{"title":"Studies And Documentation In The History Of Popular Entertainment","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"rise-of-the-crooners-book-michael-pitts-9780810840812","title":"The Rise of the Crooners","description":"Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Rudy Vallee—these cultural icons whose fame spanned all the important mass media, also played a vital role in the origin and development of the crooning tradition.  Crooning represented one of the most important musical styles of the twentieth century, intermingling with jazz and fronting the big band craze of the thirties and forties. Crooners spurred the rise of radio as home staple and the Golden Age of film musicals. When commercial television became a viable commodity, crooners anchored perhaps the first TV programming innovation, the variety show. It took the cataclysmic aesthetic and cultural changes ushered in by rock 'n' roll in the 1950s to finally bring crooners down from their pedestal.  The Rise of the Crooners examines the historical trends and events that led to the emergence of the crooning style. Ian Whitcomb, a successful popular music vocalist himself for almost 40 years, provides a personal perspective on this phenomenon. The lives and careers of six pioneers of the style—Bing Crosby, Russ Columbo, Gene Austin, Rudy Vallee, Johnny Marvin, and Nick Lucas—are covered at length. With the exception of one entry devoted to Crosby—possibly the greatest entertainer of the past century—these biographies (appended by lengthy bibliographies and discographies) are more thorough and up-to-date than any treatment in print about these seminal artists.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49904608411921,"sku":"GOR008217463","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50368398688529,"sku":"CIN0810840812A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51602597150993,"sku":"CIN0810840812VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0810840812.jpg?v=1750818745"},{"product_id":"words-at-war-book-howard-blue-9780810844131","title":"Words at War","description":"Words at War describes how 17 radio dramatists and their actors fought a war of words against fascism abroad and injustice at home. Beginning in the late 1930s, the commercial networks, private agencies, and the government cooperated with radio dramatists to produce plays to alert Americans to the Nazi threat. They also used radio to stimulate morale. They showed how Americans could support the fight against fascism even if it meant just having a \"victory garden.\"   Simultaneously as they worked on the war effort, many radio writers and actors advanced a progressive agenda to fight the enemy within: racism, poverty, and other social ills. When the war ended, many of these people paid for their idealism by suffering blacklisting. Veterans' groups, the FBI, right-wing politicians, and other reactionaries mounted an assault on them to drive them out of their professions. This book discusses that partly successful effort and the response of the radio personalities involved.   This book discusses commercial drama series such as The Man Behind the Gun, network sustained shows such as those of Norman Corwin, and government-produced programs such as the Uncle Sam series. The book is largely based on the author's interviews with Norman Corwin, Arthur Miller, Pete Seeger, Arthur Laurents, Art Carney and dozens of others associated with radio during its Golden Age. It also discusses public reaction to these broadcasts and the issue of blacklisting.  Words at War weaves together materials from FBI files and materials from archives around the country, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the National Archives and a dozen university special collection libraries, to tell how the nation used a unique broadcast genre in a time of national crisis. Readers in the era of the current World Trade Center terrorism crisis will be particularly interested to read about censorship, scapegoating, and the government's role in disseminating propaganda and other issues that have once again","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49943501701393,"sku":"CIN0810844133G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51327425446161,"sku":"CIN0810844133VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52452008952081,"sku":"NLS9780810844131","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0810844133.jpg?v=1751329505"},{"product_id":"in-hollywood-with-nemirovich-danchenko-1926-1927-book-anna-shoulgat-9780810849884","title":"In Hollywood with Nemirovich-Danchenko 1926-1927","description":"Sergei Bertensson's diary of his trip to Hollywood with Russian theatre great Nemirovich-Danchenko is a unique record of an extraordinary and under-documented chapter in film and theatre history. For a year Bertensson followed his employer as he met with directors, producers, and stars, forever discussing projects that would never be realized. Some of the leading figures in Hollywood history appear in this record, including Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and John Barrymore. Bertensson's observations of life in Hollywood on the eve of the talkies revolution provide us with a compelling snapshot of movie history in the making, seen from the unusual perspective of an outsider.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52089305596177,"sku":"NLS9780810849884","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780810849884.jpg?v=1756906678"},{"product_id":"james-agee-omnibus-and-mr-lincoln-book-william-hughes-9780810851757","title":"James Agee, Omnibus, and Mr. Lincoln","description":"In 1952 CBS, in conjunction with the Ford Foundation, launched Omnibus, a remarkable experiment in television. The objective was to raise the programming standards of an emerging medium that figured to profoundly influence American life. The centerpiece of Omnibus during its inaugural season was Mr. Lincoln, a series of five films about the early life of our foremost political icon. James Agee, the distinguished American author, was the principal creator of Mr. Lincoln. At the time, his scripts were hailed as 'the most beautiful writing ever done for television, and even today Agee's characterization of Lincoln remains  among the finest-perhaps the finest-film about Abraham Lincoln ever made. Regrettably, this important and sensitive work, a revealing expression of American culture at mid-century, has been consigned to the archives and has not been available to the public for many years. Author William Hughes aims to keep alive Agee's neglected masterpiece, placing Mr. Lincoln in the context of the period's prevailing ideology (Cold War liberalism) and conveying the institutional framework in which the work originated. In addition, Hughes takes into account Agee's personal experiences, his social and political views, and his related writings (for and about film), all of which came into play when he reworked the Lincoln legend for the television age. Based on extensive archive research and an interview with Norman Lloyd, who directed the five films, this book fully documents the cultural and historical importance of Mr. Lincoln.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52148780237073,"sku":"NLS9780810851757","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52495191343377,"sku":"NIN9780810851757","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780810851757.jpg?v=1757604614"},{"product_id":"lollipop-book-reva-howitt-clar-9780810841864","title":"Lollipop","description":"Take a journey back in time to an era when movie theatres were movie houses, jazz was king, and vaudeville was one of the premiere forms of entertainment. Lollipop is the late Reva Howitt Clar's memoirs of her colorful career with the legendary brother and sister producing team of Fanchon and Marco and the first inside account to give detailed insight into the workings of this famous pair.  A first-hand chronicle of the weekly shows, rehearsals, costumes, publicity stunts, and backstage intrigues that typified any vaudeville performer, Lollipop sweeps the reader into the jazz age, when live stage show entertainment served as the West Coast's main link to the current music and dance trends in New York, detailing Clar's ten-year association with Fanchon and Marco from 1923-1933, first as a dancer, then as co-director of their dance school. The text also highlights the eventual fade of vaudeville from the entertainment circuit, caused by the Great Depression.  Supplemented with historical tidbits and anecdotes from her daughter, Clar's memoir offers an intimate portrait of vaudeville life from the viewpoint of a non-headliner. This diverting and entertaining glimpse of a lost era in American culture is an enjoyable read for students of American popular culture, vaudeville, and theatre history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52485775261969,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52485776376081,"sku":"NLS9780810841864","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780810841864.jpg?v=1759858187"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/studies-and-documentation-in-the-history-of-popular-entertainment-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}