Debra Ann Pawlak=RINGING UP OSCAR, THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO FOUNDED THE ACADEMY
ABOUT DEBRA ANN PAWLAK…
Debra Ann has been a movie lover ever since she can remember. Her professional writing career, however, didn’t begin until 2000.
Most recently, she combined the two with a book called Bringing Up Oscar, The Men and Women Who Founded the Academy about the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. It’s now available in hardcover, paperback and ebook versions. Bringing Up Oscar was named runner-up in the non-fiction category of the 2011 Hollywood Book Festival and took first place in the History: Media/Entertainment category of the USA Best Books 2011 Awards.
In the past, Debra Ann was a regular contributor to two on-line entertainment magazines based in Los Angeles. Her articles were designed to entertain and teach the readers something they might not have known before. Debra Ann has profiled a variety of personalities, including French entertainer Mistinguet, legendary outlaw Belle Starr and Civil War hero Sarah Emma Edmonds who enlisted in the Union Army disguised as a man. In addition, She has covered intriguing events like the 1914 sinking of the Empress of Ireland in the St. Lawrence Seaway, the 1927 Bath School massacre in Michigan and the rum-running antics of Detroit’s own mobsters, The Purple Gang, during Prohibition.
Debra Ann has also written multiple Hollywood history articles about the fascinating world of film-making and the nearly forgotten personalities who, at one time, held the world spellbound. Among those early Hollywood figures were sexy Clara Bow who ushered in the Jazz Age, blacklisted funny man Fatty Arbuckle, who was accused of murder, as well as Tinseltown’s first super couple, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and his wife, Mary Pickford, who defined Hollywood royalty.
Debra Ann also authored a book, Farmington and Farmington Hills, for Arcadia Publishing’s ‘Making of America’ series. This book details the history of the two local cities and includes a multitude of pictures, some of which are over 100 years old. In addition, she has also contributed to Chicken Soup for the Mother and Daughter Soul, as well as, Chicken Soup for the Father and Daughter Soul. Debra Ann’s work has also appeared in The Writer, Aviation History and Michigan History. She has written an in-depth profile on band leader and march king John Philip Sousa, which was released on CD by Allegro Music. Additionally, she has completed a children’s book profiling Bruce Lee, which was published in 2009.
Date Recorded: 01/25/2012
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