Florida in the Movies: Meet the authors

We're looking forward to a great time with Susan Fernandez and Robert Ingalls on Saturday. They're the authors of a new book, Sunshine in the Dark: Florida in the Movies

They'll be in the store Saturday afterrnoon (September 23) to sign books and talk about Florida's cinema legacy. Come see them 1 to 4 p.m. at the store in Old Northeast in St. Petersburg.

If you love the movies and you love Florida, you've got to see this book. It's full of great stills from movies all the way back to the silent films, and it is a film buff's dream. Susan and Robert put together a great resource. It is more than a mere listing of the many films that have been made about Florida. It is a scholarly analysis of the themes in Florida movies and the recurring characters and plotlines.

Sunshine in the Dark "is a surprisingly vast reminder of Floridian impressions on film," said Steve Persall, film critic of the St. Petersburg Times. You can read his complete review.

The book is the first complete study of how the movie industry has immortalized Florida’s extraordinary scenery, characters, and history on celluloid.

Susan and Robert have identified more than 300 films about Florida — many of them shot on location in the state. They analyze how filmmakers from the Marx Brothers and John Huston to Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola have portrayed the state and its people. That's a still from the noir classic Key Largo (1948) with Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. Lauren Bacall plays the daughter of a feisty old man played by Lionel Barrymore.

Before the 1960s, cinematic trips to Florida usually brought happy endings in movies like Moon Over Miami (1942), but since the 1970s, films like Scarface (1982) have emphasized menacing characteristics of the state.

In the authors' analysis of the films, which examines location settings, plotlines, and characters, they find a bevy of Florida stereotypes among the leading characters — from the struggling crackers in The Yearling (1946) to the drug-addicted con man in Adaptation (2002).

Mark your calendar for Saturday, September 23, to come meet the authors.

Check this site again soon for another still from a classic Florida movie.

ORDER THIS BOOK ON LINE RIGHT NOW!

Directions for The Storm Gourmet

Here's how to get to the Tampa Bay area appearances of Daphne Nikolopoulos, author of The Storm Gourmet.

St. Petersburg: 11 a.m. The Pier Aquarium. Second Floor, The Pier, Downtown St. Petersburg. The Pier is at the end of Second Avenue N.

Tarpon Springs: 2 p.m. St. Nicholas Cathedral Center. 348 N. Pinellas Avenue. That's Alt. U.S. 19. Go north beyond the Cathedral. It's on the right. It's huge! You can't miss it.