… to my old friend (and senior prom date, incidentally) for getting a starred review in Publishers Weekly for his upcoming book: No Applause–Just Throw Money : The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous
First of all: I cannot WAIT to read it. History of vaudeville? All those amazing people? Oh, to have lived during that time!
Here’s a quote from Publisher’s Weekly:
Much has been written about the American institution of vaudeville, but readers would be hard-pressed to find an account as humorous and sharp as writer and performer Trav S.D.’s tasty chronicle. Although critics in the early 20th century lambasted vaudeville as crude, sometimes clever, but generally “trite and empty,” the author points out that from 1881 to 1932, vaudeville “was the heart of American show business,” so ubiquitous that “if you were beyond the reach of vaudeville, then you were really in the sticks.” He comments on the artistic and commercial ties between vaudeville and Hollywood’s glamour industry and Broadway; they often shared performers in hit plays and films (though Trav S.D. also reveals how essential managers were to the medium, since “performers, as Jesus said of the poor, are always with us”). There are candid moments about the resistance to hiring black players in a few fascinating segments about minstrelsy and blackface, as Trav S.D. writes of the trials African-American legend Bert Williams endured. Throughout, the author, a humorist, never forgets to get his laugh quota, whether he’s talking about audiences (Midwestern crowds were tough: “Do they like me? Hate me? Are they alive? Hello?”) or burlesque (“a sort of bush league for broad comedians”). The result is a well-researched, riotous book about a cultural mainstay, “the theatrical embodiment of freedom, tolerance, opportunity, diversity, democracy, and optimism.”
Awesome. I literally can’t WAIT to read it.
This whole thing is making me think of that post I just wrote about connections. How years can go by, life goes on … but there is something eternal in the personality … You can actually recognize people from many years gone by. Not just by what they look like, but from the look in their eyes, their essence, who they ARE.
Even as a kid in high school, (I wrote about him here) this passion for vaudeville existed. He was all about that stuff. He wasn’t just into it. He STUDIED it. Amazing. And now here … so many years later … he’s coming out with a book on the topic. I just love that.
And I’m serious – I can’t WAIT to read it.
..readers would be hard-pressed to find an account as humorous and sharp as writer and performer Trav S.D.’s tasty chronicle.. The result is a well-researched, riotous book about a cultural mainstay
That’s a good enough review for me.. a lot of performers from this side of the Atlantic sought out “the heart of American showbusiness”.. if I recall several groups of performers from England went out on tours of the vaudeville circuit.
Any idea on the actual publication date?
*cough* Archie Leach *cough* :)
The book comes out in November.
Archie definitely.. Stan Laurel, I think, initially went out as part of a larger touring group too.. not to mention the young Chaplin.
Pre-ordered from the Amazon UK site.
Oh, yeah Trav!! Good for you! PS Sheila- I lost his email when I moved- any chance you could send it to me? Or, Trav, if you see this, shoot me an email!!!
beth – I’m seeing him tonight – I’ll get all the deets for you!
Oh and by the way … you wouldn’t happen to have Crud’s updated email, would you? Apparently the URL one no longer works.
Oops, I mean the “URI” one.
I don’t know why you would have it, but if, perchance, you do … Trav is looking for it.,
Oh, you just wanna know cuz you are SURE i am IM-ing him and chatting it up ALL THE TIME! (“Hey, crud, Just1beth, here! Did ya catch that awesome homily Sunday??”) ha ha!! No, I don’t have his email, but when I see him I will ask. By the way, I registered for 2 classes at URI yesterday. If you had told me twenty FREAKING years ago that i would STILL be taking classes at that institution 20 years later, I would have told you you were smoking crack. Although, I didn’t even know crack existed. But you catch my drift. God help me if I am STILL enrolled at URI in 2025.
“awesome homily Sunday” hahahahahahahahahaa
what classes are you taking? good for you! how wild will it be to be on that campus again!
Bob Hope was British too – was’t he? like, originally —
I think he was born there … came to the states to sing and dance.
Peteb – is that right?
I’m certain he was born in England, Sheila.. but I think his family left for the states when he was quite young.
A slightly different situation to someone like Stan Laurel who I seem to remember went out as part of a touring troup at a young age.. or, indeed, Archie for that matter.
Just checked.. Bob’s family left England, taking him with them *ahem*, when he was 4 years old.
I am taking two methods courses (social studies and language arts). I have four total to take in order to extend my certification up to Grade 6 (currently I am certified prek-2). It is very, very strange to be back on campus because I feel exactly the same and yet completely different from when I first started 20 years ago. (However, I WAS back on campus for Grad School in 1998-01.) I told you, URI is my own personal Hotel California.