The Great Hollywood Musical Pictures (Encore Film Book Classics 39) Kindle Edition

Part of the Encore Film Book Classics series, this is a reprint of the original text to The Great Hollywood Musical Pictures by James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts. This richly comprehensive volume covers some 340 of the great—and not so great but fun—musicals Hollywood has produced over the decades. The movies discussed in detail range from The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) to such lavish Busby Berkeley offerings (e.g., Footlight Parade, 1933), the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy operettas (e.g., Rose Marie, 1936), the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers pairings (e.g., Carefree, 1938), the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland entertainments (e.g., Girl Crazy, 1943), the Elvis Presley’s trend-setting big-screen offerings (e.g., Jailhouse Rock, 1957), the impressive song-and-dance opuses of Barbra Streisand (e.g., Funny Girl, 1968), and such later genre entries as Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978), Body Rock (1984), Dirty Dancing (1987), La Bamba (1987), and School Daze (1988). Each entry contains detailed cast/characters and technical credits, a discussion of the film, and review quotes. This is an entertaining and valuable reference work and movie guide for both film fans and cinema historians. It also is an excellent sourcebook to many of the genre entries now available for viewing on television, the Internet, and DVDs. JAMES ROBERT PARISH, a former entertainment reporter, publicist, and book series editor, is the author of many published major biographies and reference books on the entertainment industry including Whitney Houston: We Will Always Love You; The Hollywood Book of Extravagance; It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks; The Hollywood Book of Breakups; Fiascos: Hollywood’s Iconic Flops; The Hollywood Book of Scandals; The Hollywood Book of Love; Hollywood Divas; Jet Li; Hollywood Bad Boys; The Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in Hollywood; The Hollywood Book of Death; Whoopi Goldberg; Rosie O’Donnell’s Story; The Unofficial “Murder, She Wrote” Casebook; Today’s Black Hollywood; Let’s Talk! America’s Favorite TV Talk Show Hosts; Prison Pictures from Hollywood; The Great Cop Pictures; Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films; Pirates and Seafaring Swashbucklers on the Hollywood Screen; Prostitution in Mainstream Cinema; The Jeanette MacDonald Story; Hollywood’s Great Love Teams; and The Fox Girls. Mr. Parish is a frequent oncamera interviewee on cable and network TV for documentaries on the performing arts. The author resides in Studio City, California. MICHAEL R. PITTS has written or co-authored numerous books on entertainment, including Kate Smith: A Bio-Bibliography; Western Movies; Hollywood and American History; Famous Movie Detectives; Famous Movie Detectives II; Famous Movie Detectives III; Hollywood on Record; The Bible on Film; Charles Bronson; Poverty Row Studios 1929-1940; The Rise of the Crooners; Radio Soundtracks; Horror Film Stars ; the CD-ROM Television and Film: An Annotated Bibliography of Research Materials; Columbia Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films; Allied Artists Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, and RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films. With Mr. Parish he has written several entries in The Great . . .Pictures series. In addition he has contributed to many other published books and his magazine articles have been published in the U.S. and abroad. He wrote columns on record collecting for Classic Images and The Big Reel magazines. With degrees in history and journalism he also has a certificate in American Genealogy and has compiled more than thirty volumes of local history and genealogy. He has written record album liner notes, lectured on film history and entertainment, and contributed to Oxford University Press’ American National Biography and American National Biography Online. Mr. Pitts resides in Indiana with his wife, Carolyn. Read more