Download or read book The Men who Invented Broadway written by John Mosedale and published by Richard Marek Publishers. This book was released on 1981 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book George M Cohan written by John McCabe and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces Cohan's multifaceted career in the theater and discusses his family and friends as well as contributions to Broadway.
Download or read book Ziegfeld written by Ethan Mordden and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-11-11 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Any girl who twists her hat will be fired! – Florenz Ziegfeld And no Ziegfeld girl ever did as she made her way down the gala stairways of the Ziegfeld Follies in some of the most astonishing spectacles the American theatergoing public ever witnessed. When Florenz Ziegfeld started in theater, it was flea circus, operetta and sideshow all rolled into one. When he left it, the glamorous world of "show-biz" had been created. Though many know him as the man who "glorified the American girl," his first real star attraction was the bodybuilder Eugen Sandow, who flexed his muscles and thrilled the society matrons who came backstage to squeeze his biceps. His lesson learned with Sandow, Ziegfeld went on to present Anna Held, the naughty French sensation, who became the first Mrs. Ziegfeld. He was one of the first impresarios to mix headliners of different ethnic backgrounds, and literally the earliest proponent of mixed-race casting. The stars he showcased and, in some cases, created have become legends: Billie Burke (who also became his wife), elfin Marilyn Miller, cowboy Will Rogers, Bert Williams, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor and, last but not least, neighborhood diva Fanny Brice. A man of voracious sexual appetites when it came to beautiful women, Ziegfeld knew what he wanted and what others would want as well. From that passion, the Ziegfeld Girl was born. Elaborately bejeweled, they wore little more than a smile as they glided through eye-popping tableaux that were the highlight of the Follies, presented almost every year from 1907 to 1931. Ziegfeld's reputation and power, however, went beyond the stage of the Follies as he produced a number of other musicals, among them the ground-breaking Show Boat. In Ziegfeld: The Man Who Created Show Business, Ethan Mordden recreates the lost world of the Follies, a place of long-vanished beauty masterminded by one of the most inventive, ruthless, street-smart and exacting men ever to fill a theatre on the Great White Way : Florenz Ziegfeld.
Download or read book Something Wonderful written by Todd S. Purdum and published by Henry Holt. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play. Their songs and dance numbers served to advance the drama and reveal character, a sharp break from the past and the template on which all future musicals would be built. [This is a portrait of that creative partnership]"--Amazon.com
Download or read book Broadway Babies written by Ethan Mordden and published by New York ; Toronto : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Broadway Babies spotlights the men and women who made a difference in the development of American musical comedy. While theatrical historians traditionally have emphasized the role of the authors of musicals, Mordden also examines the personal styles of the directors, choreographers, and producers, in order to demonstrate not only what the musical became but what it was.
Download or read book The Secret Life of the American Musical written by Jack Viertel and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical? In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next—by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion—from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward. Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in between for “I Want” songs, “conditional” love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically. The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you’ve been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast—the Broadway hit.
Download or read book Gutenberg the Musical written by Anthony King and published by Samuel French, Inc.. This book was released on 2010-11-12 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this two-man musical spoof, a pair of aspiring playwrights perform a backers' audition for their new, ill-advised project -- a bit, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. With an unending supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them that elusive Broadway contract." --
Download or read book Making Americans written by Andrea Most and published by Belknap Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1925 to 1951--three chaotic decades of depression, war, and social upheaval--Jewish writers brought to the musical stage a powerfully appealing vision of America fashioned through song and dance. It was an optimistic, meritocratic, selectively inclusive America in which Jews could at once lose and find themselves--assimilation enacted onstage and off, as Andrea Most shows. This book examines two interwoven narratives crucial to an understanding of twentieth-century American culture: the stories of Jewish acculturation and of the development of the American musical. Here we delve into the work of the most influential artists of the genre during the years surrounding World War II--Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Dorothy and Herbert Fields, George and Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, and Richard Rodgers--and encounter new interpretations of classics such as The Jazz Singer, Whoopee, Girl Crazy, Babes in Arms, Oklahoma!, Annie Get Your Gun, South Pacific, and The King and I. Most's analysis reveals how these brilliant composers, librettists, and performers transformed the experience of New York Jews into the grand, even sacred acts of being American. Read in the context of memoirs, correspondence, production designs, photographs, and newspaper clippings, the Broadway musical clearly emerges as a form by which Jewish artists negotiated their entrance into secular American society. In this book we see how the communities these musicals invented and the anthems they popularized constructed a vision of America that fostered self-understanding as the nation became a global power.
Download or read book Everything was Possible written by Ted Chapin and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2005 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1971, Ted Chapin was a production assistant on the legendary Broadway musical Follies. Thirty years later, the journal he kept has become the definitive history of one of Broadway's greatest-ever musicals, created by geniuses at the top of their free: Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, and James Goldman.
Download or read book Sing for Your Supper written by Ethan Mordden and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1930s, Broadway's lights still burned brightly. Ethan Mordden completes his history of the Broadway musical by taking a look at this forgotten era. Shows like Anything Goes brought the glitter of Cole Porter and Merman's brass to the public. Innovations in dance were pioneered by Balanchine and others. Scenic advancements made Astaire's The Band Wagon move across the stage in novel ways. Gershwin's revolutionary Porgy and Bess entered the canon of American Classics. And The Cradle Will Rock and Johnny Johnson took the American political temperature. With his trademark wit and style, Ethan Mordden shines the spotlight on Broadway's forgotten decade.
