When Robert Preston shouted "Ya got trouble!" in River City, when Carol Channing glided down a gilded staircase while waiters serenaded her with "Hello, Dolly!," when Barbra Streisand defied us to rain on her parade in Funny Girl, audiences were instantly enchanted. Showstoppers! is all about Broadway musicals' most memorable numbers—why they were so effective, how they were created, and why they still resonate. Much of it is told through the eyes of the performers, songw...

For everybody "raised on radio"—and that's everybody brought up in the thirties, forties, and early fifties—this is the ultimate book, combining nostalgia, history, judgment, and fun, as it reminds us of just how wonderful (and sometimes just how silly) this vanished medium was. Of course, radio still exists—but not the radio of The Lone Ranger and One Man's Family, of Our Gal Sunday and Life Can Be Beautiful, of The Goldbergs and Amos 'n' A...

The comedians of the 1950s and 1960s were a totally different breed of relevant, revolutionary performer from any that came before or after, comics whose humor did much more than pry guffaws out of audiences. Gerald Nachman presents the stories of the groundbreaking comedy stars of those years, each one a cultural harbinger:• Mort Sahl, of a new political cynicism• Lenny Bruce, of the sexual, drug, and language revolution• Dick Gregory, of racial unrest• Bill C...

Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twentieth century—infinitely charismatic, lionized and notorious in equal measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. Now James Kaplan brings deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and turbulent life behind that incomparable voice, from Sinatra’s humble beginning in Hoboken to his fall from grace and Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who...

"Funny [and] fascinating . . . If you're a comedy nerd you'll love this book." — Pittsburgh Post-GazetteNamed a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, National Post, and SplitsiderBased on over two hundred original interviews and extensive archival research, this groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past one hundred years.Starting...

The definitive biography of a man with one of the most iconic and fascinating careers—and lives—in Hollywood.For six decades, Jack Nicholson has been part of film history. With three Oscar wins and twelve nominations to his credit and legendary roles in films like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Terms of Endearment, The Shining, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nicholson created original, memorable characters like no other actor of his generatio...

**“To call Sue Mengers a ‘character’ is an understatement, unless the word is written in all-caps, followed by an exclamation point and modified by an expletive. And based on Brian Kellow’s assessment in his thoroughly researched Can I Go Now? even that description may be playing down her personality a bit.” —Jen Chaney, The Washington Post• A NY Times Culture Bestseller • An Entertainment Weekly Best Pop Culture Book of 2015*•*...

From a sleepy little small town in the middle of Long Island to a place at the table in the exciting world of network television, I lived the impossible dream. I am 35 years old, happily married, scraping along well enough, but obsessed with the reality that I am not living the life I had always dreamt of. And then in a set of circumstances that would be unbelievable in a nickel and dime B movie, my world suddenly changes and I find myself writing scripts for and rubbing elbows with some o...

From Bing Crosby's early days in college minstrel shows and vaudeville, to his first hit recordings, from his 11 year triumph as star of America's most popular radio show, to his first success in Hollywood, Gary Giddins provides a detailed study of the rise of this American star.

Movies made for television were in their infancy when ABC came up with a novel idea: a weekly series of films made exclusively for the small screen. The ABC Movie of the Week became a great success and a cultural touchstone for a generation of Americans.In this loving tribute to the classic series of TV films, more than two hundred films in the series are reviewed, including well-remembered titles such as Duel, Tribes, The Six Million Dollar Man, Go Ask Alice, Brian's ...

Some sample anecdotes; 1) When his two sons were attending UCLA, comedian Joe E. Brown was invited to join his sons' fraternity—provided that he become an undergraduate. Mr. Brown paid the tuition and even attended a physics class, where he challenged the professor's statements and even asserted that Albert Einstein had called him for advice. (This was a somewhat true statement, but of course Mr. Einstein hadn't called Mr. Brown for advice about physics.) After the class was over, the prof...

Television today is better than ever. From The Sopranos to Breaking Bad, Sex and the City to Girls, and Modern Family to Louie, never has so much quality programming dominated our screens. Exploring how we got here, acclaimed TV critic David Bianculli traces the evolution of the classic TV genres, among them the sitcom, the crime show, the miniseries, the soap opera, the Western, the animated series, the medical drama, and the variety s...