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by Charles Ziarko (Author)
"More Stars Than There Are in Heaven " proclaimed MGM for over three decades---from a decade before the beginning of THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD (in May 1935) and until the day it decidedly died (in November 1956). Judy Garland, Tracy-&-Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly (and many, many others) all worked there, though not always happily and not always profitably. Their personal lives have been exhumed again and again and their professional careers excavated endlessly---but for the first time their FINANCIAL careers are examined in detail with sometimes surprising results THE SCHARY YEARS (1948-1956) were the end of The Golden Age, six decades ago, though the more than 200 movies that were made then live on (and on, and on...) even today. Why were the hits HITS? What made the flops CATASTROPHES? This detailed examination will answer (almost) all your questions and ignite your imagination with new ones as you relive MGM's glorious, delirious, declining "last days": THE SCHARY YEARS
Author Biography
DGA member CHARLES ZIARKO spent more than two decades standing one step behind The Great, The Near-Great (and the Not-So-Great) as Assistant Director on a variety of theatrical and television movies, as elevated as DELIVERANCE, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, THE AMAZING HOWARD HUGHES and the miniseries SHOGUN and as embarrassing as MEDICAL CENTER and SWAMP THING. After almost a quarter-century came Involuntary Retirement, as the next generation replaced him, and he moved on to "Gettyland", America's richest "destination museum" before finally embracing Voluntary retirement. ZIARKO edited the autobiography of his DGA mentor for the DGA Special Projects office ("FROM 'OZ' to 'E.T.': WALLY WORSLEY'S HALF-CENTURY IN HOLLYWOOD") and self-published a collection of movie dialogue that amused him ("'WHAT A DUMP!'---AND OTHER CANDID COMMENTS OF HOLLYWOOD SELF-APPRAISAL"). He's happily retired in the heart of Hollywood.
