Playwright Reviews Book About Henry Darrow

Title: Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle

Authors: Jan Pippins, Henry Darrow Delgado

Website: http://www.henrydarrowbook.com
Genre: Biography & Memoir
Subcategories: Entertainment, Hispanic & Latino
Publisher: Bear Manor Media
ISBN: 978-1593936884
Reviewer rating 5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed by H. Harry Cason

Okay, let's face it: Henry Darrow is still one of the most fascinating actors to ever hit the TV screens of America. His charm and magnetism transcend any racial or cultural divide, as evidenced by his long and illustrious career. And now there's a delightful roadmap that Ms. Pippins and Mr. Delgado have provided in this page-turner of a book. Henry, the sexy, vibrant Latino-American star travelling Sweden in the '60's to sold-out one-man shows? There's a movie right there. For Henry's fans, and there are lots of 'em, this book will be a giddy delight, brimming with photos and insider stories. For those new to Mr. Darrow, it's an amusing and captivating introduction. And not just to Henry -- but to the time when barriers were being dashed aside, and the power of a brilliant, telegenic performer could be felt in one's own living room...A true portent of the impact popular culture would continue to play on our ever-evolving and beautifully diverse country. Like Henry, this book is electric.

~Reviewed by producer/writer/director H. (Harry) Cason originally on Amazon.com. Cason’s work includes television, films, stage, and his original play “That Certain Cervantes,” the only play ever produced in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

About the Author

Jan Pippins lives in Louisiana with her husband Mike, four horses, many cats and two dogs. She is from a family of readers, writers and storytellers. Her Uncle Red was one of many early literary influences. “Uncle Red was an alcoholic newspaper reporter who scandalized the good Methodists in the family by marrying a cigar smoking Cherokee dance hall girl. He was crippled during World War I and if my grandmother had known what kind of tales he told me, she would have finished him off.”

Jan is an avid reader of everything from warning labels to existential philosophy. “Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle” is her first book.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Military Writers Society of America Reviews Angel of Bataan

Title: Marcia Gates: Angel of Bataan
Author: Melissa Bowersock
Web: www.newmoonrising.net
Genre: non-fiction, biography, historical
ISBN: 1460973194
Book Trailer:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym4AmLynvfo&feature=g-upl

Reviewed by Edward Kelly for Military Writers Society of America's Dispatches E-Zine


Author's SummaryMarcia Gates was an Army nurse and prisoner of war during WWll. As an "Angel of Bataan," she spent three years in a Japanese internment camp in the Philippines. This is her story, told through her letters and the newspaper clippings, photos and letters collected by her mother. Melissa Bowersock is the niece of Marcia Gates.

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MWSA ReviewThis is the true story of a nurse, Marcia Gates, during World War II and her experiences during the battle of Bataan and three years as a prisoner of war. But it is more than that because this story also relates how the families at home were feeling- frustrated and concerned about their lack of information about Marcia and her safety.

This book is easy to read and many will find it difficult to put down as one wants to know- does Marcia make it home? The format is also augmented by actual letters written by Marcia, other nurses and from family members to Marcia. It may be difficult for some who are so used to the modern e-mail system to even imagine the problems of letters not arriving home for months and how that effected the family who used every resource they could to get any information they could of their daughter. The author uses these letters to carefully weave a true account of what was happening on both sides of the world.

I found the story excited, surprised by some of the descriptions of conditions and wondered why I hadn’t heard this story before. The author has brought out one of the untold stories of World War II- about a nurse. I believe this book will have wide appeal to many audiences including: medical personnel, historians, veterans and anyone interested in good story with a happening ending.


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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Reviewer Loves Novel About Claude Debussy

 

Title: Claire De Lune

Author: Pierre la Mure
Genre: biography

Reviewed by  Aakanksha Singh originally for http://www.bookreivewsgalore.wordpress.com

A La Debussy!

It may not be one of the greatest books, maybe out of print and may not even be about the best musician on the planet(though for some he definitely is!), but nonetheless, it is one marvellous novel that must be read.

Taken from goodreads.com

'Clair De Lune' written by Pierre La Mure is a biography of France's best musician and composer, Claude Debussy. Before you stop reading the review further because the word 'biography' has put you off, I must tell you that the biography is very much a novel, a story of his life rather than a collection of boring essays of Debussy's life by other people.It is written beautifully tracing Debussy's life from his birth to his eventual/sad death. La Mure wrote about Debussy's life like a intricate story so much so that the reader is one with Debussy in his travails and success.

