Customer Reviews

Imposters

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This book is a fascinating look at the people behind the masks. Shawna Kenney's words take us beyond the mask and give us a unique insight into the people behind the mask. James Knoblauch's idea to take the photos away from Hollywood Blvd. was inspired and give us a new view of the people behind the masks.

I have been to Hollywood on vacation a few times so I am one of those people who always enjoyed seeing the "Imposters". I never really thought of them as scary but I never had my picture taken with them either. I preferred to enjoy them from afar.

The thing is I never really gave them any thought after I left Hollywood Blvd.

Thank you both for a book well done. I will try to give more thought to all those people behind masks now, like the person handing me my fries at Burger King or the boy packing my groceries at the store. We all come out from behind the mask when we get home, don't we?

Photographer James Knoblauch writes: "When I first saw the Imposters, I loved how they fit the Hollywood landscape. Their costumes were faded [I might say, "as faded as their dreams"] and they blended in with the blue sky, white concrete and dirty air." He adds, "These characters work on Hollywood Boulevard, posing for pictures with tourists in the hope of receiving a tip. For the most part, the Imposters are actors who prefer the idea of working the street over working in a restaurant."

Call it Hollywood Americana, call it panhandling in a Mickey Mouse costume, call it pathetic, or maybe call it love. Knoblauch decided to take his camera deeper into the lives of these denizens outside the studio door--outside, but still living, The Dream.

There's Gil Gex who plays Jimi Hendrix in a costume his girl friend made in 1985. Knoblauch photographed him in his apartment with his guitar, headband, yellow shirt, black pants, plastic green watch band, sitting on his bed with a small silver TV on a chair next to it.

There's also Michael A. Luce who impersonates Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow from the "Pirates" movies, who says the best part of the job is "getting a kiss on the lips." He claims he gets lots of dates "and some have gone 100%." The belt for his costume "is the bed sheet from the motel where I live."

Christopher Lloyd Dennis is caught in front of a wall of his Superman memorabilia sporting his Superman costume, the tights, the cape, the augmented biceps, holding a green rock. He says his "Hardest earned tip" was "$30 for lifting a 300-pound woman at the request of her husband."

Batman (Max Allen) seems upscale almost in his plant festooned pad among some wicker furniture. He says, "I've had 4 or 5 fights. Sometimes guys get drunk and want the reputation of beating up Batman. But I'm a martial artist." While in costume he claims to have caught "2 purse-snatchers, 1 shoplifter, and 1 assailant."

Who says the Hollywood dream is out of reach?

The photos of the Imposters are full page glossies and there are 35 of them, including a not exactly fetching "Marilyn Monroe" (Melissa Weiss), a very ugly Homer Simpson (Uchenda) in white briefs over yellow leggings, a formidable Mae West (Shelley Johnson), and on and on. Each photo reveals through the pointed eye and selective brain of the photographer something about the Imposter, caught, as it were, in his or her own lair. The dirty rugs, the smashed lamp shade, the peeling paint, the cheap little electric fan on the opened window seal. Knobaugh shows us more than their dreams: he rubs our noses in the very stuff of their lives.

There's text by writer Shawna Kenney and her interview with David Markey who has made a movie about the Imposters entitled "Reinactors: What's So Famous about Being a Star?"

Buzz Poole, managing editor at Mark Batty Publishers provides a short introduction.

An integral part of every science fiction and fantasy convention are the costumes that the fans create imitating their favorite characters from literature, pop culture, films, and television shows. Funny, thoughtful, irreverent, and occasionally iconoclastic, "Imposters" is a compilation of full-color photographs of some truly memorable examples of fan costuming presented with a one page bio of the man or woman who has (and rather successfully) sought to emulate a particular character with precise attention to detail. From Superman; Wonder Woman; and Spiderman; to Elvis; Bugs Bunny; and Homer Simpson, "Imposters" offers a roster of examples that might well serve as a template for other enthusiasts as to what they might do. "Imposters" is a unique contribution to academic and community library Popular Culture reference collections, and a whole lot of fun for non-specialist general browsers who have ever dressed up for Halloween, SciFi, or costume party events!

This book is a great coffee table piece. I've displayed it out and it always captures guests attention. When they pick it up and start flipping through it, it sucks them in! Fun and entertaining!

IMPOSTERS is a collection of photographs with commentary taken from life on Hollywood Boulevard, in Hollywood. For years all manner of people have, for various reasons not the least of which is the money in tips they enjoy, dressed as famous stars or characters from the movies, parading up and down Hollywood Boulevard, preening for the tourists, and acting out fantasies of their own. Photographer James Knoblauch has captured 36 of these `imposters', people of all types who daily don the garb of famous figures and walk the Boulevard in a particular type of performance art! Not only is the experience of viewing this book entertainingly funny, but it is also touching. It is very Hollywood in every sense of the connotation.

Knoblauch interviewed and made formal photographs of these 36 'actors' in their own spaces. The brilliantly colorful photographs are posed, yes, but then that is in keeping with the concept of being an imposter. The characters range from Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Lucille Ball, Jimi Hendrix, Austin Powers, and of course Elvis Presley, to comic creations such as Bugs Bunny, the Simpsons, Sponge Bob, Shrek, Yoda, Chewbacca, the Hulk, Batman, Superman, Captain America and Spiderman, to Freddy Kreuger, Jack Sparrow from the `Pirates of the Caribbean', Wolverine, Snow White and yes, more. The images are full of life and are allowed the honor of a full page format, opposite which is a brief question and answer blurb that includes the artists' hometowns/countries, background, education, motivation for being an Imposter, the money they make - all tidbits that unveil the person beneath the costume.

At the beginning of the book is a fine essay by Shawna Kenny who grew up not far form Hollywood Boulevard and has realtime experience in observing and getting to know these `imposters'. Her insights into the lifestyles of the various characters and the whole business of working the Boulevard as an actor is as humorous as it is informative. The essay is illustrated by some street shots of the imposters in action. At the close of the book Kenny's interview with filmmaker David Markey sheds even more light on the concept of the Imposters and their place in the landscape of Hollywood.

This is a beautifully designed, coffee table book (in the best sense of the term) that is guaranteed to entertain and inform - a book no Los Angeles dweller should be without and a genuine memento from the glitzy space we know as Hollywood. And it is all true! Grady Harp, April 08