Raymond Burr: A Film, Radio and Television Biography

Best known for his television Perry Mason and Ironside, Raymond Burr had a career spanning over fifty years. His life is meticulously documented her, including movie roles in such Hollywood productions as Rear Window and Key to the City, and other work in television. Also discussed are his family, Fiji Island home, work in Canadian films, and trips to Korea and Vietnam to entertain American troops.

This book starts with Burr's childhood in California, his Broadway debut with Crazy With the Heat, his work at the Pasadena Playhouse, his trip to England, and all this before he began his film career! Chapter six was my favorite because it dealt with his work on Pat Novak for Hire and Dragnet, two radio programs I commonly hear his voice playing a supporting role. Hitchcock's Rear Window is discussed in detail. His radio career and his quest for Perry Mason is not too extensive (I've read much more in-depth info in a magazine article) but the chapter about the Perry Mason television series was a good read. Naturally, the book covers his later work, including Ironside. I forgot about those made-for-TV movies until I read the chapter about "The Return of Perry Mason."

My critical complaint is the appendixes. The first documents Raymond Burr's radio credits. Boy is that awful. Missing dates, inaccurate information and very skim on Burr's audio work. Heck, I consulted Goldin's and discovered 185 radio appearances within seconds. Yet the listing in this book doesn't come close. Only saving grace was Ken Greenwald's contribution for Fort Laramie. IMDB provides more info (though that site is not known for being accurate) for Burr's movies than the appendix offers. As for the appendix listing all of the Perry Mason television episodes, if I really wanted to be a nit-picker, all of the titles listed in the appendix (except for the premiere broadcast) is wrong. The author could not list the complete title for each and every episode? No, he decided to list partial titles. 

If you can buy this book for $10 or less, it's worth owning for the history/biography. But I certainly expected more for the $35 I paid.There's another biography about Raymond Burr that I just ordered from Cover Out and I expect to learn a lot more about the man who was the definitive Perry Mason.

The History of Independent Cinema

From the flickering silent images of the nickelodeon to the roaring vibrancy of today's digital video productions, independent cinema has always challenged the way films are created, released and viewed. The History of Independent Cinema presents an extraordinary journey that revisits the innovative men and women who stood up to the status quo and brought revolutionary new ideas and technologies to the motion picture world. 

The History of Independent Cinema celebrates the pioneers who introduced color, sound, widescreen projection and videography to the filmmaking process. You will meet the brave individuals who tore down racial and gender barriers behind the camera, challenged censorship taboos imposed on film production, formulated new strategies for film distribution, and created many of the greatest movies ever made. 

Spanning the full spectrum of the U.S. film experience, The History of Independent Cinema is a tribute to the legendary filmmakers and landmark films that reshaped - and continue to reshape - American popular culture. 

My first impression was that this book was going to become another one of those traveling into familiar territory. When someone tells me it's an independent movie, I think low-budget and direct-to-DVD. Those kind of films I don't like. But this book was different. It was unique and covered (for the most part) films shot on location, small movie studios and the producers like Hal Roach and Sam Goldwyn. If you are a movie buff, this is a book worth reading.

www.CoverOut.com

The Girls of Murder City

The story of the women who splashed front page headlines in Chicago during Prohibition is told in with prose. They were obviously the inspiration for the jailed women in the musical, Chicago. More than a dozen murderesses preened and strutted in Cook County Jail as they awaited trial, but two stood above all the rest. This book covers extensively the biographical lives of "Stylish Belva" Gaertner and fellow inmate "Beulah" Annan, and the effforts of an intrepid "girl reporter" named Maurine Watkins. 

Based on true facts, the author purposely cited every primary and secondary source for every factoid in the book. It reads like a novel, but it is clearly a documentary. And for that reason you don't have to digest every it piece by piece. Told through 20 chapters, I would be shocked if you put this down after reading the first three. 

Oddly, the part that fascinated me the most was the author's attempt to capture the time period. A detailed description of the muscle behind William Randolph Hearst and the rival Chicago Tribune newspaper explains the how and why the newspapers operated. You not only get a first-hand account of how people lived during Prohibition, how the police were bribed, how they operated, how newspaper reporters got the information they did and so on was equally fascinating.

The author also points out that reporters and rewrite men of the era did tend to over-dramatize events compared to today's journalistic standards, and in some ways crime reporting was more accurate in the 1920s. Police reporters were given extraordinary access that is unheard of today. But the author admitted that at times he had to double-check the facts to make sure the newspapers were not trying to sensationalize a mole hill.

An entertaining read worthy of a few hours at the beach.