New Releases by Bob Thomas

A portrait of William Holden details the actor''s life, film career, and personal relationships and reveals the darker side behind the golden public image

"Few Hollywood careers have been more fabulous, more scandalous, more dizzyingly from-rags-to-riches and from-triumph-to-tragedy, more glaringly limelit than that of Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur in 1906 (or 1908, according to her press releases) in Texas. Miss Crawford rose from being a telephone operator in Kansas City (under the name Billie Cassin, since her mother had remarried) to a chorus line in Springfield, Missouri. and from there--as if propelled by one high, miraculous kick--came to MGM, fame, glamour, glitter, romance, and ultimate stardom. For many people Joan Crawford was more than a star; she was *the* star, the very symbol of those dazzling movie queens whose faces were more famous throughout the world than those of emperors, dictators or presidents, and whose very appearance could create a riot--as Miss Crawford once did in New York`s Grand Central Terminal. She was a tough, ambitious, gutsy and fiercely competitive person, a complete professional when it came to making movies, a star on or off the stage. Her energy was inexhaustible and legendary, as was her temper, and her marriages were stormy and violent, whether with fellow-star Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. or with Pepsi-Cola executive Alfred Steele, who made her Pepsi''s ambassador to the world and died leaving her almost penniless. Joan Crawford''s love affairs were the stuff of countless gossip columns, as widely publicized as her movies--and seldom indeed has a life been lived more in the limelight of publicity. Yet in this definitive, powerful and dramatic biography, Bob Thomas, dean of Hollywood biographers, has recreated the *real* life of Joan Crawford: her lonely, terrible death; her search for her father (who abandoned her at an early age and reappeared in her life when she was a star); her struggles to reach the top; the scandals that haunted her life (including the rumor that she had appeared in a blue movie and that Louis B. Mayer had paid a king''s ransom to buy the negative and destroy it); her tortured relationships with her adopted children; her drinking; and her courageous decision to resume work after Steele''s death. Here, at last, is the complete and extraordinary story of Joan Crawford''s life, her films, her marriages, her secrets and her loves, in an intimate biography that delineates the character and the personality of the Ultimate Star."--Dust jacket.

Bing Crosby. No performer will ever be remembered with more affection. For over forty years, this golden-voiced crooner delighted the world with his easy charm and graceful style. He made "White Christmas" a holiday tradition. His "Road" movies with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour are classics of zany comedy. He raised spirits during the Depression, entertained our soldiers during the war, and consistently reassures us that life is a joy and the virtue will be rewarded. Bing''s popularity has endured through three generations. And no one remembers him with more affection than author/journalist Bob Thomas in this joyous memoir of Crosby''s career and life. You can share again the special moments of the great Bing Crosby''s remarkable career. Filled with many rare photographs and anecdotes of Bing, his family, and friends, and featuring an illustrated filmography and a list of his greatest hits, The One and Only Bing is an admiring tribute to an unparalleled singer, a fine actor, and a great man.

Biography of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, one of the greatest comedy teams of all time.

Biography of Walter Winchell, an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.

Biography of American swimmer Donna de Varona, a two-time gold medalist at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

A biography of the internationally beloved cartoonist-creator of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Disneyland.