Aubrey Malone

From her first appearances on the stage and screen, Maureen O'Hara (b. 1920) commanded attention with her striking beauty, radiant red hair, and impassioned portrayals of spirited heroines. Whether she was being rescued from the gallows by Charles Laughton (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1939), falling in love with Walter Pidgeon against a coal-blackened sky (How Green Was My Valley, 1941), learning to believe in miracles with Natalie Wood (Miracle on 34th Street, 1947), or matching wits with John Wayne (The Quiet Man, 1952), she charmed audiences with her powerful presence and easy confidence.Maureen O'Hara is the first book-length biography of the screen legend hailed as the "Queen of Technicolor." Following the star from her childhood in Dublin to the height of fame in Hollywood, film critic Aubrey Malone draws on new information from the Irish Film Institute, production notes from films, and details from historical film journals, newspapers, and fan magazines. Malone also examines the actress's friendship with frequent costar John Wayne and her relationship with director John Ford, and he addresses the hotly debated question of whether the screen siren was a feminist or antifeminist figure.Though she was an icon of cinema's golden age, O'Hara's penchant for privacy and habit of making public statements that contradicted her personal choices have made her an enigma. This breakthrough biography offers the first look at the woman behind the larger-than-life persona, sorting through the myths to present a balanced assessment of one of the greatest stars of the silver screen.

Ernest Hemingway created a style of writing that captivated a generation. Owing as much to music as it did to literature, it had a tonality that resonated like a drumbeat. Its hypnotic, incantatory nature was birthed under the mentoring eyes of Gertrude Stein and James Joyce during his literary apprenticeship and buffeted with the journalistic machismo of the hard-living, hard-drinking man of action he became afterwards. Despite the acres of words that have been written by and about him, Hemingway continues to elude biographers with his complexity. His first wife, Hadley Richardson, said he was more complex than geometry. Aubrey Malone captures him in all his guises here-from boxer to braggart, hunter to hero, fisherman to 'dangerous' friend. In the end, when he bagged his last trophy with a self-administered bullet to the head, he went against the 'grace under pressure' credo that had defined him for so much of his life. 'Ernest Hemingway: Flawed Genius' investigates the man behind the myth, a writer who was a mystery even to himself.

From stardom to struggle--discover the untold stories of Hollywood's brightest child stars. In Child Stars, take a vivid journey through the turbulent lives of 16 iconic child stars who captivated audiences and faced personal crises before, during, and after their rise to fame. This chronologically structured book begins with Jackie Coogan, the original child star, and ends with Drew Barrymore, a symbol of resilience in Hollywood's ever-changing landscape. Through detailed accounts, explore the ups and downs of Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Patty Duke, and many more. Discover how the pressures of fame affected their careers and personal lives, from the bright, shining days of youth to the shadows that followed. From Peggy Ann Garner's rise to stardom to Tatum O'Neal's turbulent adolescence, these are stories of triumph, heartache, and survival in an industry that often chews up its stars. This book delves into the untold stories of beloved icons like Hayley Mills, Jodie Foster, River Phoenix, and more, shedding light on how Hollywood shaped--and sometimes destroyed--them. Whether they faded into obscurity or fought to reclaim their lives, their stories are a testament to the challenges of growing up in the spotlight. An unforgettable exploration of the child stars who lit up the screen--and the struggles that followed.

Did you know that Brendan Behan once taught his cat to do an IRA salute? Or that he went into town one day to buy an electric toaster and came home with a pub instead? Or that Gerry Adams kept the ring pull of a hand grenade thrown at him so he could use it to hang keys off? Were you aware that Samuel Beckett refused interviews because he had "no views to inter"? Or that Ed Byrne is so pessimistic he even doubts the pessimism of other pessimists? These and hundreds of other nuggets of information are contained in this sequel to Aubrey Malone's "Daft as a Brush," also published by Penniless Press.

The French have an expression called l'esprit de l'escalier - the spirit of the staircase. It refers to the remark you thought of on the staircase from the room you were in, where all the witty rejoinders were flying and you stood mute and uninspired in the melee. This book should give you enough verbal ammunition to prevent such scenarios unfolding in the future. It contains the wit and wisdom of Quotable Notables, people who have espied the foibles and eccentricities of the human animal at work and play and come to some rather quirky conclusions about him/her.

Aubrey Malone grew up in Teeling Street - then Arthur Street - in Ballina in the fifties. He attended St. Muredach's College from 1964 to 1969. That was the year his father retired. The house was sold and the family moved to Dublin. Afterwards he attended UCD, studying English and Philosophy there. He was a Primary School teacher for ten years from the late seventies. From then on he devoted himself mainly to writing. He quotes from his poetry to link the various episodes of his life in this memoir, using them as stepping-stones to chart his journey from Ballina to Dublin and beyond. As the title indicates, the book focuses mainly on his books and how they came about.

