American Showman: Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry, 1908–1935 (Film and Culture Series) - Hardcover

Melnick, Ross

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231159048 ISBN 13: 9780231159043

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

Review:

[An] eye-poppingly informative new book.... To paraphrase Frank Loesser's 'Guys and Dolls, ' with the publication of American Showman, the question 'What's playing at the Roxy?' can now be answered: 'First-rate cultural history.'--Mindy Aloff "Washington Post "

[An] exhaustive biography.--Ethan Mordden "Wall Street Journal "

Dr. Melnick skillfully captures the substance and durability of Rothafel's prolific life.--Sam Roberts "New York Times "

American Showman is a fascinating, passionate, and definitive biography of Samuel 'Roxy' Rothafel.... Melnick unveils aspects of Rothafel's career that change our understanding of American film history from the late 1910s to the early 1930s.--Charles Musser "Journal of American History "

For anyone interested in the historical transition from the Nickelodeon era to the classical Hollywood cinema, Ross Melnick's American Showman is a must read.--Jan-Christopher Horak "UCLA Film & Television Archive "

An impeccably researched and definitive study of Samuel 'Roxy' Rothafel--Bernard F. Dick "American Studies "

Roxy?'s extraordinary life, as Melnick illustrates, serves as a powerful lens through which to examine a dynamic age of cultural change in American life.--Josh Glick "Business History Review "

Anyone who cares about the development of film exhibition in the early 20th century should consider it essential reading... even a casual film buff will find much to enjoy... the book is well written and not overly burdened with jargon.--Leonard Maltin "Indiewire "

With so many greatly exaggerated reports of the death of cinema abroad, what a pleasure to read Ross Melnick's scrupulously researched, exhaustive biography of movie-palace impresario Samuel 'Roxy' Rothafel -- a biography that doubles as a cultural history, looking to a moment when the movies were the upstarts, making vaudeville and live theatre quake in their boots.--Nick Pinkerton "Sight & Sound "

[American Showman] provides valuable insight into Roxy's dynamic contemporary moment--one characterized by world military strife, economic downturn, and a blossoming of technological innovation.--Publishers Weekly

About the Author:

Ross Melnick is assistant professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D. in cinema and media studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a postdoctoral fellowship from Emory University. He has worked as a curator at the Museum of the Moving Image and in marketing for Loews Cineplex, Miramax, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and DreamWorks, and in film distribution for Sony Pictures. With Andreas Fuchs, he is the coauthor of Cinema Treasures.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0231159048
• ISBN 13: 9780231159043
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 576