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Fanny Brice
"I've done everything in the theatre except marry a property man," Fanny Brice once boasted. "I've acted for Belasco and I've laid 'em out in the rows at the Palace. I've doubled as an alligator; I've worked for the Shuberts; and I've been joined to Billy Rose in the holy bonds. I've painted the house boards and I've sold tickets and I've been fired by George M. Cohan. I've played in London before the king and in Oil City before miners with lanterns in their caps." Fanny Brice was indeed show business personified, and in this luminous volume, Herbert G. Goldman, acclaimed biographer of Al Jolson, illuminates the life of the woman who inspired the spectacularly successful Broadway show and mo...
Jolson
Audiences knew him for four decades as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Now Herbert G. Goldman gives us the definitive biography of this quintessential star of the musical stage. With a sure eye for the revealing anecdote, Goldman chronicles each step of Al Jolson's colorful life from his early struggles with his brother, Harry, on the vaudeville and burlesque circuit and his rise to stardom on Broadway; through his glory at the pinnacle of national fame, which came with his appearances in the movies The Jazz Singer (the first "talking picture") and The Singing Fool; to his final round of appearances in 1950, entertaining American troops in Korea just before his death. Goldman explores the complexities of the Jolson personality, as revealed in his four stormy marriages and his relations with family, business associates, friends, and enemies. Exhaustively researched and well-rounded, this beautifully-written biography offers a vivid portrait Jolson the entertainer--a man of the stage whose exuberant optimism and magnetic energy enthralled three generations of audiences.
Boxing
This four-volume reference work covers the history, records and lore of boxers and boxing. Part I, the longest section, presents alphabetical entries of bare knuckle boxers, and the transitional and Queensberry Rules eras (with more than 2,600 fighters from the latter). Each entry includes dates of birth and death, place of birth, nicknames, a list of fights, and career statistics. Part II covers non-boxers, including referees, promoters, publicists, managers, trainers, cut men, announcers and others. Part III contains records of world title bouts from 1878 through 2010. Part IV lists various records and champions, both amateur and professional, including the all-time leaders in many statistical categories. Part V describes the organization of the sport, tracing the history of weight divisions, world titles and halls of fame. Part VI is an overview of boxing in history and culture (champions of ancient Greece, equipment, gymnasiums, radio and television, literature, drama, the arts, etc.). An appendix offers a timeline of boxing and a bibliography concludes the work.
The Jews of Harlem
The complete story of Jewish Harlem and its significance in American Jewish history New York Times columnist David W. Dunlap wrote a decade ago that “on the map of the Jewish Diaspora, Harlem Is Atlantis. . . . A vibrant hub of industry, artistry and wealth is all but forgotten. It is as if Jewish Harlem sank 70 years ago beneath waves of memory beyond recall.” During World War I, Harlem was the home of the second largest Jewish community in America. But in the 1920s Jewish residents began to scatter to other parts of Manhattan, to the outer boroughs, and to other cities. Now nearly a century later, Jews are returning uptown to a gentrified Harlem. The Jews of Harlem follows Jews into, o...
Jolson
With a sure eye for the revealing anecdote, Goldman chronicles each step of Al Jolson's colorful life: his early struggles with his brother, Harry, on the vaudeville and burlesque circuit; his rise to stardom on Broadway, which prompted a Variety writer to proclaim, "The Shuberts may run the Winter Garden, but Al Jolson owns it"; his glory at the pinnacle of national fame, which came with his appearances in the movies The Jazz Singer (the first "talking picture") and The Singing Fool; his subsequent decline and brief resurgence after the film biography The Jolson Story was released in 1946; and his final round of appearances in 1950, entertaining American troops in Korea just before his death. Goldman explores the complexities of the Jolson personality, as revealed in his four stormy marriages and his relations with his family, business associates, friends, and enemies.
Broadway Actors in Films, 1894-2015
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.
The Oxford Companion to the American Musical
A dictionary of short entries on American musicals and their practitioners, including performers, composers, lyricists, producers, and choreographers
The White Negress
During the first half of the twentieth century, American Jews demonstrated a commitment to racial justice as well as an attraction to African American culture. Until now, the debate about whether such black-Jewish encounters thwarted or enabled Jews' claims to white privilege has focused on men and representations of masculinity while ignoring questions of women and femininity. The White Negress investigates literary and cultural texts by Jewish and African American women, opening new avenues of inquiry that yield more complex stories about Jewishness, African American identity, and the meanings of whiteness. Lori Harrison-Kahan examines writings by Edna Ferber, Fannie Hurst, and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as the blackface performances of vaudevillian Sophie Tucker and controversies over the musical and film adaptations of Show Boat and Imitation of Life. Moving between literature and popular culture, she illuminates how the dynamics of interethnic exchange have at once produced and undermined the binary of black and white.
The Songs of Hollywood
From "Over the Rainbow" to "Moon River" and from Al Jolson to Barbra Streisand, The Songs of Hollywood traces the fascinating history of song in film, both in musicals and in dramatic movies such as High Noon. Extremely well-illustrated with 200 film stills, this delightful book sheds much light on some of Hollywood's best known and loved repertoire, explaining how the film industry made certain songs memorable, and highlighting important moments of film history along the way. The book focuses on how the songs were presented in the movies, from early talkies where actors portrayed singers "performing" the songs, to the Golden Age in which characters burst into expressive, integral song--not as a "performance" but as a spontaneous outpouring of feeling. The book looks at song presentation in 1930s classics with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and in 1940s gems with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. The authors also look at the decline of the genre since 1960, when most original musicals were replaced by film versions of Broadway hits such as My Fair Lady.
Body and Soul
Alongside extensive, thought provoking, and lively analysis of some of the most popular jazz and blues songs of the 20th century, this text contains new work on blackface minstrelsy in early sound movies, racial representation and censorship, torch singers and torch songs, the Hollywood Left, and hot jazz.
