Arts and Entertainment Books

Teachout's short biography of Balanchine has a lot more meat in it than I expected, considering that he makes a comment in the Preface that he wrote it for the casual ballet-goer or even someone who has never been to the ballet. He takes a casual but observant stroll through Balanchine's professional and personal lives and with telling incident and anecdote makes this giant of twentieth-century art come alive, warts and all. Further, his tone is one of kindliness and understanding, even when it comes to Balanchine's inveterate womanizing, without it becoming a work of hagiography. And he conveys in words how Balanchine filled his plotless ballets with "the most extraordinary encounters and events" and changed the face of modern ballet.

I came to this book not as a balletomane but as a lover of the music of Stravinsky whose music, of course, was the aural life blood of Balanchine's art. I was not disappointed in that there were many glimpses of Stravinsky along the way. But more important Teachout's easy style and consummate story-telling ability made this a compulsive read. Many biographers lack that quality.

Frankly I would recommend this book not only to the dance neophyte like me, but to any lover of ballet, or modern dance, or of twentieth century music. It certainly provides a beautifully written record of one of the high points of American culture of its era.

Scott Morrison

I will make the inevitable comparison between this book and Robert Gottlieb's short biography of Balanchine. This book is my choice because Gottlieb's book, while businesslike, is a bit earthbound. Gottlieb's biography did not exude the spirit of dance for me. And the biographical facts, reported in brief by both Gottlieb and Teachout, have been given more scope in Bernard Taper's wonderful full length biography. In Teachout's favor, he is a dance critic, and he treats the dances themselves with more insight and depth. As a reader, I feel this added to the book's value. So the book I'll keep on my shelf is Terry Teachout's Balanchine.

the book was very good and talked a lot about the girls thoughts on every thing. if your a fan of the group this is the book to buy.

All saints are a very good group. We did a dance to the song called I know where its at and Bootie call.Tara looks a bit like Mel and Rachel looks a bit like Nat. Rachels fav songs are Never ever and Under the bridge . Tara's fav songs ara Alone and Under the bridge. WE LOVE ALL SAINTS.

All The Young Dudes is a fantastic read. The author had access to the founding members of Mott and uses this inside information to paint a thorough picture of how things were; how the members thought about various times of their careers; the ups and downs; David Bowie, etc. For instance, I didn't know that Ian Hunter was the bassist for the New Yardbirds. Or that he played with Ritchie Blackmore once. But I don't want to ruin all the surprises. Suffice to say, it is a fantastic book. Complete in every way. You couldn't ask for a better or more thorough biography. There are lots of rare pics and a complete discography too. I loved this book!!

Whether you are a Mott/Ian Hunter fan or not, you can enjoy this book. Although the early background/biography sections aren't as interesting as the career of Mott The Hoople, this book is very entertaining. It shows the inner workings of a legendary band, and in the process, the inner workings of the music industry. This book is easy to read and a must for Ian Hunter/Mott fans. These guys had a lot of funny things happen to them as they became unlikely pop stars.

This is one of the best books I have ever read.

While I was not very familiar with James Broughton's work, I had heard how much people liked him as both a poet and filmmaker. Poetry is not my first choice of reading but I can be induced to try out anything unfamiliar to me as it was with this book. The book was very engaging and let the reader immerse themselves in the author's personality. Broughton comes across at times, a happy and care free person and then there are times you can sense a bit of unhappiness or depression. All in all the reader gets a chance to see all facets of the author as a person and a great poet/filmmaker. The book somewhat serves as a primer on some of the collected works of James Broughton. It does this job admirably and I was intrigued to keep reading all the way to the end in one sitting. I highly recommend this book. The book can also serve as a literary work that needs to be added as a permanent fixture into the annals of gay literature for the GLBT community to have as a piece of their own history. Bravo to Jack Foley for putting this book together.

With the release of this important book on filmmaker and poet James Broughton we are handed a unique experience, for it is "the very first book to allow the various aspects of Broughton's complex personality to 'sing' to one another." Broughton, or "Big Joy," was so vastly talented and led such an extraordinarily interesting life, that one comes away from this gorgeous and excellently structured book wondering how we did without it. Foley knew Broughton personally; perhaps this is one of the reasons he brought the book to perfection. If you are familiar with James Broughton's work, you already know you must have this book. If you have not experienced Broughton's poetry, film or journals, treat yourself -- you're in for "Big Joy."

