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Copyright © 20002008 John Dandola, Ltd. All rights reserved. |
January 25-26 March 14-15 SHU Theatre-in-the-Round |
January 19 Seton Hall University Theatre-in-the-Round |
Hammond Castle Connection |
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West Orange Connection |
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Plays for 2008 |
Welcome to the official web site for news, information, and updates about Author-Screenwriter-Playwright-Historian JOHN DANDOLA who is so closely associated with West Orange, New Jersey; John Hays Hammond, Jr.; and Hammond Castle Museum. In an interview by mystery author Julia Buckley, "John Dandola Chats About the Vikings, Scaramouche, and Beautiful, Beautiful Lindisfarne" Read it by clicking on the image at the left... Newest Release! This title has rekindled interest in adapting the Edie & Tony novels to film. Now that the screenwriters' strike is over, discussions are under way. Dead by All Appearances The Third Edie Koslow-Tony Del Plato Mystery When Teddy Edison, youngest son of the late Thomas Alva Edison, asks Tony Del Plato to investigate some odd occurrences at the castle laboratory of millionaire inventor John Hays Hammond, Jr., it is a request more for Tony's much needed change of scenery than out of any real necessity. While leaving West Orange, New Jersey, might prove to be therapeutic following the recent events in Tony's life, little could anyone foresee that this forced vacation on the restful and beautifully rocky coastline of Massachusetts would ultimately involve local gangsters, murder, and espionage. Adding to the confusion is a scheduled remote radio broadcast from the castle not to mention an unexpected rivalry between M.G.M. publicity girl Edie Koslow and Paramount actress Marjorie Reynolds, who is visiting after a War Bond tour in Boston to promote her new film, Holiday Inn. A November 2007 debut in time for the Sixty-Fifth Anniversary of Holiday Inn! "A unique blend of history, mystery, and nostalgia with the mood of a 1940's film. Clever casting, sharp period dialogue, and memorable scenic descriptions set a backdrop for an unexpected series of events. Great fun, and blessedly different, this is a book to take into your comfiest chair and enjoy as you would an exciting journey." Julia Buckley, author of The Dark Backward and Madeline Mann "Well-written by American author John Dandola, these thrillers unveil an odd and novel pair of amateur detectives: a movie publicity girl and a barber, who is one authentic and intriguing Italian-American." Giornale di Sicilia "Through movie publicist Edie Koslow and local barber Tony Del Plato, whose mysterious skills go well beyond hairstyling, Dandola presents Edison family history, small-town politics, and Tinsel Town gossip of the period and melds them seamlessly." Mystery Scene Magazine The Intercessions of Father Brown is based on three of the venerable short mysteries by G. K. Chesterton: The Blue Cross, The Queer Feet, The Flying Stars. It premiered at the Theatre-in-the-Round on the campus of Seton Hall University on January 27, 2007, and was co-sponsored by the G. K. Chesterton Institute. Tales of a Public House: An Evening of Wild Imaginings & Traditional Irish Music was written by John expressly for The Celtic Theatre Company in residence at the Theatre-in-the-Round on the campus of Seton Hall University where it premiered in March of 2005. "[In] his engaging new play, Dandola took some of William Carleton's short stories, put them in an Irish pub, and has customer after customer try to top the story that was told before his. ...It's an endearing 90 minutes...where each of the storytellers must entertain his peers, every one winds up doing much better than that. They all entertain the audience, too." Peter Filichia, The Star-Ledger Living in the Past, Looking to the Future: The Biography of John Hays Hammond, Jr. As an inventor, Hammond is considered "The Father of Radio Control." He was a protιgι of both Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva EdisonHammond visited the West Orange lab and became lifelong friends with his contemporary, the youngest Edison son, Theodore. Theodore and his wife often visited Hammond's castle home in Massachusetts while driving to their summer house in Maine. Whereas Edison's "Invention Factory" amassed nearly 1,100 patents, Hammond almost single-handedly accumulated 800 patents and his hob-nobbing lifestyle was much more fun. After more than four years of intense work and research on this biography, Hammond's fleeting connection to the author and to West Orange, New Jersey, has come full-circle: John Dandola's grandfather worked as a messenger boy for Thomas Edison in the 1910's and Theodore Edison taught John Dandola how to play chessthe author was in grammar school at the time and Theodore was by then an old man. The Ghosts of Hammond Castle is now in its expanded second edition. The book recounts years of ghostly happenings at the former home of John Hays Hammond, Jr., in Gloucester, Massachusettsan actual castle replete with drawbridge now a famed museum housing the inventor's medieval art and artifact collection. The second edition includes several new paranormal encounters which have occurred since its initial publication. John's upcoming mystery novel, The Unbound Wind, will also involve ghostly residents of the castle. In the summer of 2008, Hammond Castle finally implemented John's decade-old idea to restore the kitchen of the castle in true vintage style and dedicate it to Hammond's cook, the late Nellie Nally Connors. Nellie became a dear friend to both John and his wife. Her insights and anecdotes about Hammond greatly aided in the writing his biography. A nod of gratitude was given by making Nellie a pivotal character in John's mystery novel, Dead by All Appearances, which is set at the castle during World War II. Nellie was aware of that homage at the time of her death and she took great amusement in it. The museum has also followed John's suggestion to publicly open Hammond's private lower-level dining room which was referred to as The War Room because of its mural depicting Gloucester Harbor under a fictitious air/sea attack and defended by Hammond's inventions. The sales of John's works have generated more than $50,000 towards the preservation
of Hammond Castle Museum. John's mystery novels, Dead at the Box Office and Dead in Their Sights, are both set in West Orange, New Jersey, during the 1940's and follow the unlikely pairing of a local barber and an M.G.M. publicity girl as amateur sleuths. The novels also incorporate real people from both Hollywood and West Orange history. During his film school days, John had several meetings with the late Orson Welles and it was Welles who strongly urged that the stories about John's West Orange roots should be told in some form or another. Written during a screenwriters strike, the result appeared in 1990 as the mystery novel, Dead at the Box Office. Even though as a local historian, John's nonfiction West Orange works are frequently used and almost always uncredited, International Titles does credit that "his West Orange novels paint a very real and ingratiating portrait of 1940's small town America which even appeals to readers overseas. That is probably the best kind of ambassadorship." John is also the author of the distinctly different Wind series (Wind of Time, Wicked is the Wind, and the upcoming The Unbound Wind) set in his adopted New England. All three novels use Hammond Castle Museum as a centerpiece. What all of his works share is a focus on personalizing history in an accurate fashion. John still keeps an office and a home in West Orange, although he spends as much time as possible on the pristine beaches of Marco Island, Florida, where his fourth Wind novel will be set. Contact him via E-mail |
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