A Rose for Mrs. Miniver

Author: Michael Troyan
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813128420
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Book Description
" In this first-ever biography of Greer Garson, Michael Troyan sweeps away the many myths that even today veil her life. The true origins of her birth, her fairy-tale discovery in Hollywood, and her career struggles at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are revealed for the first time. Garson combined an everywoman quality with grace, charm, and refinement. She won the Academy Award in 1941 for her role in Mrs. Miniver , and for the next decade she reigned as the queen of MGM. Co-star Christopher Plummer remembered, ""Here was a siren who had depth, strength, dignity, and humor who could inspire great trust, suggest deep intellect and whose misty languorous eyes melted your heart away!"" Garson earned a total of seven Academy Award nominations for Best Actress, and fourteen of her films premiered at Radio City Music Hall, playing for a total of eighty-four weeks--a record never equaled by any other actress. She was a central figure in the golden age of the studios, working with legendary performers Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Errol Flynn, Joan Crawford, Robert Mitchum, Debbie Reynolds, and Walter Pidgeon. Garson's experiences offer a fascinating glimpse at the studio system in the years when stars were closely linked to a particular studio and moguls such as L.B. Mayer broke or made careers. With the benefit of exclusive access to studio production files, personal letters and diaries, and the cooperation of her family, Troyan explores the triumphs and tragedies of her personal life, a story more colorful than any role she played on screen.

Mrs Miniver

Author: Jan Struther
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1787203530
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
“I can think of a hundred ways already in which the war has “brought us to our senses.” But it oughtn’t to need a war to make a nation paint its kerbstones white, carry rear-lamps on its bicycles, and give all its slum children a holiday in the country.” That’s just one sample of Mrs. Miniver’s homespun philosophy. Meet Mrs. Miniver. She is the universal, heart-warming symbol of the endurable and pleasant sides of existence. Against the shadow of the present she holds up to view the everyday domesticities, the comings and goings of family life, and finds them good. Mrs. Miniver at tea, Mrs. Miniver trying to discover what the windshield wiper is really saying, Mrs. Miniver and her three unpredictable children and her altogether too-predictable husband, Mrs. Miniver and the woman who said she could only accept the Really Nice Children as évacués—the writing and characters in these thumbnail sketches are disarmingly simple and recognizable, and yet, by the author’s gift of intense observation, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and important.

The Real Mrs Miniver

Author: Ysenda Maxtone Graham
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466870974
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 375

Book Description
In 1937 the Court Page of the London Times began publishing a series of articles featuring a charming, upper-middle class English housewife named Mrs Miniver. The articles depicted an idyllically happy family with three children, a house in London, and a country cottage called Starlings. Two years later, Mrs Miniver was published in book form. While some critics derided the book as sentimental, many readers embraced it as a symbol of an increasingly endangered English way of life, and it went on to become the #1 bestseller in America. The Hollywood film, released in 1942 with Greer Garson in the title role, won five Oscars, including Best Picture, and did so much to promote the American war effort in Europe that even Josef Goebbels recognized it as an exemplary piece of propaganda. But who was the real Mrs Miniver? The articles were produced by Joyce Maxtone Graham, who wrote under the name Jan Struther and seemed to resemble her heroine: She was upper-middle class, and lived in a gracious, comfortable home with her husband and three children. After the war broke out, she served as an unofficial ambassador from Great Britain to the U.S. In truth, however, Jan Struther was not at all like the conventional Mrs Miniver. It wasn't merely that she didn't like tea--to the amazement of everyone in America--but her real life was neither simple nor saintly. Her marriage was ending, and she was secretly in love with a Jewish refugee from Nazi Austria. Written by Jan Struther's granddaughter Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Real Mrs Miniver is a complex and fascinating biography. While the Hollywood version remains a powerful and inspirational movie, this book offers brilliant insights into the true impact of war upon real people's lives.

