Gary Giddins

It's not often in judging the biography of a great artist that you can just pick up the phone and call one of the people who knew him best — and remains a principal keeper of the historical flame. But that is exactly the case with Cab Calloway, the...

HUGO (2011) * * * (B) Directed by Martin Scorsese Starring Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Helen McCrory, Michael Stuhlbarg, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, Jude...

Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis discusses jazz critics....

Warning Shadows Home Alone With Classic Cinema Gary Giddins W.W. Norton: 416 pp., $18.95 Gary Giddins is well known for his writing about music — he was a Village Voice jazz columnist for three decades, and his books, among them the biography...

Los Angeles Times file photo July 19, 1925: “Lady Be Good” at the Mason. Several people asked whether this fellow with Kitty Doner in “Lady Be Good” might be Bing Crosby. I had the same question, so I thought I’d dig into it a bit. “Lady Be...

April 17, 2008 For the last several years, Richard Schickel has been a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review, writing primarily about books on film. His new book, "Film on Paper: The Inner Life of Movies," is a collection of many of...

Lee Solters Publicist for Broadway, Hollywood Lee Solters, 89, a longtime publicist who worked with some of the biggest names of Broadway and Hollywood, died Monday of natural causes at his home in West Hollywood, according to Jerry Digney, his...

The life of a black celebrity is perilous enough, but the black celebrity who becomes a spokesperson is asking for pure hell. Not only has the outspokenness of those regarded as radicals gotten them into trouble, but as Gary Giddins' recent book "Satchmo"...