The Some Like It Hot Companion by Laurence Maslon

Product Details

Synopsis

Selected as America's Funniest Movie by the American Film Institute, Some Like it Hot remains an undisputed classic fifty years after its release, as it continues to capture three of American culture's great preoccupations-jazz, gangsters, and Marilyn Monroe. The Official 50th Anniversary Companion details the history of this side-splitting farce from its roots as an obscure 1951 German film to its Hollywood conception, where Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond transposed the material to the Roaring Twenties and director Wilder cast the brilliant Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon in the starring roles.

As well as previously unpublished images, posters, and documents from the MGM archives, this book includes selections from the screenplay, casting notes, on-set production anecdotes, and location shots from the fabled Del Coronado in San Diego (doubling for Florida). In addition, songs and music used in the film's jazz era setting, background information on Chicago during Prohibition, the story of the Broadway and West End musical versions (one of which starred Tony Curtis), the previously undiscovered television pilot based on the movie, and the ongoing legacy of the most famous drag comedy in film history.

Featuring cameo appearances by Arthur Miller, Edward G. Robinson, Al Capone, Tommy Steele, Robert Morse, Tina Louise, and Tom Hanks, The Official 50th Anniversary Companion is the first book to tell the full story of Some Like it Hot from start to finish, from wig to high heels.

Biography

Laurence Maslon is an associate arts professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is the author of The Sound of Music Companion and The South Pacific Companion, and, with Michael Kantor, wrote the documentary series Broadway:The American Musical and Make 'Em Laugh, and their companion volumes. He lives in New York with his wife, Genevieve, their son, Miles, and their dog, Ruby.