MGM

Author: Steven Bingen
Publisher: Santa Monica Press
ISBN: 1595808930
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 1157

Book Description
M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot is the illustrated history of the soundstages and outdoor sets where Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced many of the world’s most famous films. During its Golden Age, the studio employed the likes of Garbo, Astaire, and Gable, and produced innumerable iconic pieces of cinema such as The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, and Ben-Hur. It is estimated that a fifth of all films made in the United States prior to the 1970s were shot at MGM studios, meaning that the gigantic property was responsible for hundreds of iconic sets and stages, often utilizing and transforming minimal spaces and previously used props, to create some of the most recognizable and identifiable landscapes of modern movie culture. All of this happened behind closed doors, the backlot shut off from the public in a veil of secrecy and movie magic. M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot highlights this fascinating film treasure by recounting the history, popularity, and success of the MGM company through a tour of its physical property. Featuring the candid, exclusive voices and photographs from the people who worked there, and including hundreds of rare and unpublished photographs (including many from the archives of Warner Bros.), readers are launched aboard a fun and entertaining virtual tour of Hollywood’s most famous and mysterious motion picture studio.

A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver

Author: E.L. Konigsburg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439132151
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Book Description
Eleanor of Acquitaine has been waiting in Heaven for a long time to be reunited with her second husband, Henry II of England. Finally, the day has come when Henry will be judged for admission--and while Eleanor waits, three people close to her during various times of her life join her, helping to distract her and providing a rich portrait of a remarkable woman in history.

Twentieth Century Fox

Author: Michael Troyan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1630761435
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 737

Book Description
Here it is: the first-time look at the remarkable American multinational mass media empire and its century of entertainment—the story of Twentieth Century Fox (1915–2015). Or, to borrow the title of a classic 1959 Fox film, The Best of Everything. This is the complete revelatory story—bookended by empire builders William Fox and Rupert Murdoch—aimed as both a grand, entertaining, nostalgic and picture-filled interactive read and the ultimate guide to all things Twentieth Century Fox. The controversies and scandals are here, as are the extraordinary achievements. Among other firsts, the book offers fun tours of its historic production and ranch facilities including never-before-told stories about its stars and creative personalities (Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, James Dean, and Shirley Temple got started there). Finally, it is the first such work approved by the company and utilizing its own unique resources. The authors primarily tell a celebratory tale, but most importantly, an accurate one.

Miss Buncle's Book

Author: D.E. Stevenson
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1402270836
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
From beloved English author D.E. Stevenson who has sold more than 7 million books worldwide! In the first heartwarming book of this classic series, D.E. Stevenson proves that one little book can be the source of all kinds of trouble when residents of a small English village start to see themselves through someone else's eyes. Barbara Buncle is in a bind. Times are harsh, and Barbara's bank account has seen better days. Maybe she could sell a novel ... if she knew any stories. Stumped for ideas, Barbara draws inspiration from her fellow residents of Silverstream, the little English village she knows inside and out. To her surprise, the novel is a smash. It's a good thing she wrote under a pseudonym, because the folks of Silverstream are in an uproar. But what really turns Miss Buncle's world around is this: what happens to the characters in her book starts happening to their real-life counterparts. Does life really imitate art, and can she harness that power for good? With the wit and charm of a Jane Austen novel and the gossipy, small-town delight of the Flavia de Luce series, Miss Buncle's Book is D.E. Stevenson at her best!

Earth and High Heaven

Author: Gwethalyn Graham
Publisher: Cormorant Books
ISBN: 1770860312
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Book Description
When Erika Drake, of the Westmount Drakes, met and fell in love with Marc Reiser, a Jew from northern Ontario, their respective worlds were turned upside down. Set against the backdrop of the first three years of the Second World War, Earth and High Heaven captured the hearts and minds of its generation and helped to shape the more diverse and inclusive culture we have today. Published in 1944, this classic novel was very timely; it spoke of the prejudices of its time, when Gentiles and Jews did not mix in society. Earth and High Heaven was the most successful novel of its time, winning many awards and prizes, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1945 (an award founded to reward books that exposed racism or explored the richness of human diversity). It was translated into eighteen languages and the film rights were purchased by Samuel Goldwyn for a remarkable $100,000. Earth and High Heaven was the first Canadian novel to top the New York Times bestseller list for the better part of a year.

June Allyson

Author: June Allyson
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780399127267
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
From her days as a star at MGM, her marriage to Dick Powell--many years her senior--and the desolation of her life after his death, Allyson recounts her persistent, and ultimately successful, struggle for a life of her own.

Gardener's Nightcap

Author: Muriel Stuart
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781903155561
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
Gardener's Nightcap is a gardening manual/anthology.