[beautiful, as-new book, with no discernible wear to either book or jacket]. (Filmmakers, no. 34) Series (B&W photographs) The remarkable and ultimately tragic story of Robert Goldstein, the first and only American citizen who was ever imprisoned for the crime of producing a film -- a patriotic film, at that, an historical drama set during the American Revolution, in which (surprise!) the British were depicted as the bad guys. Unfortunately for Mr. Goldstein, his epic (the creation of which had been inspired by D.W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION, for which his costume-supply business had f... View More...
(no dust jacket, as issued) [nice clean copy, no discernible exterior wear, but a short section of pages is slightly wrinkled at the lower corners]. (B&W photographs) INSCRIBED ("Vitagraphically Yours!") and SIGNED by the author on the ffep, additionally dated in his hand 9/25/02. A revised and somewhat expanded version of a book originally published in 1976, it's an excellent history of one of pioneer film production companies, which traced its origins to an 1894 meeting between J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, who would become its founding partners. The pair began producing and dist... View More...
[light shelfwear, a handful of tiny white-paint stains on bottom edges of covers (probably due to the book's have been placed on a newly-painted shelf before the paint had thoroughly dried); the jacket appears to be somewhat unevenly color-shifted on the front panel and spine, and has a small ragged tear at the top of the rear panel]. (B&W photographs) INSCRIBED and SIGNED on the ffep by composer Virgil Thomson, to film producer Richard Goldstone: "for Richard Goldstone / a Lorentz graduate / from another one / and now you and I have / worked together / a privilege and a pleasure / Virgil... View More...
[book itself is tight and clean, with no significant wear; jacket the same, except for soft vertical crease in front flap and diagonal crease at lower corner of rear flap]. The author draws on his more than fifty years' experience of "watching movies and his fellow filmgoers [and] listening to their comments and reactions," as well as "the results of a survey on movies and moviegoing in the respondents' own words," to present "a unique perspective on half a century of American cinema -- from the audience's point of view." View More...
[book nice and clean with no discernible wear; jacket shows only minor wrinkling here and there along edges, tiny tears at rear corners]. (B&W and color photographs) "Spiced with the personal anecdotes of motion picture exhibitors, [this book] captures the broad sweep of American moviegoing with a highly readable and engaging style. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and memorabilia culled from the personal scrapbooks of veteran movie showmen and others, this book is a lively chronicle of all the way Americans have enjoyed going to the movies." Bibliography; index. View More...
[book is nice and clean, with just a touch of shelfwear; jacket has small tears at most corners with a bit of associated paper loss at same, some horizontal creasing along top edge due to having long been mis-aligned on the book]. (B&W photographs, tables, figures) "Thirty-eight articles on the technical aspects of motion picture theater planning, construction, maintenance, modernization, and theater television, prepared for presentation before the Society of Motion Picture Engineers." Following two introductory articles, the pieces are arranged in eight categories: Physical Construc... View More...
[nice clean book with no significant wear]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) "An alphabetically-listed description of Edinburgh [and Leith] cinemas past and present." View More...
[moderately worn copy, diagonal crease at bottom corner of front cover, slight curling to covers]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) This tale of the iconographic power (and great value) of the original ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film classic "The Wizard of Oz" exposes "the clandestine and often treacherous underground of movie memorabilia, [and] may be the film industry's most bizarre account of ambition, greed, obsession, and deception. [It] opens the vault doors of studio treasure troves and also reveals an unbelievable account of marauders, thieves, innocent 'sol... View More...
[nice tight clean copy, with no discernible wear to book; the jacket has some minor surface wear and some very slight wrinkling along the top of the rear panel]. INSCRIBED briefly ("To ________") and SIGNED by the author on the title page. The author "is at his incomparable best in this stunning collection of essays on Hollywood films -- their stars and the illusions they create. He explorres a sort of twilight zone where film actors and the characters they play become part of our reality, as living beings and as ghosts, residing on or buried beneath Mulholland Drive, or wanderin... View More...
[slight scrunching to a few pages along fore-edge, no other significant wear; jacket slightly wrinkled along the top edge (the result of its being just a tad taller than the book itself), and with some careless pen-tip indentations in the front panel (virtually invisible against the black background)]. (B&W photographs, facsimiles) A wide-ranging collection of articles and essays on the German cinema prior to THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI; published in conjunction with a retrospective at that year's Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto). Although the cover title and jacke... View More...
[nice clean copy, very light handling wear, short diagonal crease at bottom right corner of front cover]. (color reproductions) A "history of world cinema on stamps," apparently the catalogue of the personal collection of movie- and entertainment-themed stamps assembled by the author, a Kazakstan-born actor who had at the time appeared in 47 films, primarily Russian, but had also been a stamp collector for thirty years (it sez here, in French), exercising his dual passion for both cinema and philately. I don't know whether this guy is world-renowned in stamp-collecting circles or not (there'... View More...
[slight bump to top rear corner, no other significant wear; jacket shows minor wear at corners, small closed tear at top rear hinge]. (B&W photographs) INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the title page: "To Richard / who better and more / profoundly than anybody / knows the undercurrents / of the sad themes projected / in this book. / With friendship and / great admiration / Peter / Helsinki / Nov 1995." A well-illustrated survey of American crime films from 1912 through 1995. The inscribee was film director Richard Fleischer, from whose estate this book was acquired, several of whose fil... View More...
[minor handling wear only]. (B&W photographs) A special issue of The Journal of San Diego history, devoted to the city's history on the silver screen. The primary article is accompanied by an introduction, "San Diego Film Town," by Welton Jones, and a chronological listing (compiled by Mr. Williams) of 752 films (including TV productions) that have been filmed in San Diego or have plots concerning the city, beginning in 1898. View More...
(no dust jacket, probably as issued) [good solid copy, light shelfwear to bottom edge, a little spotting/soiling to fore-edge, minor discoloration to endpapers, attractive vintage bookplate (W. Ernest Vincent II) on front pastedown; gilt lettering on front cover a little rubbed but still fully readable]. (B&W photographic plates) This volume, "used as a supplementary text in [the] New York Institute of Photography," tells the budding screenwriter everything he or she needs to know, in 25 straightforwardly-titled chapters: "What Scenario Editors Want from You"; "What a Continuity Is"; "How a S... View More...
[very nice copy, virtually as new with no significant wear; clean inside and out]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) The author explains his book's scope in his Preface: "The total subject of motion picture flying, from its beginning to the present, is far too extensive to be adequately covered in one volume. Therefore this book is limited to the 1920s and 1930s, the period of the pioneer stunt flyers -- the Associated Motion Picture Pilots. It ends with the end of the romantic era of aviation, which was the beginning of World War II." An excellent history, illustrated with hundreds of ph... View More...
[light surface wear and mild rubbing to covers]. (B&W and color photographs, advertisements) Elaborate program for a special presentation in Japan of D.W. Griffith's 1916 masterpiece INTOLERANCE, with musical accompaniment provided by the New Japan Philharmonic and a "Chorus/Special Choir for INTOLERANCE." The screening of the film was accompanied by "An Homage to D.W. Griffith," a 70mm Super Panavision production (projected at 30 frames per second) that was directed by American special effects cinematography wizard Richard Edlund, A.S.C. and featured a narration by the then 95-year-old Lill... View More...
[very slight bumping to a couple of corners, light age-toning to top edge of text block; jacket moderately worn at edges and extremities, front panel a little rubbed]. A collection of the film writings of the pioneer British documentarian John Grierson. View More...