5 comments about Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons.

1. The most fully illustrated book on every Looney Tunes cartoon to date.Every single Warner Bros. cartoon from 1930 to 1989.
   
   Highly recommended!



2. Here is an illustated guide to the Warner Bros. cartoons commonly known as LOONEY TUNES AND MERRIE MELODIES. Every cartoon was either a Looney Tune or Merrie Melodie. These include both the short subjects and feature films. One of WB's biggest cartoon stars,Bugs Bunny appeared in tens of cartoons in a 25 year period,1940 to 1964. Bugs' first official appearance was in 1940's A WILD HARE. A few earlier cartoons such as PRESTO CHANGE-O,HARE-UM SCARE-UM and ELMER'S CANDID CAMERA(featuring Elmer Fudd) featured a similar-looking prototype. WB's other big stars include Daffy Duck who debuted in or around 1938. The star's name appeared in some titles of his cartoons such as DAFFY DUCK & EGGHEAD,DAFFY DUCK IN HOLLYWOOD and DAFFY DUCK AND THE DINOSAUR. Same thing with Bugs Bunny(BUGS BUNNY AND THE THREE BEARS,BASEBALL BUGS,BUGS BUNNY RIDES AGAIN and BUGS BUNNY GETS THE BOID). Also Elmer Fudd(ELMER'S CANDID CAMERA,ELMER'S PET RABBIT and GOODNIGHT ELMER). Other big stars are Sylvester,a mean-spirited cat always wanting to kill sweet little canary Tweety. Later stars include Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote,Speedy Gonzales and Foghorn Leghorn(Foghorn first appeared in the 40's). There's also Porky Pig who first appeared in the 1935 Merrie Melodie I HAVEN'T GOT A HAT. Porky starred in many black and white Looney Tunes since that cartoon. This book lists synopses for every cartoon produced by WB. It also gives release dates and production credits with directors. I like the awesome concept of the variously colored rings bordering the beginning and end title cards. Over the years,they changed colors. The sizes changed also as did the studio logo(the original light blue changed to red). Some cartoons made between 1937 and 1940 featured multi-colored rings. WB still produces short subject cartoons occasionally but does more feature films today. This book went to press before the 1996 release of SPACE JAM,a semi-animated film starring basketball great Michael Jordan and featuring WB's cartoon stars. I dedicate the book to the memories of longtime director Chuck Jones,actor-director tex Avery(Jones and Avery later went to MGM),Mel Blanc(voice of Bugs Bunny) and actress Bea Benaderet who later appeared on TV's The Beverly Hillbillies and starred on Petticoat Junction.



3. This book is a great resource to read about these classic Warner Brothers cartoons. It would have been nice if the book had included more groupings by characters in the index. The book is 390 pages long, so it seems that they could have included a few extra pages to list all of the appearances of Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam.



4. I have had a quest to see(and act out)all of the cartoons of Wile E. Coyote and Sylvester. But some episodes appeared on cable networks more than others, and others I saw, but missed the episode name. So I purchased this book to find out which cartoons I've actually seen. It describes the episodes with details such as the ACME products in each episode, the methods the villain uses, and other interesting facts. Buy it if you wish to see all the Warner Bros. cartoons of all or one of the characters!



5. It's easy to sit back and watch the re-runs of Warner Brothers cartoons and just let them wash over us, but that would ignore all of the work that went into them. We would not get an appreciation of the sheer number of cartoons produced. Luckily Beck and Friedwald were obsessed enough to pull them all together in one volume. Going on a year by year basis, from Bosko cartoons of 1930 to the last gasps of 1969 (and the reawakening in the 80's) the authors provide a landmark reference showing the premiere date, the credits given in the openings, and a thorough synopsis of the action. But of course any reference like this would be an oddity if it was just a listing. But we are provided with two ways to find information - a title index showing the entry (all purpose for grabbing when watching that cartoon), and an index based upon appearances of 15 of the most popular characters. Want to find out when did Marvin the Martian appear? It's here. (1948 - Haredeveil Hare). Wonder how many cartoons starred Daffy Duck - count 'em up. (a whole lot) Just sitting back and reading synopses shows the breadth of jokes and settings that the artists were able to take advantage of. You can also see the repetition that occured when the writers fell into a rut. Just a great book to have on the shelf to pull down when you want and a great guilty pleasure!

