| Before, In and After Hollywood: The Life of Joseph E. Henabery Contributor(s): Slide, Anthony (Author) |
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ISBN: 0810832003 ISBN-13: 9780810832008 Publisher: Scarecrow Press OUR PRICE: $86.13 Product Type: Hardcover Published: April 1997 Annotation: In 1914, a young midwesterner quit his railroad job to break into the Hollywood motion picture boom. Starting as a crowd extra, Joseph Henabery landed the coveted role of Lincoln in D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation. Impressed by Henabery's energy and honesty, Griffith made him his assistant for Intolerance. Later, as a director, Henabery worked at the major studios with stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino and knew C. B. DeMille, Erich von Stroheim, and Louis B. Mayer, among others. His silent-film career was crowned by the Paramount production of The Stranger, based on a John Galsworthy story. He pioneered sound short-subjects for Vitaphone Studios in Brooklyn and later directed World War II training films for the Army Signal Corps in Astoria. Between 1915 and the introduction of sound more than a decade later, silent film was a work in progress. Henabery, described by Griffith scholar Richard Schickel as an extraordinarily versatile and free-spoken man, contributed to the development of film, not only as a director, but also as a researcher, writer, makeup artist, actor, mechanic, architect, scenic designer, special effects innovator, and photographer. His autobiography, Before, In and After Hollywood, was completed in 1975 shortly before his death. Film students, historians, and scholars will find that it contains unique documentation of a fascinating era in film. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Performing Arts | Individual Director - Biography & Autobiography | Entertainment & Performing Arts |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 97000736 |
| Series: Scarecrow Filmmakers |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 5.76" W x 8.81" (1.11 lbs) 392 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In 1914, a young midwesterner quit his railroad job to crack the Hollywood motion picture boom. Impressed by his energy and honesty in his role as Lincoln, D.W. Griffith made him his assistant for Intolerance. Griffith then made Joe a director. He swiftly progressed to a preeminent position in the industry, directing some of the biggest Hollywood stars of the 1920's including Douglas Fairbanks, Fatty Arbuckle, and Rudolph Valentino. Versatility played an important role in Joe's rich creative life inside the studios. His understanding of the mechanics of motion-picture film led him to develop and be granted a patent for teaching speech to the deaf by visualizing sound. He pioneered sound short-subjects for the Vitaphone Studios in Brooklyn and later directed WWII training films for the Army Signal Corps in Astoria. Henabery contributed, not only as a director, but also as a researcher, writer, make-up artist/actor, architect, scenic designer, and special-effects innovator. His autobiography, Before, In and After Hollywood was completed in 1975 shortly before his death. Contains 24 black and white photographs. |