The RKO Story

The RKO Story

Author: Richard B. Jewell

Publisher: Random House Value Publishing

Published: 1982

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13:

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RKO Radio Pictures existed in an atmosphere of almost chaos, from its optimistic beginnings in 1928 until it collapsed into ruins at the hands of Howard Hughes nearly 30 years later. Yet in that show history RKO made some of the greatest films and featured some of the finest talents ever to emerge from Hollywood.


Book Synopsis The RKO Story by : Richard B. Jewell

Download or read book The RKO Story written by Richard B. Jewell and published by Random House Value Publishing. This book was released on 1982 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RKO Radio Pictures existed in an atmosphere of almost chaos, from its optimistic beginnings in 1928 until it collapsed into ruins at the hands of Howard Hughes nearly 30 years later. Yet in that show history RKO made some of the greatest films and featured some of the finest talents ever to emerge from Hollywood.


RKO Radio Pictures

RKO Radio Pictures

Author: Richard B. Jewell

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0520951956

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One of the "Big Five" studios of Hollywood’s golden age, RKO is remembered today primarily for the famous films it produced, from King Kong and Citizen Kane to the Astaire-Rogers musicals. But its own story also provides a fascinating case study of film industry management during one of the most vexing periods in American social history. RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born offers a vivid history of a thirty-year roller coaster of unstable finances, management battles, and artistic gambles. Richard Jewell has used unparalleled access to studio documents generally unavailable to scholars to produce the first business history of RKO, exploring its decision-making processes and illuminating the complex interplay between art and commerce during the heyday of the studio system. Behind the blockbuster films and the glamorous stars, the story of RKO often contained more drama than any of the movies it ever produced.


Book Synopsis RKO Radio Pictures by : Richard B. Jewell

Download or read book RKO Radio Pictures written by Richard B. Jewell and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the "Big Five" studios of Hollywood’s golden age, RKO is remembered today primarily for the famous films it produced, from King Kong and Citizen Kane to the Astaire-Rogers musicals. But its own story also provides a fascinating case study of film industry management during one of the most vexing periods in American social history. RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born offers a vivid history of a thirty-year roller coaster of unstable finances, management battles, and artistic gambles. Richard Jewell has used unparalleled access to studio documents generally unavailable to scholars to produce the first business history of RKO, exploring its decision-making processes and illuminating the complex interplay between art and commerce during the heyday of the studio system. Behind the blockbuster films and the glamorous stars, the story of RKO often contained more drama than any of the movies it ever produced.


RKO

RKO

Author: Betty Lasky

Publisher: Roundtable Publishing

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13:

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Traces the thirty-year history of the Hollywood studio, describes its most important films, and looks at the various individuals who ran the company.


Book Synopsis RKO by : Betty Lasky

Download or read book RKO written by Betty Lasky and published by Roundtable Publishing. This book was released on 1989 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the thirty-year history of the Hollywood studio, describes its most important films, and looks at the various individuals who ran the company.


Slow Fade to Black

Slow Fade to Black

Author: Richard B. Jewell

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2016-03-22

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0520289676

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Slow Fade to Black completes Richard B. Jewell’s richly detailed two-part history of the RKO film studio, which began with RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan Is Born, published in 2012. This second volume charts the studio’s fortunes, which peaked during World War II, declined in the postwar period, and finally collapsed in the 1950s. Drawing on hard-to-access archival materials, Jewell chronicles the period from 1942 to the company’s demise in 1957. Towering figures associated with the studio included Howard Hughes, Orson Welles, Charles Koerner, Val Lewton, Jane Russell, and Robert Mitchum. In addition to featuring an extraordinary cast of characters, the RKO story describes key aspects of entertainment history: Hollywood’s collaboration with Washington, film noir, censorship, HUAC, the rise of independent film production, and the impact of television on film. Taken as a whole, Jewell’s two-volume study represents the most substantial and insightful exploration of the Hollywood studio system to date.


Book Synopsis Slow Fade to Black by : Richard B. Jewell

Download or read book Slow Fade to Black written by Richard B. Jewell and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2016-03-22 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Slow Fade to Black completes Richard B. Jewell’s richly detailed two-part history of the RKO film studio, which began with RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan Is Born, published in 2012. This second volume charts the studio’s fortunes, which peaked during World War II, declined in the postwar period, and finally collapsed in the 1950s. Drawing on hard-to-access archival materials, Jewell chronicles the period from 1942 to the company’s demise in 1957. Towering figures associated with the studio included Howard Hughes, Orson Welles, Charles Koerner, Val Lewton, Jane Russell, and Robert Mitchum. In addition to featuring an extraordinary cast of characters, the RKO story describes key aspects of entertainment history: Hollywood’s collaboration with Washington, film noir, censorship, HUAC, the rise of independent film production, and the impact of television on film. Taken as a whole, Jewell’s two-volume study represents the most substantial and insightful exploration of the Hollywood studio system to date.


