Ben-Hur : : The Original Blockbuster / / Jon Solomon.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2016
• VerfasserIn: Solomon, Jon,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Screening Antiquity : SCAN
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (928 p.) :; 56 colour illustrations

The complete history of the Ben-Hur phenomenonBen-Hur was the first literary blockbuster to generate multiple and hugely profitable adaptations, highlighted by the 1959 film that won a record-setting 11 Oscars. More than a century before The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, and decades before Gone with the Wind and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, General Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur was spun off into dozens of popular publications and media productions, becoming a veritable commercial brand name that earned tens of millions of dollars.Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster surveys the phenomenon's unprecedented range and extraordinary endurance: various editions, spin-off publications, stage productions, movies, comic books, radio plays, and retail products were successfully marketed and sold from the 1880s and throughout the twentieth century. Today Ben-Hur Live is touring Europe and Asia, with a third film released in 2016.Jon Solomon's book offers an exciting and detailed study of the Ben-Hur brand, tracking its spectacular journey from Wallace's original novel through to twenty-first century adaptations, and encompassing a wealth of previously unexplored material along the way.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgements -- A Note about the Hyphen: Ben-Hur vs Ben Hur -- Series Editors' Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 The First Blockbuster -- 2 Lew Wallace Before Ben-Hur -- 3 "How I Came To Write Ben-Hur" -- 4 Publication and Early Reception of the Novel -- 5 The Transformations of the Novel -- 6 Reasons for Success -- 7 Early Staged Readings: Ben-Hur, in Tableaux and Pantomime -- 8 Ben-Hur in Song and Instrumental Music -- 9 "My God! Did I Set All This Into Motion?": The Klaw & Erlanger Ben-Hur -- 10 "Ben-Hur Flour Has The Go To Make The Dough": Early Ben-Hur Commerce -- 11 Ben-Hur in Moving Pictures: Stereopticon Lectures and the 1907 Kalem Ben-Hur -- 12 "The Greatest Motion Picture Property in the History of the Screen": The 1925 MGM Ben-Hur -- 13 Between the MGM Films -- 14 "The World's Most Honored Motion Picture": The 1959 MGM Ben-Hur -- 15 The Next Half-Century: New Formats and New Versions -- Bibliography -- General Index -- Ben-Hur Index -- Personal Names, Companies, Institutions, Societies, and Unions Index -- Non-Ben-Hur Title Index