The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row
Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures
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Book Presentation:
Ben Hecht called him "White Fang," and director Charles Vidor took him to court for verbal abuse. The image of Harry Cohn as vulgarian is such a part of Hollywood lore that it is hard to believe there were other Harry Cohns: the only studio president who was also head of production; the ex-song plugger who scrutinized scripts and grilled writers at story conferences; a man who could see actresses as either "broads" or goddesses. Drawing on personal interviews as well as previously unstudied source material (conference notes, memos, and especially the teletypes between Harry and his brother, Jack), Bernard Dick offers a radically different portrait of the man who ran Columbia Pictures—and who "had to be boss"—from 1932 to 1958.
About the Author:
Bernard F. Dick is professor emeritus of communications and English at Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck campus). He holds a doctorate in classics from Fordham University and is the author of numerous film books including Anatomy of Film, Hal Wallis, and That Was Entertainment.
Press Reviews:
The broadest and most insightful look at Cohn and Columbia we are likely to have for some time. -Film Quarterly
Ever since Cohn died in 1958, writers have been trying to sort out Cohn-the-myth and Cohn-the-man but no one has yet done it in more fascinating detail than Bernard Dick. -The Hollywood Reporter
Writers have been trying to sort out Cohn, the myth of Cohn, the man, but no one has yet done it in more fascinating detail than Bernard Dick. -Now Playing
The fast-paced volume is packed with the sort of critical analysis that film snobs will eat up along with plenty of hard facts and figures for for the dedicated film geek to crunch including budgets, star salaries, etc. -Hollywood North Magazine
See the publisher website: University Press of Kentucky
See the complete filmography of Harry Cohn on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
The Star-Spangled Screen (2022)
The American World War II Film
The Golden Age Musicals of Darryl F. Zanuck (2022)
The Gentleman Preferred Blondes
City of Dreams (2021)
The Making and Remaking of Universal Pictures
Engulfed (2021)
The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood
That Was Entertainment (2018)
The Golden Age of the MGM Musical
> On a related topic:
Grand National, Producers Releasing Corporation, and Screen Guild/Lippert (2011)
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Poverty Row Studios, 1929–1940 (2005)
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S. Sylvan Simon, Moviemaker (2021)
Adventures with Lucy, Red Skelton and Harry Cohn in the Golden Age of Hollywood
Subject: Director > S. Sylvan Simon
Columbia Pictures Movie Series, 1926–1955 (2012)
The Harry Cohn Years