Van Dyke and the Mythical City, Hollywood

Hollywood CA: Murray & Gee, Inc.. Very Good+ in Good dj. (c.1948). First Edition. Hardcover. (price-clipped) [solid copy, lightly shelfworn with slight bumping to lower corners; the jacket is a bit raggedy around the top of the spine, with modest wear along the top and bottom edges and small tears at several corners, including a short diagonal tears at the upper left and lower right corners of the front panel]. (B&W photographs) A colorful and engaging book about one of that special breed of Hollywood he-man directors -- "not a biography, but an engrossing narrative revealing 'behind scenes' passages" in the life of Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II, aka W.S. Van Dyke II, aka Woody Van Dyke, aka "One-Take Woody," who ground out MGM classics at the rate of five or six a year throughout the 1930s, some of them pure sausage but also including classics like TRADER HORN, TARZAN THE APE MAN, THE THIN MAN, MARIE ANTOINETTE, and a whole slew of Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy musicals. The book, apparently begun by his "intimate friend" Cannom while Van Dyke was still alive, wasn't published until five years after his suicide (due to ill health) in 1943, at the age of 53. Per the jacket blurb, the book was completed "with the continuous and encouraging support of Laura Winston Van Dyke," Woody's mother (who thoughtfully retained the copyright). Foreword by Adela Rogers St. Johns. .