A send-up of Hollywood by someone who knows and obviously loves movies. Great photos in it, too.

Excellent desktop reference for the busy pediatrician. Many tables, graphs and subheadings facilitate rapid scanning of the easily read prose. A welcome addition to any emergency room that treats children. Extensive bibliography with each chapter.

This 9x11-inch opus is essentially a picture book, but oh, such pictures! The real authors are the photographers who overcame many obstacles to capture the fine color photos which reveal the remaining Los Angeles area movie palaces to a generation accustomed to video games. This is a fine way to open eyes limited to those tiny screens to these elegant examples of the giant screens. The eighty-nine color plates are of high quality -- but such canot be said for the eleven pages of text and the captions which are minimalist. For some reason, neither an architectural historian nor even a movie palace buff was chosen for the writing; instead, the photographers chose a man whose breezy style is more flippant than illuminating. His knowledge of local history constitutes the majority of the words, but one learns little about the buildings themselves (a book may have a local target audience, but it need not be oblivious to the larger scope of its subject especially with so many previous books known to the authors). One could dismiss his Introduction as merely perfunctory, but we cannot dismiss his treatment of the captions, for he could there have told us much more in his 'I-love-white-space' captions layouts. For example: Why does their State Theatre on pages 32 and 34 appear very differently? We are not told within the ample space. Page 48 shows the glorious Crystal Fountain the Los Angeles Th. but we are not told whether it is also a water fountain, as its base makes it appear (a good caption tells what the illustration cannot.) A final example is the photo of the El Capitan Th. on page 85 where an ugly giant beam or steel track is shown directly in front of the proscenium, but the caption makes no mention of it -- as though no one would notice it and so they didn't ask the operator about it. It doesn't take great scholarship, just research to properly cover a subject -- picture book or not. See VIEW CAMERA magazine of Jan/Feb. 1995 for the fascinating story behind this book, but do buy the book before too long for the sake of its color photos; such print runs are short and it is not likely to be available again. Incidentally, it is not mentioned in the book, but its title is a play on: THE BEST REMAINING SEATS: The Golden Age Of The Movie Palace (1961 and later printings available here at Amazon) by the late Ben M. Hall, the prime seminal work in the field, and not to be missed for there resides true writing and scholarship.

The Last Remaining Seats is simply a feast for the eyes for anyone interested in movie palace architecture. The book includes color beautiful color photographs of the Million Dollar, Los Angeles,Palace, State, Tower and Orpheum Theatres on Broadway as well as the Mayan and Belasco on nearby Hill Street. The Wiltern on Wilshire Boulevard is also featured. The Hollywood theatres included are the Chinese, El Capitan, Egyptian and Hollywood Pacific. Three other theatres include the Rialto in South Pasadena, the Wrner Grand in San Pedro and the Avalon on Catalina Island. Unfortunately, the photographers could not obtain permission to photograph the United Artists, Pantages and Fox Wilshire Theatres. A history of Los Angeles theatres in included in the introductory chapter but the main focus of this book are the photographs which are wonderful. If you are a lover of old theatre architecture, this book is a must.

I really enjoyed the Last Remaining Seats, because it preserves (in photographs) my beloved Movie Palaces of the Mind. The text could be better; but when it comes to magic, pictures speak a thousand words. The memories I have of the Los Angeles Theater belong to my sister -- but this book makes those memories something I, too, can hold. This isn't history; this is pure joy. Buy Last Remaining Seats. Fall in love with movies the way GOD intended for them to be seen. :)

Dog lovers and film enthusiasts alike will thoroughly enjoy Movie Mutts, a clever offering about the history and importance of the canine thespian to the silver screen. The book begins with some interesting background notes on how dogs were artfully incorporated into early filmmaking and sustained their roles through more sophisicated cinematic efforts, including animation. The authors (the principal writer is Coco, but her "human" gets some credit here) concentrate on the films of the 30's and 40's, many of which may be unfamiliar to readers, but the book achieves a likeable balance between the true superstars like RinTinTin and Lassie and the (shall we say) lesser known breed of Hollywood's four-legged finest. The impressive array of photographs is interspersed with interesting bits of legend and trivia (just how much did Toto get paid for The Wizard of Oz?) as well as Coco's clever reflections on her more famous brethren and even contains some helpful bits of advice on the inner workings of the canine mind. ("And make no mistake. We know when you're about to leave town.") I enjoyed the thematic organization of the pictures, which highlights some of the major social roles of dogs in film, with clever titles like "Family Friends," "Dogs in Heat" and the particularly enjoyable "Canine Cupids." (On a personal note, since I read the chilling chapter on "Bad Dogs," I haven't been able to look my own two pooches straight in the eye. But I shouldn't be doing that anyway, Coco admonishes.) You'll find yourself reflecting on your personal favorites, predictably, most of them from your childhood. Though I must say, Coco, the blatant omission of the fiercely intelligent Duke, from 1964's Dead Ringer, or Cleo, the sassy bassethound from the 50's sitcom The People's Choice (she must have had an early film career!) was surprising. But I'll be a "good sport" and toss it up to the depth and expanse of a subject matter that can't possibly covered in a hundred or so pages,. And just wait for the sequel.

Give it "four paws up and a lick." Add this one to your gift list for the dogowning movie buffs among your circle of friends.

One of the very few cytology books dealing with the normal cytology of various body sites. It is very well known fct that to learn abnormal things you have to know normal things first. I found the book very useful when dealing with cytology slides from breast lesions suspicious of malignant cells, especially when the differentiation of malignant cells from normal cells was difficult. Also useful were chapters on salivary glands and female genital tract.

Full of contradictions, this book seethes with poorly
researched data, questionable "facts" and is, in a word or two, a Donen Diatribe.
Using repetitive jibes at such greats as Gene Kelly, both the writer and his subject utilize 3/4 of the tome blaming others, fault-finding and whining that Donen was not THE mentor, THE legend, THE venerated ONE.
How sad that a life or life's work is so pitiably sprinkled into one chapter of 28 presented, and that the author found himself compelled to throw in almost 40 unnecessary pages at the end to fill up the otherwise laborious vituperation.
I'm so glad I got a library copy instead of having purchased this waste of good time.

Stylish, all-star (the author was able to track down primary sources, from Audrey Hepburn, to George Abbott, to the great Kay Thompson -- all before they died), and entertaining -- and beautifully researched. (Not sure what book the previous "reviewer" wrote about .) the chapter on "Singin' in the Rain" alone is worth the price of admission. And Richard Avedon offers some brilliant insights into the making of "Funny Face," and, perhaps, settles once and for the the differences between Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.