CURRENT POSITION:
Professor of Film Studies, Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, University of Texas at Dallas
EDUCATION:
Ph.D., Emory University, Film Studies and American Studies
M.F.A., Southern Methodist University, Dance and Dance History
B.A., Southern Methodist University, Art History; minors in Dance, American History
Professor of Film Studies, Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, University of Texas at Dallas
EDUCATION:
Ph.D., Emory University, Film Studies and American Studies
M.F.A., Southern Methodist University, Dance and Dance History
B.A., Southern Methodist University, Art History; minors in Dance, American History
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION:
Film history and theory; women and film; classical Hollywood cinema; stars and star images; the Hollywood musical; theatrical dance history
PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
All for Beauty: Makeup and Hairdressing in Hollywood's Studio Era (Rutgers University Press, 2022).
Costume, Makeup, and Hair (ed.). Vol. 4 of "Behind the Silver Screen," series ed. Jon Lewis (Rutgers University Press, 2016).
Cinematic Canines: Dogs and Their Work in the Fiction Film (ed.) (Rutgers University Press, 2014).
Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the 1930s (ed.) (Rutgers University Press, 2011).
Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body, and Narrative Cinema (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom (Rutgers University Press, 2004).
Headline Hollywood: A Century of Film Scandal (co-ed. David Cook) (Rutgers University Press, 2001).
Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema, series eds. Adrienne L. McLean and Murray Pomerance (Rutgers University Press). Eleven volumes, contracted 2006, published 2009-2022.
In Preparation:
Better Than Everybody: Eleanor Powell and Women Dancer-Choreographers in Studio-Era Hollywood (monograph).
SELECTED ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS:
"Lady Be Gone: Eleanor Powell and the MGM Freed-Unit Musical." In Women and Hollywood: Tales of Inequality, Abuse, and Resistance in the Dream Factory, ed. Karen McNally (Illinois University Press, forthcoming).
"Makeup and Hair: Forgotten Folks and Famous Experts." In Hollywood Unions, ed. Kate Fortmueller and Luci Marzola (Rutgers University Press, forthcoming).
"Managing the Classical Hollywood Musical's Dancing Bodies: 'Morality' and Glamour." In Oxford Handbook of American Film History, ed. Jon Lewis (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
"The Faces of Ginger: Beauty Makeup, Facial Acting, and Hollywood Stardom." In Faces on Screen: New Approaches, ed. Alice Maurice (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).
"Glamour and the Dancing Body in the Hollywood Musical." In Le Musical hollywoodien: Histoire, esthétique, création, ed. N. T. Binh and José Moure (Les Impressions Nouvelles/Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021).
"We Got Away with Murder: The Production Code Administration and the Dancing Body." In Politiques du musical hollywoodien, ed. Aurélie Ledoux and Pierre-Olivier Toulza (Presses de Paris Nanterre, 2021).
"'Give Them a Good Breakfast Says Nancy Carroll': Fan Magazine Advice Across Time." In Star Attractions: Twentieth-Century Movie Magazines and Global Fandom, ed. Tamar Jeffers McDonald and Lies Lanckman (University of Iowa Press, 2019).
«Qu’est-ce qu’un chorégraphe?» [“What Is a Choreographer?”]. Positif (October 2018).
"Flirting with Terpsichore: Show Dancing in 1930s Hollywood Musicals." In Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century (Volume I), ed. Jennifer Atkins, Sally Sommer, and Tricia Young (University Press of Florida, 2018).
"Cary Grant in His Girl Friday." In Close-up: Great Cinematic Performances, United States, ed. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens (Edinburgh University Press, 2018).
"Marcello Mastroianni in 8½." In Close-up: Great Cinematic Performances, International, ed. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens (Edinburgh University Press, 2018).
"Cyd Charisse: America’s Movie Ballerina" and «Cyd Charisse: la ballerine du cinéma américain», trans. Nicolas Cognard, Marguerite Chabrol et Pierre-Olivier Toulza. In Star Turns in Hollywood Musicals and Stars et solistes du musical hollywoodien, ed. Marguerite Chabrol and Pierre-Olivier Toulza (Presses du réel, 2017).
"If Only They Had Meant to Make a Comedy: Laughing at Black Swan." In The Last Laugh: Strange Humors of Cinema, ed. Murray Pomerance (Wayne State University Press, 2013).
"Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth: Pinned Up." In What Dreams Were Made Of: Movie Stars of the 1940s, ed. Sean Griffin (Rutgers University Press, 2011).
"Flirting with Terpsichore: Dance, Class, and Entertainment in 1930s Film Musicals." In The Sound of Musicals, ed. Steven Cohan (BFI/Palgrave, 2010).
"What a Swell Party This Was: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra." In Larger Than Life: Movie Stars of the 1950s, ed. R. Barton Palmer (Rutgers University Press, 2010).