There is not much in the sense of a plot in the novel which is quite obvious as Pierre is writing about a true, famous French musician and not a fictional character. Yet I will give you a short summary. The book starts with his aunt and her reflection of her motherly love for Debussy. She recalls his birth and how she convinced his parents to let him stay with him in Paris. His aunt recognized his talent and arranged piano lessons for him. His musical talent got him admission in the Paris Conservatoire. He even won the Prix De Rome. However, because of the difficult and experimental nature of his music, Debussy wasn't able to impress many composers who dismissed his work as difficult to play. Debussy therefore continued to struggle and remain in poverty partly because of this and partly because he did not grab opportunities when he saw them and was not business minded. It was only after his opera's performance,'Pelleas et Mesilande', that Debussy tasted success and his music was appreciated. He was finally able to uplift himself from his crushing poverty. He died in 1918 in the middle of World War I due to cancer. Mixed with his musical life is his very colourful love life. He had affairs with several women which is greatly described in the book.

How much is truth and how much is dramatization in this biography I cannot judge. However, I am guessing that the love affairs that have been focused and etched out so vividly have definite touches of fiction, probably given to increase the reader's curiosity and make them want to buy his novel. And that is one of the negative points in the book. It tends to focus more on his turbulent affairs than his music. He comes across as a womanizer than as a composer because of this. The book does mention that music was his first love but this love is never demonstrated elaborately. His music is relegated to the margins quite often which is quite disappointing. (Though it is quite fun reading pages and pages of love making he had with his love interests!) Another very disappointing aspect is that the novel exalts Debussy, creates a perfectness in him that is impossible in any individual, justifies all his actions and portrays him as a victim(particularly when it comes to his mean actions with his love interests).

Besides all these drawbacks, 'Clair De Lune' is a breathtaking work, a beautifully crafted biography that ignites the life and times of the great misfit musician. It pulls the reader into the bygone latter years of the 19th century, paints a stunning, opulent, luxurious,enchanting picture of France and Paris and other European places that Debussy visits. The emotional ups and downs, the tempestuous love affairs, the harrowing poverty, the fantastical music moments and the astonishing success seep into the reader making it difficult to tear oneself away from the book's magic and come back to the dreary,music-less 21st century world!

'Clair De Lune' is a novel that is not to be missed. One does not need to be a music expert to read Claude Debussy's life story. The book never throws a lot of confusing music jargon that laypeople won't understand. One can however, fall in love with his music because of this novel and that won't be futile as his music is pretty darn good with its melting, lilting, dreamy qualities. It is sure to be a heart stirring experience!

Do check out this book and his wonderful music. They are both worth the time and money!

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Biography: Vets Will Love It

Title: Belle of the Brawl; Letters Home From a B-17 Bombardier

Author: Gary A. Best
Author's web site link: garyabest@gmail.com
Genre/category: Military/WW II biography

ISBN: 978-1-59299-489-2

Publisher: Inkwater Press

Reviewered by : Rob Ballister for  Military Writers Society of America 

Review:

Gary A. Best’s BELLE OF THE BRAWL is a wonderful portrait of the relationship between a boy and his mother, told through the letters of young Fred Lull as he writes home during his training and deployment as a B-17 bombardier. It describes a warm, emotional relationship, where a young man in harm’s way continuously works to reassure his worried mother that he is just fine and plenty safe, even when the horrors of war surround him.

Best does a great job of interspersing the letters from Fred with notes, comments, and news clippings about the war at that time. This serves to both allow the reader to fix in history when the story occurred and also to contrast the harsh realities of war with the boy’s club picture that Fred paints for his mother.

In addition to developing the picture of the relationship, the book does a wonderful job of painting a picture of what life was like in America during World War II. The reader learns about rationing, traveling in the United States, and how Americans worked to make ends meet in the 1940’s.

This book is an excellent addition to any library, but will be especially enjoyed by military aviation buffs and World War II veterans.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Laura L. Mays Hoopes Breaks Spiral Ceiling with New Nonfiction Book

Title: Breaking Through the Spiral Ceiling
Subtitle: An American Woman Becomes a DNA Scientist.