Explore queer cinema over time with this comprehensive encyclopedia, helping readers understand films, directors, actors, themes, and other topics related to LGBTQ cinema history. Just as American society has changed dramatically from decade to decade, so has queer cinema. Taking us from a time when LGBTQ characters were often represented as either caricatures or figures of farce, this lively yet authoritative reference explores the sea change ushered in by such stars as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s and '40s, androgynous figures such as Montgomery Clift, James Dean, and Marlon Brando in the '50s, and closeted gay men such as Rock Hudson and Liberace, whose double lives were exposed by the scourge of AIDS. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on stars, directors, films, themes, and other topics related to queer cinema in America, including films and persons from outside the U.S. who nonetheless figured prominently in America popular culture. Entries cite works for further reading, sidebars provide snippets of interesting trivia, a timeline highlights key events, and a selected, general, end-of-work bibliography cites the most important major works on the topic.

John Huston's 'eastern Western' signaled the end of the careers of three major Hollywood figures. It was Marilyn Monroe's last completed film. Clark Gable died a fortnight after shooting ended. Montgomery Clift rumbled on for a few years but without doing much of note. It also signaled the end of Monroe's marriage to Arthur Miller. Miller wrote the screenplay as a 'gift' to his troubled wife but their marriage was already on the rocks by the time the cameras started rolling. Matters deteriorated further on the set, culminating in Monroe suffering a nervous breakdown in mid-shoot which led to the set being closed down while she recuperated. Aubrey Malone's book chronicles the background to this iconic film which changed the way people saw the old West. It also chronicles the on-set tensions, the squabbling and feuds and divided loyalties. Huston tried to hold everything together as he struggled with a gambling addiction that was too great a temptation to resist in the casinos of Reno. The dramas that took place behind the scenes were arguably as engrossing as anything that appeared in the film itself. Sample both sets of scenarios in this detailed study of a valentine to a bygone era.

John Huston's 'eastern Western' signaled the end of the careers of three major Hollywood figures. It was Marilyn Monroe's last completed film. Clark Gable died a fortnight after shooting ended. Montgomery Clift rumbled on for a few years but without doing much of note. It also signaled the end of Monroe's marriage to Arthur Miller. Miller wrote the screenplay as a 'gift' to his troubled wife but their marriage was already on the rocks by the time the cameras started rolling. Matters deteriorated further on the set, culminating in Monroe suffering a nervous breakdown in mid-shoot which led to the set being closed down while she recuperated. Aubrey Malone's book chronicles the background to this iconic film which changed the way people saw the old West. It also chronicles the on-set tensions, the squabbling and feuds and divided loyalties. Huston tried to hold everything together as he struggled with a gambling addiction that was too great a temptation to resist in the casinos of Reno. The dramas that took place behind the scenes were arguably as engrossing as anything that appeared in the film itself. Sample both sets of scenarios in this detailed study of a valentine to a bygone era.

Copiously illustrated both with stills from the film and candid shots of the stars between takes and off the set, this is the definitive study of Hollywood's definitive western.

Copiously illustrated both with stills from the film and candid shots of the stars between takes and off the set, this is the definitive study of Hollywood's definitive western.

Aubrey Malone's memoir begins with him entering life as the youngest of nine children born to Hugh Dillon-Malone, a colourful solicitor, in Ballina in 1953. His life is a hubbub with lots of activity both inside and outside his family home of Norfolk. There are also his various 'homes from home' - the Estoria cinema, the soccer grounds of Belleek, the beach at the nearby town of Enniscrone. His family moved to Dublin in 1969 after his father retired. Here he attended university, graduating with an Arts degree in 1975. He was a Primary teacher for a number of years before he drifted into freelance journalism and then book writing. The Last of Nine deals with his interest in films, books, music, sport and travel as he acclimatises to his new life in Dublin against the backdrop of everything from Big Brother to the Coronavirus.

'We're all losers in life in some way, ' Aubrey Malone contends in this memoir, 'but that's what makes us interesting.' It documents his college years in Ballina, County Mayo, where he suffered under an oppressive regime and eventually found closure on it. The book also features a court action taken by his father after he retired from being a solicitor and his own life as a teacher and subsequently a writer. As a background to these themes, his life-long flirtation with snooker is chronicled, both at league level where he played on the 'chicken and chips' circuit and in the top flight where he became 'a fan with a typewriter, ' chronicling the careers of legends like Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan. Another sub-theme is Gaelic football, the Mayo team mirroring his own one in Muredach's College. Success proved to be equally elusive here, the Nearly Men of Mayo failing to capture the holy grail of an All-Ireland for seventy years despite giving their all. 'I coulda been a contender, ' Marlon Brando said famously in On the Waterfront. Paul Newman could have been one too in The Hustler. In sport as in life the three cherries of success seem to constantly run away from those who crave them most. As a result they become beautiful...lose