The Mascots Of 1911

In 1911, Connie Mack and John McGraw-arguably baseball's all-time greatest managers-shaped the game as each pitch was thrown and every base was stolen. And they did it with the help of their quirky mascots and superstitious players. Set in the stadiums, trains, hotels and clubhouses of baseball's formative years, The Mascots of 1911 is peopled with brilliantly colorful characters. This fictional yet historically accurate story is told through the teams' managers and mascots: Connie Mack and Louis van Zelst of the Philadelphia Athletics, and John McGraw and Charlie Faust of the New York Giants. Louis, a young, misshapen hunchback, believes in the goodness of the soul of baseball; he says teams should "win for the right reason-they're the best." Under the wing of the even-tempered and gentlemanly Mack, Louis inspires the A's by concealing his personal agony with joy. Feeble-minded Charlie Faust, the Giants' mascot, arrives bearing a gypsy's prophecy: if he gets to pitch, he'll ensure the Giants win the Pennant. Barely tolerated by the pugnacious McGraw, Faust entertains the crowd and convinces the players that spells, good luck charms and black magic will improve their play. Through that curious season and all the way to the World Series in 1911, the story was clearly bigger than the final score.

Alice Guy BlachT (1873-1968), the world's first woman filmmaker, was one of the key figures in the development of narrative film. From 1896 to 1920 she directed 400 films (including over 100 synchronized sound films), produced hundreds more, and was the first--and so far the only--woman to own and run her own studio plant (The Solax Studio in Fort Lee, NJ, 1910-1914). However, her role in film history was completely forgotten until her own memoirs were published in 1976. This new book tells her life story and fills in many gaps left by the memoirs. Guy BlachT's life and career mirrored momentous changes in the film industry, and the long time-span and sheer volume of her output makes her films a fertile territory for the application of new theories of cinema history, the development of film narrative, and feminist film theory. The book provides a close analysis of the one hundred Guy BlachT films that survive, and in the process rewrites early cinema history.

The fascinating memoir of influential French filmmaker Alice Guy Blaché, one of the industry’s most significant pioneers and a trailblazer for female directors. Alice Guy Blaché (1873-1968) is a unique pioneer of the motion picture, being not only a female filmmaker but also one of the first, if not the first, to make a narrative film. Her career spanned from 1894, when she became secretary to the legendary Léon Gaumont, through 1920, working in both her native France and the United States. In all, she was responsible for approximately 1,000 films, possibly more than any other director or producer. The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché was first published in 1976, and to a large extent led to her rediscovery after decades of relative obscurity. Guy Blaché writes of her beginnings in the motion picture industry, her direction not only of silent films but also some of the earliest synchronized sound motion pictures, her marriage and journey to the United States, the founding of her own studio in New Jersey, her fame, and the sad journey into obscurity in the 1920s. Her story reveals both the opportunities and the ultimate rejection facing a woman director in the early years of the twentieth century. These first-hand and original memoirs are enhanced with a complete filmography, an epilogue by her daughter Simone, a brief biography of her director husband, Herbert Blaché, a remembrance by feminist actress/writer Madame Olga Petrova, a sampling of contemporary articles on the director, and a new foreword by editor Anthony Slide. Through it all, Alice Guy Blaché’s personal charm, good humor, and modesty shines.

Provides an original, first-hand view of the potential that motion pictures offered women from the Victorian era, and how, ultimately, the industry rejected one of its first and most important pioneers. Alice Guy BlachZ was not only the world's first female director, but in 1896, she became the first of either sex to direct a fictional film. As the first director with the Gaumont Company in Paris, Alice Guy BlachZ served as an influential figure in French film history, making more than 300 films, including some of the earliest sound subjects from the turn of the century. She continued her career in the United States, founding the Solax Company in 1910, and producing and directing 350 more films. Complementing the text are reprints of contemporary articles on Alice Guy BlachZ from the American trade press, a reminiscence by her daughter, a brief evaluation of the career of her husband, Herbert BlachZ and a complete filmography.

People have long been fascinated by the American alligator. Ever since humans arrived on the continent more than 15,000 years ago, the American alligator has been both feared and revered, celebrated and scorned, and often hunted for food and hide. Once tourism began to take hold in the South as a real industry, especially in Florida, the alligator took on iconic and even mythical status. “One of the most picturesque features of Florida has always been that uncouth and fierce-looking reptile called the alligator,” wrote Nevin O. Winter in 1918. “Everybody who comes down here to the peninsula has an ambition to see one in the wild.” Seminole Indians wrestled alligators for show. Alligator souvenirs and mascots often took what people feared—a sharp-toothed predator—and made it into something cute and cuddly. Alligator-themed songs were recorded and released, including “See You Later Alligator” by Bill Haley and His Comets. Hollywood into created alligator-themed movies such as Alligator People. Alligators were also reportedly kept in the White House under two presidencies. And perhaps the most unusual alligator story was one that helped to nab Ma Barker and her son Fred when they were hiding out along Florida’s Lake Weir. America’s Alligator examines the colorful and sometimes conflicted relationship our species has had with Alligator mississippiensis. Doug Alderson explores the country’s rich alligator mythology and how it inspired various forms of art, stories, photography, tourism and even humor.

A full colour guide to British radiator and accessory mascots of 1896 to 1960 compiled by two leading experts in the field. Packed with information and stunning pictures, this comprehensive guide is a must for collectors and would-be collectors. As well as detailing the authors' collecting experiences, the book tells the reader how to get started, where to buy and - very importantly - how to spot fakes. 54 British marque mascots are covered, as are mascots produced by corporations such as ICI and the accessory mascots which owners could purchase to individualise their cars