“Forgotten Hollywood”- Dean of Hollywood Writers Has Died…

Posted on March 14, 2014 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here… bob_thomas

   Bob Thomas was a film industry biographer and reporter who worked for the Associated Press since 1944. Acclaimed as the dean of all Hollywood reporters, Thomas has been writing about the movie business for the AP since the days when Hollywood was run by men who founded it: Harry Cohn, Jack Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck, and Louis B. Mayer.    BOB THOMAS —>

   During his long history, Thomas authored at least thirty books. Many in the motion picture industry credit his 1969 biography of producer Irving G. Thalberg as sparking their interest in pursuing a career behind the scenes. Other biographies include Joan Crawford, Marlon Brando, David O. Selznick, Walter Winchell, Bob Hope, Howard Hughes, Abbott & Costello, William Holden, Bing Crosby, and a children’s book, Walt Disney: Magician of the Movies. Several of his work were adapted into movies for television.

   Thomas worked well into his 80s, covering a record 66 consecutive Academy Awards shows. Bob interviewed most of the iconic screen actors of the 20th century; among them, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, and Jack Nicholson.

   Helping out during the 1968 presidential election, the reporter had been assigned to cover Senator Robert F. Kennedy on the evening the New York Democrat won the California primary. Minutes after declaring victory, Kennedy was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. Bob then ran to a phone and delivered the bulletin to the Associated Press.

   For his contributions to cinema, Thomas was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In recognition of over sixty years of covering the entertainment business for the Associated Press, the Publicists Guild awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

   Bob Thomas was 92.

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352px-thumbnail   A man who became known as the sailor kissing a woman in Times Square in a famous World War II-era photo taken by a Life Magazine photographer has died. The picture was taken August 14th, 1945 by Alfred Eisenstaedt. It became a cultural phenomenon, After garnering a copyright, Alfred carefully controlled the rights, allowing a limit on the number of reproductions, which determined how it could be printed.

   The service man was Glenn McDuffie. On August 3rd, 2008, he was recognized for his 81st birthday as the Kissing Sailor during the seventh-inning stretch of the Houston Astros and New York Mets game.

   McDuffie was 86.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2014 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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