Hollywood Unseen
ACC Editions
Talk about your familiar faces in unfamiliar situations: Boris Karloff in monster garb and makeup for “Bride of Frankenstein” drinking a cup of tea, very civilized; W.C. Fields dressed for tennis; young Marilyn Monroe reading the LA phone book; Humphrey Bogart snapping a picture of his dog, Sluggy. While the photos in this fine collection might look candid, most were in fact shot by studio lensmen tasked with showing the “ordinary lives” of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Particularly popular: holiday-themed pictures they could give to magazines, like this Fourth of July look from Jayne Mansfield. Taken from the archive of the John Kobal Foundation, it’s filled with gorgeous pictures — long-hidden — of the gorgeous people from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs
Random House
If you’re crazy about canines, bark yourself on the couch, grab a treat and crack open this volume. A James Thurber story leads off each of the book’s sections: “Good Dogs,” “Bad Dogs,” “Top Dogs” and “Underdogs.” And you can enjoy Roald Dahl on greyhound racing, Susan Orlean on Rin Tin Tin, and other rover revelations by the likes of E.B White, Roger Angell and Ogden Nash.
Art of the Dead
edited by Philip Cushway
Softskull Press
Almost as much as their music, the posters inspired by the Grateful Dead left their mark. Coming from the streets of San Francisco starting in 1965, they showed influences of Japanese wood blocks, the Belle Époch era, beatniks and acid-droppers. The five most-noted artists — Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso — are profiled and interviewed.
Elizabeth Taylor
A Shining Legacy on Film
by Cindy De La Hoz
Running Press
The violet-eyed beauty has been in the news of late, thanks to a cheesy cable flick with Lindsay Lohan as Liz. But here, you can get your fill of the real deal. Film historian De La Hoz goes through Taylor’s filmography, beginning with her part as a pudding-maker’s daughter in “There’s One Born Every Minute” (1942) and ending with the 2001 TV movie “These Old Broads.” For each film, we get photos, credits, review excerpts and off-screen tidbits. Liz’s love life also gets a nod, with a 10-page (naturally!) photo timeline.
Reporting the Revolutionary War
Before It Was History, It Was News
by Todd Andrlik
Sourcebooks
Newspaper archivist and historian Andrlik’s book gives us original reports from the Boston Tea Party in 1773. American papers at the time, such as the Boston Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal (The New York Post didn’t start publishing till 1801), helped fan the flames of rebellion against the British. He reprints news from the Battle of Bunker Hill, the First Continental Congress and Valley Forge. Read all about it the way Americans did when it happened.
Mars Attacks
Abrams Comic Books
Geek alert! In 1962, Topps produced the “Mars Attacks” sci-fi trading card series, which depicted battle scenes with Martians and were denounced at the time as being too graphic. The cards were even an inspiration for a 1996 Tim Burton film by that name. Now, all 55 cards have been reproduced — front and back.
The Rolling Stones 50
Hyperion
For kids today who just see Mick and Keith & Co. as a bunch of wrinkly old guys who don’t know when to quit, this 350-page celebration of the Stones’ first half-century shows the rockers were once young, too. See the lads in matching plaid sport jackets in 1963 (before they went “bad”). And check out the cool early-concert posters — on one bill with Bo Diddley and the Everly Brothers. With contact sheets, album-cover outtakes, publicity and performance shots, old news stories, peppered with short stories or quotes from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood, there’s plenty for Stones fans to get satisfaction.
Her Majesty
by Reuel Golden and Christopher Warwick
Taschen
If you didn’t quite get enough of Queen Elizabeth during her Diamond Jubilee celebrations earlier this year, these monarch notes are for you. Her story of traveling the globe in her 60 years on the throne and maintaining her stiff upper lip for every occasion, is told through hundreds of photos (from the Royal Collection and many other archives) — of both her public and private life. Check out the fashion, culture, celebs, everyday people and the queen’s ever-changing hats. It’s all here.
