Never heard of him? Not surprising, as Ben Pivar was one of the faceless craftsmen who inhabited the sizable world of Hollywoods cinematic underbelly, the B film. But while often disparaged and mocked for their low-budget look, breakneck storytelling, and low wattage casts, B films occupied the second half of most theaters bill during the thirties and forties-something most patrons expected to fill out their evenings entertainment. And Ben Pivar was responsible for a staggering number of them.

Stop Yellin chronicles Pivars life, both the highs and lows, concentrating on his most...

"THIS IS BEACH HAVEN, NOT THE BIG CITY; WE HAVE OUR OWN WAY OF DOING THINGS. WE DON'T NEED OUTSIDERS BUTTING IN, TRYING TO CHANGE THINGS." Lewis Porter was an outsider - asked by the local police to examine a murder scene because of his past...work experience. It was experience that he was more than happy to keep right where he left it: in the past. But people's pasts have a funny way of catching up with them. A string of mysterious disappearances of amateur poetesses in the sleepy New Jersey shore town of 1930s Beach Haven bring Porter out of self-imposed retirement and lead...

It was every immigrant's dream. Within ten years of his 1906 arrival in the U.S., Henry Lehrman had achieved both fame and fortune in the fledgling film industry. Widely acknowledged as the creator of frenetic comedies of unusual artistry and unparalleled mayhem, Lehrman's guidance and creativity ushered newcomer Charles Chaplin to international popularity at Mack Sennett's Keystone. Roscoe Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, and numerous others benefited immeasurably from his direction as well, at Keystone and later at Lehrman's own Sterling, L-Ko, and Fox Sunshine companies. By 1919, Lehrman's...