Scandals, Secrets and Swansongs

Scandals, Secrets and Swansongs
Author: Boze Hadleigh
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2021-09-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1493063448

Behind the images and facades of stars whose fame and fascination continue to outlive them lies the naked truth. How Hollywood stars lived, worked and died is often more dramatic than their films. When we talk about movie stars we usually dwell not on their movies but their personalities or what happened to them or supposedly happened. Their lives interest us even more than their roles, especially, let’s be honest, their mishaps and tragedies, including early deaths. Their scandals define several movie stars, and Hollywood secrets remain a true-gossip staple, particularly sexual secrets. Scandals, Secrets & Swansongs takes a close-up, no-holds-barred look at 101 stars—at their surprising, often shocking, sometimes sordid but always entertaining real selves and lives.

Scandals, Secrets and Swansongs

Scandals, Secrets and Swansongs
Author: Boze Hadleigh
Publisher: Lyons Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-09
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781493060535

Behind the images and facades of stars whose fame and fascination continue to outlive them lies the naked truth. How Hollywood stars lived, worked and died is often more dramatic than their films. When we talk about movie stars we usually dwell not on their movies but their personalities or what happened to them or supposedly happened. Their lives interest us even more than their roles, especially, let's be honest, their mishaps and tragedies, including early deaths. Their scandals define several movie stars, and Hollywood secrets remain a true-gossip staple, particularly sexual secrets. Scandals, Secrets & Swansongs takes a close-up, no-holds-barred look at 101 stars--at their surprising, often shocking, sometimes sordid but always entertaining real selves and lives.

Game Show Confidential

Game Show Confidential
Author: Boze Hadleigh
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2023-05-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1493072595

Game and quiz shows first started appearing on radio broadcasts in the 1930s, led by the CBS network’s Professor Quiz, hosted by a man who was neither a professor nor even a college graduate, the first of several frauds that seemed to be endemic to the genre. Professor Quiz was followed by other such game shows as Uncle Jim’s Question Bee and Ask It Basket, which in turn spawned successful box games for at-home play. The show Truth or Consequences made the transition from radio to television in the late 1940s and was so popular that a town in New Mexico was named for the show. Television proved to be the perfect platform for game shows since they were very popular and cheap to produce. Even in reruns today, the older shows still draw huge audiences. This book describes the evolution of the game show, its larger-than-life producers and hosts, as well as the scandals that have rocked it from time to time, including bloopers from such “adult” oriented shows as The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and Hollywood Squares. This is an entertaining and lively look at an American phenomenon whose popularity doesn’t seem to be going away.

Elvis Forever

Elvis Forever
Author: Boze Hadleigh
Publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books LLC
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2021-09-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1626015953

Is Elvis the most charismatic star ever? What else accounts for his continuing global appeal and media presence, his allure to music lovers of all ages and to fans whose pilgrimages to Graceland make it the most-visited private residence in the USA? Presley's estate now earns more annually than when Elvis was alive. He died at 42, close on half a century ago, but new generations keep discovering him. He rocks and rolls on and on, not necessarily as a movie star—he was the first to dismiss his 31-film output—but as the top-selling singer in history, a pop-culture icon, an ageless sex symbol and a mythic figure who inspires intense, even fanatical devotion (e.g., the First Presbyterian Church of Elvis the Divine). When Elvis died there were some 170 Elvis imitators. A quarter-century later there were an estimated 85,000 Elvis "tribute artists," including a popular Chinese Elvis in London and a gay Mexican American, El Vez, whose re-tooled song performances include "You Ain't Nothin' But a Chihuahua." There are even Elvis performances in "heaven"—some years ago two groups of skydiving impersonators, the Flying Elvises and the Flying Elvis, sued each other in federal court. Elvis Forever offers possibly the most revealing and rounded close-up look yet at the King. The frank, often bold, sometimes shocking or surprising quotes from insiders and outsiders, peers, costars, friends, employees and famous fans took over two decades to collect and cover every phase of the life and legacy of the magnetic man from Memphis.

Starring Joan Crawford

Starring Joan Crawford
Author: Samuel Garza Bernstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2024-06-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1493074466

Joan Crawford: the name has an enduring fascination. Forty-five years after her death, Crawford remains a familiar icon in pop culture and the entertainment world. Certainly the camp bathos of Mommie Dearest has played a part in her continued relevance. But it is ultimately her work and career themselves that account for her remarkable longevity in the culture. From her first film in 1925, to her rise to stardom in 1928, and on to the hit films she appeared in through the 1960s, she continually molded and remolded herself, crafting an indelible image and ensuring her place in the American pantheon. STARRING JOAN CRAWFORD is a rollicking exploration of the powerful women Joan Crawford vividly brought to life in her films—and the lasting, ever-evolving impact she has had on popular culture.Having carved out a revolutionary path through the entertainment industry while relying on men as little as possible—whether her studio bosses or her many husbands—she created a gallery of strong, assertive women who outsmarted men and refused to conform to gender expectations. In movies like Mildred Pierce, The Damned Don't Cry, Johnny Guitar, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, among many others, she played to win, becoming a lodestar to LGBT audiences, a model of feminist self-determination for women, and an unforgettable icon for everyone.

A Scandal, a Secret, a Baby

A Scandal, a Secret, a Baby
Author: Sharon Kendrick
Publisher: Harlequin
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2013-02-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0373131283

Marriage scandal, showbiz baby: "Seduced by Matteo, a world-famous actor, the once-innocent Jennifer marries the superstar and starts her own acting career. But at the height of their popularity, their busy lives tear them apart and they go their separate ways. They thought it was over, until they bump into each other on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. Although at first tempers flare, in a moment of passion in the elevator they make love once more. A few weeks later, Jennifer starts to notice changes happening within her body"--Publisher.

Secrets and Scandals Volume One

Secrets and Scandals Volume One
Author: Darcy Burke
Publisher: Zealous Quill Press
Total Pages: 1102
Release: 2021-08-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1939713072

Everyone has secrets and some of them are a scandal…six sexy, damaged heroes lose their hearts to strong, intelligent women in the glittering ballrooms and lush countryside of Regency England. Her Wicked Ways (Book One) To save his orphanage from collapse, Montgomery "Fox" Foxcroft leads a double life as a highwayman. Banished debutante Lady Miranda Sinclair is his salvation—until she rejects him. Out of options and falling for the heiress, Fox must risk what principles he has left and take advantage of her wicked ways—even if it ruins them both. His Wicked Heart (Book Two) Jasper Sinclair, Earl of Saxton, made a bargain with his devil of a father to marry a proper deb. Instead, he becomes entangled with a sometimes actress, Olivia West, determined to improve her situation. Destitute and desperate, she agrees to one night with Jasper, hatching a scheme to take his money and keep her virtue. However, Jasper uncovers her deception and vows to claim what he’s owed. To Seduce a Scoundrel (Book Three) When debutante Lady Philippa finds herself in a potentially compromising situation, she’s “rescued” by England’s most notorious scoundrel, Lord Ambrose Sevrin. Despite his scandalous past, Ambrose vows to preserve Philippa’s reputation, but instead launches them both on a path to public and personal ruin.

Secrets and a Scandal

Secrets and a Scandal
Author: Jane Maguire
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2022-02-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781777892609

A lady in disgrace ... When Eliza Wright's first London Season ends prematurely in scandal, she's only too glad to return to her quiet life in the country. After all, her gardens hold far more appeal to her than the happenings of the ton. Much to her chagrin, her wealthy father concocts another arrangement: a marriage of convenience to the recent successor to an earldom, a man whose title will restore her place in society. Wedding someone like the somber, detached Lord Ashton is the last thing Eliza pictured for herself. Yet with the life she thought she'd lead crumbling before her eyes, what other choice does she have? A desperate earl ... Edward Adderley, the Earl of Ashton, has spent the past six years roaming the Continent, trying to escape a scandal of his own. Ever since his first marriage ended in unspeakable tragedy, he has cut himself off from others, vowing to never place himself in such a position again. But when he fulfills his father's dying wish by returning to England, only to find his estate bankrupt and in shambles, he sees no way forward but through marriage to the well-dowered Miss Wright. A marriage only in name ... Their union is to be a business arrangement, nothing more. That is, until Edward finds himself drawn to the unconventional Miss Wright, and Eliza's attraction to the brooding earl becomes too intense to ignore. Could the fragile bond they construct blossom into a second chance at happiness for them both? Or will the secrets that linger in their pasts forever stand between them?

Celluloid Gaze

Celluloid Gaze
Author: Boze Hadleigh
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780879109714

(Limelight). Interviews with six men from the world of film and entertainment actors Sal Mineo and Rock Hudson; directors George Cukor, Luchino Visconti, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder; and designer, photographer, and author Cecil Beaton. Their remarkably frank conversations with Hadleigh reveal much about their lives and careers and how their homosexuality affected both.