Decisions decisions - There are many Warner Bros studio history books to choose from!

My hubby asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I decided that I would like a history book about the early Warner Bros studio. My favorite era for movies is between the years of 1939 to 1945, and my favorite studio is Warner Bros. I thought it would be fun to have a reference book as a companion to my favorite TV channel, Turner Classic Movies.

I I was hoping that I would find at least one book - but I have to decide between not only seven books, but also two DVDs!  (There might be other books and DVDs, but I only found these in my internet research.)

All of the books I have found on the internet are available at Amazon.com. I’ve been flipping back and forth between the pages of Amazon.com, but I thought it might be easier to write down all the details in one place and decide that way. As long as I’m going to all this trouble to write it all down, I thought I might as well post it in my blog while I was at it. Perhaps other people might be looking for books about Warner Bros studio and could benefit from my footwork.

Here is the list of books and DVDs I am trying to decide between:

 

 The Best of Warner Bros.

by Thomas G. Aylesworth (March 1994)

Amazon.com Product Description:

A look at the history of the studio from its early B-films, including serials and melodramas, through its production of The Jazz Singer, to the present features more than 250 illustrations in color and black and white.

Customer Reviews: None

Pages: 192, hardcover

My thoughts:

It has 192 pages, not very many for a history book. It covers the years from “early B-films” to the present, which is 1994 The cover has a picture from Casablanca my favorite movie of all time, but it also has a picture of Clint Eastwood. I like Clint Eastwood, especially when he played Rowdy Yates on Rawhide, but I’m not interested in movies that recent.

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The Brothers Warner

by Cass Warner Sperling (June 12, 2008)

Amazon.com Product Description:

The BROTHERS WARNER, formerly titled "Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story", is the definitive family biography and intimate portrait of the four legendary Warner brothers. It unfolds and is told through the eyes of Harry Warner's granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling and in the voices of others who knew them.

Pages: 426 pages, paperback

Customer Reviews: There are four reviews, and every review gave it five stars, the highest rating.

My Thoughts:

This was written by a granddaughter of one of the four Warner brothers. It has a good deal of pages, and excellent reviews by the four reviewers. This covers the lives of the brothers, so it will certainly cover my favorite years for movies. It is a recent book, and there are new copies available for $20.99.

This one is certainly a possibility!

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Early Warner Bros. Studios (Images of America) (Images of America Series)

by E.J. Stephens (July 26, 2010)

Amazon.com Product Description:

Since 1928, Warner Bros. has produced thousands of beloved films and television shows at the studio's magical 110-acre film factory in Burbank. This collection of evocative images concentrates on the Warner Bros. legacy from the 1920s to the 1950s, when timeless classics such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and East of Eden came to life. It also looks at WB's earlier homes along Hollywood's "Poverty Row," the birthplace of Looney Tunes, and the site of WB's pioneering marriage between film and sound in the 1920s. Early Warner Bros. Studios also tells the tale of four brothers--Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner--scions of a Polish Jewish immigrant family who rose from the humblest of origins to become Hollywood moguls of enormous and lasting influence.

Pages: 128 pages, paperback

Customer Reviews: There are two reviews, and both gave the book five stars, the highest rating.

My Thoughts:

The description says it covers the years “1920s to the 1950s”, my favorite years included. You can search within this book, and it appears to have many photographs. New books are $14.95.

This sounds like something I would really like!

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Here's Looking At You, Warner Bros.: The History of the Warner Bros. Studios

DVD Sam Warner (2003)

Amazon.com Product Description:

Item Name: Here's Looking At You, Warner Bros.: The History of the Warner Bros. Studios; Studio: Warner Brothers

Pages: None, DVD

Amazon.com Customer Reviews: Two reviewers both gave five stars.

My thoughts:

The reviews sound like it is a great DVD, but I think I would rather have a book.

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Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951)

by Rudy Behlmer (March 1987

Amazon.com Product Description: None
Pages: 358 pages, paperback

Amazon.com Customer Reviews: Only one person wrote a review but gave the book four stars.

