#Sam Wasson

[thatwritererinoriordan]

#76 of The 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time 

[fieryphrazes]

the curse of reading Sam Wasson's Fosse is that your reaction to every show business biography for the rest of your life will be "well it's pretty good but it's no Fosse by Sam Wasson"

[midnaurs]

Audrey Hepburn Book Recommendations:

1) Enchantment: The life of Audrey Hepburn - Donald Spoto (Comprehensive general memoir. The essential all-rounded audrey memoir. Ideal if you dont know much about her)

2) Warrior: Audrey Hepburn - Robert Matzen (Memoir focused on audrey's UNICEF years. Talks about her final films and Gardens of The World too)

3) Dutch Girl - Robert Matzen (Memoir focused on audrey's childhood thru WW2)

4) Audrey Hepburn: An Elegant Spirit - Sean Hepburn Ferrer (Memoir by audrey' son. More general and sentimental, not really as comprehensive but a nice personal glimpse into who audrey is)

5) The Audrey Hepburn Treasures - Ellen Erwin & Jessica Z. Diamond (General memoir, not very comprehensive but recommended for the cool replicas of items from audrey's life, e.g., her scripts/fan letters/drawings)

6) Our Fair Lady: Audrey Hepburn's Life in Pictures - Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson (Focuses on her film career including bts info and many gorgeous pictures)

If youre looking into specific films:

- Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman - Sam Wasson (Focuses on Breakfast At Tiffany's, comprehensive look from conception to reception of the film)

- The Children's Hour - Julia Erhart (Focuses on The Children's Hour, comprehensive film & character analysis by a queer film professor)

- Audrey Hepburn in Paris - Meghan Friedlander (Focuses on her films made in Paris, e.g., Funny Face, Charade. Includes a lot of photos with a foreword by audrey's son)

[venusinmyrrh]

My favorite new (or new to me) books of 2024!

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Fragrant by Mandy Aftel

Fosse by Sam Wasson

From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies by Molly Haskell

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure

Virgin Whore by Emma Maggie Solberg

Honorable mention:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Evocation by ST Gibson

Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart

Transformer: A Story of Glitter, Glam Rock, and Loving Lou Reed by Simon Doonan

[carriecourogen]

Look at her!!! My biography of Elaine May comes out June 4, 2024 from St. Martin's Press!!! Sam Wasson said I wrote it "splendidly, with admiration, welcome outrage, and scrupulous attention to detail" and that "we all of us who have loved and wondered at this creature Elaine May owe Courogen our thanks, money, food ― whatever she wants ― for having written this book." (!!!) What I want is for you to pre-order it here!!!

[lesbiancolumbo]

Hello! Is there a like… “old movies for dummies” guide you’d recommend? Film history for people who know next to nothing about anything? Extra points for emphasis on how film, American history, feminist history, and/or gay history co-evolved.

i haven’t read these ones so i can’t like technically recommend it, but the story of film by mark cousins seems to be a big one. film history: an introduction is written by david bordwell (RIP) and kristin thompson and their other book film art: an introduction (which i can recommend) is often the first book film students are assigned in class…. the thing about film history is that it’s so long and complex and you’re probably not going to find a catch-all one stop shop. i can say that you should pick up hollywood: the oral history by jeanine basinger and sam wasson, honestly ANY BOOK by jeanine basinger, the parade’s gone by by kevin brownlow, easy riders raging bulls by peter biskind, hollywood black by donald bogle. david thomson has a huge biographical dictionary on film that’s a fun read.

to answer your extra question…. again, i’m not thinking of anything that combines this all into a one stop shop, but you should absolutely read from reverence to rape by molly haskell, pretty much anything by judith mayne, and laura mulvey’s visual pleasure and narrative cinema essay for some feminist history (JSTOR has a great reading list here) and the celluloid closet by vito russo for gay history in film.

[mygreatadventurehasbegun]

Does Olivia de Havilland have any good biographies written about her that you know of?

Sadly, I don't think so!!

I think there was one that came out a couple of years ago, and I read a bit of it online, but it felt very...wikepedia? Just laying out the facts without going too far beyond them. And I guess there's another one that covers her life up through 2018, but according to some reviews, gets some basic facts wrong about Hollywood or people in her life...I don't know for sure because I never read it.

I believe she was working on an autobiography when she passed away, so I can only hope it will someday be released!!

But I'd love a real in-depth biography of her life...maybe Sam Wasson should try and tackle it? He's done tons of Hollywood books (I still need to read his Fosse bio), and I feel like he'd do a thorough job.

I'd also love the YouTube channel Be Kind Rewind to do a huge in-depth video on her and Joan Fontaine. She's usually very impartial and fact based and wouldn't skew one way or the other to a particular sister...her video on Bette and Joan is fantastic.

[mariacallous]

When the Academy Museum in Los Angeles was accused of antisemitism over its exhibit on Hollywood’s Jewish founders, one Jewish film historian and author in Los Angeles looked to respond using a different medium: the written word.

