Comfort and Joi uses one fan’s obsession with a blonde bombshell to explore our fascination with the movies.
Memory and movies collide when the narrator of Comfort and Joi, award-winning screenwriter Joseph Dougherty’s imaginative blend of fiction and film fact, sets out to document the life and work of bosomy blonde Joi Lansing, a minor glamour girl who appeared in such “classics” as Hillbillys in a Haunted House and Queen of Outer Space.
Alone in a borrowed house on the California coast during a winter weekend, he indulges his infatuation with a pinup who rose from extra girl to working with Orson Welles, only to end her career in grade-Z horror pictures.
Offbeat movie history from the fringes of Hollywood triggers personal memories as he follows this “beautiful beacon in a Sargasso of bad filmmaking” and finds an unexpected path to his own past.
“Joseph Dougherty is a fantastically gifted writer. His observations are haunting, funny, and completely original.”
—Christopher Guest
“A meditation on movie love structured as tautly as a good noir screenplay.” —Fearless Reviews
“A book about Hollywood and Pop Culture like no other.”
—The Fedora Chronicles
“Dougherty is a humanist who argues that each of us has to look, listen, choose, and commit. His work is as encouraging as it is enlightening.”
— Douglas Heil, Prime-Time Authorship
ISBN: 9781959748342
Comfort and Joi
Comfort and Joi uses one fan’s obsession with a blonde bombshell to explore our fascination with the movies. This is the Hardback edition and it is SIGNED by the author.
Joseph Dougherty’s play Chester Bailey premiered at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where it was selected Outstanding World Premiere Play by the TBA Awards. A New York Times Critics’ Pick, Chester Bailey had its New York premiere at The Irish Repertory Theatre where it was nominated for Best Off-Broadway play by the Outer Critics Circle. Dougherty earned Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for his play Digby, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club, and wrote the libretto for the Tony-winning musical version of My Favorite Year, presented at Lincoln Center. His play Off By One premiered last year at People’s Light.
He is an Emmy and Humanitas Prize winner for his work on the groundbreaking series thirtysomething, and has contributed to many popular television series, including Judging Amy, Once and Again, and Pretty Little Liars. His movies include the Emmy-winning noir/occult mashup Cast a Deadly Spell.
He is the author of Rod Serling at 100, A Screenwriter’s Companion, and the science fiction satire The First Cylinder.