EBR May Local Non fic

In 1913, a secretive American millionaire, who lived on the top floor of the famous Carlton Hotel, had a crazy idea: to make movies in Johannesburg. And not just any movies but the biggest in the world, huge spectacles with elaborate sets, thousands of extras and epic story lines. Isidore Schlesinger – better known as ‘IW’ – built a studio on a farm called Killarney, where he set out to challenge a place in America that was in its infancy: Hollywood. The glamour, gossip and high drama of IW’s studio fit perfectly into a city experiencing an intoxicating golden age. There was as much action on the movie sets as there was on screen: from political intrigue and the clashing of massive egos to public outbursts, fiery judicial inquiries, disaster and death. Behind this mad enterprise was a maverick, a tycoon, a recluse, a friend of the famed and the connected. IW could have held his own in California but he chose as his base the City of Gold. This is the never-been-told-before story of the rise and fall of the strangest and most unique movie empire ever.

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In 1856, a teenage girl led 40000 to their deaths in the Eastern Cape. When Treive Nicholas arrived in the 1980s to teach, he was captivated by the Wild Coast. Researching its history, he explores the Cattle Killing of 1856-1857. Was Nongqawuse a deceiver or a liberation leader? Treive's quest spans continents, from South Africa to England, ending with a shocking revelation closer to home than expected.

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We Two from Heaven is a singular memoir, a four-part fugue on the tricks and traps of memory, a shuffling of the cards of time. Episodes from the early life of writer James Whyle are interwoven with the letters of his father from the Western Front during the First World War. Their formative experiences – war, conscription, injury, desertion – flash by, juxtaposed, as if in counterpoint.   How do we know who we are? Upending the reader’s expectations of a memoir, Whyle then explores the violence and madness of apartheid society as the narrator passes through boarding school and university and takes his first steps to become a writer. Raw and rhythmic, lyrical and caustic, this is an unsparing, formally inventive dissection of human vanities and illusions. At the end of history, on the shores of a blue bay, the voices of the past can be heard as we await the arrival of the barbarians – or the baboons, whoever comes first.

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Juliet Prowse was a young South African dancer who burst into the international spotlight in her first Hollywood movie. Considered talented and exotic, she caught the media’s attention and her engagement to Frank Sinatra fuelled their fascination further. But was it true love and what did Sinatra make of Juliet’s relationship with Elvis during G.I. Blues? Unhappy with 20th Century Fox, Juliet broke out of her contract, created her own company and became one of the highest paid dancers of her era.   While Juliet won awards for Sweet Charity in Las Vegas and London, opening on Broadway seemed to be elusive.  Juliet continued to build her world-class modern dance company, winning Female Entertainer of the Year in Las Vegas three times with competition from Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Shirley MacLaine. By the mid-1970s, she was on a $1 million contract as a Desert Inn Million Dollar Baby. Considered a triple threat, Juliet featured on the international stage for over four decades.  This story is personal. Told by Juliet’s niece, it includes Juliet’s words from letters written to her mother, family anecdotes and amusing insights from those who worked with Juliet. With her endless legs and playful charm, Juliet had many romances and married actor John McCook of The Bold and the Beautiful. But in her search for love and professional fulfilment, could she accomplish it all?

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