Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson

Book Description

As cartoons and animated features became an increasingly important part of the entertainment business, the production of cartoons industrialized to meet growing demands for the new global media. Artists adopted traditional union models to protect their jobs and working conditions, and a unique set of unions was born.

Drawing the Line is the first labor history of an industry whose principle figures--Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, and Max Fleischer--helped define American entertainment. Author Tom Sito, Disney animator and former president of the Hollywood Animation Guild, draws on oral histories, archival information, and firsthand knowledge of the animation process to create an insider's history of a colorful set of labor unions.

Sito describes the history and the fiery personalities behind the formation of the Screen Cartoonists Union, the strikes and walk-outs, the effects of Hollywood blacklisting, and the battles at the bargaining tables. He closes with a look at the changing nature of animation and the way in which current giants Disney and Dreamworks are again reshaping the relationship between studios and animators. Well illustrated with never-before-seen images from the backstage of classic Hollywood, Drawing the Line will change basic assumptions about animation history and its place in the story of American labor.

Customer Reviews:

Great specialized info.......2007-07-28

I originally read about this book in a review from animation world network (www.awn.com) It is everything the review said. Great information about the start of the industry fighting for its rights. A great read if you are into animation history. All of the animation old masters are involved, and speaks of even though they were in competition, they all had the same goal.

Fills a Historic Gap.......2007-03-13

As a Disney enthusiast, I have found one of the most delicate and hard-to-research periods in Disney history was the 1941 studio strike. Tom Sito fills this gap by providing a comprehensive narration. But more important to others, he provides a complete history of labor developments in the animation profession. I had no idea there had been so much turmoil! His account is very up-to-date, too, covering the most recent developments, like computer animation. This is a key reference tool for anyone seriously interested in the business of animation.

Essential Cornerstone of Animation History.......2007-03-04

This text is a pure labor of love.

The fight for fair employment practices within animation history is a story that needed to be told. For far too long, the sacrifices of artists and animation production personnel was overshadowed by the personal stories of studio founders who resisted outside influences within their beloved cartoon factories.

Tom Sito should be commended for faithfully reconstructing the backstory behind the most famous animation studios in the world: Disney's, Fleischer, MGM, Terrytoons, UPA, et al.

Not only does the author's passion shine through for preserving this neglected corner of animation history, he remains focused on the future of the medium; regardless of the technological advances to come.

Remarkably, the author does not succumb to slamming labor vs. management (or vice versa). Somehow the emotion-filled histories are presented in a manner that respects both perspectives that were responsible for bringing animation to a world-wide audience over the past century.

Unfortunately, the sacrifices of depression-era / WWII animators are slipping from memory; leaving today's pragmatic artists unprepared to fight the overpowering influences of the entertainment giants that control the industry today.

Future animation historians will be grateful for this essential work: the first of its kind. A "must-have" for any Walt Disney library or animation archive.

-"IT'S OFF TO WORK WE GO"... illustrating not such a rosey picture of Toon Town!.......2007-01-02

Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Mr. Magoo, Fred Flintstone, the Pink Panther and Bart Simpson, are the biggest stars in the business. But they couldn't make the slightest move or even open their mouths, without the help of the animation worker. Meaning no disrespect, I say worker and not artist, because that's what Tom Sito's book "Drawing The Line" is all about. The eternal labor struggle of men and women in the animation industry and their right to be recognized and treated as artists. Of course Hollywood is not the kind of town where that is ever likely to happen any time soon. And for all those that scoff and think that anyone who gets paid to simply draw for a living, let alone getting to work in Hollywood at all should be forever grateful. Well -you're about to have your eyes opened as you turn the pages of this well written and lovingly researched history, that dares to speak the truth and document it in precise detail. Through first-hand accounts of the animators that struck the studios, were fired and blacklisted, Sito has chronicled their plight and shown the effect it has had on working conditions today.

