Blondie Comic Strip in Films, Radio & Television | Classic Comic Adaptation for Movie Lovers & Pop Culture Fans | Perfect for Collectors and Entertainment History Enthusiasts

I’m a big fan of the “Blondie” movies, having seen many of them as a kid at my local movie theater back in the 1940s and 1950s. I had fond memories of them and was always looking for them to show up on TV. Back in the mid-1990s the American Movie Channel began to run them every Sunday morning, from the first “Blondie” (1938) to last “Beware of Blondie” (1950) and I was able to copy many of my favorites to VHS tape. Since then I’ve always looked for a comprehensive guide to the series and I finally found it in Carol Lynn Scherling’s book: “Blondie Goes To Hollywood: The Blondie Comic Strip in Flms, Radio and Television.”The title says it all, this is the guide to Blondie in films, radio and television. In fact, as far as I can tell, it’s the only guide. Thankfully it’s a great book divided up into four sections (and 15 chapters): Blondie Goes To The Movies, Blondie on Radio, Blondie on Television, Blondie Goes To Market. Scherling has done a terrific job of gathering together facts and photos on the 28 Blondie movies, the cast members, the film stories, the wit and wisdom of Dagwood Bumstead, the aborted TV series, and the world of Blondie merchandise and collectibles. It’s 303 pages of Blondie information that any fan of the series will love. Unlike most books about Hollywood, this one not only has a very good index, but also a suggested reading list.What I really loved about this book is that I could feel the fan-love and the many hours of research and viewing that went into writing it. There are dozens of production stills and publicity photos from the movies and photos of the cast members of the radio show and the various TV series. If you haven’t seen all the Blondie movies, the long, detailed synopsis of each film are particularly helpful. At the end of many of these synopsis Scherling has written short facts and footnotes about the film or an actor featured in it, for example, why certain actors were replaced or when a repeated gag was first used in a Blondie film.Although the biographies of the cast members, Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent and others, are brief, they still give you a sense of who these people were and of their Hollywood careers. It would have been nice to have had some one-on-one interviews, but, unfortunately most of the adult actors are dead and the children, now adults themselves, have moved on into private lives. Chapter 7 focuses on the many name actors and rising “stars” who made an appearance in the Blondie films from Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, and Lloyd Bridges to Janet Blair, Stu Erwin, Willie Best and others.While most of the book is devoted to the Blondie movies, there are two short chapters on the radio show and attempts to revive Blondie on television. There was an aborted TV pilot in 1954 that went nowhere and two series, the first in 1957 with Arthur Lake as Dagwood and Pamela Britton as Blondie and the second in 1968 featuring Will Hutchins as Dagwood and Patricia Harty as Blondie. Neither series lasted more than one season.Overall, “Blondie Goes To Hollywood” is a terrific book about all things “Blondie.” It’s been lovingly put together and professionally published as a paperback by BearManor Media. It is worth every dollar I paid for it. If you love the Blondie movies, you’ll love this book.