Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames

No delicate ingenues, these. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Mary Pickfords of the movie world were replaced by a different sort of woman--drop-dead gorgeous, witty, not afraid to speak their minds, they could slay you with a look--and if that didn’t work, look out for the pistol in the garter. These ground-breaking actresses helped change the course of movie history, charting a path for generations to come.

These profiles of fifteen leading ladies--Lucille Ball, Lynn Bari, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Gloria Grahame, Jean Hagen, Adele Jergens, Ida Lupino, Marilyn Maxwell, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Claire Trevor and Marie Windsor--include overviews of their lives and careers, and excerpts from interviews. Five photos supplement each profile. Jane Russell (one of the actresses profiled) provides a foreword.

Ray Hagen spent 15 years acting, dancing, and singing on and off Broadway, has written two off-Broadway plays, co-authored a movie reference book, conducted numerous film-related interviews, and narrates books on tape for the Library of Congress. He lives in Washington D.C. Writer Laura Wagner lives in New York. A regular contributor to various movie publications, she is the book reviewer for Classic Images. She is the co-writer (with Ray Hagen) of Killer Tomatoes: 15 Tough Film Dames.