As an animator himself and a former declared labor cynic. Sito learned from personal experience why their really was a need to be unionized. So much so that he later went on to become an active president of the screen cartoonists local in Hollywood. Yes, animation was and still is a labor intensive assembly-line that even in this digital computer age, still relies on the artistic and professional skill's of it's of workers. It's a "must read" not just for anyone with the least interest in animation, Hollywood or social and labor studies, but for anyone who's keen to know just how their favorite cartoon characters came into being in the first place. Believe me, you'll never see them as just simple drawings ever again!

Many important insights on how the business evolved and how it affects today's working animators........2006-12-14

DRAWING THE LINE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE ANIMATION UNIONS FROM BOSKO TO BART SIMPSON provides the first comprehensive history of animators' unions in modern times, from silent cartoons through today's big movie hits. Any involved in cartooning will find the business and industry insights essential to a thorough knowledge of their career choice: history and cultural observations blend with a survey of the entertainment industry as a whole, making for many important insights on how the business evolved and how it affects today's working animators.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A Shadow of Red: Communism and the Blacklist in Radio and Television

Average customer rating:

A 'must' for any collection strong in media history
Major Step Forward

A Shadow of Red: Communism and the Blacklist in Radio and Television
David Everitt
Manufacturer: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General Broadcasting | Radio | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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George Kennan: A Study of Character

ASIN: 1566635756

Book Description

The Cold War came to broadcasting in 1950. In that year, just as the Korean War was about to erupt, there appeared from a small publisher a booklet called Red Channels, which listed 151 suspected Communist sympathizers in broadcasting. Within months the blacklist in radio and TV began. The purge of the airwaves, distinct from the better-known blacklist in the movie industry, provoked one of the American media's great free-speech controversies. It affected scores of writers, directors, and actors, yet it was instigated by only a handful of anti-Red watchdogs-three ex-FBI agents, a former naval intelligence officer, and a grocer from Syracuse. A Shadow of Red follows the efforts of these five guardians of the broadcast media in a revealing history of the period, based on interviews, personal correspondence, FBI reports, and court transcripts.

Customer Reviews:

A 'must' for any collection strong in media history .......2007-06-17

A SHADOW OF RED: COMMUNISM AND THE BLACKLIST IN RADIO AND TELEVISION tells of the arrival of the Cold War and its politics in the broadcasting world, surveying the unique circumstances of the purge of the airwaves, different from movie industry blacklisting. This approach challenged media's free speech rights and affected writers, directors, and more - yet only five anti-Red watchdogs affected the media's freedoms and rights. SHADOW OF RED follows these five and uses interviews, personal correspondence, FBI reports and more to examine blacklister history and politics. A 'must' for any collection strong in media history or Cold War politics, especially at the college level.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Major Step Forward.......2007-06-13

I rank this book along with Allen Weinstein's Perjury and Sam Robert's The Brother in terms of advancing the conversation about one of the most unfortunate chapters in 20th Century American History. Weinstein and Robert ended the debate, in my mind, about "were they really spies?" and thus moved the conversation to "was the punishment justified" and "why did the hysteria build?"

In this book, Everitt traces the beginnings of Red Channels, a publication that identified people in the entertainment industry with "ties to Communist Front Organizations." For years there has been debate about where these organizations were indeed fronts, whether those named were Communist sympathesizers, or just well-meaning liberals. Everitt building on others' work settles the question of CPUSA. There was a plan and action to infiltrate or create communist front organizations with an intent to influence the messages in mass entertainment.

That doesn't mean that every participant in those organizations was a sympathsizer or even aware of the intent. But some certainly appear to be based on their willingness to accept whatever party line Stalin was touting even when it directly contradicted the previous ones. Or their gullibility in declaring the Gulags a good workplace.

Everitt handles the "blacklisters" with a similarly cold eye. He points out the sheer lack of humanity in almost every action by American Business Consultants. He does a fine job of explaining how an obscure grocer from Syracuse, NY came to hold such sway over network television and how much that grocer relished that power.

