The name above the title : an autobiography / Frank Capra

New York : Macmillan, 1971. 1st edition. Hardcover. Previous owner's signature. Very good cloth copy in a good if somewhat edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description: xii, 513 pages: illustrations, portraits; 24 cm. Contents: It's about time, you bum -- Great week for screwballs -- Comedy and the king -- Baby face -- Columbia and the germ of the ocean -- The sound and the fury -- In search of the holy grail -- Bitter times and bitter tea -- Winning the grail -- Burn the first two reels -- The common bond -- If you could only cook -- You can't take it with you -- If you have to think about it, forget it -- Film power vs. freedom of film -- Five endings in search of an audience -- Why we fight -- F.D.R., Mr. P.M., and W.W. II -- Give me liberty -- Balaban's law -- Self exile -- Stars over Hollywood -- Pocketful of troubles. Subjects: Capra, Frank 1897-1991. Motion picture producers and directors United States; Biography. Producers and directors United States; Biography. Cinema (Estados Unidos). Genre: Autobiographies. Autobiography. Biographies. Biography. Illustrated. Summary: Although Frank Capra (1897-1991) is best known as the director of It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace, and It's a Wonderful Life, he was also an award-winning documentary filmmaker as well as a behind-the-scene force in the Director's Guild, the Motion Picture Academy, and the Producer's Guild. He worked with or knew socially everyone in the movie business from Mack Sennett, Chaplin, and Keaton in the silent era through the illustrious names of the golden age. He directed Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jean Harlow, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, and others. Reading his autobiography is like having Capra sitting in your living room, regaling you with his anecdotes. In The Name Above the Title he reveals the deeply personal story of how, despite winning six Academy Awards, he struggled throughout his life against the glamors, vagaries, and frustrations of Hollywood for the creative freedom to make some of the most memorable films of all time.