An Everyman who expressed the defiant spirit of freedom, Charlie Chaplin was first lauded and later reviled by the audience that made him Hollywood’s richest man. He was a figure of multiple paradoxes, and Chaplin looks afresh at this classic comedian and his most recognizable character: The Tramp. Louvish charts the tale of the Tramp himself through his films—from the early Mack Sennett shorts through the major features (The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator) and weighs the relationship between the Tramp, his creator, and his worldwide fans. Chaplin is an epic journey, summing up the roots of Comedy and its appeal to audiences everywhere, who revelled in Chaplin’s raw energy, his ceaseless struggle against adver sity, and his capacity to represent our own fears, foibles, dreams, inner demons and hopes.
Sex goddess, Hollywood star, transgressive playwright, author, blues singer, and vaudeville brat---Mae West remains the twentieth century’s greatest comedienne. She made an everlasting mark in
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have remained, from 1927 to the present day, the screen's most famous and popular comedy double act, celebrated by legions of fans. But despite many books about their fi
Man on the Flying Trapeze is the first biography in decades -- and the only accurate one -- of the beloved cinematic curmudgeon and inimitable comic genius W. C. Fields. Simon Louvish brilliantly sif
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy both passed away in the 1950s, yet their films still have the power to reduce audiences old and new to helpless laughter. Laurel inspired Hardy to forge their famous doubl
Simon Louvish, acclaimed biographer of W C Fields, the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy, delves into the dynamic start of Hollywood comedy, tracking the life and clowns of one of cinema's foremost p
An Everyman who expressed the defiant spirit of freedom, Charlie Chaplin was first lauded and later reviled in the America that made him Hollywood's richest man. He was a figure of multiple paradoxes,
