From its beginnings in turn-of-the-century Paris and throughout its sixty-year reign of terror, the Theatre of the Grand Guignol gleefully celebrated horror and fear. Innocent victims, mangled beauty, insanity, mutilation, depravity, and guilt were its primary themes. By dissecting primal taboos in an unprecedentedly graphic manner, it became the progenitor of all the blood-spilling, eye-gouging, and limb-hacking "splatter" movies of today. This first English-language book on Grand Guignol examines its history, themes, and methods; summarizes its plots; provides the texts of two typical plays; and illustrates it with close to 100 pictures.

The Grand Guignol

Arts & Photography

Gordon, Mel

Performing Arts

Da Capo Press

Stanislavsky in America explores the extraordinary legacy that Constantin Stanislavski’s system of actor-training has left on acting in the US. Mel Gordon outlines the journey of Stanislavski’s theories through twentieth century American history, from the early US tours of the Moscow Art Theatre to the ongoing impact of 'The System' on modern American acting.  This fascinating study by a leading theatre critic and practitioner provides hundreds of original acting exercises, used by the pivotal US figures who developed his teachings, such as Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Bobby Lewis. By going back to these primary sources, Gordon cuts through the myths and misapprehensions which have built up over time. Part memoir and part practical guide, Stanislavsky in America is an essential resource for anyone wanting to understand Stanislavski’s work and his relationship with American theatre.

Stanislavsky in America: An Actor's Workbook

Routledge

Stanislavsky in America

History

Russian theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold designed Biomechanics-a system of actor training-shortly after the Russian Revolution. One of Meyerhold's students was the great Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein. Gathered from private Moscow archives, this is the first book-length study of Meyerhold's stylized training method in practical detail, as well as Eisenstein's theoretical analysis of Biomechanics.

Meyerhold, Eisenstein and Biomechanics: Actor Training in Revolutionary Russia

Engineering & Transportation

Law, Alma H.

Engineering

McFarland Publishing

Between 1921 and 1933, Berlin developed a reputation for debauchery unrivaled by any city before or since. Unlike European capitals like Paris, Barcelona, and Amsterdam, where brothel districts were extensive but discreet, in Berlin sexual tourism was a primary industry. On any given evening, over 600 establishments, from massage parlors to sex clubs to cabarets to private torture dungeons, promised unique sights and pleasures. Using tourist guidebooks that appeared before the Nazi period, historical memoirs, and more than 400 specialized journals and books, Mel Gordon has put together a controversial exploration of Berlin's erotic demiworld and its relationship to the rise of Nazism.

Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin

Europe

Feral House

The first victim of the Holocaust also supported the Third Reich.

Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler's Jewish Clairvoyant

Humor & Entertainment

This seductive sourcebook of rare visual delights from pre-Nazi, Cabaret-period “Babylon on the Spree” has the distinction of being praised both by scholars and avatars of contemporary culture, inspiring hip club goers, filmmakers, gay historians, graphic designers, and musicians like the Dresden Dolls and Marilyn Manson.
This expanded edition includes “Sex Magic and the Occult,” documenting German pagan cults and their often-bizarre erotic rituals, including instructions for entering into the “Sexual Fourth Dimension.”
Mel Gordon is professor of theater at the University of California, Berkeley, and is also the author of Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant (Feral House).

Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin (Expanded Edition)

Ancient Civilizations

It is virtually impossible to discuss modern acting or actor training without first mentioning the Russian thoerist and director Konstantin Stanislavsky. Complete in one volume, Mel Gordon explores the actor training systems of Stanislavsky and his two most important disciples, Evgeni Vakhtangov and Michael Chekhov, tracing the major teachings and refinements over the first 50 years of use by actors. Gordon reconstructs the actual exercises taught at the Moscow Art Theatre and various Russian acting studios, and he clears away the myths and confusion about the practical use of Stanislavsky's System. This volume contains: The Stanislavsky System – First Studio Exercises 1912-1916; Vakhtangov as Rebel and Theoretician – Exercises 1919-1921; Michael Chekhov – Exercises 1919-1952; and Stanislavsky's Fourth Period – Theory of Physical Actions, 1934-1938.

The Stanislavsky Technique: Russia: A Workbook for Actors (Applause Acting Series)

Applause

2016 IndieFab Honorable Mention in Popular Culture. 
Mel Gordon, author of Voluptuous Panic, the celebrated history about the sex culture of Weimar Berlin, returns with a stunningly illustrated look at Paris, The City of Pleasure, prior to and during German occupation during World War II.
The book Horizontal Collaboration encompasses the Jazz Age, Depression, World War and Occupation, and Liberation. It concludes with the shuttering of the licensed brothels in 1946, which some Parisian intellectuals thought was the final "destruction of French civilization".
The term "Horizontal Collaboration" refers to the sexual liaisons between French civilians and German occupiers from 1940 to 1944. These were extremely widespread and included both individual wartime relationships in addition to prostitution. As Allied armies swept across the French countryside, thousands of young women—and some men—were savagely punished by the authorities or by vigilante crowds, becoming a source of deep national shame.
Author Gordon redefines the pejorative term to mean something much broader: French men and women "horizontally collaborated" to overcome all social obstacles, divisions, and regulations. These obstacles include married and unmarried couples, straights and homosexuals, foreigners and locals, gun-toting soldiers and their vanquished subjects. The natural yearning for sexual pleasure equally corrupted all cohabitating partners.
This book rediscovers a remarkable time when the aesthetic and erotic capitol of Europe experienced remarkable heights and shameful lows. . . . Hundreds of images, most never before seen in a book, encompass this fascinating but little-known history.

Horizontal Collaboration: The Erotic World of Paris, 1920-1946

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gordon, Mel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gordon, Mel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gordon, Mel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Grand Guignol

Stanislavsky in America: An Actor's Workbook

Stanislavsky in America

Meyerhold, Eisenstein and Biomechanics: Actor Training in Revolutionary Russia

Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin

Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler's Jewish Clairvoyant

Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin (Expanded Edition)

The Stanislavsky Technique: Russia: A Workbook for Actors (Applause Acting Series)

Stanislavsky in America: An Actor's Workbook

Horizontal Collaboration: The Erotic World of Paris, 1920-1946