No comments about Music for Piano: A Short History.

2 comments about M (BFI Film Classics).

1. For most people if you tell them you are going to watch a movie or read a book about a child murderer they will look at you strangely. Don't kid yourself this IS a disturbing movie, from the opening sequence with the children singing a song about the "man in black" coming to get you to the end with the sobbing mothers warning this film is intense. The book places the movie in the context of Weimar Germany and is essential for understanding the use of imagery and the many subtexts that are present. The book is well written, hard to put down, and it really compliments the movie experience without either watering it down or making it too cerebral. For further reading I would encourage people to do a websearch on Fritz Haarman or Peter Kurten the actual serial killers the plot was loosely based on. If you thought serial killers were a modern invention, these guys make Ted Bundy look like an amateur.



2. After almost 7 decades since its making, Fritz Lang's M remains a poignant, modern film; a striking portrait of the human world as we live in. It is natural for the BFI to have chosen it as one of the 360 key films of all time. No other film deserves this status more than M.

   Fritz Lang, who always regarded M as his best film and the one by which he would be remembered, called it "a documentary". It is one of the first film about serial killers, and already Lang goes beyond depicting the pathology of such criminal; what M examines is the pathology of 20th century modern society.

   In this compact but meticulous study, Anton Kaes reveals the connection between the film and the Weimer German society in which it was made, and shows us how Lang fused his film with shrewd criticism and annualization of the world in which he lived in; a 20th century metropolis of mass society and mass-media culture. Yet he is not satisfied to put M back to its social context of the time. Lang's analysis of social pathology, and Kaes' explanations of it, inevitably reveals the parallel between that society of the 30's and ours of 70 years after. True, that the development of technologies has changed the face of the earth in all those years, but nevertheless the evolution took place in the same direction that Lang predicted 69 years ago.

   Kaes shares one brief chapter to analyze the 1951 Joseph Rosey's remake to point out that details may have changed (which restrained Lang from directing the remake himself), but the basic sociological pathology still applied in Los Angeles then. And it still remains so for that matters. The appendix shows the non-existent 6 minutes scene which was cut after the film passed the censor board. People from all over the town and the country call the plolice and proclaim to be the murderer. Lang recreated the same sequence later in THE BLUE GARDENIA. Paul Schrader said recently that in the culture of media and celebrity, there are no moralities. The deleted scene from M reveals that, and the same mentality is true more than ever at this beginning of the new century.

3 comments about Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance.

1. All in all, I'm touched by Deborah Jowitt's well meaning and comprehensive biography of Jerry Robbins. She digs under the surface of his ballet and Broadway work and finds a whole lot more than I had ever imagined. Again and again she returns to the paradox of the name, how "Jerry Robbins" was a fake, all-American and showbizzy place name for the real, suffering, inward, outcast Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, and how Robbins could never be happy knowing this. He loathed himself from the inside out and the outside in: no wonder he treated others so terribly. Deborah Jowitt's years of research into the Robbins papers, those revealing scrapbooks and journals, have really paid off, for although I think in general Greg Lawrence's biography better in most ways, Jowitt's contains innumerable examples of revelation right from the horse's mouth, scraps of diaristic strip-tease that really pay off in almost every case. We can see how, in Gypsy, there had to be a strip-tease number in which three women explain, "You Gotta Have a Gimmick," because Robbins realized early on that was the path to artistic greatness--not the gimmick per se, but the emotional and psychological undressing.
   
   Along the way Jowitt sketches in many portraits, some of them ravishingly done. Leonard Bernstein has never seemed so much himself before. John Kriza, the gadabout dancer from Ballet Theater days, seems as "Fancy Free" as the roles he created in Robbins' early work. Jowitt's greatest "creation" as it were is Tanaquil Le Clercq, the tragic, French-born ballerina who came down with polio while Balanchine's fourth wife. Le Clercq is the real heroine of the book: everything we think about, oh, say, Audrey Hepburn was really Tanaquil Le Clercq gone commercial: gorgeous, radiant, utterly chic, loveable, wildly talented in many different areas. I had just barely heard of her before and now I want me my Tanaquil Le Clercq! I'm going to have to go down to the Robbins Foundation and watch some primitive kinescopes of her. Jowitt actually saw her dance and has apparently never gotten over it. Her next book should be all about "Tanny"!
   
