{"title":"Richard Barrios","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"song-in-the-dark-book-richard-barrios-9780195088113","title":"A Song in the Dark","description":"It was the most chaotic era in the history of American entertainment, possibly its most dynamic, and in some ways its least understood. In a stunningly brief time, as the Jazz Age roared to a close, the art of the silent film became extinct, thrown over in favor of the unknown, virtually untested medium of talking pictures. Leading the way was a brand new American art form: the movie musical. Taking off like a shot from day one, this new genre instantly became the a quintessential form of American entertainment. Here for the first time is the story of this fabulous, forgotten age when the movies learned to sing and dance. Chronicling the early musical film years from 1926 to 1934, A Song in the Dark offers a fascinating look at these innovative films, the product of much of the major experimentation that went on during the development of sound technology. Illuminating the entire evolution of this new sound medium, Richard Barrios shows how Hollywood, seeking to outdo Broadway and vaudeville, recruited both the famous and the unknown, the newest stars and the has-beens, the geniuses and the hustlers. The results were unlike anything the world had seen or heard: backstage yarns, all-star revues, grandiose operettas, outlandish hybrids--some wonderful, many innovative, a few ghastly. He recalls, for example, such monumental films as the 1927 hit The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson, the first feature film to include both talk and song. Corney, hokey, and repellently manipulative, it was by most accounts, even by 1927 standards, a poor film. Yet, showcasing the spectacular and extremely popular Jolson, it created a new dimension of intensity that silent films could not duplicate, playing to over one million people per week across the country only three weeks after its release. He discusses such memorable releases as The Broadway Melody (winner of the Academy Award for best film in 1929), the first true musical film that established movie musicals as potent and viable entertainment. Barrios goes on the offer in-depth discussions of innovative films such as The Desert Song, and On With the Show!, the first all-color talkie, as well as the more mature musicals of the 1930s including the Warner Brothers' \"backstage\" musicals of 1933-34 that started with 42nd Street and the Gold Diggers films. And, of course, he talks about the famed Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire collaborations, such as Flying Down to Rio, which, with their sophisticated style and technique, established them as the premier film musical team. Throughout, Barrios highlights the careers of the original great musical stars like Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Busby Berkeley, and Maurice Chevalier, and presents the films of newcomers such as Jeanette MacDonald, Bing Crosby, and Ruby Keeler. The fickle public rushed to see these stars--talking and singing and dancing across the screen--then suddenly turned away. It took the Depression to bring back musicals, bigger and brassier than ever. The triumphs, disasters, and offscreen intrigue are all here in a fascinating story told with a blend of scholarly research, engaging writing, and cogent criticism. With more than fifty photos, extensive annotations, and a discography, A Song in the Dark memorably recovers this vital and unique film heritage.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49567467897105,"sku":"GOR002991485","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49637339726097,"sku":"GOR013129238","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52102645317905,"sku":"CIN0195088115G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53480284291345,"sku":"GOR003923734","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195088115.jpg?v=1750737838"},{"product_id":"dangerous-rhythm-book-richard-barrios-9780199973842","title":"Dangerous Rhythm","description":"Insightful, exuberant, and witty, Dangerous Rhythm offers a fresh, sometimes revolutionary take on a uniquely American institution: the movie musical. Combining chronicle with critique and analysis, award-winning historian Richard Barrios lays out the whole of the musical's glorious and rocky existence, from Al Jolson to Les Miserables.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49570564342033,"sku":"GOR010050530","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346550853905,"sku":"CIN0199973849G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52346949927185,"sku":"NLS9780199973842","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0199973849.jpg?v=1751005989"},{"product_id":"west-side-story-book-richard-barrios-9780762469482","title":"West Side Story","description":"A captivating full account of a vital, exciting, and turbulent cultural moment: the making of ground-breaking classic West Side Story (1961).A major hit on Broadway, on film West Side Story became immortal. Unforgettable songs, an urgent love story, audacious choreography in real New York locations: West Side Story was a movie different from anything that had come before, but this cinematic victory came at a price.The film's enormous budget and complicated logistics made it a difficult production, and massive overruns in both cost and schedule led to tension between co-directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The result was Robbins being fired midway through the filming, a termination