Most importantly Everitt demonstrates that the blacklist was not pervasive and all powerful. Certainly, if it cost one person their job simply for having unpopular beliefs it was too much. The question Everitt raises is: if some institutions could resist, why didn't others? For example, why did CBS (the home of Edward R. Murrow) cave in while NBC pretty much ignored Johnson and Red Channels? Why did P&G and Mark Goodson have no trouble getting the writers, performers and directors over Red Channel objections? There are numerous examples given by Everitt that shows what paper tigers Red Channels and Johnson truly were. Was it merely hysteria that made so many kowtow to them? Was it simple cowardice?

Finally, Everitt makes that case that the tendency to demonize the opposition is still alive and well on both sides of the aisle and this tendency is as dangerous today as it was in 1951.

Highly, highly recommended.

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Left Wing Harangue
Egde of your seat thriller
Liked the political parallels....
Lose your editor, Paretsky?
Patriot Act

Blacklist (V.I. Warshawski Novels)
Sara Paretsky
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451209699
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Amazon.com

Privilege, politics, and perfidy jointly propel the circuitous plot of Blacklist, Sara Paretsky's 11th novel featuring tenacious Chicago private-eye V.I. Warshawski. By the time this story runs its course, V.I. will have harbored an alleged Arab terrorist, resurrected the ghosts of America's 1950s anti-Communist hysteria, and questioned the integrity of a man she once admired "to the point of hero worship." In other words, it's a typical case for this hard-headed, sarcastic, and perpetually sleep-deprived sleuth.

Still suffering from "exhaustion of the spirit" in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, V.I. is hired to find out who may be sneaking into a vacated suburban mansion. Geraldine Graham, the home's 91-year-old former owner, who still lives nearby, claims she's seen lights in the attic at night. Our heroine suspects this is simply a bid by the wealthy dowager for greater attention, but agrees to do some nocturnal prowling--only to stumble (literally) across the body of a dead black journalist, Marcus Whitby, in the estate's ornamental pond and encounter a teenage girl fleeing the scene. The girl turns out to be Catherine Bayard, the granddaughter of Calvin Bayard, an unapologetically liberal book publisher who survived a hounding by the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee in the '50s without being blacklisted like so many of his authors. Digging deeper, V.I. learns that Whitby was doing research for a book about an African-American dancer and anthropologist who had enjoyed Bayard's support before she too was branded a Communist. Was Whitby killed en route to visit Bayard, one of Graham's neighbors--and a man who has strangely vanished from public view? And is there any connection between this murder and the disappearance of an Egyptian dishwasher, or the recent demise of a right-wing attorney and Bayard foe, in whose apartment V.I. is attacked by an intruder?

Except for a few astounding turns of luck (including the 11th-hour discovery of a revealing audiotape left in a car's player), Paretsky rolls out a credible yarn here, enriched by meticulous character development and an agreeably ambiguous conclusion. The author's intention to link McCarthy-era abuses with post-9/11 government assaults on civil rights is obvious, without being didactic, and it adds currency to a fictional investigation that's already rife with sex, betrayal, and long-held secrets among the rich. It's good to see that V.I. the P.I. hasn't lost the compassion or righteousness that first made her attractive two decades ago, in Indemnity Only. --J. Kingston Pierce

Book Description

Readers love sleuth V.I. Warshawski. Now she returns in a novel of secrets and betrayals that stretch across four generations-from one of the most compelling writers in American crime fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Left Wing Harangue.......2007-08-16

An interesting story - if you can wade through the left wing harangue. It is quite monotonous and makes the counterpoint of the plot almost an afterthought. I got about 2/3 through it and quit!!

Egde of your seat thriller.......2007-08-09

Sara Paretsky is a master in the action thriller. Her heroine is engaging, and her plots have more twists and turns than a old country road. I thouroughly enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it to others.