My Thoughts:

The title alone makes it sound like this book is right up my alley. It covers the years 1935-1951, so my favorite years 1939-1945 is covered. It has a good number of pages for a history book. I have seen the author on Turner Classic Movies documentaries. He is a film historian. This is an older book, so no new copies are available, but used copies in good contrition are available at very low prices.

This books sounds like something I would really like!

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The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of: A Historical Look Behind the Gates of Warner Bros. Studio

by Amy; foreword by Clint Eastwood. Hilker (2005)

Amazon.com Product Description: None
Pages: Does not say, hardcover

Amazon.com Customer Reviews: None

My Thoughts:

This book has no “Product Description” and it has no reviews. Not much to go on, there. It also does not say how many pages it has, or let you search  inside the book to see how many pages there are. It was published in 2005, and the forward was written by Clint Eastwood. Other than that, there is not much to go on. I found a good review elsewhere that said partially:

photographic tour of the studio "behind the scenes" from its earliest days as First National Pictures in the 1920s through the golden era of Bogart and co.

It sounds pretty good, but there are a couple of other books on this list that sound very good.

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You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

by Richard Schickel (September 9, 2008)

Amazon.com Product Description:

From Rin Tin Tin to Casablanca to Harry Potter, the Warner Bros. story is the history of Hollywood. Eighty-five years of screen icons, legendary films, and history-making achievements are detailed in this comprehensive, photo-filled treasure trove, fully authorized by the studio.

No production company has had more legendary films, stars, or influence on the course of Hollywood than Warner Bros. Among the superstars who worked for the studio are Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Joan Crawford, Marlon Brando, James Dean, and John Wayne. Filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick made history for the studio, and it has been home to blockbuster franchises like Superman, Batman, Lethal Weapon, and Harry Potter.

Produced in conjunction with Warner Bros., this volume is the ultimate guide to the greatest movie studio in history. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story is also the companion to a five part documentary in the PBS American Masters series by author Richard Schickel that will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the spring of 2008 and debut on PBS in the fall, to coincide with publication of the book.

Pages: 480 pages, hardcover

"Customer Reviews" Eleven reviews with four people giving it the highest rating of five stars.

My Thoughts:

I looked at this book in a bookstore yesterday. My favorite years only took up a fourth of the book. I am not interested in a book that is mostly not want I want. There are better books on this list.

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You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

DVD Richard Schickel

Amazon.com Product Description:

The power and the stories. The trends and trendsetters. The mirror that reflects our life and times. It’s Rick sticking his neck out for nobody. Superman rescuing Lois Lane. Bette Davis pumping lead into the man she loves. George Clooney masterminding a Vegas heist. Harry Potter wielding his powers. You must remember these…. Clint Eastwood narrates Richard Schickel’s perceptive 5-episode, 85th-anniversary salute to the studio that gained a four-footed hold with an unlikely star (Rin Tin Tin), championed tough guys and dames who gave the Depression and the Nazis the raspberry, countered the box-office onslaught of TV and emerged as a 21st-century giant. Art, business, stars, moneymen, America – it’s an enthralling tale. And it’s all here.

Pages: None, DVD

Customer Reviews: Seven reviews, with two reviewers giving the maximum of five starts.

My Thoughts:

This is a DVD version of the book described above. But, I would imaging that the book has a lot more information than a DVD would be able to fit in, even though it is five parts. Also, it includes years I am not interested in reading about. This is not something I want.

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Warner Bros Story

by Clive Hirschorn (January 10, 1987)

Amazon.com Product Description: None

Pages: 480, hardcover

Customer Reviews: None

My Thoughts:

It was published in 1987. There is no Product Description or any reviews. However, it has 480 pages, so there must be a lot of information in this book.

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OK, so now I have done the research. Here is my Christmas list:

 

The Brothers Warner

by Cass Warner Sperling (June 12, 2008)

( $20.99 new)

 

Early Warner Bros. Studios (Images of America) (Images of America Series)

by E.J. Stephens (July 26, 2010)

($14.95 new)

 

Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951)

by Rudy Behlmer (March 1987

(used copies in good contrition are available at very low prices)

Thank you for reading this far down!