Author: Laura L Mays Hoopes
Author’s web site links: http://www.lauralmayshoopes.com/ ,
http://www.westcoastwriters.blogspot.com/  
http://www.scitable.com/forums/women-in-science 
Genre or category: memoirs and biographies
ISBN-10: 0557923204
ISBN-13: 978-0557923205
Publisher: Lulu.com

Reviewd by Rossana G. D’Antonio originally for Amazon
Reviewer’s rating: 5 stars


Laura L. Mays Hoopes takes us on a colorful journey through time and science as she candidly describes her courageous story of a young woman, who unbeknownst to her, sets off on a trailblazing venture. Experiencing discrimination at a tender age in an era when women were still relegated to a few token professions, her sheer determination drives her to face her obstacles head on. It is this loss of innocence that pulls us in early in her memoir and keeps us rooting for her throughout the story. Hoopes recounts her experiences with humor, sheer honesty, and courage. These are the stepping stones she sets for us to travel alongside her in a path often riddled with self-doubt, guilt and tears as she tries to live her dream of having it all.


Having attended engineering school in the late eighties, I can attest to the difficulties of venturing into a profession that is still very much male-dominated. The obstacles still exist albeit they are much more subtle than Hoopes describes. So I am inspired by her grace, poise, and determination when facing and overcoming these prejudices.


There is still so much inequity in the world of science, math and engineering. To read about someone who has succeeded in these fields is encouraging. To learn about the many obstacles Hoopes overcame to get there is inspirational. To know that she nourished her dream allowing it to grow into something deeper and now she actively impacts future generations is a powerful concept.


In the end, Hoopes succeeds in baring her soul to the reader. A soul that has undergone a transformation with each page. A soul that has experienced love, success, a few tears, and self-discovery...and survived it all! Bravo!
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Tim Roux Reviews Novella-Sized Biography

Title: The Bookie's Runner

Author: Brendan Gisby
http://www.brendangisby.com/
Genre: Nonfiction: Biography
ISBN: 978-1456554590



Reviewed by Tim Roux http://timroux.blogspot.com  originally by Amazon


Brendan Gisby's 'The Bookie's Runner' is a perfect 100 pages - perfect and exactly 100 pages (you don't see that too often).


So, it is a novella, and a eulogy, maybe even an apology for Brendan's not being able to do more to help his father in troubled times, although he clearly did what he could.


There is nothing extraordinary about the story of this book - millions, even billions, have suffered lives like these, which makes it a universal tale.


What is extraordinary is the writing. Like the best of French auteur cinema, it is a novella of characters who interact vividly (you can see each one clearly as if on celluloid) in a mildly tragic way. The tone is lyrical, fluorescent, and its trajectory is literally the dying fall. We know from the beginning that it is about a man who will be dead by the end of the book. The question is why.


There is also something extraordinary about the plotting and the rhythm of the piece, something that mesmerises. The whole book takes place in the space of a short bus journey the author took as a teenager after the funeral of his father on his way to his first day back at school.


It has been compared with 'Angela's Ashes' but it is not as grandstanding as that. It is more like Francoise Sagan's 'Bonjour Tristesse' or Elizabeth Smart's 'I Sat Down in Grand Central Station and Wept'.


It is too late to read this before Brendan's dad died and to put things right, and that would somewhat undermine the point of the book, but there is time yet to read it before you do. Yes, it is one of those books for sure.
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Biography Highly Recommended

Book Title: Empty Chairs
Author: Stacey Danson
Type: Biography. Nonfiction.
ISBN: 1453858520
Published by: Night Publishing
Author's blog:  http://staceydansonemptychairs.blogspot.com/

Originally reviewed bt Bill Kirtin for Amazon
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REVIEW:5.0 out of 5 stars

Some of my friends have said of this book that they want to read it but, knowing the pain and horrors it chronicles, need to get themselves into the right frame of mind to do so. Others have admitted that they doubt whether they'll actually get round to it. They should and must - for several reasons.


It's an autobiographical story, written under a pseudonym, which reveals how a 3 year old was subjected to gross sexual abuses at the behest of her own mother, and forced to continue servicing visitors to the house until eventually, at the age of eleven, she ran away. Thereafter, life on the streets proved equally stressful, threatening to confirm all the negatives she felt about how people behave.