Liked the political parallels...........2007-02-12

isn't it interesting to read the reviews and notice that what made me like this book is what others critized. My question here is- why is Paretsky supposed to leave all politics out of her novels? I enjoyed her drawing parallels between the patriot-act/ post 911 era and the Mc Carthy era. It was a fun entanglement of past and present in every way, couldn't put it down.

Lose your editor, Paretsky?.......2006-12-28

I don't even know where to start. Obviously, I'm not in the business of writing reviews, but, wow Blacklist stunk. This book seemed like it went on, and on, and on, and on, and on. Did I mention it felt like the book was very long? With other V.I. Warshawski novels, I felt very engrossed in them, this one? Not so much. I felt extremely bored, like it was a chore to keep reading, just to see how things came out at the end.

I felt like, gone was my beloved Vic, with her Cubs, Mr. Contreras, and her witty frame of mind. She just felt bored, as did I. If V.I. were an actress in a television show, I would accuse her of "phoning it in," because things have really been lackluster the last couple of books, yet Paretsky seems to still write them really long (and even longer than some of the older books - I wonder why - is someone else writing them?) If I could charge someone, I would use the cliche of "I want my five hundred hours back." (Well, that's how long it seemed to take for me to read this book, I mean, really.)

(Total Recall was the book where things started to go awry. I don't know what it was, but things started taking a different sort of feel with that one. I'm sure, as any kind of person that uses an artistic medium as their bread and butter would tell you, they like to branch out once in a while. Maybe Paretsky was getting tired of writing the Warshawski novels the same way, but I'm sure that's why her readers kept coming back for more. People liked the character and the tone of the books. Check out the ratings of the older books versus the ratings of the newer books and you'll see what I'm talking about, Cookie.)

Patriot Act.......2006-11-26

VI's squeeze, Morrell, is in Afghanistan with Humane Medicine after the events of 9/11. He has a book contract to cover life under the Taliban.

Geraldine Graham, the mother of one of VI's best clients, has binoculars to watch her old home, Larchmont Hall. Darraugh Graham hires VI to investigate his mother's suspicions. VI finds a dead body in a pond on the grounds of the mansion.

Calvin Bayard, notable publisher and supporter of left wing causes, spoke to VI's class when she took Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Calvin testified before the HUAC but didn't name names and didn't go to prison. His firm owns a number of magazines. VI encounters a teenage girl, Catherine Bayard, at the Larchmont site. She learns subsequently that Catherine is a granddaughter.

Ms Warshawski speaks with the dead man's, Marcus Whitby's, sister. On her behalf she calls a Chicago coroner she knows and the sheriff's deputy who showed decency to VI when the crime was reported. VI Warshawski learns from speaking with co-workers at the publication where Whitby was employed that he loved the Bronzeville section of Chicago.

It seems that Whitby had been an ace reporter but had kept his story ideas to himself. It is discovered that Calvin Bayard has not been seen in public for five years. Eventually it is determined that he suffers from short term memory loss and his wife has taken charge of the publishing house.

Events in the investigation lead Warshawski staight into the grip of the Terrorism Task Force of the Chicago Police Department headed by her father's protege, Bobby Mallory. VI's take on our post 9/11 world is hilarious.

Marcus Whitby's employer, Augustus Llewellyn, Armand Pelletier, a writer, Calvin Bayard, and Kylie Ballentine, the subject of a study on which Marcus Whitby had been working, all knew each other and went to a bar called Flora's in the 1940's. Through a process of elimination VI discovers the identity of the murderer.

Sara Paretsky gets better and better.

Average customer rating:

Blacklist (SIGNED)
Sara Paretsky
Manufacturer: Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0241141885

Average customer rating:

Review contributing to ignorance.
Thought provoking and timely...
Needs editing.
Correction
A fine personal story

Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist
Walter Bernstein
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306809362
Release Date: 2000-05-02

Amazon.com

Walter Bernstein was a war correspondent for the U.S. army magazine Yank. During World War II, he joined the Communist Party in 1946 after he was inspired by the Communist partisans in France and Yugoslavia. (He had interviewed Marshall Tito for the magazine.) Shortly afterwards Joe McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities initiated its notorious witch-hunt for Reds in the government and, to garner publicity, in Hollywood, where Bernstein had become a writer for film and television. Though he successfully avoided appearing before the Committee, Bernstein was blacklisted, and forced to scrape a living together by selling his scripts through front men. In this memoir, he recalls the days of the blacklist, celebrates the movie business, and defends his political allegiances.

