{"product_id":"who-the-hells-in-it-portraits-and-conversations","title":"Who the Hell's in It: Portraits and Conversations","description":"\u003cp\u003ePeter Bogdanovich  known primarily as a director  film historian and critic  has been working with professional actors all his life. He started out as an actor (he debuted on the stage in his sixth-grade production of Finians Rainbow); he watched actors work (he went to the theater every week from the age of thirteen and saw every important show on  or off  Broadway for the next decade); he studied acting  starting at sixteen  with Stella Adler (his work with her became the foundation for all he would ever do as an actor and a director).  Now  in his new book  Who the Hells in It  Bogdanovich draws upon a lifetime of experience  observation and understanding of the art to write about the actors he came to know along the way; actors he admired from afar; actors he worked with  directed  befriended. Among them: Lauren Bacall  Humphrey Bogart  James Cagney  John Cassavetes  Charlie Chaplin  Montgomery Clift  Marlene Dietrich  Henry Fonda  Ben Gazzara  Audrey Hepburn  Boris Karloff  Dean Martin  Marilyn Monroe  River Phoenix  Sidney Poitier  Frank Sinatra  and James Stewart. Bogdanovich capturesin their words and histheir work  their individual styles  what made them who they were  what gave them their appeal and why theyve continued to be Americas iconic actors.  On Lillian Gish: the first virgin hearth goddess of the screen . . . a valiant and courageous symbol of fortitude and love through all distress.  On Marlon Brando: He challenged himself never to be the same from picture to picture  refusing to become the kind of film star the studio system had invented and thrived uponthe recognizable human commodity each new film was built around . . . The funny thing is that Brandos charismatic screen persona was vividly apparent despite the multiplicity of his guises . . . Brando always remains recognizable  a star-actor in spite of himself.   Jerry Lewis to Bogdanovich on the first laugh Lewis ever got onstage: I was five years old. My mom and dad had a tux madeI worked in the borscht circuit with themand I came out and I sang  Brother  Can You Spare a Dime? the big hit at the time . . . It was 1931  and I stopped the shownaturallya five-year-old in a tuxedo is not going to stop the show? And I took a bow and my foot slipped and hit one of the floodlights and it exploded and the smoke and the sound scared me so I started to cry. The audience laughedthey were hysterical . . . So I knew I had to get the rest of my laughs the rest of my life  breaking  sitting  falling  spinning.  John Wayne to Bogdanovich  on the early years of Waynes career when he was working as a prop man: Well  Ive naturally studied John Ford professionally as well as loving the man. Ever since the first time I walked down his set as a goose-herder in 1927. They needed somebody from the prop department to keep the geese from getting under a fake hill they had for Mother Machree at Fox. Id been hired because Tom Mix wanted a box seat for the USC football games  and so they promised jobs to Don Williams and myself and a couple of the players. They buried us over in the properties department  and Mr. Fords need for a goose-herder just seemed to fit my pistol. These twenty-six portraits and conversations are unsurpassed in their evocation of a certain kind of great movie star that has vanished. Bogdanovichs book is a celebration and a farewell.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44946439634997,"sku":"ByrdShop_0375400109","price":29.05,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780375400100.jpg?v=1769948993","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/who-the-hells-in-it-portraits-and-conversations","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}