still unincorporated area was the site of the entertainment industry's watering holes and gambling parlors, and nicknames such as the "Sinful Drag," "The Adult Playground," and "Hollywood's Soul" were bestowed upon West Hollywood's world-famous Sunset Strip, where today's visitors can still dance in the footsteps of legends like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. As time marched on, the predominantly renter, Jewish, gay, and senior citizen residents of the progressive-minded area determined to step out of the shadows of nearby communities and create a city of their own, an effort that caused some controversy but resulted in the incorporation of West Hollywood in 1984. Since incorporation West Hollywood has been a beacon of hope, drawing refugees from Russia and around the world to its tolerant streets.

The ideal popular guide to the key Spaghetti Westerns - mainly the good but also the bad and the ugly - this is an authoritative, entertaining and comprehensive companion to the films that created the mythical Spaghetti West in the most improbable circumstances. Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy is covered, with many more major and minor Spaghetti Westerns, including Sergio Corbucci's "Navajo Joe", Carlo Lizzani's "The Hills Run Red" and Duccio Tessari's "A Pistol for Ringo". This popular guide explores the films through the biographies and filmographies of key personnel, stories of the films' making, their locations and sets, sources, musical scores, detailed cast information, box office fortunes internationally, with many illustrations, including original posters and stills.

Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited first work of fiction—at once hilarious, delicious and brutal—is the always surprising, sometimes shocking, novelization of his Academy Award winning film. RICK DALTON—Once he had his own TV series, but now Rick’s a washed-up villain-of-the week drowning his sorrows in whiskey sours. Will a phone call from Rome save his fate or seal it? CLIFF BOOTH—Rick’s stunt double, and the most infamous man on any movie set because he’s the only one there who might have got away with murder. . . . SHARON TATE—She left Texas to chase a movie-star dream, and found it. Sharon’s salad days are now spent on Cielo Drive, high in the Hollywood Hills. CHARLES MANSON—The ex-con’s got a bunch of zonked-out hippies thinking he’s their spiritual leader, but he’d trade it all to be a rock ‘n’ roll star.

"Once Upon a Time in the West was the movie that made me consider filmmaking."-Quentin Tarantino Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the Westset out to be the ultimate Western--a celebration of the power of classic Hollywood cinema, a meditation on the making of America and a lament for the decline of one of the most cherished film genres in the form of a "dance of death." With this film, Leone said a fond farewell to the noisy and flamboyant world of the Italian Western, which he had created with A Fistful of Dollars and sequels, and aimed for something much more ambitious--an exploration of the relationship between myth ("Once Upon a Time..."), history ("...in the West") and his own autobiography as an avid film-goer. This would be a horse opera in which the arias aren't sung, they are stared. Once Upon a Time has since inspired several generations of filmmakers worldwide. Its combination of "film about film" with an angry historical epic, told with great style, has resonated for half a century, and its reputation has steadily grown. This book, by the world-renowned authority on Sergio Leone, Christopher Frayling, includes revealing personal interviews with all the key players involved in the movie (in front of the camera and behind it) a wealth of never-before-published documents, designs and photographs, and the latest research into the making of a masterpiece, shot by shot. It is introduced with a foreword by Quentin Tarantino. This year is the 50th anniversary of Once Upon a Time in the West and this richly illustrated book is a suitably spectacular birthday tribute.

Stand-Up Comedy is a battlefield not for the faint of heart. You either die on that stage or you kill. In 2002, Steve Collin was a brand spanking new comic who accidentally stumbled onto a burgeoning irreverent New York comedy movement in its infancy. Alternative Comedy quickly gained a following as a backlash to the stale ‘club style’ of the 80’s. It was new and exciting, and Steve’s loose style of comedy was a perfect fit for the ‘Alt’ scene. But in comedy, timing is everything...just one misstep and you become a cautionary tale or a punchline. A former class clown and comedic natural, Steve enters the stand-up world wholly unprepared for the rejection, heavy drinking and cut-throat competition accompanying it. Recognized early on by comedy tastemakers as a talent to watch, and swiftly securing a litany of TV credits, Steve soon gets caught up in a whirlwind of endless shows, free drinks and the unrelenting New York City nightlife. “Born Funny: A Comic’s Chronicle Through the Rise of Alt Comedy”, is a novel based on the author's stand-up comedy experience during the significant era that launched a generation of comedy talent. Featuring cameos from many well-known future comedy stars before they made it big, some names have been changed, including the author's.

Once Upon a Time in West Hollywood is a personal journey, a portrait of '70s Los Angeles based on different chapters of my life, and the photographs I took along the way, starting when I was only 10 years old. People have asked me what it was like growing up in Hollywood. Apartment living is tough, especially coming from the Midwest suburbs and having to share a bedroom but when you are seven you don't know what you don't have anymore.Personal memories like ditching Bancroft Junior High School, walking up Highland past Sunset to Hollywood Boulevard, playing pinball for hours at long forgotten arcades that were popular then. Hanging out at the rooftop pool at the legendary Hyatt (Riot) House on Sunset or hanging out at Tower Records during the memorable summer of 1974, too young at 14 to appreciate the classic rock n' roll scene that was The Strip in the '70s. Working in my father's hardware store in East Los Angeles, a boy of 15, or riding the bus to Dodger Stadium alone at night, no fear. I hope the book brings back memories for the reader, wherever you grew up.

Focusing on twenty-first century Western films, including all major releases since the turn of the century, the essays in this volume cover a broad range of aesthetic and thematic aspects explored in these films, including gender and race. As diverse contributors focus on the individual subgenres of the traditional Western (the gunfighter, the Cavalry vs. Native American conflict, the role of women in Westerns, etc.), they share an understanding of the twenty-first century Western may be understood as a genre in itself. They argue that the films discussed here reimagine certain aspects of the more conventional Western and often reverse the ideology contained within them while employing certain forms and clichés that have become synonymous internationally with Westerns. The result is a contemporary sensibility that might be referred to as the postmodern Western.