Duke
Author : Ronald L. Davis
Performed By : Adams Morgan
Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc
Runtime : 16 hours
Categories : Arts & Drama
Our Price : $44.95 $29.95
Purchase...
"In a virile, red-white-and-blue biography of an ostentatiously virile man, Davis examines
how Wayne built and maintained the image that soon grew "to overshadow his private identity and. . .
came to represent America itself". . . .Plenty has been written about Wayne and his movies, but Davis'
biography is exemplary, highly informative, and eminently readable; in short, one for serious fans."
Booklist
"What moves this entertaining biography to a higher plain is that Davis, as the director of SMU's oral history
program on the performing arts for 25 years, was in a singular position to document the memories of Wayne's
family, friends and associates. . . .The exhaustive yet readable and entertaining result might explain why the
back of this book carries rave blurbs by Janet Leigh and other actors and directors who worked with the Duke."
Publishers Weekly
Decades after his death, John Wayne is still the favorite movie star of many Americans.
More than an actor, Wayne is a cultural icon whose stature seems to grow with the passage of time.
In this illuminating biography, Ronald L. Davis focuses on Wayne's human side, portraying a complex
personality defined by frailty and insecurity as well as by courage and strength.
Davis traces Wayne's story from its beginnings in Winterset, Iowa, to his death in 1979. This is not a
story of instant fame: only after a decade in budget westerns did Wayne receive serious consideration,
for his performance in John Ford's 1939 film Stagecoach. From that point on, his skills and popularity
grew as he appeared in such classics as Fort Apache, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,
The Quiet Man, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and True Grit.
A man's ideal more than a woman's, Wayne earned his popularity without becoming either a great actor or a sex
symbol. In all his films, whatever the character, John Wayne portrayed John Wayne, a persona he created for
himself: the tough, gritty loner whose mission was to uphold the traditional values of the frontierand the nation.
To depict the different facets of Wayne's life and career, Davis draws on a range of primary and secondary sources,
most notably exclusive interviews with the people who knew Wayne well, including the actor's costar, Maureen
O'Hara, and his widow, Pilar Wayne. The result is a well-balanced, highly engaging portrait of a man whose private
identity was eventually overshadowed by his screen personauntil he came to represent America itself.
Adams Morgan, trained in the theater, has appeared in venues around the United States. He has narrated for National Public Radio and performed radio dramas and historical re-enactments. He lives in New York City.
-
Alan Bennett - Double Bill
Author : Alan Bennett
Performed By : Various
Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Runtime : 2 hours 10 minutes
Categories : Dramatizations
Comedy
Humor
Drama
British
Our Price : $18.49
Purchase...
A Woman of No Importance - In this brilliant forerunner to Bennett's series of Talking Heads monologues, Patricia Routledge plays Margaret Schofield. a woman whose existence has long revolved around the gossip and minutiae of office life. As she recounts the events leading up to her first bout of tummy trouble, there is little hint of the developments ahead — or of the moving portrayal of brave and inevitable decline which writer and performer create between them.
Forty Years On - This BBC Radio 4 version of Alan Bennett's most popular stage play stars Sir John Gielgud , Paul Eddington , Bennett himself and other members of the original West End cast. Having been at Albion House for fifty years, man and boy the Headmaster is now retiring. Taking part in the end-of-term entertainment for the last time, he is outraged to find his beloved standards being mocked. A kaleidoscopic comedy, Forty Years On is part parody and part nostalgia for a fading English tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment