Silent Serial Sensations

Silent Serial Sensations
Author: Barbara Tepa Lupack
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2020-04-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1501748203

The first book-length study of pioneering and prolific filmmakers Ted and Leo Wharton, Silent Serial Sensations offers a fascinating account of the dynamic early film industry. As Barbara Tepa Lupack demonstrates, the Wharton brothers were behind some of the most profitable and influential productions of the era, including The Exploits of Elaine and The Mysteries of Myra, which starred such popular performers as Pearl White, Irene Castle, Francis X. Bushman, and Lionel Barrymore. Working from the independent film studio they established in Ithaca, New York, Ted and Leo turned their adopted town into "Hollywood on Cayuga." By interweaving contemporary events and incorporating technological and scientific innovations, the Whartons expanded the possibilities of the popular serial motion picture and defined many of its conventions. A number of the sensational techniques and character types they introduced are still being employed by directors and producers a century later.

Serials and Series

Serials and Series
Author: Buck Rainey
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2015-06-08
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476604487

While many fans remember The Lone Ranger, Ace Drummond and others, fewer focus on the facts that serials had their roots in silent film and that many foreign studios also produced serials, though few made it to the United States. The 471 serials and 100 series (continuing productions without the cliffhanger endings) from the United States and 136 serials and 37 series from other countries are included in this comprehensive reference work. Each entry includes title, country of origin, year, studio, number of episodes, running time or number of reels, episode titles, cast, production credits, and a plot synopsis.

Western Gunslingers in Fact and on Film

Western Gunslingers in Fact and on Film
Author: Buck Rainey
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2015-11-17
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476603286

Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, Belle Starr, Wyatt Earp, the Younger Gang, the Dalton-Doolin Gang and Bat Masterson--these real-life lawmen and lawbreakers have been the basis of so many Hollywood Westerns that it has become difficult to discover where the truth ends and the legend begins. All actually became larger-than-life characters during their lifetimes, as contemporary newspapers and books embellished their deeds for their own purposes. But it was in Hollywood that the line between reality and myth was completely blurred. Each chapter-length entry here first focuses on the known facts of the people's lives and how each became truly legendary during their lifetimes. The reality is then compared to how they have been portrayed in the movies.

Fantastic Serial Sites of California

Fantastic Serial Sites of California
Author: Gail Orwig
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2022-11-02
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476645892

The first of its kind, this guide to California filming sites covers five decades of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in chapter plays. Covering more than 60 serials, many familiar locations are documented, including the rugged terrain of Red Rock Canyon, which served as a stand-in for Saturn in Buck Rogers; the Bronson Caves and Griffith Observatory, which appeared in Flash Gordon; and the famous Iverson Ranch, which appeared in Batman, Superman and many other serials. The reader will also find serials starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr. Also covered are the skyscrapers that appeared alongside Captain Marvel in The Adventures of Captain Marvel, the location of the Green Hornet's apartment and filming locations for five silent serials. The in-depth storytelling is enhanced by photos of serial memorabilia, postcards, serial descriptions, accurate instructions to locations, notes and more.

Science Fiction Serials

Science Fiction Serials
Author: Roy Kinnard
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2015-08-13
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476604134

Destination Moon; George Pal's 1950 Technicolor epic, is generally cited as the first noteworthy science fiction film. Usually ignored or casually dismissed in genre histories are the serials, the low-budget chapterplays exhibited as Saturday matinee fare and targeted almost exclusively at children. Lacking stars and top-notch writers or directors, the serials went largely unnoticed and unacknowledged by either critics or by the film industry. Yet serials were financially important to the Hollywood studios, and were often free to exploit risky or outlandish subjects that producers of "distinguished" movies would not touch. Influential serials such as The Phantom Empire (1935) and Flash Gordon (1936) finally brought science fiction themes to the big screen. Those serials and 29 others are exhaustively covered in this work, which provides complete cast and credit information along with plot descriptions and historical commentary for each serial. Video distributors (if available) are also listed.

The Othering of Women in Silent Film

The Othering of Women in Silent Film
Author: Barbara Tepa Lupack
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2023-11-06
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1666913979

In The Othering of Women in Silent Film: Cultural, Historical, and Literary Contexts, Barbara Tepa Lupackexplores the rampant racial and gender stereotyping depicted in early cinema, demonstrating how those stereotypes helped shape American attitudes and practices. Using social, cultural, literary, and cinema history as a focus, this book offers insights into issues of Othering, including discrimination, exclusion, and sexism, that are as timely today as they were a century ago. Lupack not only examines the ways that dominant cinema of the era imprinted indelible and pejorative images of women—including African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and New Women/Suffragists—but also reveals the ways in which a number of pioneering early filmmakers and performers attempted to counter those depictions by challenging the imagery, interrogating the stereotypes, and re-politicizing the familiar narratives. Scholars of film, gender, history, and race studies will find this book of particular interest.

Hollywood Goes Shopping

Hollywood Goes Shopping
Author: David Desser
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2000
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780816635139

Aggressive product placement and retail tie-ins are as much a part of moviemaking today as high-concept scripts and computer-generated special effects, but this phenomenon is hardly recent. Since the silent era, Hollywood studios have proved remarkably adept at advertising both their own products and a bewildering variety of consumer commodities, successfully promoting the idea of consumption itself. Hollywood Goes Shopping brings together leading film studies scholars to explore the complex and sometimes contradictory relationship between American cinema and consumer culture, providing an innovative reading of both film history and the evolution of consumerism in the twentieth century.

Convinced: Based on the True Story of Brett Correia

Convinced: Based on the True Story of Brett Correia
Author: Avlon McCreadie
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2019-01-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0244154686

Sara Adeline Mazzolini is the playwright of theatre plays, which dramatize the protagonist's life. Lifestyle is the drama staging Melanie Carole Allen as the main character in the plot. Melanie's successful life is the comedy with the happy ending, whereas the antagonist's life is the tragedy ending in death.