Download or read book Banjo Eyes written by Herbert G. Goldman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1997 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entertainer Eddie Cantor (1892-1964) shared the stage with the likes of W.C. Fields and Fanny Price, founded the March of Dimes, and was the only American entertainer to reign successively as the biggest star on Broadway, in the movies, and on radio. This biography recreates Cantor's extraordinary journey from New York's Lower East Side to the glorious era of Broadway and Hollywood in the 1930s. A few bandw photographs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book The Ballad of John Latouche written by Howard Pollack and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-06 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born into a poor Virginian family, John Treville Latouche (1914-56), in his short life, made a profound mark on America's musical theater as a lyricist, book writer, and librettist. The wit and skill of his lyrics elicited comparisons with the likes of Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, and Cole Porter, but he had too, noted Stephen Sondheim, "a large vision of what musical theater could be," and he proved especially venturesome in helping to develop a lyric theater that innovatively combined music, word, dance, and costume and set design. Many of his pieces, even if not commonly known today, remain high points in the history of American musical theater. "A great American genius" in the words of Duke Ellington, Latouche initially came to wide public attention in his early twenties with his cantata for soloist and chorus, Ballad for Americans (1939), with music by Earl Robinson-a work that swept the nation during the Second World War. Other milestones in his career included the all-black musical fable, Cabin in the Sky (1940), with Vernon Duke; an interracial updating of John Gay's classic, The Beggar's Opera, as Beggar's Holiday (1946), with Duke Ellington; two acclaimed Broadway operas with Jerome Moross: Ballet Ballads (1948) and The Golden Apple (1954); one of the most enduring operas in the American canon, The Ballad of Baby Doe (1956), with Douglas Moore; and the operetta Candide (1956), with Leonard Bernstein and Lillian Hellman. Extremely versatile, he also wrote cabaret songs, participated in documentary and avant-garde film, translated poetry, adapted plays, and much else. Meanwhile, as one of Manhattan's most celebrated raconteurs and hosts, he developed a wide range of friends in the arts, including, to name only a few, Paul and Jane Bowles (whom he introduced to each other), Yul Brynner, John Cage, Jack Kerouac, Frederick Kiesler, Carson McCullers, Frank O'Hara, Dawn Powell, Ned Rorem, Virgil Thomson, Gore Vidal, and Tennessee Williams-a dazzling constellation of diverse artists working in sundry fields, all attracted to Latouche's brilliance and joie de vivre, not to mention his support for their work. This book draws widely on archival collections both at home and abroad, including Latouche's diaries and the papers of Bernstein, Ellington, Moore, Moross, and many others, to tell for the first time, the story of this fascinating man and his work.

Download or read book Banjo written by Amy Sutton and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on 2022-10-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Banjo By: Amy Sutton Banjo is the story of a working dog left at a rescue center with a broken leg. In an unlikely love at first sight encounter, his sad, soulful eyes connect with Angie who works at the shelter. She then breaks all the rules and brings the injured dog home, knowing beyond a doubt that Banjo will come to impact the lives of many in their small, closely-knit town. Through his uncanny canine intuition and peaceful demeanor, Banjo reminds the townspeople to be kind to one another, help those in need, and recognize those who offer their graciousness. Banjo is skillfully written, entertaining fiction where wit meets word mastery. A profound and cleverly woven plot with relatable genuine characters, a remarkable repartee between them all.

Download or read book Capone written by Laurence Bergreen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 726 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliant history of Prohibition and its most notorious gangster, acclaimed biographer Laurence Bergreen takes us to the gritty streets of Chicago where Al Capone forged his sinister empire. Bergreen shows the seedy and glamorous sides of the age, the rise of Prohibition, the illicit liquor trade, the battlefield that was Chicago. Delving beyond the Capone mythology. Bergreen finds a paradox: a coldblooded killer, thief, pimp, and racketeer who was also a devoted son and father; a self-styled Robin Hood who rose to the top of organized crime. Capone is a masterful portrait of an extraordinary time and of the one man who reigned supreme over it all, Al Capone.

