Scott Allen Nollen

Scott Allen Nollen (born April 2, 1963, in Harlan, Iowa) is an American historian, biographer, archivist, filmmaker and musician known widely as the author of a series of popular books on the history of film, music, literature and African American studies. His father, Harold N. Nollen, served in the United States Coast Guard prior to running a successful petroleum distribution business, to which his mother, Shirley A. (Stoltz) Nollen, also contributed. From age 12 in 1975, Nollen worked for his father until beginning his university studies in 1984.^[1] The maternal line of his father's family has been traced back to Bavaria in 1676.

Nollen's literary collaborators include science-fiction legend Ray Bradbury, author-filmmakers Nicholas Meyer and Michael A. Hoey, British musicians Ian Anderson and Dave Pegg, R&B singer Ruth Pointer, television producer Tony Oppedisano, celebrity offspring Dame Jean Conan Doyle (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Sara Jane Karloff (Boris Karloff) and Chris Costello (Lou Costello), and Theron Denson, "the World's Only African-American Neil Diamond Tribute Artist." He also is known for producing, directing and playing two roles in the independent film Lofty (2005), with his nephew, Ryan C. Baumbach, and co-writing the screenplays for the award-winning documentaries Kreating Karloff (2006) and Finnigan’s War (2013).

Influences and heroes

Nollen's parents began reading to him at a very early age, and he was able to read and write by the age of four, before attending Kindergarten. He has cited his favorite authors as Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells and Mark Twain. He has noted that his greatest writing "teachers" have been Stevenson, Conan Doyle and Poe, all of whose considerable works (including essays and uncompleted material) he has read in their entirety. Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island (1883) he describes as a "perfect literary work and perhaps the only truly 'cinematic' work ever created entirely in another medium, especially prior to the invention of film." His favorite poet is Scottish bard Robert Burns, whose works are written in English and the Auld Scots dialect, which Nollen also reads and writes.^[1]

Fascinated by classic cinema since the age of five, when he first saw director James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), Nollen began making his own amateur films in 1976. From 1979-1983, he edited and published the fanzine Classic Monster Movies, which was supported in part by science-fiction maven Forrest J. Ackerman.

Directors

Nollen's top 20 classic film directors are John Ford, Charles Chaplin, Akira Kurosawa, John Huston, James Whale, Raoul Walsh, Michael Curtiz, F. W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Nicholas Ray, Anthony Mann, Robert Wise, William A. Wellman, Edward Dmytryk, Frank Borzage, Elia Kazan, Henry Hathaway, Budd Boetticher, John Brahm and William Dieterle.

His five top post-1960 directors are Sidney Lumet for The Fugitive Kind (1960) and Network (1976), Nicholas Meyer for Time After Time (1979), Woody Allen for Broadway Danny Rose (1984) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Martin Scorsese (for his early films, especially Raging Bull (1980)) and Clint Eastwood for Mystic River (2003) and Grand Torino (2008).^[1]

Performers

Boris Karloff has been Nollen's number-one thespian from childhood; and over the decades of viewing nearly every surviving classic Hollywood film through the 1960s (as well as a large percentage of world cinema from the same period), Edward G. Robinson, Glenda Farrell, Robert Ryan, Henry Fonda, Stan Laurel, Ward Bond, Ann Dvorak, Janet Gaynor, Edmond O'Brien, Basil Rathbone, James Cagney, Takashi Shimura, Victor McLaglen, Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart, Steve Cochran, John Cassavetes, Chester Morris, Richard Dix, Loretta Young, Bette Davis, Toshiro Mifune, Lionel Barrymore, Lou Costello, Richard Conte, Guy Kibbee, Laurence Olivier, Paul Robeson and, of course, Marlon Brando were added to his acting pantheon. His top child actors are Roddy McDowall, Margaret O'Brien and Shirley Temple.^[1] From "more recent years," his top actors (for both films and classic television) are Robert Duvall, Susan Oliver, Rip Torn, Woody Strode, Harry Bellaver, Nehemiah Persoff, Ossie Davis, Lois Nettleton, Brock Peters, Rod Steiger, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, James Whitmore, Nita Talbot, Paul Picerni, Ed Harris, Frank Langella, Jeremy Irons, Ian McKellen and Dennis Franz.

