The Annotated Abbott and Costello

Author: Matthew Coniam
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476682445
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 491

Book Description
Abbott and Costello were the most popular comedians of the 1940s, with burlesque-inspired routines that enthralled audiences on both radio and television. Oddly, their films have not received the same level of attention from critics and writers as those of other comedy teams. This book is a scene-by-scene, film-by-film guide to their movies, making a compelling case for their inclusion at the very top of comic artists. Featuring new research and some surprising revelations, the book introduces newcomers to the delights of this uproarious team and provides confirmed fans with the ultimate companion to their work. Also included is a foreword by John Landis, the celebrated director and Abbott and Costello devotee.

The Abbott & Costello Story

Author: Stephen Cox
Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
ISBN: 9781888952612
Category : Comedians
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The Abbott & Costello Story is a fond tribute to the comedy team that made Who, What, and I Don't Know the most hilarious names of baseball players ever batted around on the silver screen.

The Horror Spoofs of Abbott and Costello

Author: Jeffrey S. Miller
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786419227
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
While Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are more famously known for their straight comedy routines, they did make a number of films in which horror played a crucial role. The first part of this critical reference examines the Abbott and Costello "Meet the Monsters" spoof films (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Mummy). The second sections deals with Abbott and Costello's films with horror elements that do not follow this formula: Hold That Ghost, The Time of Their Lives and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. The plot of each film is examined in detail with special attention paid to the comedians' styles of comedy, the effect of the horror scenes, and the place of the film in the Abbott and Costello canon. The reactions of critics (then and now) and the influences the films have had on the horror and comedy genres and on pop culture are also discussed. A lengthy introduction provides background on the lives of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and the development of Universal Studios as the premier horror factory.

Abbott and Costello in Hollywood

Author: Bob Furmanek
Publisher: Perigee Trade
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
The president of the Abbott and Costello Fan Club and the personal archivist for the Abbott and Costello estates combine their resources to produce this comprehensive, one-of-a-kind volume. Giving in-depth coverage of each of their 36 feature films from start to finish, this is the only book that has the permission of Abbott and Costello estates to use rare personal materials, many of which have never before been seen by the public.

Abbott and Costello on the Home Front

Author: Scott Allen Nollen
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786453257
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 223

Book Description
As two of the most popular entertainers of the mid-century film industry, comic greats Bud Abbott and Lou Costello offered an essential balm to the American public following the sorrows of the Great Depression and during the trauma of World War II. This is the first book to focus in detail on the immensely popular wartime films of Abbott and Costello, discussing the production, content, and reception of 18 films within the context of wartime events on the home front and abroad. The films covered include the service comedies Buck Privates, In the Navy, and Keep 'Em Flying; more mainstream comic relief films such as Pardon My Sarong and Who Done It?; and post-war experiments such as Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives. More than 120 stills and lobby cards from the author's personal collection illustrate the text, including many showing outtakes or deleted scenes.

SHEMP!

Author: Burt Kearns
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493074229
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
The definitive biography of the great Shemp Howard, an original member of the Three Stooges, and one of Hollywood's most influential actors that Library Journal calls "a complete portrait of a talented character actor," Kirkus Reviews calls an "illuminating… reworking of the Stooges mythology" and Patton Oswalt praises as "the only book you will ever need to read about anything. Burn all the other books - there is ONLY SHEMP!" Shemp Howard not only had one of the most distinctive faces of the twentieth century, but was also one of its most accomplished, influential comic actors and showbiz personalities. Along with his brother Moe and comedy violinist Larry Fine, Shemp was an original member of the comedy team that became known as the Three Stooges before he quit and set off on his own in 1932. SHEMP! shows how he made an even greater mark in a successful and until now largely unexplored career in more than a hundred movie shorts and features. He appeared in comedies, dramas, mysteries, Westerns, and musicals alongside the biggest stars of the Golden Age, including W.C. Fields, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, William Powell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Myrna Loy, and the team of Abbott & Costello. Author Burt Kearns challenges the “official” version of Three Stooges history that’s been repeated for decades, shattering myths while uncovering the surprising and often troubling facts behind the man’s unlikely story: how the child of Jewish immigrants, supposedly racked by debilitating phobias, could conquer show business; the behind-the-scenes machinations that pushed him to return to the team; and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death. Through interviews with fans, family members, experts, filmmakers, and celebrities, SHEMP! unearths treasures in Shemp’s solo work, examines the “cult of Shemp” that thrives today, and confirms Shemp Howard’s deserved place in cinematic history.