New York at Night
edited by Norma Stevens & Yolanda Cuomo
Powerhouse Books
It’s the city that never sleeps, so it’s no surprise New York would have its own book of its after-dark activities. Photographers range from Berenice Abbott to James Van Der Zee and include Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Weegee, Fred McDarrah, Irving Penn, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Platzer and Jacob Riis. From street people to the privileged, nightclubs to living rooms, it shows our city as tough and tender as it really is.
Stanley Cup
120 Years of Hockey Supremacy
by Eric Zweig
Firefly
For all the hockey fans locked out of the NHL season along with the players, here’s a way to relive better days. (And who knew Lord Stanley served three stints as prime minister of England?) It’s easy to find the Rangers’ latest championships (1994, 1940) because it’s all in chronological order, with a spread or a bit more on each Stanley Cup winner. Photos, rosters, stats, trivia and other tidbits should warm frozen fans longing for some fast puck action.
Mad’s Greatest Artists
Mort Drucker — Five Decades of His Finest Work
by Mort Drucker
Running Press
Before there was The Onion, Comedy Central or even “Saturday Night Live,” we had MAD magazine to spoof our popular culture. And we had Mort Drucker who was behind most of the movie and TV parodies. Drucker became so admired, that George Lucas flew to his Long Island home to beg him to illustrate the poster for “American Graffiti.”
Vogue: The Editor’s Eye
edited by Eve McSweeney
Abrams
Happy birthday to fashion bible Vogue; it’s 120 years old! To help celebrate is a stylish book focusing on the eight still-living top editors, starting with Babs Simpson, who helmed the glossy from 1947 to 1972), and having them tell us how they worked with the great photographers and their model-muses. With a forward by Anna Wintour.
Norman Bel Geddes Designs America
edited by Donald Albrecht
Abrams
Bel Geddes (1893-1958) was a visionary industrial designer, a “grand master of modernism,” whose influence is still felt today from stadiums to movie sets. Perhaps his most renowned work was the Futurama exhibit at the 1939-40 New York Worlds Fair — a massive model of an entire city as envisioned in 1960. Here, we get photos, plans and sketches.
I Say, I Say . . . Son!
A Tribute to Legendary Animators Bob, Chuck, and Tom McKimson
by Robert McKimson Jr.
Santa Monica Press
What’s up, doc, indeed! Three of the most influential and acclaimed animators in history, the McKimson brothers created such memorable characters as Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil and Speedy Gonzales. “I Say” is packed with preliminary drawings (such as Elmer, left), color cells, character sketches and info on the beginnings and behind-the-scenes goings-on about these brilliant cartoons.
Extinct Boids
by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy
Bloomsbury
Only a pair of strange birdbrained Brits such as Steadman — known here for his “Fear and Loathing” illustrations — and Levi, a filmmaker, could come up with this homage to our feathered friends. Steadman’s crazed drawings, dripping with color — his own interpretations — makes this book take flight. His Lesser Peruvian Blue-beaked Blotswerve (whose guano was desired by guano harvesters), among his 100 works, is unforgettable. Part of the proceeds will go to bird conservation.
360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story
by Sean Wilentz
Chronicle Books
This gorgeously illustrated 336-page tome on perhaps the most influential record company is for the vinylphile in your life. From its beginnings 125 years ago, the roster of Columbia artists includes John Philip Sousa, Al Jolson, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Dylan, Springsteen, Destiny’s Child (above) and Adele. Among its innovations, Columbia was the first to produce double-sided records in the early 1900s. And it was Columbia that had artist Alex Steinweiss create the first album cover in 1940.
John Wayne: The Legend and the Man
An Exclusive Look Inside the Duke’s Archives
Powerhouse Books
If the title was “Marion Morrison: The Legend and the Man,” film fans might think twice. But that was The Duke’s name before he changed it for Hollywood — and this book offers not only photos from Wayne’s heyday, but from long before his “True Grit” Oscar, like as a football star at USC. It’s all culled from Wayne’s personal collection — and includes family photos as well as shots from his great films such as “Rio Grande,” “Sands of Iwo Jima,” “The Quiet Man,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “Fort Apache” and “The Alamo.” Like a scrapbook, it also includes fan mail, photos with friends and all sorts of Wayne memorabilia.