Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams by Donald Bogle

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams by Donald Bogle

In Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, Donald Bogle tells-for the first time-the story of a place both mythic and real: Black Hollywood. Spanning sixty years, this deliciously entertaining history uncovers the audacious manner in which many blacks made a place for themselves in an industry that originally had no place for them.

Through interviews and the personal recollections of Hollywood luminaries, Bogle pieces together a remarkable history that remains largely obscure to this day. We discover that Black Hollywood was a place distinct from the studio-system-dominated Tinseltown-a world unto itself, with unique rules and social hierarchy. It had its own talent scouts and media, its own watering holes, elegant hotels, and fashionable nightspots, and of course its own glamorous and brilliant personalities.

Along with famous actors including Bill Bojangles Robinson, Hattie McDaniel (whose home was among Hollywood's most exquisite), and, later, the stunningly beautiful Lena Horne and the fabulously gifted Sammy Davis, Jr., we meet the likes of heartthrob James Edwards, whose promising career was derailed by whispers of an affair with Lana Turner, and the mysterious Madame Sul-Te-Wan, who shared a close lifelong friendship with pioneering director D. W. Griffith. But Bogle also looks at other members of the black community-from the white stars' black servants, who had their own money and prestige, to gossip columnists, hairstylists, and architects-and at the world that grew up around them along Central Avenue, the Harlem of the West.

In the tradition of Hortense Powdermaker's classic Hollywood: The Dream Factory and Neal Gabler's An Empire of Their Own, in Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, Donald Bogle re-creates a vanished world that left an indelible mark on Hollywood-and on all of America.

From the Hardcover edition.

Donald Bogle is one of the foremost authorities on African Americans in film and the arts. He is the author of the classic Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, which is published by Continuum. His best-selling Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood received the Hurston/Wright Finalist Legacy Award in Non-fiction. His other books include the critically acclaimed Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography; Blacks in American Films and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia; and Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. He has appeared on such television programs as Entertainment Tonight; Today; Good Morning, America; and Nightline; and has served as a commentator on such documentaries as Spike Lee's Jim Brown: All-American, American Movie Classics' Small Steps . . . Big Strides, and TV Land's three-part series on African Americans on television. He also co-hosted Turner Classic Movies' award-winning series Race and Hollywood. The first edition of the present book, Brown Sugar, covered eighty years of America's black female superstars, and was turned into the highly successful four-part PBS documentary series by Mr. Bogle.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780345454195
ISBN 10	0345454197
Title	Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams
Author	Donald Bogle
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2006-01-31
Number of pages	432
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.