Hollywood's Lost Backlot

Hollywood's Lost Backlot

Author: Steven Bingen

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-12-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 149303362X

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Hollywood is a transitory place. Stars and studios rise and fall. Genres and careers wax and wane. Movies and movie moguls and movie makers and movie palaces are acclaimed and patronized and loved and beloved, and then forgotten. And yet… And yet one place in Southern California, built in the 1920s by (allegedly murdered) producer Thomas Ince, acquired by Cecil B. DeMille, now occupied by Amazon.com, has been the home for hundreds of the most iconic and legendary films and television shows in the world for a remarkable and star-studded fifty years. This bizarre, magical place was the location for Tara in Gone with The Wind, the home of King Kong and Superman, of Tarzan and Batman, of the Green Hornet, of Elliot Ness, of Barney Fife, of Tarzan, of Rebecca, of Citizen Kane, of Hogan’s Heroes and Gomer Pyle, of Lasse, of A Star is Born and Star Trek, and at least twice, of Jesus Christ. For decades, every conceivable star in Hollywood, from Clark Gable to Warren Beatty, worked and loved and gave indelible performances on the site. And yet, today, it is completely forgotten. Pretty much anyone alive today, from college professors to longshoremen, have probably heard of Paramount and of MGM, of Warner Bros. and of Universal, and of Disney and Fox and Columbia, but the place where many of these studio’s beloved classics were minted is today as mysterious and unknowable as the sphinx. Hollywood’s Lost Backlot: 40 Acres of Glamour and Mystery will, for the first time ever, unwind the colorful and convoluted threads that make for the tale of one of the most influential and photographed places in the world. A place which most have visited, at least on screen, and which has contributed significantly and unexpectedly to the world’s popular culture, and yet which few people today, paradoxically, have ever heard of.


Book Synopsis Hollywood's Lost Backlot by : Steven Bingen

Download or read book Hollywood's Lost Backlot written by Steven Bingen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-12-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood is a transitory place. Stars and studios rise and fall. Genres and careers wax and wane. Movies and movie moguls and movie makers and movie palaces are acclaimed and patronized and loved and beloved, and then forgotten. And yet… And yet one place in Southern California, built in the 1920s by (allegedly murdered) producer Thomas Ince, acquired by Cecil B. DeMille, now occupied by Amazon.com, has been the home for hundreds of the most iconic and legendary films and television shows in the world for a remarkable and star-studded fifty years. This bizarre, magical place was the location for Tara in Gone with The Wind, the home of King Kong and Superman, of Tarzan and Batman, of the Green Hornet, of Elliot Ness, of Barney Fife, of Tarzan, of Rebecca, of Citizen Kane, of Hogan’s Heroes and Gomer Pyle, of Lasse, of A Star is Born and Star Trek, and at least twice, of Jesus Christ. For decades, every conceivable star in Hollywood, from Clark Gable to Warren Beatty, worked and loved and gave indelible performances on the site. And yet, today, it is completely forgotten. Pretty much anyone alive today, from college professors to longshoremen, have probably heard of Paramount and of MGM, of Warner Bros. and of Universal, and of Disney and Fox and Columbia, but the place where many of these studio’s beloved classics were minted is today as mysterious and unknowable as the sphinx. Hollywood’s Lost Backlot: 40 Acres of Glamour and Mystery will, for the first time ever, unwind the colorful and convoluted threads that make for the tale of one of the most influential and photographed places in the world. A place which most have visited, at least on screen, and which has contributed significantly and unexpectedly to the world’s popular culture, and yet which few people today, paradoxically, have ever heard of.


The Paramount Story

The Paramount Story

Author: John Douglas Eames

Publisher: Random House Value Publishing

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13:

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Complete history of the studio and its 2805 films.


Book Synopsis The Paramount Story by : John Douglas Eames

Download or read book The Paramount Story written by John Douglas Eames and published by Random House Value Publishing. This book was released on 1985 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Complete history of the studio and its 2805 films.


The Hollywood Story

The Hollywood Story

Author: Joel Waldo Finler

Publisher: Crown

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9780517565766

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An oversize volume that tells the history of American movies in text and hundreds of photographs.


Book Synopsis The Hollywood Story by : Joel Waldo Finler

Download or read book The Hollywood Story written by Joel Waldo Finler and published by Crown. This book was released on 1988 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An oversize volume that tells the history of American movies in text and hundreds of photographs.


RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929-1956

RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929-1956

Author: Michael R. Pitts

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-03-27

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1476616833

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King Kong and The Thing from Another World are among the most popular horror and science fiction films of all time and both were made by RKO Radio Pictures. Between 1929 and 1956, RKO released more than 140 genre features, including The Most Dangerous Game, The Phantom of Crestwood, Before Dawn, The Monkey's Paw, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, You'll Find Out, The Spiral Staircase, The Enchanted Cottage, It's a Wonderful Life, Captive Women and Killers from Space. RKO is remembered for its series of psychological horror movies produced by Val Lewton, including Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim and The Body Snatcher. The studio also produced films in the adventure, comedy, fantasy, mystery and western genres. They released many Walt Disney classics--Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Peter Pan--as well as several "Tarzan" features. This volume covers these movies in detail with critical and historical analysis, in-depth plot synopsis and numerous contemporary reviews.


Book Synopsis RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929-1956 by : Michael R. Pitts

Download or read book RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929-1956 written by Michael R. Pitts and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-27 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King Kong and The Thing from Another World are among the most popular horror and science fiction films of all time and both were made by RKO Radio Pictures. Between 1929 and 1956, RKO released more than 140 genre features, including The Most Dangerous Game, The Phantom of Crestwood, Before Dawn, The Monkey's Paw, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, You'll Find Out, The Spiral Staircase, The Enchanted Cottage, It's a Wonderful Life, Captive Women and Killers from Space. RKO is remembered for its series of psychological horror movies produced by Val Lewton, including Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim and The Body Snatcher. The studio also produced films in the adventure, comedy, fantasy, mystery and western genres. They released many Walt Disney classics--Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Peter Pan--as well as several "Tarzan" features. This volume covers these movies in detail with critical and historical analysis, in-depth plot synopsis and numerous contemporary reviews.


Five Came Back

Five Came Back

Author: Mark Harris

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014-02-27

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 0698151577

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Now a Netflix original documentary series, also written by Mark Harris: the extraordinary wartime experience of five of Hollywood's most important directors, all of whom put their stamp on World War II and were changed by it forever Here is the remarkable, untold story of how five major Hollywood directors—John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra—changed World War II, and how, in turn, the war changed them. In a move unheard of at the time, the U.S. government farmed out its war propaganda effort to Hollywood, allowing these directors the freedom to film in combat zones as never before. They were on the scene at almost every major moment of America’s war, shaping the public’s collective consciousness of what we’ve now come to call the good fight. The product of five years of scrupulous archival research, Five Came Back provides a revelatory new understanding of Hollywood’s role in the war through the life and work of these five men who chose to go, and who came back. “Five Came Back . . . is one of the great works of film history of the decade.” --Slate “A tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable work of movie-minded cultural criticism. Like the best World War II films, it highlights marquee names in a familiar plot to explore some serious issues: the human cost of military service, the hypnotic power of cinema and the tension between artistic integrity and the exigencies of war.” --The New York Times


Book Synopsis Five Came Back by : Mark Harris

Download or read book Five Came Back written by Mark Harris and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a Netflix original documentary series, also written by Mark Harris: the extraordinary wartime experience of five of Hollywood's most important directors, all of whom put their stamp on World War II and were changed by it forever Here is the remarkable, untold story of how five major Hollywood directors—John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra—changed World War II, and how, in turn, the war changed them. In a move unheard of at the time, the U.S. government farmed out its war propaganda effort to Hollywood, allowing these directors the freedom to film in combat zones as never before. They were on the scene at almost every major moment of America’s war, shaping the public’s collective consciousness of what we’ve now come to call the good fight. The product of five years of scrupulous archival research, Five Came Back provides a revelatory new understanding of Hollywood’s role in the war through the life and work of these five men who chose to go, and who came back. “Five Came Back . . . is one of the great works of film history of the decade.” --Slate “A tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable work of movie-minded cultural criticism. Like the best World War II films, it highlights marquee names in a familiar plot to explore some serious issues: the human cost of military service, the hypnotic power of cinema and the tension between artistic integrity and the exigencies of war.” --The New York Times


The Columbia Story

The Columbia Story

Author: Clive Hirschhorn

Publisher: Hamlyn (UK)

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9780600598367

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Since 1924, Columbia Pictures has made over 3,000 movies, becoming one of the most successful studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. Every one of those movies, from It Happened One Night to Men In Black, appears in noted film critic Clive Hirschhorn's grandly oversize, picture-filled book. Also included are a synopsis, casting, lively critical commentary, running time, and an extensive timeline of every Columbia film that ever won, or received, a nomination for an Oscar. "Excellent."--Publishers Weekly.


Book Synopsis The Columbia Story by : Clive Hirschhorn

Download or read book The Columbia Story written by Clive Hirschhorn and published by Hamlyn (UK). This book was released on 1999 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1924, Columbia Pictures has made over 3,000 movies, becoming one of the most successful studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. Every one of those movies, from It Happened One Night to Men In Black, appears in noted film critic Clive Hirschhorn's grandly oversize, picture-filled book. Also included are a synopsis, casting, lively critical commentary, running time, and an extensive timeline of every Columbia film that ever won, or received, a nomination for an Oscar. "Excellent."--Publishers Weekly.