We specialize in hard to find items
(1)
Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street
Share Tweet
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
- Cash On Delivery/Cash Upon Pickup Available
About Landis: The Story Of A Real Man On 42nd Street
Product Description At the dawn of the 1980s, there was one serious name in horror and exploitation film criticism: Bill Landis. While other magazines were concerned with behind-the-scenes information, tributes, and SFX tutorials, Landis' Sleazoid Express was one part film journal and one part anthropological study, seriously critiquing the grindhouse movies that played the theaters of 42nd Street while also documenting the dying subculture that had grown up around them. Profiled in Film Comment and Rolling Stone for his pioneering work, Landis' over-the-top "Mr. Sleazoid" persona and double-life as an adult film star masked the pain behind the excess: a child genius whose intellect alienated him from his peers; a sexual abuse survivor who numbed his trauma with drugs; a consummate outcast who only felt at home among other outcasts. After settling into life as a husband, father, and author in the 90s, it seemed that Landis had turned a corner-but the ghosts of Times Square were never far behind him. Dead at the age of 49 on the eve of what should have been a successful comeback, his legacy has nominally been forgotten, most of his work lost, and his memory relegated to a footnote in journalism history. Now, award-winning author and journalist Preston Fassel (Our Lady of the Inferno; Fangoria magazine; The Daily Grindhouse) pieces together the full story of his life for the first time, from his turbulent childhood, to his meteoric rise in the New York vice scene, to his tragic demise on the streets of Chicago. Featuring exclusive interviews with Kurt Loder (MTV; Rolling Stone), Michael J. Weldon (Psychotronic Video), Art Ettinger (Ultra Violent Magazine), Carl Abrahamsson, Mike McPadden (Heavy Metal Movies; Teen Movie Hell), and others, plus excerpts from Landis' unpublished autobiographical novella Last Exit in Manattan and a reprint of Landis' seminal Fangoria interview with Andy Milligan, Landis at last pulls back the curtain on one of genre writing's most influential-yet unknown-figures. In that lost, damned, golden age called the 80s, there was a movie star named Bobby Spector and a writer named Mr. Sleazoid. Most importantly, there was a man named Bill Landis. This is his story. Review "Dreamy, seamy, and deliciously (and, occasionally, nauseatingly) detailed, this is an engrossing dive into an evolving New York City as experienced by one of its now-extinct species of men: the singular Bill Landis. Fassel takes clear care to depict Landis in all dimensions, through his own writings as well as the accounts of those who knew him best. The result is a stunning work of longform investigative journalism that reads as richly as a novel." - Kat Rosenfield, journalist and author of No One Will Miss Her "...a nuanced and intriguing portrait of Bill Landis, and a history lesson in the critical culture that has become modern film fandom. Even if you don't recognize the name: if you're a certain type of film fan, he's influenced the way you talk, think, and watch movies." - Adam Cesare, author of Video Night "A luminous portrait of a complex, haunted figure... The story of Landis's life is a must-read for both biography hounds and fans of grindhouse cinema." -Alex Kane, editor at USA Today's Reviewed "...a respectful and poignant portrayal of a singular man living in a legendary time for cinema and culture... Bill Landis wasn't like other cinephiles, and yet, as the pages slip through your fingers, you're bound to find a connection to him. His devotion to film, and the larger story it can tell about our collective history, was ahead of its time. So sit back, dim the lights, and let his story carry you away to the delicate, decaying world of the Deuce." - Adrienne Clark, Phantastiqa "Fassel writes with true reverence for his subject and I challenge you to find a writer as tuned into what makes grindhouse films so special as this one. A true must read." -Jerry Smith, Scream Magazine "...both fascinating a