"Putting 'Em Down Like a Man: Eleanor Powell and the Spectacle of Competence." In Hetero: Queering Representations of Straightness, ed. Sean Griffin (SUNY Press, 2009).
"Wedding Bells Ring, Storks Are Expected, the Rumours Aren’t True, Divorce Is the Only Answer: Stardom and Fan-Magazine Family Life in 1950s Hollywood." In A Family Affair: Cinema Calls Home, ed. Murray Pomerance (Wallflower Press, 2008).
"1958: Movies and Allegories of Ambivalence." In American Cinema of the 1950s: Themes and Variations, ed. Murray Pomerance (Rutgers University Press, 2005).
"'New Films in Story Form': Movie Story Magazines and Spectatorship," Cinema Journal (Spring 2003).
"Feeling and the Filmed Body: Judy Garland and the Kinesics of Suffering," Film Quarterly (Spring 2002).
"Media Effects: Marshall McLuhan, Television Culture, and 'The X-Files.'" In Horace Newcomb, ed., Television: The Critical View, 6th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2000) and Film Quarterly (Summer 1998).
"The Thousand Ways There Are to Move: Camp and Oriental Dance in the Hollywood Musicals of Jack Cole." In Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film, ed. Matthew Bernstein and Gaylyn Studlar (Rutgers University Press, 1997), and Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement (Spring 2003).
"The Cinderella Princess and the Instrument of Evil: Surveying the Limits of Female Transgression in Two Postwar Hollywood Scandals," Cinema Journal (Spring 1995).
"'I'm a Cansino': Transformation, Ethnicity, and Authenticity in the Construction of Rita Hayworth, American Love Goddess," The Journal of Film and Video (Fall 1992-Winter 1993).
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Invited speaker (keynote address), London Metropolitan University virtual conference "Behind the Screen and Off the Stage" (November 2021).
Invited speaker, colloquium «Le Musical hollywoodien : création, esthétique, réception» [“The Hollywood Musical: Creation, Aesthetics, Reception”]. Université Panthéon Sorbonne and the Philharmonie de Paris, December 2018.
Invited speaker and participant, Labex «Musical MC²» ["The Hollywood Musical in Its Mediatic and Cultural Contexts"], December 2015-2017, Paris.
Robert De Niro Fellowship, Ransom Center, University of Texas, 2011-2012.
Victor Worsfold Award for Outstanding Teaching, School of Arts and Humanities, UTD, 2001, 2022.
Sigma Nu Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Emory College, Emory University, 1997.
First Place, Society for Cinema Studies Student Writing Competition, 1992.
Ball Brothers Foundation Visiting Fellowship, Lilly Library, University of Indiana, 1992.
Algur H. Meadows Fellowship in Dance, Southern Methodist University, 1979-1981.
Film history and theory; women and film; classical Hollywood cinema; stars and star images; the Hollywood musical; theatrical dance history
PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
All for Beauty: Makeup and Hairdressing in Hollywood's Studio Era (Rutgers University Press, 2022).
Costume, Makeup, and Hair (ed.). Vol. 4 of "Behind the Silver Screen," series ed. Jon Lewis (Rutgers University Press, 2016).
Cinematic Canines: Dogs and Their Work in the Fiction Film (ed.) (Rutgers University Press, 2014).
Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the 1930s (ed.) (Rutgers University Press, 2011).
Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body, and Narrative Cinema (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom (Rutgers University Press, 2004).
Headline Hollywood: A Century of Film Scandal (co-ed. David Cook) (Rutgers University Press, 2001).
Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema, series eds. Adrienne L. McLean and Murray Pomerance (Rutgers University Press). Eleven volumes, contracted 2006, published 2009-2022.
In Preparation:
Better Than Everybody: Eleanor Powell and Women Dancer-Choreographers in Studio-Era Hollywood (monograph).
SELECTED ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS:
"Lady Be Gone: Eleanor Powell and the MGM Freed-Unit Musical." In Women and Hollywood: Tales of Inequality, Abuse, and Resistance in the Dream Factory, ed. Karen McNally (Illinois University Press, forthcoming).
"Makeup and Hair: Forgotten Folks and Famous Experts." In Hollywood Unions, ed. Kate Fortmueller and Luci Marzola (Rutgers University Press, forthcoming).
"Managing the Classical Hollywood Musical's Dancing Bodies: 'Morality' and Glamour." In Oxford Handbook of American Film History, ed. Jon Lewis (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
"The Faces of Ginger: Beauty Makeup, Facial Acting, and Hollywood Stardom." In Faces on Screen: New Approaches, ed. Alice Maurice (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).
"Glamour and the Dancing Body in the Hollywood Musical." In Le Musical hollywoodien: Histoire, esthétique, création, ed. N. T. Binh and José Moure (Les Impressions Nouvelles/Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021).