Download or read book The Eddie Cantor Story written by David Weinstein and published by Brandeis University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively biography of the popular showman Eddie Cantor, with a focus on his involvement in Jewish culture and politics

Download or read book Beautiful Mornin written by Ethan Mordden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1999-10-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Music and girls are the soul of musical comedy," one critic wrote, early in the 1940s. But this was the age that wanted more than melody and kickline form its musical shows. The form had been running on empty for too long, as a formula for the assembly of spare parts--star comics, generic love songs, rumba dancers, Ethel Merman. If Rodgers and Hammerstein hadn't existed, Broadway would have had to invent them; and Oklahoma! and Carousel came along just in time to announce the New Formula for Writing Musicals: Don't have a formula. Instead, start with strong characters and atmosphere: Oklahoma!'s murderous romantic triangle set against a frontier society that has to learn what democracy is in order to deserve it; or Carousel's dysfunctional family seen in the context of class and gender war. With the vitality and occasionally outrageous humor that Ethan Mordden's readers take for granted, the author ranges through the decade's classics--Pal Joey, Lady in the Dark, On the Town, Annie Get Your Gun, Phinian's Rainbow, Brigadoon, Kiss Me, Kate, South Pacific. He also covers illuminating trivia--the spy thriller The Lady Comes Across, whose star got so into her role that she suffered paranoid hallucinations and had to be hospitalized; the smutty Follow the Girls, damned as "burlesque with a playbill" yet closing as the longest-run musical in Broadway history; Lute Song, in which Mary Martin and Nancy Reagan were Chinese; and the first "concept" musicals, Allegro and Love Life. Amid the fun, something revolutionary occurs. The 1920s created the musical and the 1930s gave it politics. In the 1940s, it found its soul.

Download or read book Broadway Actors in Films 1894 2015 written by Roy Liebman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Broadway stars appeared in Hollywood cinema from its earliest days. Some were 19th century stage idols who reprised famous roles on film as early as 1894. One was born as early as 1829. Another was cast in the performance during which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. One took her stage name from her native state. Some modern-day stars also began their careers on Broadway before appearing in films. This book details the careers of 300 performers who went from stage to screen in all genres of film. A few made only a single movie, others hundreds. Each entry includes highlights of the performer's career, a list of stage appearances and a filmography.

Download or read book Tales from the Red Rose Inn and Other Plays written by Don Nigro and published by Samuel French, Inc.. This book was released on 2000 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: Tales from the Red Rose Inn Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower Came Lucy and the Mystery of the Vine-Encrusted Mansion Darkness Like a Dream Joan of Arc in the Autumn Warburton's Cook Higgs Field Things that Go Bump in the Night Uncle Clete's Toad Malefactor's Bloody Register Capone

Download or read book Crowded by Beauty written by David Schneider and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-07-26 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philip Whalen was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and key figure in the literary and artistic scene that unfolded in San Francisco in the 1950s and ’60s. When the Beat writers came West, Whalen became a revered, much-loved member of the group. Erudite, shy, and profoundly spiritual, his presence not only moved his immediate circle of Beat cohorts, but his powerful, startling, innovative work would come to impact American poetry to the present day. Drawing on Whalen’s journals and personal correspondence—particularly with Ginsberg, Kerouac, Snyder, Kyger, Welch, and McClure —David Schneider shows how deeply bonded these intimates were, supporting one another in their art and their spiritual paths. Schneider, himself an ordained priest, provides an insider’s view of Whalen’s struggles and breakthroughs in his thirty years as a Zen monk. When Whalen died in 2002 as the retired Abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center, his own teacher referred to him as a patriarch of the Western lineage of Buddhism. Crowded by Beauty chronicles the course of Whalen’s life, focusing on his unique, eccentric, humorous, and literary-religious practice.

Download or read book Werner s Voice Magazine written by Edgar S. Werner and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Light it Up written by Nicholas Petrie and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Petrie's Peter Ash is the real deal."--Lee Child In this action-packed thriller starring war veteran Peter Ash, a well-planned and flawlessly executed hijacking reveals the hidden dangers of Colorado's mellowest business, but Ash may find there's more to this crime than meets the eye. Combat veteran Peter Ash leaves a simple life rebuilding hiking trails in Oregon to help his good friend Henry Nygaard, whose daughter runs a Denver security company that protects cash-rich cannabis entrepreneurs from modern-day highwaymen. Henry's son-in-law and the company's operations manager were carrying a large sum of client money when their vehicle vanished without a trace, leaving Henry's daughter and her company vulnerable. When Peter is riding shotgun on another cash run, the cargo he's guarding comes under attack and he narrowly escapes with his life. As the assaults escalate, Peter has to wonder: for criminals this sophisticated, is it really just about the cash? After finding himself on the defensive for too long, Peter marshals his resources and begins to dig for the truth in a scheme that is bigger--and far more lucrative--than he'd ever anticipated. With so much on the line, his enemy will not give up quietly...and now he has Peter directly in his sights.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors written by Barry Monush and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, Screen World has been the film professional's, as well as the film buff's, favorite and indispensable annual screen resource, full of all the necessary statistics and facts. Now Screen World editor Barry Monush has compiled another comprehensive work for every film lover's library. In the first of two volumes, this book chronicles the careers of every significant film actor, from the earliest silent screen stars – Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks – to the mid-1960s, when the old studio and star systems came crashing down. Each listing includes: a brief biography, photos from the famed Screen World archives, with many rare shots; vital statistics; a comprehensive filmography; and an informed, entertaining assessment of each actor's contributions – good or bad! In addition to every major player, Monush includes the legions of unjustly neglected troupers of yesteryear. The result is a rarity: an invaluable reference tool that's as much fun to read as a scandal sheet. It pulsates with all the scandal, glamour, oddity and glory that was the lifeblood of its subjects. Contains over 1 000 photos!