   I did think that Jowitt is a bit sklmpy in her treatment of the HUAC thing. Growing up, I got the sense that Robbins' naming names made hum utterly despised. Even I, as a child of five, knew what he had done made him scum. And yet you never get a sense of what it was like for Robbins living, if not with guilt, then with the simple fact that thousands of people abhorred him. Likewise I think Jowitt isn't exactly the right person to write about Robbins' sex life, and when AIDS enters the picture, she seems bound and determined to avoid the glum subject once and for all. Finally, her lack of editorializing is all very well, but I for one do not believe that the later, experimental work is on a par with INTERPLAY, THE GUESTS, THE CAGE, AFTERNOON OF A FAUN or THE CONCERT. Why not? We don't get an explanation. It was the sixties, pretty much, and Robbins started taking the drugs and stopped wearing suits. But there must have been more to it. WATERMILL is no picnic.



2. Any valid bio of Robbins would have to result in a narrative of the development of dance and musical theatre in America, since the 1940s. While Jowitt gives us the, often sad, milestones in this man's life, her major thrust throughout this long and always exciting book is on his work. She delves into virtually every creation of his, including his generally poorly received occasional forays into non-musical theatre. Detailed attention is given to both concept, creation and execution of his prolific endeavors. Her in depth analysis of each of his works, often quite technical, VIVIDLY recall many great performances of these masterpieces.
   While not necessarily for those with a casual interest in dance, the facts of his life, as well as the cavalcade of his shows and ballets, makes for a read that is always more than just factual. Interestingly, Jowitt seems never to editorialize on Robbins' work. But then again, why attempt to laud a universally acclaimed genius ?



3. Jerome Robbins was a hard act to follow. Deborah Jowitt's Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance should be placed upon every public library shelf, alphabetically, before William Shakespeare, for only he could. Robbins is to 20th Century American Modern Dance Theater what Shakespeare was to the Elizabethan Stage, an author of infinite variety, a man for all ages.
   
   Ms. Jowitt gives us a scholarly blueprint for amateur, musical theater lover, and balletomane; one that should be made available to all engaged in the academic pursuits of the Arts, Letters, and Sciences. Jerome Robbins, legendary theatrical genius, is brilliantly extolled in exacting detail and rendered with the loving care of a biographer dedicated to communicating this great artist's "message." He was the least difficult of men. All he wanted was boundless love.
   
   Deborah Jowitt's Jerome Robbins is written in a trenchant prose style, a cross between WCBS TV celebrity correspondent Walter Cronkite's You Are There, and Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
   
   Her tone is one of a high-powered sports newscaster delivering to her audience a polished blow-by-blow description of celebrity "plays." These are not professional precision ball passing reports; they are larger than life descriptive interactions of 20th Century Show Business's great personalities Robbins knew and loved.
   
   Jowitt presents us with an eyeful. It were as though she uses a high definition, technicolor, movie screen attached to a time machine to fly us, like a motion picture director's crane, throughout multiple three dimensional scenes Jerome Robbins choreographs, before our eyes. In Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance, Deborah Jowitt has delivered a state-of-the art biography that goes beyond the intricate prose of great fiction.
   
   Jowitt instantaneously captures "the moment," and translates into words that in effect rolls a continuous major motion picture before us, without skipping a beat. One can almost hear the music that Robbins brilliantly illustrates. Jowitt delineates visions of Robbins forging The Great White Way for talented choreographers to follow: Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Twyla Tharp.
   
   Jowitt's dance training and choreographic practice is revealed in her ability to poetically describe Robbins at work. "...he excelled at the artificed use of the apparently accidental. When a moment in a Robbins ballet looks contrived, it can be because one is not simply moved by it but aware of how the choreographer calculated its effect...."
   
