A half-brother of actress/singer/businesswoman Connie Stevens, Megna appeared in many television programs throughout the 1960s and 1970s; he played a small role as one of the "Onlies" in the "Miri" episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, and starred as Little Adam in the NASA-produced animated shorts The Big World of Little Adam. As an adult, he turned to stage directing. He appeared in two car chase films starring Burt Reynolds and directed by Hal Needham in cameo roles: Smokey and the Bandit II and Cannonball Run.
John Megna later became a high school English teacher, and last taught at James Monroe High School in North Hills, California. On September 5, 1995, in Los Angeles, California, he died from AIDS-related complications at the age of 42.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Megna
Further Readings:
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (November 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1403960135
ISBN-13: 978-1403960139
Amazon: Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s
In the 1960s, the Broadway musical underwent a revolution. What was once a form of entertainment characterized by sentimental standards, such as Camelot and Hello, Dolly! became one of brilliant and bittersweet masterpieces, such as Cabaret and Fiddler on the Roof. In Open a New Window, Mordden continues his history of the Broadway musical with the decade that bridged the gap between the fanciful shows of the fifties, such as Call Me, Madam, and the sophisticated fare of the seventies, including A Little Night Music and Follies. Here in brilliant detail are the decade and the people that transformed the Broadway musical--from the writer who knows it best.
Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: Rutgers University Press (February 11, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0813542197
ISBN-13: 978-0813542195
Amazon: American Cinema of the 1960s: Themes and Variations
The profound cultural and political changes of the 1960s brought the United States closer to social revolution than at any other time in the twentieth century. The country fragmented as various challenges to state power were met with increasing and violent resistance. The Cold War heated up and the Vietnam War divided Americans. Civil rights, women's liberation, and gay rights further emerged as significant social issues. Free love was celebrated even as the decade was marked by assassinations, mass murders, and social unrest.
At the same time, American cinema underwent radical change as well. The studio system crumbled, and the Production Code was replaced by a new ratings system. Among the challenges faced by the film industry was the dawning shift in theatrical exhibition from urban centers to surburban multiplexes, an increase in runaway productions, the rise of independent producers, and competition from both television and foreign art films. Hollywood movies became more cynical, violent, and sexually explicit, reflecting the changing values of the time.
In ten original essays, American Cinema of the 1960s examines a range of films that characterized the decade, including Hollywood movies, documentaries, and independent and experimental films. Among the films discussed are Elmer Gantry, The Apartment, West Side Story, The Manchurian Candidate, To Kill a Mockingbird, Cape Fear, Bonnie and Clyde, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Midnight Cowbody, and Easy Rider.
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