© 2012 David Robb, All Rights Reserved.
By David Robb With Julie Ann Johnson
© 2012 David Robb, All Rights Reserved.
By David Robb With Julie Ann Johnson
Forward
By Kathleen Nolan
Hollywood does not like troublemakers. I should know. As the first female president of the Screen Actors Guild, I made plenty of trouble for the powers that ...
© 2012 Mollie Gregory, All Rights Reserved.
From the upcoming book by Mollie Gregory
They put their lives on the line, breaking through windows, jumping off buildings, running through fires, hanging from planes, crashing cars. And they do it in bikinis, tight pants, shorts, and gowns! They're stuntwomen in the movies and on TV, and no one's written a book about them. Until now.
"When I see what they do," one woman, a producer, told me, "they make me feel women can do anything." Role models in every field are crucial to girls of 10 or women of 25 or even 55. Stuntwomen may not think of themselves as role models, but they can teach us a lot. Determined and skilled, the women in this book came from behind, climbed steep physical and social obstacles, and they never gave up. Understanding their special abilities expands our own possibilities. They ...
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© 2012 Julie Ann Johnson, All Rights Reserved.
Stuntwomen are some of the bravest women in America. They risk their lives every day to make films and television shows more exciting and entertaining. But Julie Johnson was the bravest of the brave. Julie was not only a pioneering stunt coordinator in the days when very few women held that position, but she was also a crusading champion for women's rights in a business long dominated by men.
"The Stuntwoman" is the inspirational story of a little girl who overcame a Dickensian childhood and then rose to the top of her profession, doubling for some of Hollywood's biggest stars, and battling Hollywood's glass ceiling all along the way.
Julie's roller-coaster life story – her loves and heartaches, the thrill of breaking into show business, and her exciting behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the most memorable ...
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© 2012 Marvin Walters, All Rights Reserved.
YES! HISTORY DOES MATTER
Many of the Black stuntmen are saying: "Cofounding of The Black Stuntmen's Association is not important; it is history and does not matter." Well history does matters! Identities are formed by the practices, experiences, and beliefs of the past. Individuals, institutions, and cultures have roots and those roots influence the present and help shape the future. Many people are attempting to rediscover their identity and heritage as a means of defining their task for the future.
One might argue that the reasons some people would like to eliminate my participation in changing motion picture history for all races is amnesia and loss of memory: Which in this case means lost identity and those with amnesia have to depend upon each other to define who they are. A group of people with no memories gets their identities ...
© 2012 David Robb, All Rights Reserved.
By David Robb
Rod Rondeaux has made a career out of being killed and maimed in movies and TV shows. He was stabbed to death by Will Smith, who killed him with a knife concealed in his boot in "The Wild, Wild West." He was blown up by a cannon in "True Women"; set on fire in Chris Eyre's "Skins," and mowed down by machine gun fire in "Mind Games." He's been shot off of horses in "Purgatory" and in "South of Heaven, West of Hell." He was shot off a stagecoach in "The Magnificent Seven" TV series and shot off a rooftop in the upcoming HBO film "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself." He was blown up in a jeep in the upcoming "10-8" TV series, and he fell down the side of a mountain on "Roswell." In "The Scorpion King," he was clubbed to death by The Rock, stabbed, lanced ...
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© 2012 Mollie Gregory, all rights reserved.
From the upcoming book by Mollie Gregory
Central casting didn't hire stunt players then and don't now. Only people who worked with them could judge their skills--directors, assistant directors, production managers, or stuntmen. Before pagers and cell phones, anyone seeking a stunt person called Teddy O'Toole's answering service in Hollywood. "I need a stunt girl about five feet tall who can do high falls." The women answering the phones at Teddy's knew the height, weight, hair color, size, and specialty of everyone on the list.[i][i] And they still do for the service runs 24/7 today. Stuntman Paul Stader, who had started his career with Lila Finn in Hurricane, came up with the idea of adapting his sister-in-law's answering service exclusively for stunt players. He told all his friends to sign up for ...
© 2012 Marvin Walters, all rights reserved.
HISTORY OF THE COALITION OF BLACK STUNTMEN AND WOMEN
by Marvin Walters
First of all I would like for all of you to realize I hold no grudges against anyone in the industry: However, if African American actors are to help other African American actors they need to know that the doors were not always open for them, and that someone paid a price for them to be here. Therefore I will give you a short history of the struggle which took place prior to most of you being involved in this industry: And I will name names.
This book is not about Marvin Walters. However, I understand the make-up of our society, and I realize that unless you have a Ph.D. or some other type of degree, people are not willing to listen to what you have to say. Well, I don't have a degree from a college or university: My degree comes from God, my life experiences and from ...
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© 2012 Marvin Walters, all rights reserved.
By Marvin Walters
The following names represent the original members attending the meeting at the formation of the NSA Negro Stuntmans Association on December 9, 1967 at Marvin Walters home at 3308 Thurman Avenue in Altadena, California: Marvin Walters and Eddie Smith co-founded the NSA; the others were Charter Members or founding members, not co-founders!
1. Marvin Walters
2. Eddie Smith
3. Douglas Lawrence
4. Alex Brown
5. Alonzo Brown
6. Earl Brown
7. Ernie Robinson
8. S.J. McGee
9. Leroy Woolford
10. Ron Wright
11. Freddy Wright
12. Warren McGowan
13. Perry Fluker
14. Harold Jones
15.Henry Graddy
In regards to an article written June 7, 2002 by Todd Longwell sent to ...
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©2012 All Rights Reserved
As Helen Thurston was up to her old tricks, hefting men over her head, a 26-year-old woman, who would have a leading stunt career, was in Denver, Colorado, facing facts.
Polly Burson's grandfather had been a champion bronc buster, her parents owned a riding and roping show, and had encouraged their daughter's talents, trick riding and showmanship. She became a rodeo champion, galloping around arenas in Europe and all over America, including four years in Madison Square Garden. But in 1945 Polly wasn't at the top of the rodeos, she was "going back down to the 15, 10 and 5 shows" where she'd started. "I didn't want that," she said. "I had to change my life."
Polly's mother had been an outstanding horsewoman. "She had a combination that very few people have: hands and feet on a horse. That means ...
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