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Camera Man
- Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century
- Narrated by: Dana Stevens
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
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Publisher's summary
Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, and NPR
In this genre-defying “new kind of history” (The New Yorker), the chief film critic of Slate places comedy legend and acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton’s unique creative genius in the context of his time.
Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman.
Even through his dark middle years as a severely depressed alcoholic finding work on the margins of show business, Keaton’s life had a way of reflecting the changes going on in the world around him. He found success in three different mediums at their creative peak: first vaudeville, then silent film, and finally the experimental early years of television. Over the course of his action-packed seventy years on earth, his life trajectory intersected with those of such influential figures as the escape artist Harry Houdini, the pioneering Black stage comedian Bert Williams, the television legend Lucille Ball, and literary innovators like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Samuel Beckett.
In Camera Man, film critic Dana Stevens pulls the lens out from Keaton’s life and work to look at concurrent developments in entertainment, journalism, law, technology, the political and social status of women, and the popular understanding of addiction. With erudition and sparkling humor, Stevens hopscotches among disciplines to bring us up to the present day, when Keaton’s breathtaking (and sometimes life-threatening) stunts remain more popular than ever as they circulate on the internet in the form of viral gifs. Far more than a biography or a work of film history, Camera Man is a wide-ranging meditation on modernity that paints a complex portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist.
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Cari Beauchamp masterfully combines biography with social and cultural history to examine the lives of Frances Marion and her many female colleagues who shaped filmmaking from the early teens through the 1940s. Frances Marion was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter - male or female - for almost three decades, wrote almost 200 produced films and remains the only woman to win two Academy Awards for original screenwriting (The Big House and The Champ).
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A Must Read
- By Robert Wallace on 03-19-19
By: Cari Beauchamp
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Steve McQueen
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- Narrated by: Marc Eliot
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One of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and '70s with now-classics such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullit, Steve McQueen is renowned as one of the most exciting actors ever to come out of Hollywood. Now, in Steve McQueen: A Biography, best-selling author Marc Eliot gives unique insight into McQueen's life, from his films to his three marriages, many affairs, and struggles with addictions.
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Snooze
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They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play.
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Fabulous book about Rodgers & Hammerstein!!!
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Best. Movie. Year. Ever.
- How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen
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- Narrated by: George Newbern
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From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999 - arguably the most groundbreaking year in American cinematic history.
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Like talking about movies with a friend
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By: Brian Raftery
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Everybody Thought We Were Crazy
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- Narrated by: Jason Culp
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Los Angeles in the 1960s: riots in Watts and on the Sunset Strip, wild weekends in Malibu, late nights at The Daisy discotheque, openings at the Ferus Gallery, and the convergence of pop art, rock and roll, and the New Hollywood. At the center of it all, one inspired, improbable, and highly combustible couple—Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward—lived out the emblematic love story of ’60s L.A.
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Wonderful!
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Superman
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From two-fisted crimebuster to über-patriot, social crusader to spiritual savior, Superman—perhaps like no other mythical character before or since—has evolved in a way that offers a Rorschach test of his times and our aspirations. In this deftly realized appreciation, Larry Tye reveals a portrait of America over seventy years through the lens of that otherworldly hero who continues to embody our best selves.
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This Superman soars
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Orson Welles's Last Movie
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- By: Josh Karp
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In the summer of 1970, legendary but self-destructive director Orson Welles returned to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe and decided it was time to make a comeback movie. It was about a legendary self-destructive director who returns to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe. Welles swore it wasn't autobiographical.
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Engaging and human portrait of Welles
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Seinfeldia
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Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their silly little sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. NBC executives didn't think anyone would watch either, but they bought it anyway, hiding it away in the TV dead zone of summer. But against all odds, viewers began to watch, first a few and then many, until nine years later nearly 40 million Americans were tuning in weekly.
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This bad narration is making me thirsty...
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The Speed of Sound
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In this mixture of cultural and social history that is both scholarly and vastly entertaining, Eyman dispels the myths and gives us the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world.
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Better than nothing!
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When Women Invented Television
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It was the Golden Age of Radio and powerful men were making millions in advertising dollars reaching thousands of listeners every day. When television arrived, few radio moguls were interested in the upstart industry and its tiny production budgets, and expensive television sets were out of reach for most families. But four women - each an independent visionary - saw an opportunity and carved their own paths, and in so doing invented the way we watch TV today.
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Must Read T.V.
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Possessed
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New York Times best-selling author Donald Spoto has brilliantly explored the lives and careers of numerous Hollywood stars and entertainment icons. In Possessed, his subject is the inimitable Joan Crawford, one of the most electrifying divas of the Golden Age of American film. A more thorough, revealing, and sympathetic portrait of the often maligned movie star - most notably lambasted, perhaps, in the scandalous best seller, Mommie Dearest - Possessed is a fascinating study of the real Joan Crawford, a remarkable actress, businesswoman, mother, and lover.
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An concise assessment of Joan's life
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Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted
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Mary Tyler Moore made her name as Dick Van Dyke's wife on the eponymous show; she was a cute, unassuming housewife that audiences loved. But when screenwriters James Brooks and Allan Burnes dreamed up an edgy show about a divorced woman with a career, network executives replied: "Americans won't watch television about New York City, divorcées, men with mustaches, or Jews." But Moore and her team were committed, and when the show finally aired, in spite of tepid reviews, fans loved it.
