The MGM stock company: The golden era

by James Robert Parish

James Robert Parish is the only writer I can think of, off the top of my head, who's more prolific than alternate-history author Harry Turtledove. I've lost count of how many books he's written, but I feel certain I have about a dozen of his titles in my library, and I also feel certain I can give all of them my strong recommendation, including this one. _The Fox Girls_ is one of about half a dozen books Parish wrote in the 1970's about the actresses of classic Hollywood (the others were _The RKO Gals_, _The Paramount Pretties_, _The Hollywood Beauties_, _The Leading Ladies_ and The Glamour Girls_). The basic format of series is the same in each case; Parish selects anywhere from 6 to 20 of the most representative actresses of the group, then writes a lengthy biography/filmography of each woman accompanied by numerous B&W photos. While these books are all long out of print, they're also important basic reference works for film fans and students. Many of the actresses Parish writes about in these volumes are ill-covered elsewhere. In _The Fox Girls_, for example, Parish profiles Theda Bara, Janet Gaynor, Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Loretta Young, Sonja Henie, Linda Darnell, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter, Carmen Miranda, June Haver, Jeanne Crain, Marilyn Monroe, Sheree North and Raquel Welch. Some of these actresses still don't have full-length books about or by them (in the case of Carmen Miranda, for example, there's no full-length photographic retrospective in English that I know of, though there are several in her native Brazilian-Portuguese). Thus, if you want to know about some of these actresses, books like this one are your best bet. The good news is that this book, plus the other ones I mentioned, are all readily available and reasonably inexpensive on Amazon Marketplace! (Amazon customer)

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History

862 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

James Robert Parish, a former entertainment reporter, publicist, and book series editor, is the author of many published major biographies and reference books on the entertainment industry including Whitney Houston: We Will Always Love You; The Hollywood Book of Extravagance; It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks; The Hollywood Book of Breakups; Fiascos: Hollywood’s Iconic Flops; The Hollywood Book of Love; Jet Li; The Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in Hollywood; The Hollywood Book of Death; Gus Van Sant; Whoopi Goldberg; Rosie O’Donnell’s Story; The Unofficial “Murder, She Wrote” Casebook; Today’s Black Hollywood; Let’s Talk! America’s Favorite TV Talk Show Hosts; Prison Pictures from Hollywood; Prostitution in Hollywood Films; The Great Cop Pictures; Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films; Pirates and Seafaring Swashbucklers on the Hollywood Screen; Gays and Lesbians in Mainstream Cinema; Hollywood’s Great Love Teams; and The Fox Girls. Mr. Parish is a frequent oncamera interviewee on cable and network TV for documentaries on the performing arts. The author resides in Studio City, California.

Reviews

[Betty Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Betty Davis good Read

The book did not have pitcher but I gave it a fur the book had some good biography short subject I read some very very good biography on some good actors and actress I gave it a four. I hope I can fine a biography with pitcher