Book Description

First time in paperback: By an acclaimed writer blacklisted in the anti-Communist hysteria of the McCarthy era,"the best book on the Blacklist I have read"-Arthur Miller

During World War II, Walter Bernstein was a correspondent for the U.S. Army magazine Yank; after the war, he joined the Communist Party. When Senator Joseph McCarthy began his notorious witch hunt for Communists in the late 1940s, Bernstein-a writer for film and television-found himself blacklisted. For a decade he would scrape a living together by selling scripts through front men. Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post has called Inside Out "a lovely piece of work...a memoir of the blacklist that, without minimizing any of its offenses or forgiving any of its architects, finds humanity and humor in the period." The author vividly recalls an entertainment community torn between those who were willing, and those who refused, to denounce their friends, and he provides unforgettable glimpses of leading Hollywood figures such as Burt Lancaster, Elia Kazan, Bette Davis, and Zero Mostel. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has hailed this as, simply, "the best personal account of the era."

Customer Reviews:

Review contributing to ignorance........2007-08-24

The above House reviewer writes, "Shortly afterwards Joe McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities initiated its notorious witch-hunt for Reds in the government and, to garner publicity, in Hollywood, where Bernstein had become a writer for film and television."

This is not only a ridiculous statement. It is categorically untrue. Senator McCarthy was not in the House, and House members are not Senators. McCarthy also never called one Hollywood Commie or follow traveller before his Senate Committee.

Thought provoking and timely..........2005-07-26

Having met Walter Bernstein prior to finishing the book probably helped me in understanding his point of view about the Blacklist. I believe that the pain and betrayal of colleagues such as Elia Kazan are downplayed in the book when Mr. Bernstein could have really exacerbated them. It is not an expose - but his personal memoirs about a time in his life when he struggled to earn a living due to government paranoia. I don't think that Mr. Bernstein's reason for becoming a member of the communist party has any relevance, which is his point. It is not unlike the experiences that certain Americans are experiencing today based on their beliefs and backgrounds. I think this is an interesting and thought provoking story which should be shared and revived to remind us of the dangers of censorship and government control.

Needs editing........2004-11-12

Inside Out claims to be a memoir of the blacklist and while the blacklist, HUAC and McCarthy trials are mentioned, it's mostly just a meandering autobiography. Bernstein needs an editor to shorten and break up these chapters to keep things more on topic. The first chapter is by far the best at covering the blacklist era and shows how it turned the film and television industry "inside out." The second and third chapters go back in time, covering in all of his childhood in one and all of World War Two in another. They also strive to build an explanation of why Bernstein chose to join the American Communist party but instead of presenting a well-thought and erudite discussion of third party politics, socialism and communism, he weakens his overall memoir with long winded, rambling tangents.

Correction.......2003-06-26

Just a fact check here. The House Unamerican Activities Committee was NEVER run by Senator McCarthy. In fact, he was never on the Committee. He was a first year senator on the Senate Housing Committee at the time that HUAC became active in 1947. McCarthy didn't begin his anti-communist efforts until 1950. I would think the editor would do some research before referring to "McCarthy's House Committe on Un-American Activities." Plus, HOUSE means House of Representatives. McCarthy was a Senator. He was, however, a member of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Little different.

A fine personal story.......2002-12-25

A very well-written memoir of the blacklist years. Bernstein is not vitriolic, vengeful. He is also not apologetic about the idealism that led him to the Communist Party. His times of despair also include not only acts of random kindness but a bonding with fellow blacklisted writers that resulted in their mutual support of each other in doing what they did best, writing, with a front, someone who agrees to have their name on the blacklisted writer's script. Bernstein does not shout but with his quiet dignity allows the readers to shake their heads as to how we allowed this hysteria to go on for so long. And how much we lost during this period when so many talented people were unable to do what they did best.

Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years

Average customer rating:

Refugees from Repression
don't miss this book
Revisiting adolescent turmoil
An Unsparing Eye

Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years
Jean Rouverol
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hollywood Exile, or How I Learned to Love the Blacklist (Texas Film and Media Studies Series)
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Blacklisted: The Film Lover's Guide to the Hollywood Blacklist

ASIN: 0826322662

Book Description

It is the early spring of 1951 in Hollywood. Jean Rouverol and her husband, Hugo Butler, are juggling the demands of raising four young children and furthering their careers as screenwriters. They are at work on a “little domestic comedy” for Columbia Studios to star Bob Cummings and Barbara Hale, a forgettable piece intended to offer a bit of escapist romance and humor to a country in the grip of the Cold War and the Korean Conflict. But thanks to their well-known 1940s leftist affiliations, Rouverol and Butler cannot fly under the radar of those larger events. To avoid prison sentences like those imposed in 1950 on their friends among the Hollywood Ten, they flee to Mexico rather than accept a subpoena from the House of Representatives Un-American Affairs Committee.

After taking refuge in Mexico City, Rouverol slowly re-creates new routines of family and professional life while her husband re-establishes himself as a screenwriter and director, most notably in collaboration on films with Luis Bunuel (in exile from Franco's Spain). Rouverol offers a compelling and candid eyewitness account that takes us into her life and thoughts during her dozen years of exile: simultaneously coping with the needs of four--then five, then six--growing and inquisitive children and keeping a watchful eye out for signs that the political winds in Mexico might shift against them as they did for a few others deported on often arbitrary charges.

Thanks to the fellowship of friends such as the Dalton Trumbos, and by means of pseudonymous writing, the Butler family survived. But living in exile takes its toll in ways large and small, and perhaps the greatest strain is on her husband, whose health is compromised and who eventually dies in 1968 at age fifty-three.

Customer Reviews:

Refugees from Repression.......2002-06-24

Jean Rouverol has written here a rather readable personal history of a very public assault on civil liberties (such as they were and are in the US) during the post-WWII Red Scare.

While it does not appear to have been her intention to delve into the politics of the period except as it pertained to women in general and her family (and the expatriate community in Mexico) in particular, especially during the blacklist, the inquiring reader is left wondering, for example, what happened to Rouverol's husband, screenwriter Hugo Butler, perhaps during their Mexican exile, to lead him to celebrate the display of Italian Communist Party banners in Rome even as he wishes that Party to lose the 1960 parliamentary election in Italy -- he, like his wife, having been a member of the Communist Party USA. But then, she tied up the loose ends of her family's Mexican experience somewhat hastily, leaving one to speculate as to whether Butler's political regression was a result of his overall mental deterioration -- a condition Rouverol noted. Nevertheless, her detailed account of their life in Mexico -- the focus of the book -- makes this a worthwhile record of survival during an intensely repressive time.

don't miss this book.......2001-02-23

Jean Rouverol recreates those traumatic years with sensitivity, care and love. With a young family she and her husband not only managed to get away from, (rather than escape), the harrassment of anti-communism in Hollywood but also managed to create a new and productive live in Mexico. Her prose is crisp and very readable.Her sense of humour never fails. Her message is clear- if you believe in it you can do it! One of the few books I have read cover to cover in one sitting.

Revisiting adolescent turmoil.......2001-01-08

I was a teenager at Hollywood High during these dark years. Struggling to understand the turmoil and politics that my family was living through. Each day I saw the pain my loving, idealistic father was enduring as more and more of his friends and coworkers became ensnared in the stupid net of fear and accusation that was spreading through his industry.

Jean's story of their quick decision to slip across the border with their children and their day to day challenges of providing a good education and rich family life as exiles makes great reading.

