Ted Okuda

Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows is the first comprehensive look at Chicago’s horror movie programs, from their inception in 1957 to the present.

From the late 1940’s through the early 1970’s, local TV stations created a golden age of children’s television. These programs were rich in imagination, inventiveness, and devoted fans. This book tells the back stories and details of the special Chicago children's programming created during this period.

Dorothy Lee is best remembered for her screen appearances with the popular comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. She went from being a struggling vaudeville performer to the female vocalist in one of the most successful bands in the country to a star in the new-fangled "talking pictures" all within the span of a few short years. During the Great Depression, she lived a fairy-tale existence, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood luminaries and earning an income that most people could only dream of. She retired and balanced domestic life with charity work. And she saw, to her amazement, a revived interest in the movie career she had written off long ago. Based on years of conversations between the authors and Dorothy Lee, this book is an informative biography filled with revealing insights on navigating the studio system during Hollywood's Golden Age and the ephemeral nature of fame.

Using interviews with Jerry Lewis and many of his co-stars, this book analyzes his collaborative efforts with Dean Martin, his subsequent solo work, his writing and directorial careers, and later movies such as Hardly Working (1979) and The King of Comedy (1982). Comprehensive data are provided for each of the films, with cast and production credits, studio, release date, and running time. Lewis's own reflections on his work are included for many of the entries.

Long before his momentous teaming with Oliver Hardy, comedian Stan Laurel (1890-1965) was a motion picture star in his own right. From his film debut in Nuts in May (1917) through his final solo starring effort Should Tall Men Marry? (1928), Laurel headlined dozens of short comedies for a variety of producers and production companies, often playing characters far removed from the meek, dimwitted "Stanley" persona that we know and love. This is a film-by-film look at the pictures Stan made as a solo artist, as well as those he wrote and directed for other stars, shows his development as a movie comedian and filmmaker. Comedy legend Jerry Lewis, a longtime friend and admirer of Stan Laurel, provides an affectionate and eloquent foreword. Included are several rare photographs and production stills.

Throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, several independent film production companies (referred to a ""poverty row"" studios) turned out hundreds of ""B"" movies--low-budget feature films that were specifically designed to play the bottom half of the double bills. This handy reference focuses on the output of three of these independents--Grand National (1936-1939), Producers Releasing Corporation (1939-1948), and Screen Guild/Lippert (1945-1955). Here are studio histories and details on all their output (title of movie, director, producer, writer, cast, plot, synopsis, running time, release date, and more). Films are covered chronologically by release date.

Monogram Pictures Corporation, one of several famed "poverty row" studios, produced over 700 feature films--cheap, often inept, frequently forgettable, but so inexpensive profit was unavoidable. The Bowery Boys and Charlie Chan series were extremely popular. This, the first such reference book, corrects errors in other sources while giving movie titles, casts, credits, plot synopses, running times, release dates, alternate and remake titles.

Columbia produced over 500 two-reel shorts from 1933 through 1958, with Hollywood's finest comics (the Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, others). Fully illustrated with never-before-published photographs, the book chronicles the history of all, including interviews with the veterans. The filmography covers all of the 526 two-reelers: credits, date, synopsis.