Download or read book America s First Network TV Censor written by Robert Pondillo and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2010-04-23 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s First Network TV Censor: The Work of NBC’s Stockton Helffrichis a unique examination of early television censorship, centered around the papers of Stockton Helffrich, the first manager of the censorship department at NBC. Set against the backdrop of postwar America and contextualized by myriad primary sources including original interviews and unpublished material, Helffrich’s reports illustrate how early censorship of advertising, language, and depictions of sex, violence, and race shaped the new medium. While other books have cited Helffrich’s reports, none have considered them as a body of work, complemented by the details of Helffrich’s life and the era in which he lived. America’s First Network TV Censor explores the ways in which Helffrich’s personal history and social class influenced his perception of his role as NBC-TV censor and his tendency to ignore certain political and cultural taboos while embracing others. Author Robert Pondillo considers Helffrich’s life in broadcasting before and after the Second World War, and his censorial work in the context of 1950s American culture and emerging network television. Pondillo discusses the ways that cultural phenomena, including the arrival of the mid-twentieth-century religious boom, McCarthyism, the dawn of the Civil Rights era, and the social upheaval over sex, music, and youth, contributed to a general sense that the country was morally adrift and ripe for communist takeover. Five often-censored subjects—advertising, language, and depictions of sex, violence, and race—are explored in detail, exposing the surprising complexity and nuance of early media censorship. Questions of whether too many sadistic westerns would coarsen America’s children, how to talk about homosexuality without using the word “homosexuality,” and how best to advertise toilet paper without offending people were on Helffrich’s mind; his answers to these questions helped shape the broadcast media we know today.

Download or read book Killer Tomatoes written by Ray Hagen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2004-10-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No delicate ingenues, these. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Mary Pickfords of the movie world were replaced by a different sort of woman--drop-dead gorgeous, witty, not afraid to speak their minds, they could slay you with a look--and if that didn't work, look out for the pistol in the garter. These ground-breaking actresses helped change the course of movie history, charting a path for generations to come. These profiles of fifteen leading ladies--Lucille Ball, Lynn Bari, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Gloria Grahame, Jean Hagen, Adele Jergens, Ida Lupino, Marilyn Maxwell, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Claire Trevor and Marie Windsor--include overviews of their lives and careers, and excerpts from interviews. Five photos supplement each profile. Jane Russell (one of the actresses profiled) provides a foreword.

Download or read book So Little Time written by John P. Marquand and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A father frets over his son’s future while reexamining his own past in John P. Marquand’s enduring portrait of America on the brink of World War II A script doctor who divides his time between Manhattan, Hollywood, and a country home in New England, Jeffrey Wilson has entered middle age with all the trappings of success. Yet, in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, he feels increasingly anxious and isolated. He fears that his eldest son, a college sophomore, will be called to fight before he has had a chance to live on his own terms. Two decades ago, Jeffrey served in World War I, and his life since then seems like a series of accidents. Instead of the journalism career he aspired to, he toils to fix other people’s plays. By marrying into a prominent family, he gained wealth and stature, but sacrificed his autonomy. His friends and acquaintances, most of whom were chosen by his wife, are foolish and vain.. Powerless to rewind the clock or hold back the tides of global conflict, Jeffrey offers his son the one piece of advice that is impossible for a young man to hear: Time is running out. Witty, moving, and meticulously observed, So Little Time is the story of a crucial period in American history and one man’s attempts to make sense of it all.

Download or read book Can t Win This War written by Moshood Adebayo and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-09-26 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A retired British spy, Gabriel Hobbs and an American CIA boss, John Penn ally delicately with Francis Whyte, a notorious assassin who grew up in Nigeria to avert the birth of World War III. But with motives ulteriorly withsitting, a fraternity of warmongers finds the right spot to hit. World War III is imminent; creatures of the night pull to walk the day; love ties face severance; a war that cannot be won has to be fought.

Download or read book Jewish Comedy Stars written by Norman H. Finkelstein and published by Kar-Ben Publishing ™. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From vaudeville to viral comedy on the web, here are more than 40 short biographies of Jewish comedians who heavily influenced the entertainment industry in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Sorted chronologically into chapters like "On Stage," "On Air," "On Fire," and "Comedy 2.0," this book profiles Jewish comedians from George Jessel to Sarah Silverman.