Preston Sturges by Bruce Russell, 1932
"Sullivan's Travels" and "Mr. Bug Goes to Town," Feb. 12, 1942.
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Aug. 7, 1959 in The Times: Preston Sturges, renowned Hollywood film producer-writer-director and Broadway playwright, died of a heart attack yesterday in his New York hotel room. He would have been 61 Aug. 28.
Sturges, who left Hollywood nearly 10 years ago after a series of reverses, had been living for several months in New York's Hotel Algonquin, a favorite of theatrical folk.
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Sturges was credited with introducing the flashback technique in "The Power and the Glory."
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Lee Shippey interviews Preston Sturges, Oct. 2, 1932: Thus a young man who previously had been notable only for the invention of a "twenty-four-hour lipstick" suddenly became one of the most interesting figures in American drama."
"Nothing surprising about that," he avers. "Playwriting is simply invention. Inventing a lipstick or an engine or a play is very similar work. I have invented an engine, too, for which I have great hopes."
At right, Philip K. Scheuer on Sturges, Aug. 7, 1959.
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That Lowell Thomas look-alike Preston Sturges, is an often overlooked film master. And 'Sullivan's Travels', one of his masterpieces, may be the best mirror shot of Hollywood culture ever made.
And both will continue to shine from screens as long as people need to be entertained -- "with a little bit of sex thrown in."
Posted by: Arye Michael Bender | August 06, 2009 at 12:25 PM