Holiday Hollywood Reading THE SCARLETT LETTERS: THE MAKING OF THE FILM GONE WITH THE WIND One month after her novel Gone With the Wind was published, Margaret Mitchell sold the movie rights for fifty thousand dollars. Fearful of what the studio might do to her story—”I wouldn’t put it beyond Hollywood to have…Scarlett seduce General Sherman,” she joked--the author washed her hands of involvement with the film. However, driven by a maternal interest in her literary firstborn and compelled by her Southern manners to answer every fan letter she received, Mitchell was unable to stay aloof for long. In this collection of her letters about the 1939 motion picture classic, edited by Randy L. Schmidt, readers have a front-row seat as the author watches the Dream Factory at work, learning the ins and outs of filmmaking and discovering the peculiarities of a movie-crazed public. WARNER BROS. HOLLYWOOD’S ULTIMATE BACK LOT Movie studios are the wondrous, almost magical locales where not just films, but legend, are created. In this book, studio staff historian and Hollywood insider Steven Bingen throws open Hollywood’s iron gates and takes you inside the greatest, and yet most mysterious movie studio of them all: Warner Bros. Accompanied by stunning behind-the-scenes photos, maps, and revealing backstory, this book is your ticket to a previously veiled Hollywood paradise. (Note: All maps and photographs in the book were provided by Marc Wanamaker, Bison Archives.) “is book is like a magic carpet, taking movie buffs on a journey through the history of Warner Bros., from its dressing rooms and craft departments to its legendary backlot. What a wonderful compendium of history, anecdotes, and even gossip. I loved every bit of it.” — Leonard Maltin, Film Critic
JOHN WAYNE’S WAY: LIFE LESSONS FROM THE DUKE e Duke was every man’s man, an American through and through who embodied rugged individualism in his own life and on the silver screen. He portrayed the hero who stood tall above the fray, not only because of his physical stature, but also because he refused to compromise in saying and doing what he knew to be right, regardless of the consequences. Novelist, screenwriter, and film historian Doug Brode goes behind the scene of one hundred of the Duke’s most iconic movie to delve into how the value expressed by the characters Wayne played were reflections of the actor’s own philosophy of life.
JUDY GARLAND ON JUDY GARLAND: INTERVIEWS AND ENCOUNTERS Judy Garland had a great desire to reveal her life story. Her 1960 book contract indicated an audience ravenous for her autobiography and a publisher (Bennett Cerf at Random house) who believed in its success. “It’s going to be one hell of a great—everlastingly great— book with humor, tears, fun, emotion, and love,” she said. But when Garland died nearly 10 years later at age 47, her efforts to write her memoir—in part to dispel the “fantastically distorted’ stores created by the media—had not come to fruition. Judy Garland on Judy Garland: Interviews and Encounters (Chicago Review Press) edited by Randy Schmidt, explores the legend’s life in her own words, and is likely the closest Judy’s legions of fans will come to experiencing her first-person story. WINTER 2014 / DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD 15