   A culmination of five years of writing, and an historical perspective of thirty-five years of looking at the dance, Deborah Jowitt has emerged as America's Dean of 21st Century Dance; following in the tradition of a great poet's translation of classical ephemera, the work of Edwin Denby, a chronicler of The New York City Ballet. Her Jerome Robbins is a masterpiece. Deborah Jowitt's Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance should remain on the public library shelf beside William Shakespeare's The Complete Works for all time.

4 comments about To Have And To Hold: An Intimate History Of Collectors and Collecting.

1. 
   In this excellent book,Philipp Bloom tackles a subject that knows no bounds.Anyone who has been a collector of anything knows what a madness collecting can become. Blom covers the subject from the earliest days ,when the idea of collecting was only something that was in the world of the extremely rich and powerful;and covers how through history it has changed to become a pursuit by anyone and at any level;and with the objects being collected being endless.
   Over and over again ,throughout the book ;we see that no matter how great and extensive a collection is;the owner of the collection must face the reality of death,and the collection of objects must pass on as well.The book is loaded with maxims that apply to all collecting;
   
   Just a couple are;
   
   "In order to take objects out of circulation or to devote oneself to finding useless things,one has to be able to afford the time and resources to do so."
   
   "The most important object of a collection is the next one."
   
   "Whatever we collect,we have to kill."
   
   "Can one be a collector without collecting?"
   
   "Show me your library and I'll tell you who you are."
   
   "Every passion borders on chaos,that of the collector on the chaos of memory."
   
   "Those who own more find dying harder."
   
   Reading this book is somewhat like visiting "The Smithonion";but only having a couple of hours to do so.It is well written,so it is still a pleasure.It is filled with interesting stories,unbelievable pursuits,amazingly addicted people,and something new,interesting and different on every page.
   In the last 200 years,collecting has changed so much that it is something that can ,and is, taken up by the "common man" There are no rules and no limits as to what can be collected;and the only limits are time and imagination. Of course,money can be an issue,but not a necessity.
   One of my favorite books is "Cadallac Jack" by Larry McMurtry,about an antique buyer and collections in the southern United States.It is filled with eccentric collectors.Imagine a collector in Texas who filled his house with bird nests. A great read for any collector.
   I have collected several things over the years.Stamps,in my youth.Rocks,Minerals and Fossils,Puzzles,Yo-Yo's,and of course books. I retired at 56,and my "collections" give me endless enjoyment.
   I think the thing that is most thoughtful about this book is the question "Can one be a collector without collecting?" Many people build collections such as playing different golf courses,visiting different countries,sport events,etc. I am also an avid Birdwatcher.I have seen 598 different birds in North America. We call that a "life List" and it is as much a personal collection as someone who attempts to the most World Series or any other events. I consdider my Bird Life List just as much of a collection as my other collections.
   Blom has also included copious notes that give the reader a wealth of references if he wants to dig deeper into subjects he mentions in the book.



2. This is a book that takes you on a fascinating journey, is an enjoyable read and is also historically well-researched, so it can therefore be used by the student or academic as a useful reference. I came upon it quite by accident but now find it a very useful addition to my bookshelf. The story of the Ashmolean Museum's foundation was one of my particular favourites and really made my blood boil! Such stories are not often told about museum collections! I take my hat off to the author!



3. At first I thought this was going to be a survey of some eccentric collectors in history, on which is does not disappoint, but it turns out to be a lot richer and contain some real pearls of wisdom about life in general, and flashes of historical insight.
   
   Reading through the chapters of this book was a lot like rummaging through a private collectors cabinet of curiosities. The chapter titles alone don't provide direction and only after a few pages does it begin to reveal its treasure. Chapters cover aspects of collecting as diverse as: people who collected experiences with women (Casanova), the collecting of body parts (religious relics), collecting memories, American billionaires who bought up European heritage (JP Morgan, Hearst), collectors of mass-produced items (milk bottles, food wrappers), Princes and Kings such as Rudolf of Hapsburg (17th C) who filled his castle with the worlds greatest collections and slowly went mad, collecting as a madness, as a substitute for love, as a form of autism, as psychology, as crime - and in the end, as a warning to all those who take it too far.



