By Anthony Slide
A diminutive, frenetic comedian, known for catchphrases that were once part of the English language, Arthur Askey was one of Britain’s most popular entertainers throughout much of the 20th Century. Immediately after World War One, Askey made his professional debut in concert parties at British seaside resorts. He began to appear on the stage and on radio, and in 1938, with Richard Murdoch, he introduced Band Wagon to BBC radio listeners. It soon became the most popular program on the air, and launched Askey’s career as a film star (one of Britain’s biggest), a major entertainer in pantomime and on the legitimate stage, and ensured an easy transition some years later into television.
Arthur Askey’s life and career is presented here in informative and readable fashion. I Thank You: The Arthur Askey Story is the first book-length biography of a great British comedian, and will, hopefully, introduce him and his humor to new audiences around the world.
If you never heard of Arthur Askey, do not feel ashamed. I never heard of him, either. But the fact that Anthony Slide went to all the hard work to document the life and career of this actor was essential to ensure Askey did not fall into obscurity. Through this book, his life will live on.
By Arthur Frank Wertheim
The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields is a comprehensive depiction of Fields’ early years in New York and Hollywood, his personal and professional trials and accomplishments, his triumphs and disillusionments, each of which would lead to his ultimate screen legacy. Written by Arthur Frank Wertheim, who recently published a three-volume biography on W. C. Fields, this was an amusing read.
To my knowledge, Wertheim’s book is the first to examine W.C. Fields’ twelve silent movies and how they influenced his later career in sound films. Quite simply: the author concludes that Fields might never have become one of the premier comedians during the Golden Age of Sound Films without first embarking on a career in silent movies. In this exploration, readers discover new insights and surprises concerning Fields’ experiences in this medium. After all, he was a stage performer and acting for the screen was an entirely different field altogether.
The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields details Fields’ early failed screen attempts, which resulted in his decision not to abandon his successful Ziegfeld Follies career, a choice that would prevent him from joining the pantheon of great silent film stars: Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd---each of whom, by 1925, had achieved worldwide recognition and success.
Wertheim relates how Fields would have to struggle against all types of roadblocks to reach the second pantheon tier – and how legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith came to his rescue by directing two of his silent pictures.
Generously illustrated with many new and rare photos, The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields will prove invaluable to fans of both the comic genius of W.C. Fields and his pristine time of moviemaking.
By Jennifer Ann Redmond
The United States of the 1910s and 1920s was terrorized by an epidemic so pervasive, so virulent, it threatened to destroy every family it touched. Parents prayed their children would be spared. Small-town America formed tactical police units to combat it. Influenza? Communism? Nope. Vampires. Not the kind repelled with garlic, either. Author Jennifer Ann Redmond delves into the secret files of eleven screen sirens who drained the life (and banknotes) out of men by day while leading criminally captivating lives by night: Alice Hollister, Carmen Phillips, Claire de Lorez, DeSacia Mooers, Edna Tichenor, Iva Shepard, Marcia Manon, Olga Grey, Rosa Rudami, Rosemary Theby, Ruth Taylor. As a sexy vamp on the screen, the personal lives of these actresses are explored with rare photographs and summaries of their careers. I knew of Theda Bara, the most famous screen vamp, so this book helped make me more familiar with other screen sirens of the 1910s and 1920s.
By Snorre Smari Mathiesen
Max Linder, born Gabriel Leuvielle in St. Loubes, France in 1883, started in films with the Pathe Brothers in Vincennes, just outside of Paris in 1905, making him one of the first film comedians that became world-renowned. In fact, there is evidence that Linder was the first screen celebrity to see his name in print. His comedy timing and gags (Linder started writing his own scenarios early on) have been copied and imitated by many of his followers, including Charlie Chaplin.
The fine line between comedy and tragedy blends into shades of gray in the story of Max Linder, a French comedian and director of the silent film era, who was often held as the standard for the legendary stars coming after him. Max's early start soon escalated into hundreds of films loved worldwide and elevated him into one of the first international movie stars years before Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. Renowned and recognized globally, his fame nearly extinguished due to World War One injuries, but he recovered, returned, and regained his status only to face one of the most terrible tragedies in human existence. His hilarious films and heartrending personal tale unfold fully in this richly researched and annotated biography and filmography. Illustrated with dozens of photographs.
Author Snorre Smári Mathiesen is a Norwegian cartoonist (yes, he lives in Oslo, Norway). A silent film aficionado since childhood, he researched Max Linder’s life for the past ten years and this book is the culmination of that research. He worked as assistant and translator on sociologist Thomas Mathiesen’s autobiography, Cadenza (European Group Press, 2017), which first gave him an opportunity to learn how to write and craft a book and get it published.
By Lisa Stein Haven
In Lisa Stein Haven’s book, Linder's story is both a comedy and a tragedy. His meteoric rise to fame by 1907/8 hit a roadblock in 1914 with the onset of World War I, and was dealt a death blow by his attempts to revive his career in America and Austria. His marriage to a young wife was ill-fated and ill-timed, leading Linder to take the life of his wife and himself on the night of October 31, 1925, leaving a 16-month-old daughter behind, Maud, who would devote her life to restoring his film legacy.
It is nice to see that there are two more books exploring the life and career of Max Linder, and both have something the other does not, making them both essential for the cinema fan.