devastating to the film's star, Natalie Wood, who was also shattered upon discovering that she would not be permitted to do her own singing.Over nearly six decades, West Side Story has endured, past its off-screen dramas, as a classic. What other film makes such intrinsically powerful and brilliant use of dance? How many have been so emotionally meaningful, as set to Leonard Bernstein's music and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics? Plus, given its Shakespearean roots (Romeo and Juliet), how often is any film -- let alone a musical -- so simultaneously timeless and current? Small wonder that the film continues to be a favorite.The production and impact of this classic have been recounted, so far, only in vestiges. As written by film historian Richard Barrios, this book is a captivating account of a crucial and exciting cultural moment. West Side Story was a triumph that appeared to be very much of its time; over the years, and especially in this text, it has shown itself to be eternal.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49571373678865,"sku":"GOR010893894","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49661459988753,"sku":"GOR013668145","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50137008963857,"sku":"CIN076246948XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50913990738193,"sku":"CIN076246948XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51278464221457,"sku":"GOR011128738","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53431041294609,"sku":"NIN9780762469482","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/076246948X.jpg?v=1751438523"},{"product_id":"dangerous-rhythm-book-richard-barrios-9780190262617","title":"Dangerous Rhythm","description":"Insightful, exuberant, and witty, Dangerous Rhythm offers a fresh, sometimes revolutionary take on a uniquely American institution: the movie musical. Combining chronicle with critique and analysis, award-winning historian Richard Barrios lays out the whole of the musical's glorious and rocky existence, from Al Jolson to Les Miserables.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631459475729,"sku":"GOR011147719","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345969090833,"sku":"CIN0190262613G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51677922918673,"sku":"GOR008915288","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52150422667537,"sku":"NLS9780190262617","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0190262613.jpg?v=1751037413"},{"product_id":"turner-classic-movies-must-see-musicals-book-richard-barrios-9780762463169","title":"Turner Classic Movies Must-See Musicals","description":"Spanning nine decades and showcasing the most memorable songs, dazzling dancing, and brightest stars ever to grace the silver screen, TCM's Must-See Musicals is THE guide to the greatest musicals of all time from the most trusted authority on film-Turner Classic Movies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49643376279825,"sku":"GOR010226534","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49758762762513,"sku":"CIN0762463163G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50762849648913,"sku":"CIN0762463163VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":51548690088209,"sku":"CIN0762463163LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0762463163.jpg?v=1751107117"},{"product_id":"on-marilyn-monroe-book-richard-barrios-9780197636114","title":"On Marilyn Monroe","description":"Marilyn Monroe has been gone for over sixty years, and yet people are still talking about her. What, exactly, is the spell she casts on so many? Stunning, exciting to watch, incredibly famous, Monroe lived a very public life and died young, with a sad suddenness. All of this is true, and yet there is so much more to her story.   On Marilyn Monroe: An Opinionated Guide looks past the sensation to the real legacy -her richly varied body of work. Both during her life and following her death, Monroe was dismissed as more of a phenomenon than an actor, often an object of ridicule instead of a performer whose work could be taken seriously. Even when films such as The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot saw immense success, Monroe seldom got her due as the inventive and accomplished performer she was. The truth that lay behind the dazzling surface was that she was one of the hardest working of actors. Rigorously applying both skillful technique and an inherent charisma, she was able to create truly unforgettable performances.   In this lively guide, Richard Barrios looks beyond the ballyhoo and legend at Monroe's best-known films, and some that even today remain obscure. Besides her films, it also addresses the work she did on television and the stage, as well as her underrated abilities as a vocalist. Both an informative study and a perceptive critical assessment, On Marilyn Monroe: An Opinionated Guide gives this brilliant performer the attention she desired-that of an artist whose work deserves both examination and celebration.