4. Absorbing and beautifully written, with a great bibliography to lead you on in your travels through this fascinating genre. Blom does for the general subject of collecting what Basbanes did for bibliophilia in A Gentle Madness. Well worth the read.

5 comments about Detour: A Hollywood Story.

1. "Maybe I am the wrong person to ask since Lana Turner is my all time favorite hollywood star but her daughter's book "Detour" is the best hollywood book I have ever read. She tells what it was like to be a Hollywood Princess, back when the word really ment something. The tells what it was like to be pampered and spoiled."
   
   You're kidding, right?
   
   Directly from Lana's obituary: "District Attorney William B. McKesson declined to charge Cheryl for the crime, noting that she had never had a true home "either with her mother or father." Although Lana retained legal custody, a court ordered Cheryl to live with her grandmother Mildred. But Cheryl continued to have emotional problems, and at 17 she began a 10-month stay at a mental hospital in Hartford, Connecticut."
   
   Yep, that's the life of a Hollywood Princess. Pampered and spoiled by neglectful parents - raped by her stepfather - yep, Lana Turner fans will turn a blind eye to the neglect suffered by Cheryl.
   
   Great book, but Lana's no Hollywood Star - she was a vain, self-absorbed woman who cared more about men and her career than she did her own child.



2. Lana Turner (1920-1995) came from the mining camps of Idaho to win fame as the inimitable sweater girl of the golden era of
   Hollywood. She wed seven times; engaged in numerous affairs and
   was a party animal who loved men, clothes, glamour and movie-
   making.
   Her only child was Cheryl Crane the daughter of Turner and her
   her Hoosier entrepeneur husband Stephen Crane. Cheryl grew up in
   a strict household being forced to dress like a little girl into her teens. Cheryl was sent to several boarding schools; had a
   complex relationship with her wild mama and her devoted grandmother. She saw many unsavory events in the life of her
   mother. The most notablle incident in her life was being charged with murder in a Good Friday 1958 stabbing of mobster Johnny
   Stampanato her mother's infamous lover. Crane was aquitted but spent years in juvenile detention and tough Catholic school
   environments. She also spent nine months in a Connecticut mental institution fo the rich.
   Cheryl Crane reveals that she was cruelly raped countless times by the loathsome Lex Barker (Tarzan) who had wed her mother.
   Crane details Lana's fastlane life in Europe and the states
   as the wife of such notables as Bob Topping and Mr. Crane.
   Lana Turner was an immature woman who loved the high life.
   She was not innately cruel but her mothering skills were nil.
   Crane's book was published in 1988. She has grown in maturity and has had a longterm lesbian relationship with a
   talented woman.
   If you want a quick read that is fascinating on the Hollywood life of the rich and famous then this well written
   autobiography is worth your time.



3. We like to think that movie stars and their families have perfect lives - that because fame, riches and power is at their disposal, that nothing can ever go wrong. Cheryl Crane bravely rips down this glossy facade and tells what it was really like growing up as the daughter of Lana Turner, a "star baby" who appeared to have it all. But in reality, her childhood years were full of confusion, longing for love and acceptance, and unspeakable horrors. From her yearning for her mother's love and affection, her father's distance, the horrific sexual abuse by one of her stepfathers, actor Lex Barker, to the fatal Good Friday when she stabbed mobster Johnny Stompanato to protect her mother, Crane tells it all in candid detail. Here too is her struggle to find an identity away from her mother's fame, her own noteriety and the glare of Hollywood. Through it all, Cheryl has made peace with her past, her parents, and found an unconditional love that she always sought. And her touching comments on how children should always be heard, that abused kids should not have to be silent, accused of dishonesty, or continue to suffer the pangs for years because what happened to them was not acknowledged. She also gives some interesting ancedotes of quite a few Tinsletown personalities. A moving and
   inspiring book, and above all, a darn good read.



4. "Detour: A Hollywood Story" is the deeply personal account of Cheryl Crane's life as a 'star baby'. She is the daughter of Lana Turner. Her life was privileged, sheltered, and yet emotionally chaotic. She grew up playing only with other 'star babies'(that is, when she got to play at all). Her mother's best friend was Judy Garland, she called Frank Sinatra, 'Uncle Frank'. Cared for mostly by Nannies, and her 'Gran", Lana Turner's daughter did not even realize what a huge celebrity her mother was, and wasnt even allowed to view her films(or any films) for most of her childhood. She viewed her mother as two separate people...Mommy and "that Lana Turner person", the latter of which could make people appear or disappear on a whim.
   
