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Overview
Fade to Black chronicles the lives and deaths of more than 1,200 movie personalities, Included are not just the big stars but a wealth of important characters from the history of film. Some achieved world fame or great power. Some were consigned to obscurity after one scandal too many. Other hid dark secrets that would only emerge after their deaths.
April 17th, 2011 on 3:35 pm
A Trip Down Memory Lane,
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聽聽
I really enjoyed this book. While I have no specific insight as to how the author really chose the subjects for inclusion in this book, he certainly appears to have extracted a lively (though dead) group of celebrities from all strata of the movie industry.
This book was well-researched and provided lots of juicy tidbits about the lives and deaths of the celebrity dead contained within. Unlike many books which promised but failed to deliver the goods, this book was well worth the purchase price. I consider this a worthy sucessor to the out-of-print Hollywood Album I & II which were compilations of NY Times obituaries. And best of all, you finally do find out exactly what happened to many of your favorite actors and actresses. Can it get much better!
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|April 17th, 2011 on 3:43 pm
Eccentric choices, but still useful and interesting,
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Although the film industry is primarily Hollywood-based, this book is useful in that it contains a healthy number of obits for British actors and actresses from the 1930s-60s (Felix Aylmer, Bernard Bresslaw) that most Americans have never heard of. The book’s subtitle is “A Book of Movie Obituaries”, and, yes, all the big names are in here: Monroe, Brando (a particularly lengthy article that could have been trimmed a bit: the adventures of his pet raccoon are as long on the entry on Roy Rogers), etc. But it’s not just actors. Directors and producers are included. Pauline Kael, the film critic, gets an entry, as does Keiko the whale from FREE WILLIE (Lassie does not, but Rin Tin Tin does). Ronald Reagan is here, though if he had not been president, one wonders if he would have qualified. Murder, suicide, and scandal appear quite a lot, and sometimes it seems as if any connection to film will do if it will provide a “sexy” entry. Does John Lennon really qualify as a movie star? And Larry Linville (from M*A*S*H) seems to have been included just so that his various personal scandals could be detailed. Still, the author takes pains to clear Fatty Arbuckle’s reputation. Mel Blanc, who provided the voice for Bugs Bunny and a host of cartoon characters, and in doing so changed the way cartoons were recorded (among other things) gets 13 lines, while Tex Avery, who directed many cartoons, gets a page and a half (most of which merely list the cartoon’s names and dates).
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|April 17th, 2011 on 4:36 pm
Entertaining but not outstanding,
Sort of an encyclopedic text on movie obits and mini-bios, with a typical Brit left-leaning approach (read the write up on Ronald Reagan and that becomes obvious.) Many (US) actors you would expect to see are, rather curiously, not listed – and there are many (mostly Brit and European) you’ve never heard of. Some of the material doesn’t agree with more extensive (and presumably, extensively researched) biographies on some of the subjects. The author also seems to devote as much text to sexual preferences and affairs (rather a bit heavy on the gay emphasis) as to the movies the actors appeared in. Then again, what else would you write about in a book of obituaries? Lots of tidbits that make good party conversation. A decent casual read (or scan). In other words, a library loaner. (This is the 3rd edition – 2005)
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