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And don't forget all the books that
Earl Derr Biggers wrote that are still being printed and that spawned countless movies!
And even a Broadway play however short-lived!
I LOVE LUCY - The Book
How about reading Alice's Adventures Under
Ground, as it originally appeared?! And then . . . maybe Through the Looking Glass?!
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
This is a lovely story from a First Lady's memoir: Reflections:
Life After the White Houe by Barbara Bush, Lisa Drew Book (Scribner), New York, 2003, page 104:
One
of Maven's mainstays in her library is one by a former usher to the White House, J. B. West. Maven has one of his stories
- about the Trumans - from his book, UPSTAIRS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
(Coward, McMann & Geoghegan, Inc.; 1973, pages 84 - 85.
This one is from The Waacs by
an Army wife on her first-hand experience on December 7, 1941 (Nancy Shea, The Waccs, Harper & Brothers
Publishers, New York, 1943, page 1 – 6):
PEARL HARBOR: You Are There
Ever wonder
where Orson Welles' got the name "Xanadu" for Citizen Kane's legendary estate?!?! Okay, Maven knows that William Randolph
Hearst and his Castle were plainly in Welles' mind but . . . . "Xanadu" came from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, Kubla
Khan; Or, a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment.
A great source for easy
recipes recipes with a wide range of tastes is the Betty
Crocker Ultimate Bisquick® Cookbook; 323 DELICIOUS
RECIPES FOR BREAKFST, DINNER, DESSERT & MORE!; 2008, 2009 by General Mills, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Rodale, Inc.; page
241.
Maven has depended as
much on her mother's cookbook by Helen Corbitt as Mother did. Everyone should check into Ms. Corbitt's many books!
Helen Corbitt’s Cookbook by Helen Corbitt, with
decorations by JOE ALLEN HONG; The Riverside Press Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston; 1957, FOURTEENTH PRINTING
APRIL, 1961.
| Pickfair |
|
| Home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks |
One that Maven quotes extensively in ARCHITECTURE IN HOLLYWOOD: Pickfair is Dream Palaces:
Hollywood at Home by Charles Lockwood, The Viking Press, 1981. And there's a lot more to the book than Pickfair!
| Edith Head and Edith Mode |
|
| The Character She Probably Inspired |
One of Maven's
mainstays about what went on in front of the cameras, behind the cameras and in the wardrobe departments is Edith Head's
Hollywood; Edith Head & Paddy Calistro; E.P. Dutton, Inc.; 1983.
Head died before completed her autobiography
with Calistro finishing it.
It is well-worth getting as Head
worked with designing for such directors as Alfred Hitchcock and for actors like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (their Road
pictures) to actresses like Carol Lombard, Marlene Dietrich and Mae West. She even covers other designers like Travis Banton.
Edith Head's Hollywood is
a must have for anyone serious about the movies, their background and just plain old Hollywood History!
Maven was with family Christmas (2009) watching
El Dorado with John Wane and Robert Mitchum. El Dorado, the poem used in the credits and quoted by
James Caan, was written by Edgar Allan Poe:
El Dorado
Gaily bedight,
A gallant night
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.
But he grew old --
This knight so bold --
And -- o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow --
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be --
This land of El Dorado?"
"Over th Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied --
"If you seek for El Dorado."
I LOVE LUCY
Maven is lucky to have come across an old book that she'd forgotten
about: LUCY & RICKY & FRED & ETHEL: The Story of "I LOVE LUCY," by Bart Andrews; Bart
ANdrews; E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.: New York; 1973.
It covers the era of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz going through the trails and tribulations of putting a brand-new television
series through the trails and tribulations of their divorce.
It’s also a story
that covers the beginning of American television by some of the pioneers and the changes they made to American culture.
To paraphrase Sara Lee™: “Nobody doesn’t love Lucy!”
| DEADLY ILLUSIONS |
|
| JEAN HARLOW and the Murder of PAUL BERN |
Maven has a book about one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries/scandals
. . . DEADLY ILLUSIONS: JEAN HARLOW and the Murder of PAUL BERN by Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen,
Random House, New York, 1990,
Samuel Marx was one
of Paul Bern's closest friends and business associates who was there at the Harlow/Bern House after Bern's body was found.