The Annotated Marx Brothers

Author: Matthew Coniam
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476618763
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Book Description
Have you ever watched a Marx Brothers film and wondered what "habeas Irish rose" is? What is the trial of Mary Dugan with sound? What is a college widow? When exactly did Don Ameche invent the telephone? Their films are full of such in-jokes and obscure theatrical, literary and topical references that can baffle modern audiences. In this viewer's guide to the Marx Brothers you will find the answer to such mysteries, along with an exhaustive compilation of background information, obscure trivia and even the occasional busted myth. Each of the Marx Brothers' 13 films is covered by a running commentary, with points in the film discussed as they appear. Each reference is listed by its running time, with time code given for both PAL and NTSC DVD. An introduction for neophytes and a resource for fanatics, this book is a travel guide to the rambling landscape of these remarkable comedies.

Comedy, an Annotated Bibliography of Theory and Criticism

Author: James E. Evans
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810819870
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 430

Book Description
No descriptive material is available for this title.

The Comedians

Author: Kliph Nesteroff
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802190863
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 460

Book Description
“Funny [and] fascinating . . . If you’re a comedy nerd you’ll love this book.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, National Post, and Splitsider Based on over two hundred original interviews and extensive archival research, this groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past one hundred years. Starting with the vaudeville circuit at the turn of the last century, the book introduces the first stand-up comedian—an emcee who abandoned physical shtick for straight jokes. After the repeal of Prohibition, Mafia-run supper clubs replaced speakeasies, and mobsters replaced vaudeville impresarios as the comedian’s primary employer. In the 1950s, the late-night talk show brought stand-up to a wide public, while Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Jonathan Winters attacked conformity and staged a comedy rebellion in coffeehouses. From comedy’s part in the civil rights movement and the social upheaval of the late 1960s, to the first comedy clubs of the 1970s and the cocaine-fueled comedy boom of the 1980s, The Comedians culminates with a new era of media-driven celebrity in the twenty-first century. “Entertaining and carefully documented . . . jaw-dropping anecdotes . . . This book is a real treat.” —Merrill Markoe, TheWall Street Journal

Antkind

Author: Charlie Kaufman
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0399589694
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 721

Book Description
The bold and boundlessly original debut novel from the Oscar®-winning screenwriter of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York. LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • “A dyspeptic satire that owes much to Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon . . . propelled by Kaufman’s deep imagination, considerable writing ability and bull’s-eye wit."—The Washington Post “An astonishing creation . . . riotously funny . . . an exceptionally good [book].”—The New York Times Book Review • “Kaufman is a master of language . . . a sight to behold.”—NPR NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND MEN’S HEALTH B. Rosenberger Rosenberg, neurotic and underappreciated film critic (failed academic, filmmaker, paramour, shoe salesman who sleeps in a sock drawer), stumbles upon a hitherto unseen film made by an enigmatic outsider—a film he’s convinced will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core. His hands on what is possibly the greatest movie ever made—a three-month-long stop-motion masterpiece that took its reclusive auteur ninety years to complete—B. knows that it is his mission to show it to the rest of humanity. The only problem: The film is destroyed, leaving him the sole witness to its inadvertently ephemeral genius. All that’s left of this work of art is a single frame from which B. must somehow attempt to recall the film that just might be the last great hope of civilization. Thus begins a mind-boggling journey through the hilarious nightmarescape of a psyche as lushly Kafkaesque as it is atrophied by the relentless spew of Twitter. Desperate to impose order on an increasingly nonsensical existence, trapped in a self-imposed prison of aspirational victimhood and degeneratively inclusive language, B. scrambles to re-create the lost masterwork while attempting to keep pace with an ever-fracturing culture of “likes” and arbitrary denunciations that are simultaneously his bête noire and his raison d’être. A searing indictment of the modern world, Antkind is a richly layered meditation on art, time, memory, identity, comedy, and the very nature of existence itself—the grain of truth at the heart of every joke.