1950 American Actress & Singer ETHEL WATERS Photo

Katharine Hepburn was the world's greatest screen diva--the most famous actress in American history. But until the appearance of this biography, no one had ever published the intimate details of her complicated and ferociously secretive private life. Thanks to the deferential and obsequious whitewashes which followed in the immediate wake of her death, readers probably know WHAT KATE REMEMBERED. Here, however, is an unvarnished account of what Katharine Hepburn desperately wanted to forget.

This first-ever biography of American actress Anne Francis will enlighten her casual fans and earn a nod of agreement from her diehard admirers. The star of such 1950s cinematic classics as Bad Day at Black Rock, The Blackboard Jungle and Forbidden Planet, Anne made the risky decision to transplant her talents to television--and as a result, her acting has often been taken for granted. But TV supplied her with the groundbreaking title role in Honey West (1965-66), where she became the first leading actress to portray a private detective on a regular weekly series. All of Anne Francis' film and television appearances are chronicled, including a full episode guide for Honey West and a complete listing of her guest roles on such series as The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables and Murder, She Wrote.

Vera-Ellen should have been one of Broadway and Hollywood s most enduring stars. She was a fine dramatic and light comedic actress, and was considered by a number of authorities to be the greatest all-around dancer of her generation. And for a brief moment in 1950, she was an American household name, as famous as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio or General Douglas MacArthur. She could do tap, toe dancing, adagio, modern dance (formerly known as dramatic dancing), comic dancing, partnered dancing, prop dancing, Apache dancing and advanced acrobatics. She could also sing well enough to be featured on Broadway and television. Her obsessive perfectionism was legendary; nobody worked harder on a routine or accomplished it with greater attention to detail. Not only were each of her steps perfect but the transitions from step to step were flawless and remarkably beautiful to observe. Like Fred Astaire, who admired her, she had the ability to make each complex routine seem effortless, as if she were expressing herself spontaneously. Vera-Ellen's work in films such as On The Town, White Christmas, Words and Music, Three Little Words, The Belle of New York and Call Me Madame will never be forgotten by film musical fans. This much anticipated biography will not disappoint those fans.

This engaging book explores how women were depicted in the antebellum American theatre during the period when the entertainment industry was taking shape and the first women's rights movement emerged.

Vera-Ellen should have been one of Broadway and Hollywood s most enduring stars. She was a fine dramatic and light comedic actress, and was considered by a number of authorities to be the greatest all-around dancer of her generation. And for a brief moment in 1950, she was an American household name, as famous as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio or General Douglas MacArthur. She could do tap, toe dancing, adagio, modern dance (formerly known as dramatic dancing), comic dancing, partnered dancing, prop dancing, Apache dancing and advanced acrobatics. She could also sing well enough to be featured on Broadway and television. Her obsessive perfectionism was legendary; nobody worked harder on a routine or accomplished it with greater attention to detail. Not only were each of her steps perfect but the transitions from step to step were flawless and remarkably beautiful to observe. Like Fred Astaire, who admired her, she had the ability to make each complex routine seem effortless, as if she were expressing herself spontaneously. Vera-Ellen's work in films such as On The Town, White Christmas, Words and Music, Three Little Words, The Belle of New York and Call Me Madame will never be forgotten by film musical fans. This much anticipated biography will not disappoint those fans.

When he committed suicide at age forty-one, Cesare Pavese (1908 1950) was one of Italy s best-known writers. A poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator, he had been profoundly influenced in his early years by American literature. But later he grew disaffected with American culture, coming to see it as materialistic and shallow. This book, the first full-length English-language study of Pavese in twenty years, examines his life and the evolution of his views of America through a chronological reading of his works. As an adolescent and young man, Pavese immersed himself in American literature, especially that of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1930, at the height of Italian Fascism s popularity, he wrote a thesis on the most democratic of America s poets, Walt Whitman. He then supported himself by translating American fiction, most importantly Moby-Dick, and by writing essays on American authors. Pavese saw American writers, especially Whitman and Herman Melville, not only as literary exemplars but as models of manhood, guides to ways of living that he did not find in the restricted, conformist world of Mussolini s Italy. His translations and essays represented sly acts of political and linguistic subversion but also markers of his personal and artistic self-realization. Pavese consolidated his position in Italian letters during the five years after World War II. His finest novel, The House on the Hill, appeared in 1948, and his last and most famous, The Moon and the Bonfires, in 1950. In this same period, however, he joined the Italian Communist Party and publicly attacked America for the sterility of its culture. Combining biography and literary analysis, Lawrence G. Smith illuminates Pavese s life and also his tragic death, precipitated by a brief failed love affair with Constance Dowling, an American movie actress fifteen years his junior. Although he barely knew Dowling, her departure from Italy in April 1950 triggered Pavese's long-latent suicidal impulses, and he killed himself four months later.

From New York Times bestselling author J. Randy Taraborrelli comes the definitive biography of the most enduring icon in popular American culture. When Marilyn Monroe became famous in the 1950s, the world was told that her mother was either dead or simply not a part of her life. However, that was not true. In fact, her mentally ill mother was very much present in Marilyn's world and the complex family dynamic that unfolded behind the scenes is a story that has never before been told...until now. In this groundbreaking book, Taraborrelli draws complex and sympathetic portraits of the women so influential in the actress' life, including her mother, her foster mother, and her legal guardian. He also reveals, for the first time, the shocking scope of Marilyn's own mental illness, the identity of Marilyn's father and the half-brother she never knew, and new information about her relationship with the Kennedy's-Bobby, Jack, and Pat Kennedy Lawford. Explosive, revelatory, and surprisingly moving, this

Although there are numerous books available examining American popular songs from the first half of the twentieth century - the so-called 'Golden Age' of popular music, there are none that explore the development of popular song styles from the 1950s onwards. 1950 is often viewed as the 'end of an era' and this book discusses the question of what happened to American popular song in the latter half of the twentieth century, and asks: Was there a decline in quality or quantity of pop song after 1950? Were the highly successful song who emerged after 1950 working in an antiquated style? If there is still 'a great tradition' how vital does this sustained or renewed tradition, as of 2000, seem to be? This much needed contribution to the popular music literature will prove fascinating reading for anyone interested in the development of American popular song - and its survival.

Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950) was an American interior decorator and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society. During her married life, the press usually referred to her as Lady Mendl. She began her professional career in theatre, making her debut as an actress in Sardou's Thermidor in 1891, playing the role of Fabienne with Forbes-Robertson. In 1894 she joined the Empire Stock Company under Charles Frohman. In 1901 she brought out The Way of the World under her own management at the Victoria Theatre, and later she toured the United States with this play. In 1913 she published her influential book The House in Good Taste. In 1926 The New York Times described de Wolfe as "one of the most widely known women in New York social life, " and in 1935 as "prominent in Paris society. " American Decades opines that "she was probably the first woman to dye her hair blue, to perform handstands to impress her friends, and to cover eighteenth-century footstools in leopard-skin chintzes. "

This deluxe 3-volume edition offers an engaging, visually stunning, and highly informative analysis of the 49 artists featured in over 900 full-color plates. The title of this work takes its inspiration from Towards a New Abstraction, the catalog of an exhibition organized by Ben Heller in 1963 at the Jewish Museum in New York. The theme unites the artists of this "New Abstraction" through their spirit, as opposed to through the "spirit of the times" reflected in other movements such as Minimalism and Pop Art. "New Abstraction" is not to be taken as a movement, but as a meeting of similar artistic sensibilities. This major achievement is an authoritative contribution to what has been called "New Abstraction" and an essential addition to any collection on 20th-century art.