Mark Hellinger, beloved newspaperman, whose Broadway column was read daily by 22,000,000 people, and whose years as a Hollywood producer were marked by such outstanding successes as “High Sierra,” “The Killers,” and “Naked City,” died in 1947 in his forty-fifth year. In this book, Jim Bishop, who was his secretary, takes us behind the scenes to live again, the life of a man who “went everywhere, saw everything, and did everything—without exultation or remorse.” Rich with the nostalgic echoes of a note-too-distant past, THE MARK HELLINGER STORY is a magnificent account of a fabulous era—Broadway of the twenties and thirties, from the colossal glamour of the Follies, Vanities, and Scandals to the trenchant wit and lilting tunes of the Little Shows, with the heady smell of printer’s ink and the roar of the night presses; the vast canvas of Hollywood in the silent days, and its sudden rebirth with sound. It is the story, too, of a man who crammed into a lifetime more living than most people will ever know. In the words of Jim Bishop, Hellinger “spent time as though he had stolen it and couldn’t find a fence.”

Hollywood in Crisis is a detailed study of the workings of the American film industry during the 1930s. Colin Schindler, looking at Hollywood as an agent of Roosevelt's New Deal and the attempts made by film moguls and movie makers to withstand the political turmoil that threatened to engulf America. Schindler illustrates how the studios and their products, from the glamour of MGM stars and escapist musicals to gangster movies and Westerns, even to the 'radical' films of the Warner studios, helped foster ideas of social unity and patriotism.

"A thrilling Jazz Age chronicle of America's first gangster couple, Margaret and Richard Whittemore"--