After studying the Hollywood cinema for nearly 50 years, Nollen has concluded that "the single most under-rated, nearly unnoticeably versatile actor, because of his Hollywood movie star status and 'unsavory' reputation, was the indescribable, mightily intelligent Errol Flynn, whose real talent, as a performer and writer, which is what he really wanted to be, will never be known. Basil Rathbone called him 'the most beautiful male human animal I have ever seen,' and his self-torture made him destroy himself. I've often empathized and identified with Errol."^[1]

Nollen's most "personally mesmerizing" experience while watching a film in a theater occurred in 2008 during Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard, in a Dallas cineplex while having the venue "all to himself."^[1]

His two favorite places are Inverness, Scotland and Monument Valley, Navaho Nation, on the border of Utah and Arizona, where John Ford shot many of his finest films, including two of Nollen's "Top 20 Films of All Time," The Searchers (1956) and Fort Apache (1948).^[1]

Literary works

Since 1983, Nollen has written scores of articles and essays, as well as authoring and editing over 40 books, including The Boys: The Cinematic World of Laurel and Hardy (1989), Boris Karloff: A Critical Account of His Screen, Stage, Radio, Television and Recording Work (1991), Robert Louis Stevenson: Life, Literature and the Silver Screen (1994), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Cinema: A Critical Study of the Film Adaptations (1996), Boris Karloff: A Gentleman’s Life (1999), Robin Hood: A Cinematic History of the English Outlaw and His Scottish Counterparts (1999), Jethro Tull: A History of the Band, 1968-2001 (2001), The Cinema of Sinatra: The Actor, on Screen and in Song (2003), Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music and Film Career (2004), Warners Wiseguys: All 112 Films that Robinson, Cagney and Bogart Made for the Studio (2007), Abbott and Costello on the Home Front: A Critical Study of the Wartime Films (2009), Jilly! Sinatra’s Right Hand Man (2009), Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer (2010), Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond (2013), Black Diamond: The Real Illusion (2013), and Glenda Farrell: Hollywood’s Hardboiled Dame (2014).

Of all his editing assignments, Nollen is most pleased to have worked on the U.S. edition of the autobiography of one of his heroes, Sir Christopher Lee, Tall, Dark and Gruesome (1999). Along with Sir Christopher, his favorite acquaintance and correspondent was actor, author and gourmet chef Vincent Price. His closest film-industry friend will always remain "the beloved Michael A. Hoey," whose original screenplay for the bizarre comic Elvis Presley film Stay Away, Joe (1967) he called (in the writer's presence) "a tragically under-rated experimental masterpiece."

Nollen co-wrote the Grammy-nominated book for the Time Warner CD box set Frank Sinatra in Hollywood 1940-1964 (2002), joining other Sinatra scholars including film historian Leonard Maltin, jazz authority Will Friedwald, and record producer Chuck Granata. In 2002, Nollen’s Jethro Tull was nominated for Best Rock ‘n’ Roll/R&B book by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.

University student and Federal archivist

Educated at the University of Iowa, Nollen earned a BA in Honors History (1988), a BA in Broadcasting and Film (1988), and an MA in United States, Modern European and African American History (1989). His main influences while at the University were Professor Lawrence Gelfand (History) and Professor Samuel Becker (Communication Studies), who had been recommended to him by Nicholas Meyer, who has maintained a strong relationship with the school. Another highlight for Nollen were his private discussions with legendary astronomer and physicist James Van Allen.

From 1991-2001, Nollen served as a federal archivist, filmmaker and lecturer for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC, and at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. His travels took him to institutions throughout the U.S., including a "private visit" in the boarding house where President Abraham Lincoln passed away and a night sleeping in the (very short) bed of President Rutherford B. Hayes.^[1]

Illnesses

The onset of two serious, permanent progressive illnesses, requiring long term hospitalizations and major surgeries during 2010-11, ended Nollen's extensive traveling to do research for book projects. Now confined to home under strict diet and medication regimens, Nollen remains out of the public eye, often serving as a pro-bono consultant for other biographers, historians, filmmakers and activists.

National Film Registry

In 2014, Nollen was selected by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress to contribute to the National Film Registry website, writing essays on Paul Robeson's The Emperor Jones (1933) and John Ford's Stagecoach, The Quiet Man, The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Current work

Nollen has completed a chapter on Robert Louis Stevenson's novels Treasure Island and Kidnapped for a book on the Walt Disney films for Rowman & Littlefield. He also finished the long-planned book The Making and Influence of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), a comprehensive study of the classic Warner Bros. "social problem" film starring Paul Muni and Glenda Farrell, which includes a full biography of the actual fugitive, Robert Elliott Burns for McFarland. Currently he has begun a major chapter, "John Ford and the Civil War," for the anthology volume The Civil War on Film and Television. He also is preparing for a course of study to earn a PhD in Forensic Psychology to begin a new career as an "eminently affordable" consultant to all manner of organizations.