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Follow up to my IE9 rant: It messed up my WordPress.com dashboard! Welcome back IE8!

<rant>

I "upgraded" to IE9 (Beta) the other day. Here is a link to my rant about how much I liked it:

December 10, 2010: I installed Internet Explorer 9 Beta yesterday and I do not like it

Well, it is all gone now!

I found out that it was messing up my WordPress.com dashboard. When I went to check my stats, I had the X axis and the Y axis, but there is a big white space where the graph should be. However, my stats page looked fine with Firefox and Chrome.

So, I made the executive decision to welcome IE8 back into my house. I can see my stats fine now!

Just in case any of you have IE9 and want to go back to IE8, you can’t “uninstall” it the usual way. (guess how I found out….) I had to look up how to do it.

To save you the Goggling, here’s how to remove IE9 (Beta) You have to uninstall an “Update” to Internet Explorer.

It will be a while before I try another Beta. I will try IE9 after it is finished cooking.

</rant>

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Now playing: An mp3 recording and a video of my African grey parrot, Rufus, talking to himself

Rufus, an African Grey Parrot, talks a lot, but only when he is in a room by himself, for the most part. In order to get this recording, I set up our portable phone to “Intercom” and went into another room. Then, I held up my cell phone to the house phone and set it to record:

My African Grey Parrot, Rufus, talking to himself

Rufus is a character. He’s very good company when I’m the only human in the house all day, which is most of the time. I also have other birds: Cockatiels Penny and Jonah, Lovebird Candy, and Parakeets Beady, Gumby, Shelly, Oscar, Moonpie, Ginger and Freddie. Having a houseful of birds makes it noisy, but I like it. I like hearing God’s creatures.

My parakeet’s especially, make a lot of noise. But, the noisier the get, the happier they sound — The parakeets just sound happy to be alive. They make the most noise at sunrise. The rest of the birds were napping when I got this recording of Rufus. Here is the one and only time I have caught Rufus talking on video once, and only two words at that:

He said “What’s up” right at the beginning. Then, the naughty bird decided to get on the parakeet cage. I know from (many) past experiences that Rufus is going to lift up the wire holding the parakeet’s water bottle. He loves to watch things fall…. He will also pull a parakeet’s tail if one is sticking out of the cage. At the end, I have to stop the video to put Rufus back on his Boing-Boing and coil it up shorter so he can’t reach next time.

So there you have it – another peak into my boring life… Don’t worry, I like my boring life just the way it is.

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I installed Internet Explorer 9 Beta yesterday and I do not like it

<rant>

Internet Explorer 9 Beta looks and acts a lot like Google Chrome. The thing is, I liked Internet Explorer 8. If I liked Google Chrome then I would use Google Chrome.

I expected that IE9 Beta would be like IE8, except better. But, as far as I can see so far, it is not better than IE8, in my humble opinion.

I will try IE9 a few more days, but then I am tempted to go back to IE8.

</rant>

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The fall of Windows Live Spaces from the point of view of an expatriate

I joined MSN Spaces, later Windows Live Spaces, in 2005. My Windows Live Space was my little slice of the web. I had it all set up the way I wanted.

For a couple of years it was very nice. I learned a lot about customizing my space and enjoyed helping others do the same. I spent so much time telling others how to do it that eventually I earned the honor of Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).

Then the garbage started showing up. Many Spaces set as mail order stores for Viagra and drugs started showing up everywhere. Then, my beloved Windows Live Spaces was overrun by spam comments. It was an epidemic of garbage in Windows Live Spaces Town

I organized a one-woman crusade called “Windows Live Spaces Spam Central Reporting Service” I reported each user, and kept track of whether their accounts were closed.  It did not take long to realize that spam in our spaces was not a priority with the powers that be.

Eventually, we got the announcement that Spaces was closing and our spaces would be transferred to WordPress.com.

I am now happily a resident of a community that keeps the garbage out. When my Space was transferred over to WordPress.com, the automatic spam-catcher called Akismet caught thousands of spam comments.

Keeping  WordPress.com Town clean is a priority to the powers that be, while sadly it was not a priority for the powers that be to keep Windows Live Spaces Town Clean.