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744310042897,"sku":"NGR9780197636114","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50201782714641,"sku":"CIN019763611XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50726527369489,"sku":"GOR013257325","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999906402577,"sku":"NIN9780197636114","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":52888896569617,"sku":"CIN019763611XLN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/019763611X.jpg?v=1751436661"},{"product_id":"screened-out-book-richard-barrios-9780415923293","title":"Screened Out","description":"Rapacious dykes, self-loathing closet cases, hustlers, ambiguous sophisticates, and sadomasochistic rich kids: most of what America thought it knew about gay people it learned at the movies. A fresh and revelatory look at sexuality in the Great Age of movie making, Screened Out shows how much gay and lesbian lives have shaped the Big Screen. Spanning popular American cinema from the 1900s until today, distinguished film historian Richard Barrios presents a rich, compulsively readable analysis of how Hollywood has used and depicted gays and the mixed signals it has given us: Marlene in a top hat, Cary Grant in a negligee, a pansy cowboy in The Dude Wrangler. Such iconoclastic images, Barrios argues, send powerful messages about tragedy and obsession, but also about freedom and compassion, even empowerment.  Mining studio records, scripts, drafts (including cut scenes), censor notes, reviews, and recollections of viewers, Barrios paints our fullest picture yet of how gays and lesbians were portrayed by the dream factory, warning that we shouldn't congratulate ourselves quite so much on the progress movies - and the real world -- have made since Stonewall.  Captivating, myth-breaking, and funny, Screened Out is for all film aficionados and for anyone who has sat in a dark movie theater and drawn strength and a sense of identity from what they saw on screen, no matter how fleeting or coded.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49779399754001,"sku":"CIN0415923298G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50105361498385,"sku":"CIN0415923298VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52345818415377,"sku":"NLS9780415923293","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52735276777745,"sku":"NIN9780415923293","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52823472701713,"sku":"GOR006222553","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0415923298.jpg?v=1751358373"},{"product_id":"screened-out-book-richard-barrios-9780415923286","title":"Screened Out","description":"Rapacious dykes, self-loathing closet cases, hustlers, ambiguous sophisticates, and sadomasochistic rich kids: most of what America thought it knew about gay people it learned at the movies. 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Captivating, myth-breaking, and funny, Screened Out is for all film aficionados and for anyone who has sat in a dark movie theater and drawn strength and a sense of identity from what they saw on screen, no matter how fleeting or coded.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49849705595153,"sku":"GOR004784792","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52123646755089,"sku":"NLS9780415923286","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53035010228497,"sku":"NIN9780415923286","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53477717770513,"sku":"CIN041592328XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/041592328X.jpg?v=1750845489"},{"product_id":"song-in-the-dark-book-richard-barrios-9780195088106","title":"A Song in the Dark","description":"This work examines in full detail the creation and development of the musical film in the years 1927-1934. 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Ranging from the smash hits of The Singing Fool and Sunny Side Up to bizarre flops like Golden Dawn and Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan, they form a body of work unlike anything else in the history of popular entertainment. Here too are legendary performers, directors, and composers: from Fannie Brice, James Cagney, and Mae West, to Busby Berkeley, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, and countless others. With many new rare photographs, some not published in nearly 80 years, this new edition traces the rise and fall, and rise again, of this quintessential piece of the American experience.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52516057874705,"sku":"NLS9780195377347","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52734478188817,"sku":"NIN9780195377347","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780195377347.jpg?v=1776765767"},{"product_id":"on-bette-davis-book-richard-barrios-9780197808689","title":"On Bette Davis","description":"Intense, ambitious, charismatic, and brilliantly gifted, Bette Davis revolutionized the art of acting and permanently altered the face of cinema. Over six decades, she built a career second to none in its variety, enterprise, and audacity.   While her somewhat turbulent life has received a great deal of attention, as has her work in films such as Jezebel, All About Eve, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, there remain any number of brilliant performances that are less celebrated, if equally unforgettable. In film and later on television, she drove herself to make the most of great scripts and to give lesser ones far more than they deserved. Both her intelligence and her drive are evident in her breakthrough role in Of Human Bondage, her Academy Award performance in Dangerous, and such varied films as Dark Victory, Now, Voyager, and even the notorious Beyond the Forest.   Later, she seized the world's attention and opened a new phase of her career with the horrifying Baby Jane and Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. In even the least of her films and television shows, she expended her formidable talents to their utmost capacity. 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