Merely Colossal - the story of the movies from the long chase to the chaise longue

Descripción

THIS BOOK is a history and a success story of America's motion picture theaters, their rise from peep shows and nickelodeons to cathedrals and palaces, their behind-the-screen operations, life and people. It is a world about which little has been written and it is fresh and funnier than any book yet written about the fabulous motion picture business. Merely Colossal is not Louella Parsons' motion picture world. There are few Hollywood swimming pools in it, and its approach is not that of the fan magazine writer. Its viewpoint is comic and disenchanted and charming. There are characters in the book who would steal their brother's last twenty-five cents. They would also probably run it into a million dollars. Many of them have their tender sides; many of them would pay their brother back every cent of the twenty-five. Still others would rather lose millions than double-cross an associate. Almost all of the people in this book have unorthodox histories and success stories, including, and mainly the author, whose thirty years in the fast buck business are littered with mistaken exits and entrances (he is the kind of man who would confidently open a door marked President and have it open into an elevator shaft); he stumbled into or backed into or was pushed into every advancement from his entry into the business, when he went to see Sam Goldwyn about the long-haired, art-gallery type of picture and was mistakenly hired by Goldwyn as a salesman, to a time later in his career when he tried to teach the Chinese the perils of malarial fever by film only to have them find his endeavors hysterically funny. You will learn why Mary Pickford was once called 'The toughest businessman I ever did business with.' You will be surprised to know that an ordinary marquee and theater lobby-the kind you pass every day-were once the scenes of such mirthful murder and mayhem that the police intervened. You will be interested to know that one theater owner once kept a cow on his theater's roof. You will read about another theater owner who offered his daughter in marriage in order to get additional help for operating his theater. It is a gallery of hustlers, all of them fascinating, funny and forgivable. About ARTHUR MAYER - Arthur Mayer was born in the metropolis of Demopolis, Alabama, more years ago than he is prepared to admit. Although he attended Harvard College, he claims to have acquired what little education he, has in the motion picture industry. The best teachers he has ever known were Sam Goldwyn, Adolph Zukor of Paramount and the patrons of his theaters. He has handled the advertising campaigns which helped to establish such famous stars as Mae West and Marlene Dietrich. He has operated theaters in all parts of the United States, including the Rialto on Broadway, where he instituted the profitable policy of playing nothing but bad pictures. To salve his conscience he has been active in the importation of many of the most famous foreign films, such as Open City, Paisan, The Bicycle Thief and Seven Days to Noon. During the war years he helped organize and operate the War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry, which gave thousands of films free of charge to the military forces; served as Film Consultant to the Secretary of War and as personal representative of the Chairman of the American Red Cross. For these services he was awarded the Medal for Merit, the highest civilian award. After the war he was appointed Chief of the Motion Picture Branch of Military Government in Germany, which position he resigned in 1949. Upon his return to the United States he 'was elected Executive Vice President of the Council of Motion Picture Organizations. In his moments of leisure he has been associated with such memorable documentary films as Crisis, The City. and The Forgotten Village; has conducted an educational film project for the Motion Picture Association of America. All orders shipped protected in a box. N° de ref. del artículo 000918

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