Bye bye Windows Live Spaces. It was nice while it lasted.

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My new “Windows Live Space":

http://xevolutionistspace.wordpress.com/

Windows Live Tags: Clubhouse, Windows Live Spaces, Spaces, WordPress.com, Spam, Story

Please oh please check email on Snopes.com before forwarding them to me

Stop! Do not forward that fascinating email to me before finding out if it is true!

I continually get emails that are hoaxes or just plain not true. Too many people don’t bother to check them out or just don’t care if it is true or not.

It is so easy to check these on out on Snopes.com. Just put a few key words in Google with site:snopes.com and you will probably find out the true story.

For instance, I just received a forwarded email with beautiful photographs purported to be a sunset reflected in a waterfall making it look like cascading fire:

The following pictures were taken of what is known as the “Fire Waterfall” on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park .

I put in these few key words in a Google search:

“Fire Waterfall” “El Capitan” site:snopes.com

The Snopes.com page about these photographs came up immediately:

Fire Waterfall

They are not pictures of a reflected sunset, they are pictures of real fire, burning embers, being pushed over the side of a cliff!

If that story or photograph sounds too good (or too bad) to be true, please check it out on Snopes.com before forwarding it to me!

Thanks bunches!

X: Chairman of the Committee to Keep Junk Email out of my Inbox

Christmas - The time of year when TV ads try to make men feel guilty enough to buy diamonds

In December TV ads for diamond jewelry say variations of the same thing:

Men: Your woman  will only know you love her if you buy her diamonds.

At the same time, they are hoping the women will think:

I will only know my man loves me if he buys me diamonds.

My husband does not need to, or feel the need to, prove he loves me -- he loves me in many ways each day. I feel sorry for husbands and wives who think that proof is required.

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We took my boy dog Belty out on an outing today - and it wasn’t the vet!

My good boy dog Belty has not felt good very often lately. He has had two strokes, he has kidney disease and he is 14 years old. Today, he just felt good for a change, so my hubby and I took him on an outing.

We went to PetsMart and wandered around. He enjoys seeing other dogs and sniffing around places where they have been. Even when we have to take him to the vet, which is pretty often lately, he enjoys sniffing around.

Belty was having a really good time in the store and he was extra happy. So, next we decided to take him to a little lake. Belty and I walked all around it in the cold wind while my hubby sat in the truck and read…. Belty was having too much fun to care about it being cold.

Belty enjoyed seeing the ducks and geese. And, of course, he enjoyed sniffing all the trees and bushes.

Belty is in his “Lazy Dog” chair (my hubby’s lazy boy chair) and having a well deserved nap.

Good boy Belty!

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The posts below show how bad this past year has been for Belty - We are very thankful every day that God has decided to let Belty keep living with us.

October 19, 2010 My good boy dog Belty seems to be recovering from his stroke!

October 17, 2010 My dog Belty had another stroke and I’m afraid we will lose him soon.

October 12, 2009 How do you explain to a good dog why you can't give him a doggie goodie any more?

November 18, 2009 Good news and bad news about my good boy dog Belty

October 3, 2009 My dog, Belty’s kidneys are shutting down and I am broken hearted

I bought a book to learn how to style my website and blog with Cascading Style Sheets - CSS

I bought a new toy - a book called CSS: The Missing Manual.

I have a website and a personal blog that I have been trying to personalize just the way I want them. I finally decided to learn a new language - Cascading Style Sheets or CSS for short.

With CSS you can entirely change the looks of a website with a few key strokes.

I have learned and used a little bit of CSS since I made my first website about seven years ago.

I have found out that it is really easy to mess up a website a few keystrokes, too. (ask me how I know)

So I thought I had better buy a book. There are many CSS tutorials on the web, including W3Schools.com but I learn best in my lazy boy chair with book and a cup of tea.

I hunted and searched and researched and read reviews until I decided that CSS: The Missing Manual was the book for me.

From what I can tell so far, it is easy enough for a beginner, yet it is complex enough that I’ll be able to use it as a reference for years to come.

Woohoo! Learning new things is fun!

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