Bombshell
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The authors have accumulated a large library of Marilyn Monroe material, and drew upon many books and periodicals for her characterization. The key books used were: The Unabridged Marilyn, Her Life from A to Z (1987), Randall Riese and Neal Hitchens; Marilyn Monroe, In Her Own Words (1983), Roger Taylor; Marilyn Monroe, The Biography (1993), Donald Spoto; Legend, The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe (1984), Fred Lawrence Guiles; The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (1974), Robert F. Slatzer; Goddess, The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (1985), Anthony Summers; The Marilyn Encyclopedia (1999), Adam Victor; and Timebends (1987), Arthur Miller.
Background for Jack Harrigan was drawn from The United States Secret Service (1961), Walter S. Bowen and Harry Edward Neal; and The Death Dealers (1960), Phil Hirsch.
Sources for the characterization of Walt Disney and the depiction of Disneyland included numerous contemporary magazine accounts, various Internet web pages, and the following books: The Art of Walt Disney (1973), Christopher Finch; Disney’s World (1985), Leonard Mosley; and Walt Disney, Hollywood’s Dark Prince (1993), Marc Eliot. In addition, the DVD set Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland USA (2001)—featuring documentaries hosted, produced, and written by Leonard Maltin—was particularly helpful, including interview material with Disney himself discussing the Khrushchev/Disneyland controversy. Walt Disney did have an apartment over the fire station in Disneyland, and was indeed planning a Khrushchev in Disneyland feature film; but certain liberties were taken here with the park and its geography, for storytelling purposes.
Other helpful sources included: His Way, The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (1986), Kitty Kelley; Out With the Stars: Hollywood Nightlife in the Golden Era (1985), Jim Heimann; and Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945–1970 (1999), Ken Smith.
The authors wish to thank their agent, Dominick Abel. This book has been a long time coming, and readers who have heard about the project have occasionally inquired about when it might arrive; we hope—as was the case when Marilyn Monroe finally walked onto a soundstage—it will have been worth the wait.
THE AUTHORS ARE…
Photo credit: Bamford Studio
MAX ALLAN COLLINS is the author of the Shamus-winning Nathan Heller historicals (Target Lancer) and the graphic novel Road to Perdition, basis for the Academy Award-winning film. His innovative ’70s series, Quarry, has been revived by Hard Case Crime (Quarry’s Ex) and he has completed six posthumous Mickey Spillane novels (Lady, Go Die!). Collins wrote and directed the Lifetime movie Mommy and the documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane on Criterion’s edition of Kiss Me Deadly.
Photo credit: Bamford Studio
BARBARA COLLINS is the coauthor (with her husband Max Allan Collins) of the award-winning Trash ‘n’ Treasures comic cozy mystery series, beginning with Antiques Roadkill and continuing through the current Antiques Disposal. The fourth entry, Antiques Flee Market, won the Romantic Times award for Best Humorous Mystery of 2008. Barbara and Max have also written two stand-alone thrillers (Bombshell and Regeneration), now back in print. Barbara has published several dozen short stories to much acclaim.