Sam Wasson, best known for bestselling books on film history and figures such as Francis Ford Coppolla, is selling a reissue of “Rabbi Burns,” a 1931 satire by Aben Kandel. Wason is publishing the novel through his boutique Felix Farmer Press.

“Rabbi Burns” follows a Los Angeles rabbi who endeavors to build a “million-dollar temple” (equivalent to more than $20 million in 2025) — and who considers entering the movie business. The book is a satire of the real-life story of Edgar Magnin, the longtime senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a congregation whose history dates back to the 19th century and which dedicated a new building in 1929.

Magnin led the congregation for more than 60 years, and its walls are adorned with art gifted from many key Hollywood players thanks to Magnin’s close relationships in the film industry, according to the Academy Museum’s website. Today, the synagogue is the oldest in Los Angeles.

“It’s frank and funny and fearless about Jewishness,” said Wasson to The Hollywood Reporter about the book. “Always proud and critical. One of the Jewish muscles is criticism and interpretation. That’s what the moguls had: the ability to interpret their audience.”

The reissue was inspired by outcry from Hollywood’s Jewish community last year, when hundreds of Jewish figures in the film industry said a long-awaited exhibit about Jews in Hollywood at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was antisemitic.

The exhibit was created after an earlier protest from the Jewish community over two years earlier, when the museum debuted without a permanent exhibit dedicated to Hollywood’s Jewish founders.

“It feels important to share this book with this community right now,” Felix Farmer Press co-founder Brandon Millan told The Hollywood Reporter.

[slaygentford]

source: the biography bob fosse by sam wasson unfortunately i have returned it to the library and cannot remember where in the book

I found it im literally. can you imagine the trajectory of world history if this had happened.

[cornflakegirll]

10 people i’d like to get to know better ! tagged by @brontesisters

last song: big god by florence + the machine

last book: last one i finished was the history of mary prince for class... currently reading if beale street could talk for class and fosse by sam wasson for fun :)

last movie: the blair witch project. it was scary :(

last tv show: last episode i watched was the pilot of evil... loved!!!

sweet/spicy/savoury: sweet i guess? but ideally sweet and salty

relationship status: just went back on tinder for the first time in several months booooo

last thing googled: "what is fair use copyright canada reddit" lmao

current obsession: the dating history of michelle williams... she has an incredible pr team because her romantic life is MESSY and she keeps her wikipedia LOCKED DOWN

looking forward to: my birthday party, seeing phantom thread + babygirl in theatres in december, going back to tap class on monday!

tagging @pennyserenade @loveryoushouldvecomeovermp3 and @kodachromatics if you'd like <3

[livemmmaufc]

Interview: Mauricio Sulaiman Discusses WBC Grand Prix

(Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images) Mauricio Sulaiman spoke to Action Network and opened up on the WBC Grand Prix and revealed his father would have been ‘thrilled’ at what the WBC have produced. I = InterviewerMS = Mauricio Sulaiman I: How proud are you of the WBC Grand Prix? MS: Well, it’s amazing. We are in the second day for phase two and yesterday with the super lightweights and the…

[transpondster]

Robert Towne, Edward Taylor, Jack Nicholson, L.A., mid-1950s.

Towne wrote the script for the film 'Chinatown', Taylor was an uncredited collaborator on the script, and Nicholson played detective Jake Gittes, the main character in the movie.

[from "The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood" by Sam Wasson]

[allthenewzworld]

American Lael Wilcox has broken the world record for the fastest woman to cycle around the world, traversing 21 countries and 18,125 miles in three and a half months.

Arriving back in Chicago at 9 p.m. local time on Wednesday 108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes after she set off - Wilcox beat the previous best time of 124 days and 11 hours set by Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham in 2018.

"I had so much fun - felt like I could've just kept riding forever," said Wilcox on Instagram following the conclusion of her journey.

Read more at the link in our bio.

📷: Sam Wasson/Sipa USA/AP

#allthenews

[venusinmyrrh]

3, 24

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Fragrant by Mandy Aftel

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice writing as A.N. Roquelaure

Fosse by Sam Wasson

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Sin Eater by Megan Campisi. Plot, worldbuilding, writing style, all excellent, but in service of a story I found too miserable and gruesome to power through. I definitely would have liked it more if I didn't have such a low tolerance for visceral descriptions of nasty shit-- Nixe @mordredsheart has a stronger stomach than I do and they really enjoyed it-- but unfortunately all the otherwise great aspects of the book were lost amid misery and nausea.

end of year book ask game!

[fnovelso]

Non-Fiction Books About Actors: “Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast At Tiffany's, And The Dawn Of The Modern Woman” ; Sam Wasson

[lesbiancolumbo]

Hello! I came across your posts (not sure how recent they are) mentioning a “Coppola / American zoetrope” book. Can I walk what the book is please? I loved Eleanor Coppola’s diaries and your posts have me all curious. Thanks :)

it’s called The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story and it’s written by sam wasson, who i enjoy as an author. i thought it was interesting but i honestly can only read too much about francis before my head starts to hurt from eye rolling lol. eleanor’s approaches to this subject (her diaries and her documentary on apocalypse now) are honestly the best, but the book is fascinating in what francis was able to get away with lol