The Age of the Bachelor Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Once in a while a book comes my way that gets me to see the world in a whole new way. Howard P. Chudacoff's THE AGE OF THE BACHELOR is one of those books. Chudacoff traces the influence on (and place in) American society of the unmarried adult male over roughly the last 120 years. Economics and demographics have played a big part in the changing role of unmarried men, from the days of the pitiable "old bachelor" who lived a lonely life in rooming houses of the 1800s to the glamorous "swinging single" of the late 20th Century. As more single men gained larger disposable incomes, entrepreneurs found ways to glamorize and exploit the unmarried condition, creating new markets and new values. This not only changed the lives of single men, but the society as a whole, as women, too, began to challenge the idea of the married state being the ideal one. I found this fascinating reading.
One of the major discussions of the book is the changing definition of what it means to be a man. How do men's lives differ from women's lives? Whereas females have a lot of generational interaction in their lives, males, with the advent of the move from agrarian to urban living, lost the mentoring influence of their fathers and developed same sex friendships almost exclusively among their contemporaries. Females tend to form relationships based on support and sympathy, whereas competition serves as the major tie among males. In the absence of time spent with the family, other venues of male camaraderie, like the saloon, the pool hall and the sports arena evolved.
The book contains many statistical tables and hefty appendices of notes and bibliography. But this is not a plodding book for specialists. I found it lively and entertaining with one insightful page after another. This is one of the most enlightening books I've read in a long time.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Age of the Bachelor

Click here for more information about The Age of the Bachelor

Read More...

The Producers: Profiles in Frustration Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)What is a producer exactly? In Hollywood, most people will tell you that the term has various definitions but in Luke Ford's massive exploration -- nearly seventy interviews with film and television producers, some whose name you may know, others who have been relegated to obscurity -- what emerges is a portrait of the producer as artist.
Don Phillips' tale of the making of the groundbreaking "small" film "Melvin and Howard" is worth the cover price alone. Did you know that Jack Nicholson and Mike Nichols were nearly attached to the picture? (Phillips didn't want to wait a year for Jack's availability)Elvis Presley was next considered for the role of Melvin Dumar:
"Elvis was on his last leg," Phillips tells Ford. "He was fat and jowly and passed out."
Elvis agreed, in June 1997, to do the film after he finished his latest concert tour. Six weeks later the legend was dead.
On a related note, producer Judd Bernard's anecdote about actress Annette Day -- who starred in only one film, "Double Trouble", a 1967 Elvis Presely vehicle -- was so telling about the capriciousness of show biz and life in general that I adapted the tale into my new play about an obsolete Hollywood producer, "Last Summer at the Marmont."
Among the other notable names in the book -- and there are many -- are TV wizard Stephen J. Cannell (God bless "The Rockford Files" and keep it in syndication for many years to come), Jay Bernstein, and a particularly touching interview with the late Edgar J. Scherick, creator of ABC's "Wide World Of Sports."
I have known Luke Ford in both a personal and professional capacity for almost seven years now. Often I have been one of his biggest detractors. "The Producers: Profiles in Frustration" is a piece of work that I would never thought an autodidact like Luke capable of, namely a book that is a must-read for anyone contemplating a career in the entertainment industry and, more importantly, the unknowing millions who believe that producers are nothing more or less than Hollywood fat cats with a cigar in one cheek and a bikini-clad babe in their lap. The interviews in this book prove that in the Hollywood food chain, producers are too often overlooked as -- dare I say it? -- fountains of creativity.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Producers: Profiles in Frustration

In The Producers, Luke Ford profiles major players in entertainment including Edgar J. Scherick, creator of ABC's Wide World of Sports, Stephen J. Cannell, whose television programs have grossed over $1 billion, and Jay Bernstein, former manager of Farrah Fawcett and Linda Evans.

The life of a typical Hollywood producer is a "profile in frustration." What drives these middlemen to subjugate their own egos for more than a decade, at times, to make a movie or TV show?

Click here for more information about The Producers: Profiles in Frustration

Read More...