Call Me Anna

Call Me Anna
Author: Patty Duke
Publisher: Bantam
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2011-04-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307788660

The Star: The public saw her as a gifted child star: the youngest actor to win an Oscar for her role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker and the youngest actor to have a prime-time television series bearing her own name. The Nightmare: What the public did not see was Anna Marie Duke, a young girl whose life changed forever at age seven when tyrannical mangers stripped her of nearly all that was familiar, beginning with her name. She was deprived of family and friends. Her every word was programmed, her every action monitored and criticized. She was fed liquor and prescription drugs, taught to lie to get work, and relentlessly drilled to win roles. The Legend: Out of this nightmare emerged Patty Duke, a show business legend still searching for the child, Anna. She won three Emmy Awards and divorced three husbands. A starring role in Valley of the Dolls nearly ruined her career. She was notorious for wild spending sprees, turbulent liaisons, and an uncontrollable temper. Until a long hidden illness was diagnosed, and her amazing recovery recovery began. The Triumph: Call Me Anna is an American success story that grew out of a bizarre and desperate struggle for survival. A harrowing, ultimately triumphant story told by Patty Duke herself—wife, mother, political activist, President of the Screen Actors Guild, and at last, a happy, fulfilled woman whose miracle is her own life.

Starring Madame Modjeska

Starring Madame Modjeska
Author: Beth Holmgren
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2011-11-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0253005191

The “important . . . meticulously researched” prize-winning biography of the pre-eminent Polish star of the nineteenth century global stage (CosmopolinReview.com). In reintroducing “a little-remembered actress to a new American audience” biographer Beth Holgram delivers a revelatory portrait of Helena Modjeska—from unparalleled European success to her reign as the most acclaimed, and most recognized female celebrity in the late nineteenth-century United States. In 1876, Poland’s leading actress, Helena Modrzejewska, accompanied by her husband, the self-stylized Count Bozente, emigrated to southern California to give up her career and establish a utopian commune. In light of its failings, it hardly fulfilled the real dreams of Madame Helena. Within a year, she changed her surname to Modjeska, and made her American debut at San Francisco’s California Theatre. Godmother to Ethel Barrymore, and sharing the Shakespearian stage with such luminaries as Otis Skinner, Edwin Booth, and Maurice Barrymore, Helena Modjeska became the leading star in the United States, where she reigned for the next thirty years. In this “Impressive . . . achievement,” Holmgren traces Modjeska’s fabulous life and career from her illegitimate birth in Krakow, to her successive reinventions of herself as a trans-continental diva, and finally to her enduring legacy (Women’s Review of Books). All in all, Starring Madame Modjeska “makes for great drama” (NewPages.com).

What the Duke Desires

What the Duke Desires
Author: Sabrina Jeffries
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2013-06-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1471113779

Maximilian Cale, the Duke of Lyons, long ago buried his grief for his missing elder brother, Peter, who was presumed dead after being kidnapped by their Great-Uncle Humbert. When a mysterious note arrives from Tristan Bonnaud asserting that the Duke's brother is alive, it leads him straight to the winsome Lisette Bonnaud, illegitimate daughter of a viscount and Tristan's sister. Soon after, Max and Lisette are travelling to Paris posing as husband and wife, in search of Tristan, who has disappeared. The longer he spends with Lisette, the easier it is for Max to see that the line between dukedom and desire is easier to cross than he imagined.

Bill Duke

Bill Duke
Author: Bill Duke
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2018-11-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 153810556X

While many film fans may not be familiar with Bill Duke’s name, they most certainly recognize his face. Dating back to the 1970s, Duke has appeared in a number of popular films, including Car Wash, American Gigolo, Commando, Predator, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Fewer still might be aware of Duke’s extraordinary accomplishments off-screen—as a talented director, producer, entrepreneur, and humanitarian. Bill Duke: My 40-Year Career on Screen and behind the Camera is the memoir of a Hollywood original. In an industry that rarely embraces artists of color, Duke first achieved success as an actor then turned to directing. After helming episodes of ratings giants Dallas, Falcon Crest, Hill Street Blues, and Miami Vice, Duke progressed to feature films like A Rage in Harlem, Deep Cover, Hoodlum, and Sister Act 2. In this candid autobiography, Duke recalls the loving but stern presence of his mother and father, acting mentors like Olympia Dukakis, and the pitfalls that nearly derailed his career, notably an addiction to drugs. Along the way, readers will encounter familiar names like Danny Glover, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Whoopi Goldberg. From his Broadway debut in 1971 to the establishment of the Duke Media Foundation, which trains and mentors young filmmakers, Duke has been breaking the rules of what it means to triumph in the entertainment industry. Recalling pivotal moments in his life, Bill Duke: My 40-Year Career on Screen and behind the Camera is the story only Bill Duke could tell.

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind
Author: Margaret Mitchell
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 1476
Release: 2008-05-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416548947

The story of the tempestuous romance between Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara is set amid the drama of the Civil War.

The Italian Actress

The Italian Actress
Author: Frank Lentricchia
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1438430442

Set in Italy, Frank Lentricchias sixth novel features a has-been Italian American filmmaker, once internationally acclaimed for the beauty of his images and his experiments in pornography but now stuck in prolonged creative drought. At an obscure film festival in Volterra he meets the aging but still stunning Claudia Cardinale, star of Fellinis 81⁄2. She falls in love with him, but he resists, yet all the while wanting not to resist. Instead of remaining with Cardinale, he casts his lot with a perverse but compelling couple who convince him that he can regain his renown and achieve artistic immortality if he will only make a new film starring the two of theman explicitly sexual film of shocking violence. The Italian Actress is a meditation, by turns lyrical and bluntly brutal, on our obsession with celebrity, ambition, the cult of youthful beauty, romantic desire, the aging body, mortality, the power of the visual image, and underneath it all, the nature of visuality itself.

