Ted Okuda is an American non-fiction author and film historian. He has many books and magazine features to his credit, under his own name and in collaboration with others.

Career

Okuda's book The Columbia Comedy Shorts (1986, with Edward Watz ISBN 0786405775) is an in-depth account of Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

' short-subject department, detailing the production of two-reel comedies starring The Three Stooges, Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

, Andy Clyde

Andy Clyde

Andy Clyde was a Scottish movie and TV actor whose career spanned more than four decades. He broke into silent films in 1925 as a Mack Sennett comic...

, Charley Chase

Charley Chase

Charley Chase was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his work in Hal Roach short film comedies...

, and Schilling and Lane, among many others, over a period of 25 years. He also co-authored, with film historian James L. Neibaur, the definitive look at The Jerry Lewis Films (1995 ISBN 0899509614).

Okuda's recent works include Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows (2007, with Mark Yurkiw ISBN 1893121135), The Soundies

Soundies

Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York City, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences. The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was...

 Book: A Revised and Expanded Guide (2007, with Scott MacGillivray

Scott MacGillivray

Scott MacGillivray is an American non-fiction author specializing in motion picture history.His book Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward, revised and expanded in 2009, chronicles the later films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy...

 ISBN 0595420605), Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

 at Keystone and Essanay (2005, with David Maska ISBN 0595365981), and The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television (2004, with Jack Mulqueen ISBN 1893121178). He also contributed chapters to the books Science Fiction America (edited by David J. Hogan) and Guilty Pleasures of the Horror Film (edited by Gary and Susan Svehla), and wrote the foreword for MacGillivray's Castle Films

Castle Films

Castle Films was a home-movie distributor founded in California by former newsreel cameraman Eugene W. Castle in 1924. The company originally produced business and advertising films. By 1931 it had moved its principal office to New York City. In 1937, Castle branched out into 8 mm and 16 mm home...

: A Hobbyist's Guide. His articles, interviews, and reviews have appeared in such publications as Filmfax, Classic Images, Cult Movies, Classic Film Collector, The Big Reel, and Movie Collectors World. Okuda's latest project has him once again teaming with James L. Neibaur for Stan Without Ollie: The Stan Laurel Solo Films,

He has also appeared on television, usually with popular movie host and Stooge expert Rich Koz

Rich Koz

Rich Koz is a Chicago area actor and broadcaster best known as horror-movie host Svengoolie. Out of costume, he is also the knowledgeable host of the syndicated Three Stooges Stooge-a-Palooza program.- Beginnings :...

.