Product Description
by Leonard Maltin (Author)
What do The Little Rascals, The Three Stooges, and Laurel & Hardy have in common? They all achieved stardom in twenty-minute shorts-known as two-reelers-that delighted moviegoers long before television gave these films a new lease on life. Leonard Maltin documents the great series as well as the forgotten ones, peppering his ground-breaking research with first-hand accounts from the people who made these mini-movies. Here is a window into the vast world of "extra added attractions" that were a vital part of Hollywood's golden age. The cast of characters includes Mack Sennett, Hal Roach, W.C. Fields, Jack Benny, Robert Benchley, and many others...with spotlights on such popular titles as Crime Does Not Pay and John Nesbitt's Passing Parade (which turn up regularly on Turner Classic Movies). Maltin's definitive filmographies have been updated with new cast information for this e-book edition, which also features a newly-written introduction.
Author Biography
Leonard Maltin is one of the world's most respected film critics and historians. He is best known for his widely-used reference work Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide and its companion volume Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide, now in its third edition, as well as his thirty-year run on television's Entertainment Tonight. He teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and appears regularly on Reelz Channel and Turner Classic Movies. His books include The 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, The Great Movie Comedians, The Disney Films, The Art of the Cinematographer, Movie Comedy Teams, The Great American Broadcast, and Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, is a voting member of the National Film Registry, and was appointed by the Librarian of Congress to sit on the Board of Directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation. He hosted and co-produced the popular Walt Disney Treasures DVD series and has appeared on innumerable television programs and documentaries. He has been the recipient of awards from the American Society of Cinematographers, the Telluride Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and San Diego's Comic-Con International. Perhaps the pinnacle of his career was his appearance in a now-classic episode of South Park. (Or was it Carmela consulting his Movie Guide on an episode of The Sopranos?) He holds court at leonardmaltin.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook; you can also listen to him on his weekly podcast: Maltin on Movies with Baron Vaughn.
