Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2003 From Tom Joad to Norma Rae to Spike Lee's Mookie in Do the Right Thing, Hollywood has regularly dramatized the lives and struggles of working people in America. Ranging from idealistic to hopeless, from sympathetic to condescending, these portrayals confronted audiences with the vital economic, social, and political issues of their times while providing a diversion—sometimes entertaining, sometimes provocative—from the realities of their own lives. In Blue-Collar Hollywood, John Bodnar examines the ways in which popular American films made between the 1930s and the 1980s depicted working-class characters, comparing these cinematic representations with the aspirations of ordinary Americans and the promises made to them by the country's political elites. Based on close and imaginative viewings of dozens of films from every genre—among them Public Enemy, Black Fury, Baby Face, The Grapes of Wrath, It's a Wonderful Life, I Married a Communist, A Streetcar Named Desire, Peyton Place, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Coal Miner's Daughter, and Boyz N the Hood—this book explores such topics as the role of censorship, attitudes toward labor unions and worker militancy, racism, the place of women in the workforce and society, communism and the Hollywood blacklist, and faith in liberal democracy. Whether made during the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, or the Vietnam era, the majority of films about ordinary working Americans, Bodnar finds, avoided endorsing specific political programs, radical economic reform, or overtly reactionary positions. Instead, these movies were infused with the same current of liberalism and popular notion of democracy that flow through the American imagination.

Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2003 From Tom Joad to Norma Rae to Spike Lee's Mookie in Do the Right Thing, Hollywood has regularly dramatized the lives and struggles of working people in America. Ranging from idealistic to hopeless, from sympathetic to condescending, these portrayals confronted audiences with the vital economic, social, and political issues of their times while providing a diversion—sometimes entertaining, sometimes provocative—from the realities of their own lives. In Blue-Collar Hollywood, John Bodnar examines the ways in which popular American films made between the 1930s and the 1980s depicted working-class characters, comparing these cinematic representations with the aspirations of ordinary Americans and the promises made to them by the country's political elites. Based on close and imaginative viewings of dozens of films from every genre—among them Public Enemy, Black Fury, Baby Face, The Grapes of Wrath, It's a Wonderful Life, I Married a Communist, A Streetcar Named Desire, Peyton Place, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Coal Miner's Daughter, and Boyz N the Hood—this book explores such topics as the role of censorship, attitudes toward labor unions and worker militancy, racism, the place of women in the workforce and society, communism and the Hollywood blacklist, and faith in liberal democracy. Whether made during the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, or the Vietnam era, the majority of films about ordinary working Americans, Bodnar finds, avoided endorsing specific political programs, radical economic reform, or overtly reactionary positions. Instead, these movies were infused with the same current of liberalism and popular notion of democracy that flow through the American imagination.

The Life of a Blue Collar Actor details the life of a young man that became a working actor from a tobacco farm in North Carolina ,and literally went from Tobacco Road to Buckingham Palace by way of the New York Theatre and Hollywood Films.

In The Life of a Blue-Collar Actor, we follow Jordan Rhode's incredible television and Hollywood career that spans over 55 years. And he is still going strong! Jordan has appeared on some of the most legendary TV shows in starring roles working alongside some of the best-known actors of our day. In television he is best known for his roles on The Streets of San Francisco, Quincy, Barnaby Files, The Rockford Files, Marcus Welby, MD and Matlock. He starred in some of the most legendary movies-of-the-week, The Blue and the Grey starring Gregory Peck and Stacy Keach, Once and Eagle starring Sam Elliot, and Testimony of Two Men, plus the cult classic, The Nightstalker starring Darren McGavin to mention a few. Most recently he is known for Marooned, All the Kings Men, The Indian Runner and House of Good and Evil as "Evil". In this memoir, Jordan recounts his adventures and close friendships with Sean Penn, Robert Wagner and Chuck Connors as well as working with the biggest name in film and TV including, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Charles Bronson, Michael Douglas, Gene Hackman, Jodie Foster, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Rush, James Garner, Stephanie Powers, Jill St. John, Nick Nolte, Leslie Nielsen, Karl Malden, Viggo Mortensen, David Morse, Patricia Arquette, and Linda Cristal to name a few. In 2008 Jordan wrote Produced and starred in the acclaimed stage show PAPA, The Man, The Myth, The Ledged a one-man show which begins and ends on the morning of July 2, 1961, the last day of Hemmingway's life. Told in flashback, PAPA presents the triumphs and tragedies of Hemmingway's fascinating life. Jordan toured the show to many cities around the United States to great critical acclaim. PAPA will get a Broadway revival in 2021.

Sometimes heroes need saving too. Three single women. Three hot first responders. Three first dates. Will there be three happily ever afters? THIS BOX SET INCLUDES… Best Laid Plans (Blue Collar Brothers #0.5) Join Maddie, Vanessa and Lauren as they attend the first responder bachelor auction and come up with a fun idea sure to keep the bidding interesting. Flirting With Fire (Blue Collar Brothers #1) A first responder bachelor auction leads to Maddie winning a date with her former high school crush and now firefighter, Mauro Bianco. It was only supposed to be one date, but as always, the universe has other plans and somehow, they turn into business partners. Crushing on the Cop (Blue Collar Brothers #2) Police Officer Cristian Bianco never planned to date his Commander’s daughter, no matter how good looking she is. But when she wins him at the bachelor auction, he’s left with no choice. He quickly finds out she’s gotten herself into a dangerous situation and decides to help her figure out an exit plan. Engaged to the EMT (Blue Collar Brothers #3) Paramedic Luca Bianco would never have thought he’d ask his arch nemesis to be his fake fiancée. He might have had a crush on Lauren back in high school, but that was then. Unfortunately, even he sees their head-on collision and he’s powerless to press on the brakes. Blue Collar Quarantine (Blue Collar Brothers #3.5) Life gets complicated when Chicago is put in lockdown and all three first responders must continue working. Especially, when the Bianco women get moved in together with Ma and Pa Bianco. PLUS an extra Mauro and Maddie BONUS scene! What happens with Mauro decides to make a special dinner for Maddie? She becomes dessert.

Tips, tales, and recollections to help you get in the acting game.

White Masculinity in Crisis in Hollywood’s Fin de Millennium Cinema claims that Hollywood cinema had a significant relationship with the millennial crisis of masculinity. From Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) and American Psycho (Harron, 2000), to Office Space (Judge, 1999), The Matrix (Wachowski’s, 1999) and American Beauty (Mendes, 1999), Pete Deakin attests that alongside the emergent “crisis” came a definitive body of some twenty-five Hollywood “crisis” titles; each film with a representational concern for the apparent “masculine malaise”. Asking whether Hollywood helped create, propel or sooth the very notion of the crisis-of-masculinity at this time, Deakin engages with some important cultural questions: how discursive—or even authentic—was it, and more vitally, whose actual crisis was this? To this end, scholars of film studies, media studies, gender studies, history, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.