Musical "spirituality"

As for music, Nollen's all-consuming passion spans an entire millennium (primarily in the Western World), from the time of the Norman Conquest (1066) to the great folk songs collected, written and finally recorded over the centuries in Great Britain and the United States by Robert Burns, Robert Tannahill, Ewan McColl, Woody Guthrie, John Lomax, John Hammond, Bob Dylan, Archie Fisher, the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Roy Gullane (Tannahill Weavers), Brian McNeill (Battlefield Band) and the musicians responsible for fusing traditional songs, jigs and reels with rock-and-roll accompaniment, Fairport Convention in England and The Band in North America. From Fairport, Steeleye Span, featuring the great Maddy Prior on vocals, and singer-songwriter and guitar wizard Richard Thompson, have had an enduring spiritual musical influence on Nollen that continues to this day.

With his book "Jethro Tull" being in print for 15 years, Nollen followed the band until their shifting into a different lineup as front man Ian Anderson's backing band. After serving as one of rock's most unusual and musically accomplishment guitarists in Jethro Tull for 44 years, Martin Barre now fronts his own band, which Nollen has called "often better than the band of the late years calling itself Jethro Tull."^[1] Today, Nollen remains friends with Fairport and former Jethro Tull bassist Dave Pegg, from whom he obtained a custom Scottish bass used on Fairport's Red and Gold (1988) and Tull's Rock Island (1989) albums.

Today, Nollen's top musical pleasure is provided by a blend throughout time, in the words of the great Duke Ellington, "without category: spanning the centuries and genres with, among his favorites, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Zoltan Kodaly, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Andy M. Stewart, Mark Knopfler and Jethro Tull.

Personal life

Nollen is single and lives "wherever he hangs his hat." In the end, he'd like to be known as having "tried as damn hard as I could to avoid prejudice and hate in all its forms. In my lifetime, I'm afraid humans have become so enamored with disposable technology that they've imparted so little importance to their own intellectual and philosophical evolution. After 30 years of working as a historian, it's often difficult to remain positive, but there's always hope. My Number-one U.S. President is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. My all-time favorite human beings have been (male) the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and (female) Jane Addams."^[1]

Books

The Boys: The Cinematic World of Laurel and Hardy. McFarland, 1989. ISBN 978-0786411153.
Boris Karloff: A Critical Account of His Screen, Stage, Radio, Television and Recording Work. McFarland, 1991. ISBN 978-0786440733.
Robert Louis Stevenson: Life, Literature and the Silver Screen. McFarland, 1994. ISBN 978-0786467129.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Cinema: A Critical History of the Film Adaptations. McFarland, 1996. ISBN 978-0786421244.
Midnight Marquee Actors Series: Vincent Price. Midnight Marquee, 1998. ISBN 978-1887664219.
Boris Karloff: A Gentleman’s Life. Midnight Marquee, 1999. ISBN 978-1887664233.
Midnight Marquee Actors Series: Peter Lorre. Midnight Marquee, 1999. ISBN 978-1887664301.
Robin Hood: A Cinematic History of the English Outlaw and His Scottish Counterparts. McFarland, 1999. ISBN 978-0786437573.
Jethro Tull: A History of the Band, 1968-2001. McFarland, 2001. ISBN 978-0786411016.
Sinatra in Hollywood, 1940-1964. Reprise/Warner Bros., 2002. ASIN B000066BN9.
The Cinema of Sinatra: The Actor, on Screen and in Song. Luminary Press, 2003. ISBN 978-1887664516.
Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music and Screen Career. McFarland, 2004. ISBN 978-0786418572.
Midnight Marquee Actors Series: Peter Cushing. Midnight Marquee, 2004. ISBN 978-1887664530.
Warners Wiseguys: All 112 Films that Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart Made for the Studio. McFarland, 2007. ISBN 978-0786432622.
Abbott and Costello on the Home Front: A Critical Study of the Wartime Films. McFarland, 2009. ISBN 978-0786435210.
Jilly! Sinatra's Right-Hand Man. Vegas Broom Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0578009216.
Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer. McFarland, 2010. ISBN 978-0786435203.
Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond. McFarland, 2013. ISBN 978-0786458547.
Black Diamond: The Real Illusion. Midnight Marquee, 2013. ISBN 978-1936168361.
Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hardboiled Dame. Midnight Marquee, 2014. ISBN 978-1936168477.
It's the Disney Version!. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ISBN 978-1442266063.
The Making and Influence of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. McFarland, forthcoming, 2016. ISBN 978-0786466771.
The Civil War on Film and Television. forthcoming.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Allen, Michael (July 1913). "An Interview with the Eclectic and Prolific Writer, Overcoming Major Illnesses, Returning to Small-Town Home After 30 Years". Omaha Reader.

External links

Scott Allen Nollen at the Internet Movie Database

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