An Unsparing Eye.......2000-12-20

Rouverol's clean prose and unsparing eye will draw readers into recollections of her family's life on the run and the work they scared up to support their nearly decade-long stint underground. Poignant and unapologetic, Rouverol's memoir juxtaposes the support they found south of the border with the unrelenting weight of living as fugitives. -- Publishers Weekly

Blacklisted: The Film Lover's Guide to the Hollywood Blacklist

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Over 2000 entries

Blacklisted: The Film Lover's Guide to the Hollywood Blacklist
Dave Wagner , and Paul Buhle
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 140396145X

Book Description

Buhle and Wagner have put together the definitive guide to the films, directors, stars, writers, designers, producers, and anyone else who was blacklisted by Joseph McCarthy during the notorious Hollywood blacklist era. In over 2,000 entries, film lovers get every piece of information they could ever want. Covering such films as Roman Holiday and Bridge on the River Kwai and linking them up with the men and women involved, Blacklisted is the ultimate film lover's guide to Hollywood's darkest days.

Customer Reviews:

Over 2000 entries.......2004-01-12

Blacklisted: The Film Lover's Guide To The Hollywood Blacklist is the collaboratively effort of Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner and an alphabetically arranged encyclopedia of entries concerning the films, directors, stars, writers, producers, designers, and others who suffered being blacklisted because of the House Un-American Activities Committee during their infamous Hollywood blacklist era. Over 2000 entries point the reader in the direction of grand works that were covered in shadow during a dangerous time in American history, including films such as "Roman Holiday" and "Bridge on the River Kwai". Blacklisted is a welcome and greatly appreciated contribution to Cinematic Studies reference collections.

Words at War: World War II Era Radio Drama and the Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist (Studies and Documentation in the History of Popular Entertainment, No. 5)

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several authentic reviews
Enthralling, documented, and thoroughly "reader friendly"

Words at War: World War II Era Radio Drama and the Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist (Studies and Documentation in the History of Popular Entertainment, No. 5)
Howard Blue
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General Broadcasting | Radio | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Radio | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0810844133

Book Description

Simultaneously as they worked on the war effort, many radio writers and actors advanced a progressive agenda to fight the enemy within: racism, poverty, and other social ills. When the war ended, many of these people paid for their idealism by suffering blacklisting. Veterans' groups, the FBI, right-wing politicians, and other reactionaries mounted an assault on them to drive them out of their professions. Words at War discusses that partly successful effort and the response of the radio personalities involved.

Customer Reviews:

several authentic reviews.......2004-03-07

"This may well be the best book on American radio ever written."
Paul Buhle, Brown University, author of Popular Culture in America, etc.

"A fascinating story told in a compelling fashion."
Ken Mueller, Radio Curator, The Museum of Television & Radio

". . . . masterly, . . . . . . Blue stands with Barnouw and Dunning, and that is high rank indeed."
Norman Corwin

". . . a tour de force of research and writing, . . . "
Prof. Tim Crook. Goldsmith' s College, University of London

" . . . an outstanding contribution to the literature on civil rights . . . "
David Honig, Exec. Director, Minority Media & Telecom Council

"an exceptionally probing and indispensable contribution to the history of American radio."
Paul Heyer, Wilfrid Laurier University

Enthralling, documented, and thoroughly "reader friendly".......2003-01-11

Words At War: World War II Era Radio Drama And The Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist by freelance writer, educator Howard Blue is an enthralling, documented, and thoroughly "reader friendly" history of radio broadcasting in America during World War II, and the subsequent Cold War-era politically oriented crackdown that left a blight on the creative talent of on-air vocal drama that was quite as pervasive and detrimentally corrosive as the better known blacklists in the Hollywood film industry. A fascinating and extensively detailed presentation which is enhanced with an extensive index, and offering compelling insight into past (and ongoing) struggles between censorship and freedom of speech, Words At War is an important and highly recommended addition to 20th Century American History, American Popular Culture, Performing Arts, and Political Science reading lists. Indeed, Words At War would seem to have a renewed and contemporary application with respect to present-day communication issues with respect to America's current struggle against global terrorism both abroad and here at home.