A Duke to Remember

A Duke to Remember
Author: Kelly Bowen
Publisher: Forever
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-07-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1455536814

Love takes the stage . . . Elise deVries is not what she seems. By night, the actress captivates London theatergoers with her chameleon-like ability to slip inside her characters. By day, she uses her mastery of disguise to work undercover for Chegarre & Associates, an elite agency known for its discreet handling of indelicate scandals. But when Elise is tasked with locating the missing Duke of Ashland, she finds herself center stage in a real-life drama. Noah Ellery left the glamour of the London aristocracy to pursue a simpler life in the country. He's managed to avoid any complications or entanglements-that is, until he lays eyes on Elise and realizes there's more to this beautiful woman than meets the eye. But when Elise reveals her real identity-and her true feelings for him-the runaway duke must confront the past he left behind . . . to keep the woman he loves forever.

Mrs Jordan's Profession

Mrs Jordan's Profession
Author: Claire Tomalin
Publisher: Viking
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Actresses
ISBN: 9780241963296

"Acclaimed as the greatest comic actress of her day, Dora Jordan lived a quite different role off-stage as lover to Prince William, third son of George III. Unmarried, the pair lived in a villa on the Thames and had ten children together until William, under pressure from royal advisers, abandoned her. The story of how Dora moved between the worlds of the eighteenth-century theatre and happy domesticity, of her fights for her family and her career makes a classic story of royal perfidy and female courage."--Publisher description.

Golden Girls Forever

Golden Girls Forever
Author: Jim Colucci
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 475
Release: 2016-07-26
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0062422928

Includes 30 pages of bonus material! The complete, first-ever Golden Girls retrospective, packed with hundreds of exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes and never-before-revealed stories, more than two hundred color and black-and-white photos, commentary, and more. They were four women of a certain age, living together under one roof in Miami—smart and strong Dorothy, airhead Rose, man-hungry belle Blanche, and smart-mouthed matriarch Sophia. They were the Golden Girls, and for seven seasons, this hilarious quartet enchanted millions of viewers with their witty banter, verve, sass, and love, and reaffirmed the power of friendship and family. Over thirty years after it first aired, The Golden Girls has become a cult classic, thanks to fan fiction, arts and crafts, podcasts, hundreds of fan blogs and websites, and syndication. Now, Golden Girls Forever pays homage to this wildly popular, acclaimed, and award-winning sitcom. Drawing on interviews with the show’s creators, actors, guest stars, producers, writers, and crew members, Jim Colucci paints a comprehensive portrait of the Girls both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes. Illustrated with hundreds of photos, including stills from the show and a treasure trove of never-before-seen and newly rediscovered photos, Golden Girls Forever includes: • Girls and Their Guests: short profiles of the show’s most famous guest stars • Why I Love the Girls: Lance Bass, Laverne Cox, Ross Mathews, Perez Hilton, Zachary Quinto, Chris Colfer, Jason Collins, and many, many other celebrities share their love of the Girls • Exclusive interviews with ninety-four-year-old Betty White; the famously private Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan, before their deaths; and fan-favorite actors who appeared on the show • Harvey Fierstein's tribute to his close friend, Estelle Getty The ebook also feautures 30 pages of material not inlcuded in the print edition, such as 17 Golden Episodes, a piece on Estelle Getty's make-up, the Rue LaRue Cafe, and additional fan art. Bursting with fun facts, anecdotes, reminiscences, and insights, Golden Girls Forever is the ultimate companion to the show for fans old and new.

A Duke for Diana

A Duke for Diana
Author: Sabrina Jeffries
Publisher: Zebra
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2022-05-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1420153773

“Anyone who loves romance must read Sabrina Jeffries!” —Lisa Kleypas, New York Times bestselling author From the beloved New York Times bestselling author comes a dazzling new series perfect for fans of Bridgerton, featuring a talk-of-the-ton trio of young women who’ve eschewed working as governesses to utilize their talents for fashion, food, and music, by running their own party planning enterprise, Elegant Occasions. And if they, and their wealthy clients, happen to find love along the way, it just makes their efforts all the more rewarding… Goodreads Summer Romance Reading Recommendation Self-made civil engineer Geoffrey Brookhouse has unexpectedly inherited the dukedom of Grenwood. But he has a secret that could ruin his family. Hoping to save his timid sister from that fate, he seeks to marry her off to a respectable, protective gentleman. With the London Season imminent, Geoffrey hires Elegant Occasions to orchestrate her debut. Yet Lady Diana Harper, spirited fashion expert, proves more than he bargained for. Suddenly, Geoffrey’s sister is emerging from her shell, and he is beleaguered with social invitations and gossip! Worse, Diana is attempting to transform him into a presentable duke—when all he really wants is to make her his own . . . Diana doesn’t know what to make of the handsome, disheveled duke. The man bristles at the very idea that his fashion faux pas might spoil his sister’s chances. Yet Geoffrey’s stubbornness simply inspires Diana to ruffle his feathers—by setting him on a course of self-improvement. Although there’s something endearing, even irresistible about his flaws, can a man who hates the ton tolerate a woman who makes her living catering to them? Little does either know that they have more in common than they suspect—and that two can create a society all their own . . .