This book brilliantly depicts the outstanding role Ralph Cooper played in shaping American music as we know it today. His genius and forethought has yet to be matched in this century. I enjoyed the book immensely!

A history not only of the Apollo Theatre, but of Black entertainment in this country. Mr.Cooper is very knowledgeable and gives a wealth of information about an exciting era. A good reference book, giving me a better understanding of the roots and important of Black entertainment and its influences in the U.S.

This is an absolutely amazing must-read account of Shirley Collins' journey with Alan Lomax throughout the 1950s American South. Great description of the country and atmosphere by a foreign and interested comrade. This is by all accounts a not-to-miss story of the blues, folk, and country music that existed at the time. If you are interested in ANY of these genres in any way, shape, or form, or the way this trip inspired Shirley to re-examine the traditional music of her own homeland (southern England, namely Sussex), this book is an ABSOLUTE must-read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I definitely read this whole book in two days. That is a testament to its greatness. Buy it NOW!

I'd never heard of Shirley Collins before hearing her interviewed about this book on the radio - what a fabulous, fabulous discovery. I wish I'd known of her before. This book lives and breathes the tensions of the American South and is rich with its melodies and voices. Shirley Collins comes across as immensely likeable and lovely person and as fantastic as the music she writes about is, the thing that makes this glow is the personal story of her relationship with Alan Lomax.

What an excellent book!! I could not put this book down!! It is a definate page-turner!! Very well written. The author did her research as it gives an insight to a great historical figure. I highly recommend this book!!!

Shirl Kasper has written the most historically accurate book on Oakley. Her marriage to Butler was in 1882, remember she loped 6 years off her age when another younger woman sharpshooter joined Buffalo Bill's show? She was 21 when she married Butler, not 16 as many books show.

As an actor, Anthony Perkins has always fascinated me. In every role that I ever saw him play, he had this quality about him that made you feel that if you didn't listen to every word he said and watch every movement that he made, you were going to miss something of major importance. It's called stage presence and he had it by the bucketfuls. He was of course most noted for his portrayal of Norman Bates in PSYCHO and he captured that character so well that it was both the blessing and the curse of his career. Already, before Hitchcock's masterpiece, the powers that be behind Perkins' acting career saw him as a replacement for James Dean or as the new Gary Cooper or someone like him. They wrongly saw him as a macho romantic lead but after PSYCHO, they and the movie public only wanted him to play variations of the Norman Bates character. Charles Winecoff, in his revised tenth anniversary edition of his Perkins biography, ANTHONY PERKINS: SPLIT IMAGE captures valiantly both the personal and professional life of a Hollywood icon.

Perkins' acting career didn't begin on the movie screen; it began on the stage. His father was the famed actor, Osgood Perkins, who died during a perfomance at the age of thirty-seven when Anthony was only five. His mother was connected to theater people and saw that he learned his craft as a teenager in summer stock productions. Before his appearance in the movie PSYCHO, he had played the lead in at least two Broadway shows, one of which was as Eugene Gant in Ketti Frings' play LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL based on the Thomas Wolfe novel of the same name. Eugene Gant's sensitive character was one that would have suited Perkins' personality well and if the movie mobuls could have seen that these kinds of roles rather than the romantic lead roles were who Anthony should play, his film career might have taken a happier, more successful turn.

Anthony hadn't been in Hollywood long when he met Tab Hunter and the tongues began to wag concerning both men's sexual preference. Homosexuality in the 1950's and 1960's was not something to be tolerated in an actor's personal life and Anthony was quickly persuaded to not be seen with Tab in public too frequently. (Tab's autobiography indicated as well that he too was told to avoid too much contact with Anthony.) At the time, to make your homosexuality too public would have been a sure-fire way to kill a career before it even got started. Before, and after Tab Hunter, Perkins was linked with other (secretly) gay men, but psycho-analysis was revered at the time, and Anthony yearned to be as straight as so many people wished him to be. Why wouldn't he in the poisonous atmosphere of the time. At around forty, he met and married Berry Berenson and fathered two sons and I think for the rest of his life was convinced that his newly found heterosexuality and his role as husband and father was his salvation; at least that is what he told people.

