SUNSET BOULEVARD: from movie to musical coffee table book

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 7:57pm

Don't know...anything about this except that I bought it for $3 from a street vendor this morning. Was looking through it on the subway and realized that it must have been published immediately after the London production, as the book features extraordinary production photos of Patti LuPone and company on the massive set.

Anyone know if they published a revised edition of this one? I'll be happy to take photos of the book and post them, if enough people are interested.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 7:59pm

I also got the book at a Dollar Store. Its an amazing edition. It was never reproduced with any other Normas.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 8:20pm

This book is really really great... and is that not one of the most gorgeous sets ever created? The Tony Awards took place on that set that year, a feat which has not been replicated... and with good reason! Didn't someone slide down the banister? Carol Burnett maybe (who did her own famous SUNSET BLVD parody many years ago on her variety show)...

There was also an ASPECTS OF LOVE book done the same way which I was lucky to pick up at a warehouse book sale new for $2 along with this. Apparently, there were a lot of extras!

CHESS also had a book like this, which is probably the only one I would say is better than this or the ASPECTS (by the same company). The PHANTOM, LES MIZ, MISS SAIGON and others I've seen fail to capture the spirit of the production the way this one does.

The London version is my favorite version of the show so I find it wonderful.

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 8:25pm

Pgenre, I also got the Aspects of Love book at a Borders outlet for 4 bucks. It is an amazing edition as well. I recently got the Tarzan Musical hardcover book for 3 bucks in the Borders bargain section. I love finding these gorgeous hardcover editions for a song. They are such expensive books with amazing photos.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 8:38pm

You are SO right and I love them too... in the early nineties there were a bunch that I remember finding at those big booksales they have in closed Ames and K-Marts... many of them were by Kurt Ganzl... SONG & DANCE I think was the title of my favorite one that had the whole history of musical theatre... and it was maybe 300 pages of production photos (some very rare) from musicals from the 20s through the 90s. There are some gorgeous ALW bio-books from that period as well with sumptous photos aplenty, as you may know if you're a fan. They're probably not too interesting to those who dislike ALW though.

The scariest picture from a musical I had ever seen was in SONG & DANCE: a full-page shot of the London production of SWEENEY TODD with Sweeney slicing his first customer with all the blood on the weird cube in front of the industrial set. Super scary to a seven year old who thought POTO was as "scary" as musicals got (this was before the days of CANNIBAL! THE MUSICAL or REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA) and the first inkling I had that theatre could cut a lot deeper than ALW (whom I adored then, and still do but in a quite different way).

Sp true that there was nothing like the thrill of getting a $40 coffee table book of beatiful theatre photos for $4!

P

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 8:48pm

Yes Ive found a few a few great hardcover coffee table books at those huge book sales that take place in old department stores. I recently got a great book called BACKSTAGE, which features photos of Broadway performers in their dressing rooms preparing for a show. That was 3 bucks. I also got a large coffee table book called The Sweater Book, where a photographer took photos of actors (mostly theatre actors) all wearing the same oversized cardigan. Lots of cute photos of many stage actors including my fave Michael Berresse. That book was 4 bucks.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 9:07pm

I also picked up this book at an outlet for a ridiculously low price some years ago. The best bargains I've gotten though were the coffee table books for The Lion King and Rent, which were both a dollar each as part of the intro to a stage and screen book club I joined my freshman year of undergrad oh so many years ago.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 9:08pm

Yes, yes! I always see BACKSTAGE at B&N and glance through it but I've always been too cheap to pay $40 or whatever for it since its *JUST* pretty/provacative pictures... I suppose I should try to find a moment to attend a few booksales this summer I guess since you've come up with so many fabulous finds, Bettyboy!

I have so many books as it is, but I just dont think anything digital is durable enough (yet) to replace a book on my shelf. The kindle ain't it, I'll tell you that!

I've gotten a couple different coffee table books on Bernstein... BERNSTEIN, BERNSTEIN REMEMBERED, BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS all with unbelievable shots of the locations and massive orchestras of lore that he so passionately (and usually expertly) conducted. One of them has the only photo I've ever seen of A QUIET PLACE... a score which I've still never heard due to its rarity on LP (and availible on LP alone, sheesh).

That huge series of discs they put out a few years ago really ticked me off in its total lack of coherence/completeness with his final completed opera (A QUIET PLACE) standing as the main omission (though I still say they should release the tapes of 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. cuz A WHITE HOUSE CONTATA doesn't cut it, particularly the dull recording "approved" by the Bernstein estate, ugh).

Ah, well... gotta love great deals and great theatre: the two greatest joys in life (at least in a commercialism/entertainment driven society)!

I'll... something... to that! Here's to a great Saturday night!

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P genre

P.S. "I'm Looking For Trade" is a gliterring jewel in the score of which unbelievably ahead-of-its-time film musical sequel? Clue: it is performed by one of my favorite actresses, Jessica Harper.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 9:21pm

Pgenre-
It's from the classic, and fanastic sequel to Rocky Horror, Shock Treatment.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 9:38pm

Um... per Richard O'Brien, the man who created both THE ROCKY HORROR (PICTURE) SHOW and SHOCK TREATMENT -- SHOCK TREATMENT isn't a sequel to THE ROCKY HORROR (PICTURE) SHOW but an 'equal' (quoting him directly). The only characters in SHOCK TREATMENT that are in both stories are Brad Majors, Janet Weiss and Betty Munroe. That's it. The plot (nor any characters) have any connection to events of THE ROCKY HORROR (PICTURE) SHOW. Yes, most of the cast from THE ROCKY HORROR (PICTURE) SHOW appears in SHOCK TREATMENT, but they are playing completely different characters, etc.

Any ardent fan of both works will clearly correct you on this.

http://www.shocktreatmentnetwork.com/debate.htm

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 9:55pm

Sooo... getting back to Sunset Boulevard -- I too was able to pick this book up for a few dollars and I love it. The production photos are wonderful as well as the sketches and set models. I also found the picture of Patti out of her turban on page 131 to be particularly striking.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 10:10pm

is there any chance one of you wonderful people will post some scans for the rest of us? =P

[morosco]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 10:45pm

In case anyone's interested I saw the hard cover coffee table books for both MAMMA MIA and THE PRODUCERS at the 5 Below store for $5 each.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 10:46pm

gives..im technologically challenged but maybe someone can help you out...