Fangoria mainstay and fountain of productivity Lee Gambin has unleashed his latest tome, WE CAN BE WHO WE ARE: MOVIE MUSICALS FROM THE 1970S, available now from Bear Manor. The book, weighing in at three pounds and over 800 pages, is an expansive exploration of the rich soil that was/is is the disco era musical. The book contains the transcript from an interview I did back in 2012 with director Gordon Hessler on his Hanna Barbera wonder KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK, a film Gambin devotes an entire chapter to here.
Synopsis from Bear Manor:
The movie musical has been a much loved genre since motion pictures found a voice and learned to sing. Throughout the decades, audiences thrilled to the glamour of the musicals of Busby Berkley and were emotionally invested in stories about Austrian nuns and the King of Siam with the musicals from Rodgers and Hammerstein. With the advent of Rock ’n Roll, Heavy Metal, R&B, Motown, Punk Rock, and Disco entering the public consciousness, musicals started to sing a very different tune. Into the 1970s, the movie musical became a daring, dangerous, and divinely decedent cinema experience. Lee Gambin’s We Can Be Who We Are: Movie Musicals from the 1970s explores this explosive energy and diversity.
WE CAN BE WHO WE ARE can be ordered in hardcover or paperback at Amazon.com.
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