The many miscastings and the perception of those who handed out the movie roles to Anthony Perkins that America couldn't handle an alternate lifestyle, hurt Perkins' acting career and he tried his hand at directing both plays and films with limited success. One of the reasons pointed out in the book for that limited success was Anthony's lack of confidence in himself. I tend to agree because when you are told constantly that the core of who and what you are is insufficient, that would make you lack confidence in yourself. But, in spite of that, there are enough gems in the theater and film work of Anthony Perkins that has to apoligize to no one and I for one salute him as one of my Hollywood heros.

This is one of the best Hollywood bios around. While numerous authors rehash the tired stories of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and others (for the 10th or 11th time - and who cares) this book opens new, original territory by looking at the life and times of Tony Perkins. The author first published the book ten years ago and this is a great update - no one else has come along to do a better job either. Tony Perkins lived on the cusp of the social revolution, balancing between the uptight propriety of the 50s with the psycho/sexual upheaval of the 60s and 70s. Winecoff meticulously lays out this world, and Perkins difficult and often troubled, sometimes comical, walk through it. Tons of interviews and vivid descriptions of people and places makes Tony pop off the page in this "true Hollywood story" that is hard to out down. Winecoff's timing is impeccable - the book is a fast, fun read as well as an informative one. The reissue is more tightly woven (I read the first version when it came out ten years ago). The author has grown more sophisticated and observant with passing years, as all good writers should. The final scene, September 11th and all, is a fitting tribute to changing times and the end of an era.

I bought this book when it was first published, and it remains the most thorough study of the composer available. I've seen no book, before or since this book, which is as extensive. The author is sympathetic, but retains his objectivity; there's no trace of fauning admiration here, nor of academic aloofness. Mixes biography with discussions of his musical works. This is that proverbial "must-have' book for anyone with an interest in the composer.

Shame this is diffucult to obtained,Moldenhauer is an archivist, a collector of the particles, anf filiments from one's lifeworld, and here this large book presents an exhaustive account of Webern's life down to much perosnal fragments, anxieties and wishes. We learn he remained afraid to conduct, and cancelled many times,also hated travel, he was very much like his music, thought thru down to finest rarefied details.,plucked strings, pencil-thin harmonics, Am Steg;a new musical language advanced like his "Six Pieces Op.6 for Orchestra",miniature gems of timbre here/there. There is not much on the creativity moments of his life, this is fairly a personal day to day ad nauseum at times narrative. It is fairly exhaustive, and really brings the commonplace aspects that fills really much of a composer's life, that in fact those moments of "illumination" or clarvoyance we as consumers continue wish to phanthom occur many times quite spontaneously and never within a durational frame of predictability; while walking or un-boarding a train, lighting up a cigarette, watching the troops from the train, returning home. His music, his diamond-cut pieces (Stravinsky decribed him) inspired a generation of composers. He affinity for purity number,density proportion shape and design were all welcome elements from the overdetermined political pages of Europe with Two Massive Wars, no one has seem to learn from.
There are nice vintage photos all included here.

Antonio Banderas is my favorite actor, and this autobiography has everything, I'd give this more stars if I could. I remember reading it at a very hard time in my life, and Antonio was (still is) a big comfort to me. It talks about a man from when he saw his first play of "Hair" that made him want to be an actor, and how his family didn't approve, and the pain and rejection he went through. A man of who's struggles from the theatre to being discovered by director Pedro Almodevor in the movies in Spain. How he had to learn English, for his first American role "Mambo Kings," to the rest of the movies he made, and his relationship with Melanie Griffith. You'll learn somethings you didn't before, like Madonna was a big help to him getting recognized, because she had a crush on him in "Truth or dare," his outspokeness-which by the way, this book does have language. But best of all, you get to know Antonio, a real nice, kind, passionate, compassionett, humble, hearted man.

Written with charm and humility (albeit ghosted in both cases) this biography gives a warts-and-all insight into the life of my wife's favourite swarthy heart-throb.