Marx's story is the intertwining of death, coverups, politics and more rolled up into a real-life whodunit.
His co-author, Joyce Vanderveen,
brought a new light on the story that compels both of them to go back and find out just what DID go on - or didn't!
A great read!
| "The Making of King Kong" (1933) |
|
| By Orville Goldner and George E. Turner |
This book, The
Making of King Kong, has been a fabulous resourse for Maven about the Eighth Wonder of the world!
She suspects that it's out of print but
maybe you can find it in the nearest library, used bookstore, google and/or ebay!
| Mary Astor at Her Divorce Trail |
|
| Mary Astor and Humphrey Bogart |
|
| "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) |
Maven has two autobiographies in her library by Mary Astor.
One that she quotes in these pages of her website is A Life on Film by Mary Astor; Delacourte Press; 1967, 1968, 1971; New York.
This is a must-read for her fans and fans of movie history, The Maltese Falcon, Clark Gable and Red Dust, John Barrymore and the
affair she had with him. . . . You get the idea. [Check her page at this
site at MARY ASTOR]
The other one is My
Story: An Autobiography; Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1959. She included a “thank you” for “Frank Carothers for his labors on [her] behalf in organizing
and editing the original manuscript of this autobiographical analysis.” It
was the product of her time with the Reverend Peter Ciklic, Ph.D., as part of her therapy.
As Astor quotes him:
“Mary,”
he said, “you would help me very much, and it would save a great deal of time, if you would sit down and write the story
of your life. Write every day for a few hours, just as you remember it. Write
fully. No one is looking over your shoulder.”
Astor
continues:
“It
was hard to do. I clubbed my memory, and sometimes during an entire afternoon
of sitting at my desk I would have only a couple of pages. Then things seemed
to clamor to be remembered, odd things, forgotten things. And I lived through
them all over again. There was much that was beautiful, pleasant, amusing. But sometimes I put my head down on the keys and cried, lost in bitterness and pain.”
It’s
a fascinating story and an incredible look into the soul of a Hollywood actor.
There is more to Bram Stoker than Dracula so enjoy being
scared . . . repeatedly:
Dracula (the 1897 text):
| Collen Moore's Fairy Castle |
|
Colleen Moore was a star of the silent screen who is now probably best known for her doll house, also known as her "Fairy
Castle" and "Coleen's Folly."
Maven cherishes her copies
of Colleen Moore's Doll House (photography by Will Rousseau; Doubleday & Company, Inc.; New York) and Silent
Star: Colleen Moore (Doubleday & CO., Inc., New York, 1968)
Moore includes many photographs
in her book on her castle and many pages on it in her autobiography, a book that Maven first read at the tender age of seventeen.
Maven had read books about the movies
and how they were made but SILENT STAR was the book that began a life-long fascination with Hollywood that was
more than the sum that ended up on the silver screen.
Moore's autobiography isn't
just a story she tells of her life but Hollywood when it was almost as new as she was. She takes us through the making
of movies as she was getting - literally - on-the-job training!
| The Philo Vance Murder Collection |
|
| By S.S. Van Dine |
Maven now has links for
mystery lovers who still love holding a book in hand . . . or want to compare books to movies or visa versa . . . or just
enjoy a good book in hand.
| The Westmore Brothers |
|
The Westmores of Hollywood (Lippincott, New York, 1976) is a great book about the Westmore Family
of makeup artistsby one of the Westmores . . . Frank Westmore with Muriel Davidson. It covers stars from Humphrey Bogart
(MAKEUP ARTISTS) to Shirley Temple (he says that both Mary Pickford and Shirley Temple owed at least some of their curls to the Patriarch
of the clan, George Westmore. Maven will be trying to add stories from this great book as she can. In the meantime,
if you can find a copy of it . . . BUY IT!!
A CHRISTMAS STORY by Barbara Bush
Thanksgiving at the White House with the Trumans
Pearl Harbor - You Are There
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