Download or read book All That Glittered written by Ethan Mordden and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the late 1920s to late 1950s, the Broadway theatre was America's cultural epicenter. Television didn't exist and movies were novelties. Entertainment took the form of literature, music, and theatre. During this golden age of Broadway, actors and actresses became legends and starred in now classic plays. Laurence Olivier, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontaine were names to remember, etching plays into memory as they brought the words of Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill to life. Joseph Cotton romanced Katherine Hepburn in Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story while Laurette Taylor became The Glass Menagerie's Amanda Wingfield. Frederic March, Florence Eldridge, Jason Robards Jr. and Bradford Dillman showed us life among the ruins in Long Day's Journey Into Night. In All That Glittered, Ethan Mordden, long one of Broadway's best chroniclers, recreates the fascinating lost world of its golden age.
Download or read book Broadway Musicals Show by Show written by Kay Green and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1996 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes the following information about Broadway musical shows produced between 1866 and 1987: Music by -- Lyrics by -- Book by -- Producer -- Director -- Cast stars -- Choreographer -- Songs -- New York run information.
Download or read book The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures written by Paul Fischer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the New York Times Best True Crime of 2022 A “spellbinding, thriller-like” (Shelf Awareness) history about the invention of the motion picture and the mysterious, forgotten man behind it—detailing his life, work, disappearance, and legacy. The year is 1888, and Louis Le Prince is finally testing his “taker” or “receiver” device for his family on the front lawn. The device is meant to capture ten to twelve images per second on film, creating a reproduction of reality that can be replayed as many times as desired. In an otherwise separate and detached world, occurrences from one end of the globe could now be viewable with only a few days delay on the other side of the world. No human experience—from the most mundane to the most momentous—would need to be lost to history. In 1890, Le Prince was granted patents in four countries ahead of other inventors who were rushing to accomplish the same task. But just weeks before unveiling his invention to the world, he mysteriously disappeared and was never seen or heard from again. Three and half years later, Thomas Edison, Le Prince’s rival, made the device public, claiming to have invented it himself. And the man who had dedicated his life to preserving memories was himself lost to history—until now. The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures pulls back the curtain and presents a “passionate, detailed defense of Louis Le Prince…unfurled with all the cliffhangers and red herrings of a scripted melodrama” (The New York Times Book Review). This “fascinating, informative, skillfully articulated narrative” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) presents the never-before-told history of the motion picture and sheds light on the unsolved mystery of Le Prince’s disappearance.
Download or read book Black No More written by George S. Schuyler and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-08 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A satirical approach to debunking the myths of white supremacy and racial purity, this 1931 novel recounts the consequences of a mysterious scientific process that transforms black people into whites.
Download or read book The Crayon Man written by Natascha Biebow and published by HMH Books For Young Readers. This book was released on 2019 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrating the inventor of the Crayola crayon! This gloriously illustrated picture book biography tells the inspiring story of Edwin Binney, the inventor of one of the world's most beloved toys. A perfect fit among favorites like The Day the Crayons QuitandBalloons Over Broadway. purple mountains' majesty, mauvelous, jungle green, razzmatazz... What child doesn't love to hold a crayon in their hands? But children didn't always have such magical boxes of crayons. Before Edwin Binney set out to change things, children couldn't really even draw in color. Here's the true story of an inventor who so loved nature's vibrant colors that he found a way to bring the outside world to children - in a bright green box for only a nickel! With experimentation, and a special knack for listening, Edwin Binney and his dynamic team at Crayola created one of the world's most enduring, best-loved childhood toys - empowering children to dream in COLOR!
Download or read book Six The Musical Vocal Selections written by and published by Hal Leonard. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Vocal Selections). Six has received rave reviews around the world for its modern take on the stories of the six wives of Henry VIII and it's finally opening on Broadway! From Tudor queens to pop princesses, the six wives take the mic to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into an exuberant celebration of 21st century girl power! Songs include: All You Wanna Do * Don't Lose Ur Head * Ex-Wives * Get Down * Haus of Holbein * Heart of Stone * I Don't Need Your Love * No Way * Six.
Download or read book 100 People Who Changed 20th Century America 2 volumes written by Mary Cross and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-01-07 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To what extent does a person's own success result in social transformation? This book offers 100 answers, providing thought-provoking examples of how American culture was shaped within a crucial time period by individuals whose lives and ideas were major agents of change. 100 People Who Changed 20th-Century America provides a two-volume encyclopedia of the individuals whose contributions to society made the 20th century what it was. Comprising contributions from 20 academics and experts in their field, the thought-provoking essays examine the men and women who have shaped the modern American cultural experience—change agents who defined their time period as a result of their talent, imagination, and enterprise. Organized chronologically by the subjects' birthdates, the essays are written to be accessible to the general reader yet provide in-depth information for scholars, ensuring that the work will appeal to many audiences.