"We Got Away with Murder: The Production Code Administration and the Dancing Body." In Politiques du musical hollywoodien, ed. Aurélie Ledoux and Pierre-Olivier Toulza (Presses de Paris Nanterre, 2021).
"'Give Them a Good Breakfast Says Nancy Carroll': Fan Magazine Advice Across Time." In Star Attractions: Twentieth-Century Movie Magazines and Global Fandom, ed. Tamar Jeffers McDonald and Lies Lanckman (University of Iowa Press, 2019).
«Qu’est-ce qu’un chorégraphe?» [“What Is a Choreographer?”]. Positif (October 2018).
"Flirting with Terpsichore: Show Dancing in 1930s Hollywood Musicals." In Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century (Volume I), ed. Jennifer Atkins, Sally Sommer, and Tricia Young (University Press of Florida, 2018).
"Cary Grant in His Girl Friday." In Close-up: Great Cinematic Performances, United States, ed. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens (Edinburgh University Press, 2018).
"Marcello Mastroianni in 8½." In Close-up: Great Cinematic Performances, International, ed. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens (Edinburgh University Press, 2018).
"Cyd Charisse: America’s Movie Ballerina" and «Cyd Charisse: la ballerine du cinéma américain», trans. Nicolas Cognard, Marguerite Chabrol et Pierre-Olivier Toulza. In Star Turns in Hollywood Musicals and Stars et solistes du musical hollywoodien, ed. Marguerite Chabrol and Pierre-Olivier Toulza (Presses du réel, 2017).
"If Only They Had Meant to Make a Comedy: Laughing at Black Swan." In The Last Laugh: Strange Humors of Cinema, ed. Murray Pomerance (Wayne State University Press, 2013).
"Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth: Pinned Up." In What Dreams Were Made Of: Movie Stars of the 1940s, ed. Sean Griffin (Rutgers University Press, 2011).
"Flirting with Terpsichore: Dance, Class, and Entertainment in 1930s Film Musicals." In The Sound of Musicals, ed. Steven Cohan (BFI/Palgrave, 2010).
"What a Swell Party This Was: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra." In Larger Than Life: Movie Stars of the 1950s, ed. R. Barton Palmer (Rutgers University Press, 2010).
"Putting 'Em Down Like a Man: Eleanor Powell and the Spectacle of Competence." In Hetero: Queering Representations of Straightness, ed. Sean Griffin (SUNY Press, 2009).
"Wedding Bells Ring, Storks Are Expected, the Rumours Aren’t True, Divorce Is the Only Answer: Stardom and Fan-Magazine Family Life in 1950s Hollywood." In A Family Affair: Cinema Calls Home, ed. Murray Pomerance (Wallflower Press, 2008).
"1958: Movies and Allegories of Ambivalence." In American Cinema of the 1950s: Themes and Variations, ed. Murray Pomerance (Rutgers University Press, 2005).
"'New Films in Story Form': Movie Story Magazines and Spectatorship," Cinema Journal (Spring 2003).
"Feeling and the Filmed Body: Judy Garland and the Kinesics of Suffering," Film Quarterly (Spring 2002).
"Media Effects: Marshall McLuhan, Television Culture, and 'The X-Files.'" In Horace Newcomb, ed., Television: The Critical View, 6th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2000) and Film Quarterly (Summer 1998).
"The Thousand Ways There Are to Move: Camp and Oriental Dance in the Hollywood Musicals of Jack Cole." In Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film, ed. Matthew Bernstein and Gaylyn Studlar (Rutgers University Press, 1997), and Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement (Spring 2003).
"The Cinderella Princess and the Instrument of Evil: Surveying the Limits of Female Transgression in Two Postwar Hollywood Scandals," Cinema Journal (Spring 1995).
"'I'm a Cansino': Transformation, Ethnicity, and Authenticity in the Construction of Rita Hayworth, American Love Goddess," The Journal of Film and Video (Fall 1992-Winter 1993).
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Invited speaker (keynote address), London Metropolitan University virtual conference "Behind the Screen and Off the Stage" (November 2021).
Invited speaker, colloquium «Le Musical hollywoodien : création, esthétique, réception» [“The Hollywood Musical: Creation, Aesthetics, Reception”]. Université Panthéon Sorbonne and the Philharmonie de Paris, December 2018.
Invited speaker and participant, Labex «Musical MC²» ["The Hollywood Musical in Its Mediatic and Cultural Contexts"], December 2015-2017, Paris.
Robert De Niro Fellowship, Ransom Center, University of Texas, 2011-2012.
Victor Worsfold Award for Outstanding Teaching, School of Arts and Humanities, UTD, 2001, 2022.
Sigma Nu Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Emory College, Emory University, 1997.
First Place, Society for Cinema Studies Student Writing Competition, 1992.
Ball Brothers Foundation Visiting Fellowship, Lilly Library, University of Indiana, 1992.
Algur H. Meadows Fellowship in Dance, Southern Methodist University, 1979-1981.