   Cheryl Crane saw a steady stream of step parents and "uncles". Lana's love life, kept her as busy as her career, and spending time with her mother, was a real treat for Cheryl. She digs down deep as she describes her longing for her mother's affections, a young girl's admiration of her father, the sexual abuse she(Cheryl) suffered at the hands of Lex Barker(from the Tarzan movies),and the stormy relationship of Lana and Johnny Stompanato, who she would kill by her own hands(she was only 14 at the time), in defense of her mother.
   
   Her life goes on a downward spiral afterwards, being sent to Juvenile Hall, schools for troubled girls, and even a santitarium, where she is kept heavily sedated for most of her incarceration there. And this all before she even turned 18.
   
   Lana is not painted as Joan Crawford was, in "Mommy Dearest", but it seemed to be more about the lifestyle of the rich and famous in the 1940's and 50's that goes on trial here. Cheryl Crane must have had to summon up quite a bit of courage to tell this story. It could not have been easy reliving many of the events. She describes in remarkable details, her life as a child, her "detour" through life, and how she finally found peace with herself.
   
   It is a compelling and inspiring story that evoked quite a bit of emotion throughout the read, as she sets the record straight for us and for herself.
   
   Thank you and enjoy the read....Laurie



5. Another example of the rich and miserable. Although the story is captivating, Ms. Crane seems more interested in explaining away her preference for girls than in getting to the real reasons why she murdered her stepfather. I found the book fascinating, however I would have enjoyed a bit less self pity from one who led a very priviledged life.

1 comments about 50 African American Audition Monologues.

1. I purchased for an audition piece which would stand out from the crowd. The book has some good monologues and if you are looking for something serious and angst-filled, this is the book for you. If, however, you want something funny or whimsical this may not be the best book for you.

3 comments about Complete Handbook of Indoor and Outdoor Games and Activities for Young Children.

1. 
   This is a great book for practical indoor and outdoor activities. It is clear that Dr. Jean is a very creative teacher who presents many great ideas based on her experiences.



2. I am always looking for those quick ideas that require little prep and will kill time but is still fun and educational. THIS IS THE BOOK



3. Jean Feldman gives many great ideas for all curriculum areas in this handbook. There are interesting activities for math, language, science and art centers along with easy group games with emphasis on having fun rather than competition. This book even contains fun recipes children can prepare with little help and ideas for special celebrations. These ideas are divided into convenient categories which makes finding the "right" activity a breeze. This is a must-have handbook for early childhood educators!

No comments about The Stars of Hollywood Remembered: Career Biographies of 82 Actors and Actresses of the Golden Era, 1920S-1950s.

2 comments about Ruth Harriet Louise and Hollywood Glamour Photography (Santa Barbara Museum of Art).

1. I had expected tons of large photos / portraits in this book. That was not the case. It is a fasinating read though. Peppered with photos. Just thought I'd tell others incase they expected a mostly photos book too.



2. This is a superb, beautifully-produced book that is important for many reasons. First, the authors have rescued from obscurity an important woman photographer who helped create the most enduring images of Hollywood's early stars and also helped define the whole concept of cinematic Glamour. (Her work with Garbo established the conventions maintained and developed by the better-known Clarence S. Bull, and she even taught Steichen a lesson that he used in crafting his greatest image of Garbo.) Second, they have put the portrait photographer in context, in a fascinating exegesis of the Hollywood starmaking machine. Third, a marvellous appendix has clarified, for the first time, the timeline for the development of Garbo's image by various photographers (and the chapter on Garbo is also fascinating in its case study of this process)... another appendix elucidates the formerly-opaque numbering systems used by MGM's photographers. More AND BETTER text than the usual Hollywood picture book, although it is also filled with never-before-published photos. A must-have for the shelf of any film buff, and also a good choice for those interested in photography or women's studies. Highly recommended.