Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Arts & Entertainment

From the comic mind of the one and only Jonathan Winters comes this side-splitting collection of the comedian's most off-the-wall antics and impressions. Grandma Frickert, Chester Honeyhugger, and other comic characters all make appearances on this best-of compilation.

More than 85 years after his untimely death at just age 37, Irving Thalberg remains a legendary Hollywood figure. Called the “Boy Wonder of Hollywood,” Thalberg quickly climbed the ranks at MGM studios to become one of the most powerful and high-profile producers of the time, elevating filmmaking to an art form. In this definitive biography, Bob Thomas brings Thalberg's legend to life, recounting how the producer's remarkable talent for developing stars and scripts led to the creation of beloved movies such as Ben-Hur, Romeo and Juliet, and Camille.

Here are legendary director, producer, screenwriter, author, and actor Orson Welles' historic interpretations of excerpts from classic literature. Includes selections from Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince', H.G. Wells' "The Red Room", Saki's "Shredni Vashtar", Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer", Rudyard Kipling's "Riki-Tikii-Tavi", Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wakefield", Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart", and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde".

Here's the unauthorized, best-selling biography of one of America's brightest - and most flamboyantly glamorous - stars. Elizabeth Taylor has beguiled audiences since National Velvet, and her many loves and peccadilloes have provided endless spice and interest for the movie-going and star-watching public. Biographer Kitty Kelley tells all - even the parts Liz would rather keep secret! - in this uncensored biography.

Recorded live at the Friar's Club in New York City, this collection of stand-up routines features some of the greatest American comedians at the height of their comic skills. Presented by Joey Adams—and with introductions by television legends Milton Berle and Phyllis Diller—this recording captures performances by Norm Crosby, Freddie Roman, Soupy Sales, and Henny Youngman. In this nostalgic, hysterical collection, you'll laugh all the way through hundreds of hilarious jokes, gags, and putdowns.

Debuting at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1991, Catskills of Broadway was a critically acclaimed show that played to sold-out houses for more than a year, followed by a national tour. This audio recording captures the hilarity provided by comedians Dick Capri, Louise Duart, Mal Z. Lawrence, and Freddie Roman.

There are certain defining events that occur to people. The sort of things we tend to use as markers in the timetables of our lives. Birth and Deaths. Marriages and Divorces. Windfalls and Calamities. They become the things that other things happen before and after. These events scramble our sensibilities to leave us blinking at the landscape like we've never seen it before. I was exploded at about seven o'clock in the morning, May 27, 1975, down a long, dusty road outside of Medford, Oregon. It's taken this long for all the pieces to come back together again - and here they are.

Terrify your friends and the neighborhood trick-or-treaters with these terrifying screams, horrifying moans, and bloodcurdling shrieks all backed by the sounds of an eerie organ during a thunderous storm and narrated by the chilling voice of a demonic monster.

Conceived and developed by Steve Allen, the award-winning PBS-TV series Meeting of Minds brought together the most provocative figures of history for conversation and conflict. The result is an outrageously stimulating exchange of ideas - the ultimate talk show moderated appropriately by the man who created The Tonight Show.

Historical personalities appearing on this volume II are President Ulysses S. Grant, Queen Marie Antoinette, Sir Thomas More, and Karl Marx.

Conceived and developed by Steve Allen, the award-winning PBS-TV series Meeting of Minds brought together the most provocative figures of history for conversation and conflict. The result is an outrageously stimulating exchange of ideas - the ultimate talk show moderated by the man who created The Tonight Show. Conceived and developed by Steve Allen, the award-winning PBS-TV series Meeting of Minds brought together the most provocative figures of history for conversation and conflict. The result is an outrageously stimulating exchange of ideas - the ultimate talk show moderated by the man who created The Tonight Show. Historical personalities appearing on this Volume III are Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Galileo Galilei, and Attila the Hun.

Conceived and developed by Steve Allen, the award-winning PBS-TV series Meeting of Minds brought together the most provocative figures of history for conversation and conflict. Historical personalities appearing on this Volume IV are Frederick Douglass; Empress Tz'u-hsi; Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio; and Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade.

Conceived and developed by Steve Allen, the award-winning PBS-TV series Meeting of Minds brought together the most provocative figures of history for conversation and conflict. Historical personalities debating on this Volume V are Martin Luther, Voltaire, Plato, and Florence Nightingale.

Narrating his riveting memoir, beloved actor Dick Van Patten reflects on his prolific career, vibrant life, and the people who shaped both. From growing up during the Great Depression when poverty and racially biased ideologies dominated America, to witnessing the advent of television and its subsequent influence on culture, Dick Van Patten's life is a rich record of change and progress in America and Hollywood.

Nine-time Emmy Award winner and icon of American comedy, Carl Reiner, performs a sweet, wry, and whimsical collection of 25 multi-dimensional short stories - some true and others merely tales. Together they represent the poignant, nostalgic, and laugh-out loud funny genius of this comedic superstar.

In the days when Hollywood films were cranked out the way Detroit turned out automobiles, one man clung to the belief that a motion picture was like a painting created and signed by a single artist.

Dave Barry didn't know what he was letting himself in for when he invited his Legion of Alert Readers to submit their nominees in the Bad Song Survey. "Song badness," he soon learned, "is an issue that Americans care deeply about."Now John Ritter and Arte Johnson present for you the songs that Americans love to hate. There is Gary Puckett and the Union Gap Band's "Young Girl" ("Young girl, get out of my mind, my love for you is way out of line..."), which is not to be confused with "Woman", and "This Girl Is a Woman Now"....

Conceived and developed by Steve Allen, the award-winning PBS-TV series Meeting of Minds brought together the most provocative figures of history for conversation and conflict. Volume XII, the final gathering of brilliant ambassadors from the past, brings together three strong personalities whose profound disagreements make frequent bursts of dispute inevitable.

This is an equal opportunity recording! No race, sex, ethnic group, religion, profession or recreational activity escapes the slings and arrows of this outrageous compendium of jokes, barbs and fabricated anecdotes. From mother superiors to ventriloquists, from hat-check girls to senators, everybody gets a dose of not-so-gentle humility in the course of this merciless, raunchy performance.

Most of us have no concept of what goes into creating a show, getting it on the air, and keeping it on. Perhaps we assume that the people in charge simply decide what amuses them at the moment, make those shows, stick them on, and wait to see if the public responds. Or maybe they just throw darts at a board? The truth, as with most things, is more complicated. In "Hello," Lied the Agent, Ian Gurvitz has produced a corrosively funny insider's look at what being a television writer is really all about.

Conceived and developed by Steve Allen, the award-winning PBS-TV series Meeting of the Minds brought together the most provocative figures of history for conversation and conflict.