Catalog Search Results
Author
Language
English
Description
Over half century ago the society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children complained to Mayor Van Wyck, of New York, that Joe Keaton, a vaudeville actor, was brutally mistreating his five-year old son. At each afternoon and evening performance the child, billed as "The Human Mop", was slammed on the floor, hurled into the wings, and sometimes banged into bass drums. Unable to find a bruise or scratch on the lad, Mayor Van Wyck refused to ban the...
Author
Language
English
Description
The popular comedienne's account of her theatrical career and her married life with Florenz Ziegfeld. This is the life story of an actress, a beautiful redheaded actress who lived and played in a glittering era now gone but fondly remembered. Although she attained moments of great fame and happiness, she never knew security. Like her father, the well-known clown, she went through life with a feather on her nose.
Author
Language
English
Description
In this volume the greatest and best-loved woman of her time shares the experiences - private and public - of her thirteen years since the death of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She describes in intimate detail the problems she had to solve after her husband's death, winding up his affairs and working out a pattern for her new life. That new life would include much traveling and diplomatic work around Europe, Russia and Asia for the United...
Author
Language
English
Description
The legendary wit and unmistakable voice of America's favorite showman are captured here in the master entertainer's memoir of his first fifty years in show business. From his one-night stands in vaudeville to countless performances for servicemen on U.S. military bases across the globe, this delightfully candid book of funny life stories is pure Hope. In his own words, Hope recalls his brief career as an amateur prizefighter; his flops and successes...
Author
Language
English
Description
When Robert Benchley died in 1945, his obituaries read like love-letters from the world. Here is a collection of his short, whimsical, hilarious articles which show why. With befuddled and heroic bewilderment Benchley faces his problems. Among others are the mislaid locomotive, a dachshund who sued for libel, and a songbird who was "out to get" Benchley. It ends with five sizzling chapters of his "Untold Story," starting when, as an innocent young...
Author
Language
English
Description
In her spirited, witty and vastly entertaining memoir, Helene Hanff recalls her ingenuous attempts to crash Broadway in the early forties as one of "the other 999." Naive, nearsighted, frequently penniless but hopelessly stage-struck, she found her life governed by Flanagan's Law: "No matter what happens to you, it's unexpected." Therefore, as a prize-winning Theatre Guild protégée with a brilliant future, Helene naturally found that all the producers...
Author
Language
English
Description
Originally published in 1929, this book details the famous silent actor and sex symbol Rudolph Valentino and his lover Natacha Rambova's travels back to Europe in 1923. Valentino kept a diary at this time, into which he faithfully recorded his thoughts whilst living the American dream, proving his naysayers back home in Italy wrong: "My Dream is coming true! From day to day, night to night, here and there, I am going to write down my impressions....
Author
Language
English
Description
Following on from her successful 1949 memoir "With a Feather on My Nose," here we have a further biography, first published in 1959, from famous Broadway and early silent film actress Billie Burke, best known as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz and widow of Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld of Ziegfeld Follies fame. Co-author Cameron Shipp, a ghost writer who had also worked with Mack Sennett and Lionel Barrymore, assisted in...
Author
Language
English
Description
First published in 1959, this is a fascinating look at the life and career of magician and escape-artist Harry Houdini (1874-1926). Author William Gresham interviewed many people who knew Houdini personally, adding greatly to the book's accuracy and authoritativeness, and he also reviewed all of the available books, and newspaper and magazine articles on the magician. Gresham explains many of Houdini's illusions, and debunks some of the many myths...
10) My Saber Is Bent
Author
Language
English
Description
In this "chilling, in-depth examination of a rapidly emerging global crisis" (In These Times), Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, two of the most active opponents to the privatization of water show how, contrary to received wisdom, water mainly flows uphill to the wealthy. Our most basic resource may one day be limited: our consumption doubles every twenty years-twice the rate of population increase. At the same time, increasingly transnational corporations...
Author
Language
English
Description
The autobiography of famous actor and vaudevillian Otis Skinner who trod the boards in the early 1900's, this book is filled with anecdotes of a bygone age. He travelled the globe and played many roles but is best remembered for his most famous role as the beggar Hajj in the original theatrical version of Kismet.
Author
Language
English
Description
Dr. Schweitzer of Lambaréné is in the nature of a personal appreciation of one of the towering figures of the twentieth century. Written on the basis of firsthand knowledge and observation, it is an informal, intimate account of Albert Schweitzer at work and in repose. Norman Cousins attempts to convey some idea of the burden Schweitzer has taken upon himself - and why he chose to take it. He also tells of Schweitzer's deep concern for the natural...
Author
Language
English
Description
"My Brother Was an Only Child" was Jack Douglas' very first humour book, having written for famous radio and television celebrities such as Jack Paar, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Jimmy Durante, as well as TV shows such as "Adventures of Harriet and Ozzie", "The George Gobel Show", and "Laugh-In". It perfectly captures the sense of humour prevalent in this era and is as refreshing and side-splittingly funny now as it was then.
Author
Language
English
Description
First published in 1954, in this quintessential autobiography Ben Hecht recounts his childhood, education, and career as journalist, playwright, and screenwriter, describes famous political and literary acquaintances, and examines U.S. efforts to aid Jews in Nazi Germany and, after the war, in Israel.
15) My Life in Court
Author
Language
English
Description
In this electrifying bestseller, the shrewd and voluble trial lawyer Louis Nizer, who made a long career of representing famous people in famous cases, recounts some of his significant civil and criminal cases. Nizer rose to national fame with his real-life accounts of tension-filled courtrooms and the fervor of the advocate, and "My Life in Court" proved to be no exception: it rose to the top of the Times's best-seller list on its publication in...
Author
Language
English
Description
First published in 1962, on the suggestion of his readers throughout his expansive writing career, this is the self-penned biography of Upton Sinclair, author of hundreds of novels, plays, homilies, diatribes and pamphlets. Written at the age 83, Sinclair at last allows his loyal readership to glean an in-depth look at the man who discovered the Jungle in Armours Meat Industry at 28, founded a Utopian co-operative in 1908, and who muckraked through...
Author
Language
English
Description
Thomas Walsh discovered fabulous golden wealth in the historic Camp Bird Mine near Ouray, Colorado. His daughter, Evalyn Walsh McLean, tells an engaging true story of the family that wanted for nothing. They led a life of extravagance. It enabled them to acquire possessions such as the Hope Diamond and the fabulous homes that hosted spectacular social functions and served as retreats for kings and presidents.
Author
Language
English
Description
This heartwarmingly funny book provides an idealized depiction of American comedian and actor Wally Cox's childhood. In the author's own words, "Nothing has been left to the imagination. The raw truth about such things as catching colds, geography class, and box tops is laid out in embarrassing detail."
19) Jackson Pollock
Author
Language
English
Description
This slim, but richly illustrated, biography of Jackson Pollock has stood the test of time since its first publication in 1959. Still a sound, but laudatory, study of all of Pollock's periods; which are weighed and appreciated in chronological order. Frank O'Hara was a well-known and universally respected poet who was an integral part of the New York artistic scene until his death in 1966.
In Interlibrary Loan
Didn't find what you need? Items not owned by Penticton Public Library can be requested from other Interlibrary Loan libraries to be delivered to your local library for pickup. Items must be over 1 year old.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service for new books published this year. Submit Request