Write It Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

Average customer rating:

Write It Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults
Ambrose Bierce
Manufacturer: Terripam Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Grammar | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Rhetoric | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0961727004

Average customer rating:

A little disappointed
Long Awaited
GOOD BUT NOT GREAT
This should be titled "Synopsis of the Jolson Story w/photos
Guess Who Didn't Sing Again.

Blackface to Blacklist
Doug McClelland
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Textbook Binding

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0810835304

Book Description

Tells the story of the film's making and contextualizes it within African-American and cinematic historical contexts.

Customer Reviews:

A little disappointed.......2004-04-16

I couldn't wait to read the book, so you can imagine how excited I was when it arrived. I have seen both movies many times, I own them both, and needless to say they are my favorites. I already know the story of Jolson, both the truth, and what the two movies tell us, but I would have loved to learn more about the real star of the two movies, Larry Parks. The problems he and his wife had with the stupid blacklisting, how it affected his wife and two sons. The one real cute thing in the book was when a small girl met the real Jolson in person and said, "Gee Mr. Jolson, you're much better looking in the movie then you are in person." To use the terms the young girls now a days use, I think Larry Parks was a Hottie. I first saw The Jolson Story when I was seven years old, got the biggest crush on Larry Parks, I am now 64 years old, and still swoon when I see him in the two movies. I wonder if Betty Garrett has any idea how much the public loved her husband. It was because of him that Jolson's career got going again.

Long Awaited.......2001-06-25

I just wanted to say that for a long time I have been looking for a book which dealt mainly with The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again. I probably stumbled on it with this book. Although the name implies a book on the blacklisting, I was pleasantly surprised to find alot of pages dedicated to these two films. Don't be fooled by the name. There's much more than the blacklisting.

GOOD BUT NOT GREAT.......2000-04-13

When I got this book, I couldn't wait to pour through the contents. However, I was disappointed in that the book gave too much of a book report on "The Jolson Story" and "Jolson Sings Again", and not enough time to Larry Parks. The book is worth reading, and I did learn some interesting tidbits. However, it did leave me wanting more. Other books may be better, but to a new fan of Al Jolson/Larry Parks it may be more fullfilling than it was to me.

This should be titled "Synopsis of the Jolson Story w/photos.......2000-03-14

This gives woefully little information about the HUA witchhunt and how it impacted on the life and career of Larry Parks. (Read Betty Garrett's bio for that information.) This is a moment by moment synopsis with photos of The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again" with some biographical information on the performers. I love both movies and could have written the synopsis myself. I wanted to learn more about Larry Parks and the disgraceful blacklist period. Also, this is a very short book (minus photos) and is more like a term paper than a serious discussion on the title's topic.

Guess Who Didn't Sing Again........1999-12-22

I could probably add another "star" to the rating of this book if McLelland would make at least one correction. This is really not a review but rather an important comment. Important, at least, to me.

On a back page of "Blackface to Blacklist" is a photo of Saul Silverman. He is credited as having dubbed the cantorial voice for papa Yoelson (Ludwig Donath) in both the Jolson Story and Jolson Sings again. Doug is HALF right. Silverman did the cantorial dubs for Donath in The Jolson Story. In Jolson Sings Again, however, the voice was that of Ray Carnay who was the Cantor at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills. Since I am the one who did the cantorial vocal I'd like to set the record straight. My Columbia press releases, photo with thanks inscribed by Donath and countless news articles in my files lend credence to my claim. I'd like to get this information to McClelland. The International AL Jolson Society has already received this information and corrections will be made in their archives and future releases.

Great memories!

Ray Carnay 1336 Emerald Park Dr. Eugene, OR 97404-2708 541/461-6161 541/688-2242 541/688-1234

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