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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 921 FAIRBANKS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
This deft amalgam of biography, film history, and analysis is a superb portrait of a true pioneer who was critically important to the creation of cinema as the defining art form of the twentieth century. Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) was one of the first film superstars, a screenwriter, a major independent producer during the early studio era, a cofounder of United Artists, a founder and the first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and much more. The optimism, energy, and huge success during the 1920s of his best-remembered films The Mark of Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad, and The Black Pirate made Fairbanks a popular hero throughout the world and showcased his talents as a creative producer whose work set the standard for excellence.
Douglas Fairbanks takes the full measure of Fairbanks's remarkable life. Jeffrey Vance, who had complete access to the star's personal and professional papers and scrapbooks, also incorporates 237 photographs, some unseen for more than seventy-five years. Extensively researched, engagingly written, and sumptuously designed, the book goes behind Fairbanks's public persona to thoroughly explore his art and his far-reaching influence.
Copub: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Author Notes
Jeffrey Vance is a film historian, producer, and lecturer as well as the author of an acclaimed trilogy of books on the great triumvirate of silent-film comedy: Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema, Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian (with Suzanne Lloyd), and Buster Keaton Remembered (with Eleanor Keaton).
Reviews (2)
Choice Review
Joining Vance's other books on stars of silent film (among them Charlie Chaplin, CH, May'04, 41-5197), this volume exudes the lively, breezy personality of the swashbuckling Fairbanks. Vance imbues this biography with life, vitality, and verve of the popular, energetic celebrity and erstwhile husband of Mary Pickford. In contrast to John Tibbetts and James Welsh's His Majesty the American: The Cinema of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (CH, Oct'77), this volume excavates numerous archival papers to focus on the personal and professional work of the ebullient performer and founder of United Artist and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He follows the peripatetic Fairbanks from childhood through spectacular features like The Mark of Zorro, Robin Hood, and The Thief of Bagdad to his weary denouement (albeit with an active involvement in the preservation of classic films). Along the way, Vance provides fascinating anecdotes about notable characters such as Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. As with Vance's other books, the research is impeccable, the writing engaging and illuminating, and the deluxe illustrations exquisite. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers, all levels. T. Lindvall Virginia Wesleyan College
Library Journal Review
While Douglas Fairbanks's name remains familiar, his accomplishments as a movie star, producer, and ebullient personality of Hollywood's silent era have grown undeservedly obscure. Film historian Vance (Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema) gives us a handsome work, with gorgeously reproduced photographs secured through Cushman (photograph curator, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Lib.). Although the book follows Fairbanks from birth to death (1883-1939), it appropriately concentrates upon his movies after he left a successful Broadway career for film superstardom in 1915. Fairbanks the man evidently derived his own life force from his career, the heights of which were spectacular. The mobs who greeted him and Mary Pickford, the "Sweetheart" of the movies, on their European honeymoon may still be unparalleled. When he made the leap-literally-from affable comedy hero to swashbuckler with The Mark of Zorro (1920), he launched a series of dynamic costume adventures that showcased his remarkable athleticism and grace. The best chapter here is on Fairbanks's production of The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Although Fairbanks's death came all too early, he may have effectively felt that his life was over with the advent of talkies and the end of his marriage to Pickford. Highly recommended for film collections.-Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Prologue |
| A Bad Case of St. Vitus' Dance |
| The Machine for Escape |
| Doug: Hero and Popular Philosopher |
| Pickfair |
| United Artists |
| Making His Mark: The Mark of Zorro (1920) |
| The Great Leap: The Three Musketeers (1921) |
| Scaling the Heights: Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (1922) 123 |
| Apogee: The Thief of Bagdad (1924) |
| The Son Also Rises: Don Q Son of Zorro (1925) |
| and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. |
| Derring-Do: The Black Pirate (1926) |
| Darkness Falls: Douglas Fairbanks as The Gaucho (1927) |
| Hail and Farewell: The Iron Mask (1929) |
| Sound and Fury: Taming of the Shrew (1929) and Marital Strife |
| Sliding Downhill |
| Notes |
| Douglas Fairbanks Filmography |
| Douglas Fairbanks's Broadway Appearances, 1902-1915 |
| Bibliography |
| Acknowledgments |
| Index |
