We love to promote the works of our Authors when we can, and today is one of those fine days! Our Author Ralph Schiller has penned a new book about one of the old time stars we baby boomers remember from theatres and television that is all but forgotten today except for TCM showings, and hardcore classic film buffs. The Complete Films of Broderick Crawford is a gem of a book and here are some more details:
From Amazon.com…:
Today the name Broderick Crawford means nothing to twenty-first century young people. As far as they’re concerned, All The King’s Men is a miserable movie starring Sean Penn! They have absolutely no idea that way back in the twentieth century Broderick Crawford was a highly-paid major box-office Hollywood film star who made over ninety motion pictures. He also won the prized Academy Award Oscar for “Best Actor In A Starring Role”. On top of that he starred in an enormously successful, blockbuster television series that ran for decades in world-wide syndication making him an unpaid babysitter for an entire generation of baby boomers. In the pages of this book, the reader will discover an extraordinary actor and film star with an incredible body of work. He enjoyed a durable career in show business spanning forty-five years that hit Hollywood’s lofty heights and bottom-scraping depths more than once.
Reviews:
Comparing the Golden Age of Hollywood to the New Hollywood that exists in the millennium – the foundation, structure and every aspect is impossible. The studio system was the backbone of the picture business from its infancy to its decline in the early fifties. The studios discovered, trained, protected, and covered for their actors and actresses in the years when there was true glamour. The focus of Ralph Schiller’s new book The Complete Films of Broderick Crawford is on this period of time, when Mr. Crawford was one of those distinguished players. Born into a show business family (his father Lester was a Vaudeville headliner and his mother a former Ziegfeld girl, Broadway stage and film actress who appeared in the highly revered film Top Hat) as a young man Brod yearned to carry on in his parents’ footsteps. Author Schiller traces Brod’s early theatrical steps from his debut on stage at London’s West End to his return to the Broadway stage, through ninety-five feature films and hundreds of television appearances. Schiller’s writing is crisp, informative, and paced to hold the reader’s attention. With a bountiful amount of research and never-before-seen photographs, this tome should please readers of all ages who have an affection for vintage Hollywood and the larger than life Broderick Crawford.
Ralph has created a guide for all baby-boomers to the films of an icon of our childhood. We first saw him as the head of TV’s Highway Patrol which are still being run today. What we came to realize is that Broderick Crawford was an Academy Award winning Best Actor who made a variety of films about cowboys, politicians, mobsters, and more, earning him not one but two stars (one for movies & one for television) on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Brod’s late his son Kelly and I’m very grateful to Ralph for writing this outstanding tribute to one of my heroes.
Author Ralph Schiller with the show’s original highway patrol car
Thanks to Karl Holmberg for the heads up!
— David DeWitt
David DeWitt
March 4, 2016 at 3:51 pm
Crawford’s craggy persona was a favorite of mine, and it’s nice to see this book out there giving him the credit he deserves. A fine character actor, he made a lot of B movies and westerns with top stars. I loved him!
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/HPcrawfordjpg.jpg[/img]
Gentleman Tim
March 4, 2016 at 7:27 pm
WOW, Ralph! What a magnificent accomplishment. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
I remember him most for his extraordinary performance as Kingfish (Willie Stark), and his endlessly strong work in Highway Patrol. What a voice and what an actor. I didn’t know and would have never guessed he came from a show biz family. Can’t wait to read it, Ralph!. You’ve done the EFB very, very proud.
And didn’t know he shared the big day with Errol’s girl, either:
shangheinz
March 6, 2016 at 9:15 pm
Hip Hip HooRalph, you are one of Chicago`s finest…writers.
Tina
March 7, 2016 at 3:58 am
Hi Ralph;
Congratulation – what a great success it’s nice to rub shoulders with famous people.
Broderick Crawford was a great actor, i used to watch the Highway Patrol series in the late 1960s. He gave such a great performance as Willie Stark in All the King’s Men.
I will get your book and enjoy it.
I wish you great success with the sales of your book!
rswilltell
March 8, 2016 at 2:06 pm
Thank you David for being kind enough to highlight the book even though there is absolutely no direct connection between Errol Flynn and Broderick Crawford. Believe me I looked! The closest is another chapter for Tim’s series on the men who would be Errol Flynn. George Brent, Yvonne de Carlo, Brod Crawford, and Albert Dekker did an amusing Flynn parody entitled ‘Slave Girl’ (1947) at Universal studios. It was shot in glorious Technicolor but done strictly for laughs However Dekker didn’t get the word as he plays his scenes straight. Brod enjoyed the swashbuckling like any normal healthy male and Yvonne de Carlo is stunning to look at in a harem costume doing the seven veils dance! Thanks to Tina, Tim, and Heinz for your kind words. Ralph Schiller
David DeWitt
March 8, 2016 at 3:25 pm
You are welcome! I don’t think it hurts a bit to highlight some of the creative works of our Author’s from time-to-time, and this is one of those wonderful opportunites!
Gentleman Tim
March 9, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Wow, thanks for the tip Ralph, I had to go see Slave Girl! Stunning Slave Girl Harum, indeed. Errol certainly could have had a lot of fun on that set!
www.youtube.com…
[img]http://www.fotoloncho.com/fotos3/11675%20-%20Slave%20Girl.jpg[/img]
rswilltell
March 10, 2016 at 1:44 pm
Thanks for posting the great photo Tim. Notice two wonderful character actors who nearly steal the film, Andy Devine and Arthur Treacher.