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An Interesting Story That Never Quite Gets Told
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Can I Go Now?
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A lively and colorful biography of Hollywood's first superagent - one of the most outrageous showbiz characters of the 1960s and 1970s, whose clients included Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Faye Dunaway, Michael Caine, and Candice Bergen. Before Sue Mengers hit the scene in the mid-1960s, talent agents remained quietly in the background. But staying in the background was not possible for Mengers.
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A little long.
- By Doris on 11-29-15
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What listeners say about Camera Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrew Darlow
- 06-23-24
A very informative look at Buster Keaton and other legends
I really enjoyed this book and the narration by the author, who spoke clearly and with an obvious interest in the subject matter.
I didn’t know much about Buster Keaton, so this book was very informative, and I took a few detours to YouTube to watch some of the shorts and movies that were mentioned.
I found Mr. Keaton’s interest in television to be particularly interesting.
I recommend this book for any fan of old Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton.
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- Tomas Sancio
- 03-14-22
The Dawn of Cinema Through The Life of Buster Keaton
Dana Stevens tackles many interesting subjects in this Buster Keaton biography. I like how it tackles subjects such as child actors, the movie industry, alcoholism, McCarthyism, etc through the life of BK in such a seamless way.
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- Patrick Kelly
- 03-24-22
The fates converged...
... to lead me to this fine biography, and to an appreciation of the work of an entertainment genius.
Having been born in late 1954, I was familiar with Buster's name and face, but not with his work. I recently saw a review of Sherlock Jr. as a forgotten classic, watched it in amazement, listened to an interview with Dana Stevens, all within the span of a few days, and added this book to my library. Setting aside a few other books I was reading, I could have listened to this in one day. To me, it was that good.
I appreciate Ms. Stevens including mention of Buster's works in later life, which I will add to my viewing list. It's sad, to me, that Buster never took the opportunity to audition for the part of Lucky in Waiting for Godot. To see him playing opposite Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith would have been a treat.
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- tom4seattle
- 04-11-22
More than a biography!
From Charlie Chaplin to Louie B Mayer, to Irving Thalberg to Lucille Ball the author enriches the story of Keaton by writing of key people around him and of his many talents. The book includes a great overview of the development of movies from the silent era to the time of Keaton’s death. The author is a good narrator of her book.
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- D. Frrazier
- 07-06-22
Maybe better than an ordinary biography
I have only seen a few Keaton shorts. I don't consider myself to be a huge fan, though I did enjoy those shorts, and might enjoy watching others. So I was not sure how I feel about this book. But I found it very enjoyable overall, though never quite as much fun as actually watching a Keaton movie. The thing about this book is that it is kind of a mash-up. Part biography of Keaton, and part history of the 20th Century as it related to Keaton. Those looking for a very detailed biography of Keaton might be disappointed. There is a lot of detail here, but I'm sure other biographies have even more. For me, the level of biographical detail seemed just right. I am not trying to become a Keaton scholar. While a book focused narrowly on Keaton might have some dull moments, or a lot of dull moments, this book has the advantage of going off on tangents that enliven the narrative. So, for instance, I learned something about the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, a bit about the history of the circus in France and something about the difficulty of working under the hot lights of early cinema. My only complaint is that I felt the narrator read her book a little too fast. But this was easily corrected by adjusting the narration speed on my computer.
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- Robert Aiosa
- 02-15-22
terrific book
I enjoyed every facet of this book. I am very glad to have read it.
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- S.de Kok
- 02-16-22
A well written tribute
I really enjoyed this tribute to one of greatest of all time. Thank you!
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- Kevin coughlin
- 05-29-22
What an achievement!
Congrats to Dana Stevens on her fantastic jobs as researcher, writer and reader. I especially love the side issues she gets into such as Robert Sherwood’s life and his reviews of Buster’s work. Love the story from Geraldine Chaplin.
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- Dolly S.
- 10-31-23
Informative and entertaining
This is a great book that provides a lot of context and history around Buster Keaton's life and the entertainment industry. Narration is fantastic.
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- Vikon
- 05-05-22
Worth a listen, but only as a postscript to Curtis
Not a biography as the new Curtis book is, but rather a musing on aspects of 20th century culture that Keaton did not necessarily always play a part in. Written from a personal perspective, rather than an objective historical one, the author frequently refreshes our understanding of things that happened to interesting people in the early to later modern era, from Roscoe Arbuckle to Samuel Beckett. While some readers may find the connections strained or less insightful than the author does, the book still offers much to think about. In the end, I found the book disarmingly thoughtful and hauntingly sad, not because Keaton’s life was sad, but because the book often eulogizes the passing of both an art form and the world that originated it. Watch the films while you read, you’ll see things the author sometimes doesn’t. And don’t worry about the occasional factual errors, the author was not well served by the copy editor. The reading by the author is pleasant to listen too, but at times naive, with a childlike appreciation of Keaton’s art. In the end, from one who has been enjoying Keaton for 60 years, I am happy to say this book added to my application of him, and I think that’s the gift of this book.
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