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ENGULFED

Name: ENGULFED
Author: Bernard F. Dick
ISBN: 0-8131-2202-3

THE DEATH OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND THE BIRTH OF CORPORATE HOLLYWOOD

by Bernard F. Dick ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2001

At times breezy, at times complex, always erudite and entertaining. (24 pages b&w photos)

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Film historian Dick (City of Dreams, 1997) uses Paramount Pictures to illustrate the evolution of the motion-picture industry from Thomas Edison to Michael Eisner.

Paramount was started by Adolph Zukor, a Hungarian immigrant who loved dime novels and began his career in New York City as a two-dollar-a-week upholsterer. By the time he died (in 1976, at 103), he could look upon the film industry as one of his children. Dick knows his Hollywood history, and so we learn of the 1912 origin of the famous Paramount logo (mountain and stars), revisit the Fatty Arbuckle sex scandal, and follow the acting career of Ronald Reagan. The dominance of the studios really lasted only into the 1950s, says the author: “Hollywood’s golden Age had quickly turned to silver and was starting to rust.” He examines the competition (and then the cooperation) with television and cable, and he ends with an analysis of the corporate-merger mania that emerged in the 1980s and continues to dominate. “No longer do projects originate at a studio,” notes the author; “they come from production companies to which the studio plays host, financing their films in whole or in part.” The principal strength of the volume is Dick’s ability to humanize (and, in some cases, to demonize) the generally faceless studio and corporate executives whose names range from the unknown to the renowned. George Weltner joined Paramount in 1922 and stayed his entire career; Charles G. Bluhdorn arrived in 1966 from Gulf + Western (which had gobbled up Paramount). Barry Diller and Don Simpson and Frank Mancuso and David Kirkpatrick—all are important players at whom Dick points his camera. Far more familiar names played at Paramount, too, including Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg. The author sometimes stretches analogies to the snapping point (allusions to Shakespeare and Roman history sometimes intrude more than illuminate), but by and large he strikes just the right tone.

At times breezy, at times complex, always erudite and entertaining. (24 pages b&w photos)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-8131-2202-3

Page Count: 302

Publisher: Univ. Press of Kentucky

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.