Author | Sam Wasson |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Nonfiction |
Published | 2020 |
Publisher | Faber & Faber |
ISBN | 0571347630 |
The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood is a 2020 nonfiction book written by Sam Wasson. [1] [2] [3]
The true story of the making of the film Chinatown .
The Los Angeles Times wrote "Sam Wasson's fascinating and page-turning description of the talent and ideas behind 'Chinatown' is more than a mere biography of a landmark movie; it aims to flesh out the wild and woolly era that incubated it, roughly the late 1960s to the late 1970s, and in this it mostly succeeds." [2]
PopMatters said "The Big Goodbye is a graceful and worthwhile elegy to a time dear to those who are lucky enough to remember it." [4]
George William Peppard was an American actor. He secured a major role as struggling writer Paul Varjak when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and later portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers (1964). On television, he played the title role of millionaire insurance investigator and sleuth Thomas Banacek in the early-1970s mystery series Banacek. He played Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, the cigar-smoking leader of a renegade commando squad in the 1980s action television series The A-Team.
Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. The film was inspired by the California water wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, released by Paramount Pictures, was the director's last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
Robert Towne is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He started with writing films for Roger Corman including The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). Later, he became a well-known figure of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest screenplays. Towne also wrote the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), and the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975). He is also known for his collaborations with Tom Cruise on the films Days of Thunder (1990), The Firm (1993) and the first two installments of Mission: Impossible franchise.
Robert Louis Fosse was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), and Chicago (1975). He directed the films Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1975), All That Jazz (1979), and Star 80 (1983).
Ghost is a 1990 American romantic fantasy film directed by Jerry Zucker from a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, and starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, Vincent Schiavelli, and Rick Aviles. The plot centers on Sam Wheat (Swayze), a murdered banker, whose ghost sets out to save his girlfriend, Molly Jensen (Moore), from the person who killed him – through the help of the psychic Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg).
Irwin Lawrence "Paul" Mazursky was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he was nominated for five Academy Awards for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), An Unmarried Woman (1978), Harry and Tonto (1974), and Enemies, A Love Story (1989). He is also known for directing such films as Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Moon over Parador (1988), and Scenes from a Mall (1991).
Chinatown is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles, California, that became a commercial center for Chinese and other Asian businesses in Central Los Angeles in 1938. The area includes restaurants, shops, and art galleries, but also has a residential neighborhood with a low-income, aging population of about 20,000 residents.
Sparks is an American pop and rock duo formed by brothers Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals) in Los Angeles. The duo is noted for their quirky approach to songwriting; their music is often accompanied by sophisticated and acerbic lyrics—often about women, and sometimes containing literary or cinematic references—and an idiosyncratic, theatrical stage presence, typified by the contrast between Russell's animated, hyperactive frontman antics and Ron's deadpan scowling. Russell Mael has a distinctive wide-ranging voice, while Ron Mael plays keyboards in an intricate and rhythmic style. Their frequently changing styles and visual presentations have kept the band at the forefront of modern, artful pop music.
iCarly is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider, which originally aired on Nickelodeon from September 8, 2007, to November 23, 2012. The series tells the story of Carly Shay, a teenager who creates and hosts her own web show called iCarly with her best friends Sam and Freddie in the apartment loft that she and her older brother Spencer live in. As the web show quickly becomes an internet phenomenon, the characters are tasked with balancing their normal teenage lives with the wacky situations their newfound fame lands them in. By the fourth season, their school friend Gibby also works with them on the web show.
The Pierces are an American, Los Angeles-based band, consisting of sisters Allison and Catherine Pierce.
Sam Weller is an American journalist and author, best known as writer Ray Bradbury's authorized biographer.
"Too Late for Goodbyes" is the first single from Julian Lennon's debut studio album Valotte (1984). It featured the harmonica of Jean "Toots" Thielemans, and it was a top-10 hit, reaching No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart in November 1984, and No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in late March 1985. B-side "Big Mama" has been described by Lennon as "semi-hard rock".
"Goodbye Cruel World" is a song by British pop act Shakespears Sister, released in September 1991 as the lead single from their second album, Hormonally Yours (1992). Initially, the song had little commercial impact, reaching #59 on the UK Singles Chart. Following the success of the album, the song was re-released as a single in July 1992, slightly remixed, this time reaching #32.
In Time is the seventh studio album released by the Americana-neotraditional country-Tex-Mex band The Mavericks on February 26, 2013, on the Valory Music Group label, which is owned by Big Machine Records. The album was produced by Niko Bolas and Raul Malo. The album has achieved praise from the critics and according to Metacritic has garnered "universal acclaim".
Anthea Sylbert is an American film producer and costume designer, who was active during the "modern era" of American film. She was nominated twice for Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, first at the 47th Academy Awards for Chinatown (1974), and then at the 50th Academy Awards for her work on Julia (1977). In addition, she has more than ten credits as producer or executive producer, including for such works as CrissCross (1991) and the television film Truman (1995), the latter of which earned Sylbert an Emmy. At the 7th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards in 2005, Sylbert was an honoree, receiving the Lacoste Career Achievement award for film.
We Fall is the debut studio album by American music producer Emile Haynie, released on February 24, 2015, by Interscope Records. The album features guest appearances from Andrew Wyatt, Brian Wilson, Rufus Wainwright, Lana Del Rey, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sampha, Dev Hynes, Nate Ruess, Colin Blunstone, Lykke Li, Romy Madley Croft, Randy Newman, Father John Misty, Thomas Bartlett a.k.a. Doveman and Julia Holter.
Interior Chinatown is a 2020 novel by Charles Yu. It is his second novel and was published by Pantheon Books on January 28, 2020. It won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The novel was also longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was shortlisted for the Prix Médicis étranger.
"Not the End of the World" is a song by American singer Katy Perry from her sixth studio album Smile (2020). It was released on December 21, 2020, by Capitol Records as the third single from the album. It was written by the singer, Michael Pollack, Madison Love, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, and Andrew Goldstein, and was produced by Goldstein and Oscar Görres. Built off the interpolation of a melody from Steam's 1969 song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", it is a techno-pop and trap-pop track with an underlying disco and techno beat. A self-empowerment cut, with the lyrics about the positivity and Perry's indifference to her haters. Compared to her 2013 single "Dark Horse", the song left music commentary divided. Some of them depreciated the single's message in context to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I Cram to Understand U (Sam)" is the debut single by American rapper MC Lyte, in which features their DJ, DJ K-Rock, released in 1987. The song was part of her first album Lyte as a Rock, released the following year.
Sam Wasson is an American author and publisher, who often writes about the history of cinema in Hollywood. His works include the biography Fosse, the history books Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art and The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood and the co-authored Hollywood: The Oral History.