Perhaps that crude synopsis has made you join the `I'm not sure I could read this - it's too horrible' camp. If it has, it's deprived you of an astonishing experience. Because this is a page turner and, bizarrely, a sort of celebration. I know that's a cliché beloved of Amazon reviewers, but here it's a fact. The story is relentlessly riveting. There's tension, hidden (and not so hidden) forces at work, powerful characters, and observations of social interaction that are penetrating insights into what lurks behind the facades of sunny, happy-go-lucky Australia, where families picnic in the sun and glory in sights such as the fabulous Sydney Harbour Bridge.



The abuse inflicted on the infant Sassy-Girl (let's use the street name she earned) was not at the hands of social low-lifes, but `respectable' middle class professionals. When she eventually rebels and runs away, she has to find places to sleep, clothes to wear, ways to get food, and simultaneously avoid the pressure from pimps to recruit her into their stable. She experiences some kindnesses but her whole life seems to have been a denial that trust is possible between humans. When groups of girls at the zoo mock her for the clothes she's wearing, she asks `why do people do those things? What was it that gave those girls the right to make fun of something they didn't understand?' adding that `It would take a very long time to discover how common that trait was in humans'.



It would have been so easy (in theory) to succumb to prostitution to earn her keep, but the abuse she suffered makes her determined never to allow her body to be used again. As she says `I knew my soul would die anyway if I made a conscious decision to sell the child's body in which it was housed. I wasn't being brave, or strong. I simply knew that all of me would survive - or another me would. What point would there be living without my soul and my spirit?'



An author's note at the beginning speaks of the compulsion Danson had to write this, the promise she'd made to someone to do so, but she also admits that it's taken longer to get round to it than she thought it would. And that's part of the spell this narrative weaves. We're getting the intimate day to day experiences of a 12 year old - the encounters, the threats, the violence, the alienation - but they're all being recounted by the mature woman she survived to become.



And the narrator herself is aware of this, of course. This is a woman who knows how to write, how to use language, sometimes simply, always directly, to engage the reader, a woman who has come to know that friendships and trust are possible, and yet who's re-entering the mind of her pre-teen self and reliving those years, with their innocence and ignorance. Because Sassy-Girl is uneducated (in formal terms). She thinks everyone speaks Australian (except Americans, whom she's seen on TV and who speak American). `If someone had told me we all spoke English,' she says, `I would have been even more confused.



At times, the mature narrator lends her voice to the girl. When she makes her way to the War Memorial, for example, she says she `spent the rest of the night in the company of the spirits of people who had died in a nightmare as well'. And there's an awareness of the power of simplicity in sentences such as `I wanted to laugh and mean it', or `It reminded me of the way I cried, back when I still could.'



But these aren't intended to be criticisms. The moment Sassy-Girl suspects she's feeling self-pity, she forces herself out of it. She's a survivor and, despite all the torments she's endured in these early years, what remains is an affirmation of her spirit, a confidence that, despite the enormous forces ranged against her, she won't be a loser. It's a compelling read, a reminder of the deepest evils of which we're capable, but also a celebration of our ability to overcome.


~The review is from Aberdeen, Scotland, http://www.bill-kirton.co.uk/. He review for Book Squawk at
http://www.booksquawk.com/

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Military Memoir Is Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal Winner

An American Knight
Subtitle: The Life of Col. John Ripley
ISBN-10: 1877905410
ISBN-13: 978-187790541
Category: Biography, Military
By Norman Fulkerson
Publisher: The American TFP
$14.95


REVIEWED BY John Horvat originally for TFP


"There are plenty of books that tell the soldier’s story and take the reader beyond media accounts by showing the human face of war.

However, there are few books that go beyond the soldier’s story. That is not to say the soldier’s story is not inspiring. However, these are times that clamor not only for soldiers but heroes. People need story of moral leadership from those who can get things done on any field of battle.

An American Knight: The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC is one such story. Author Norman J. Fulkerson has written a riveting cradle-to-grave biography of Col. John W. Ripley that engages, inspires and motivates. In his warm and appealing style, Mr. Fulkerson not only tells of a true Marine legend of the Vietnam era, he tells the story of an American knight.

At first glance, this portrayal might seem difficult. Knights are supposed to be riding white horses and wearing shining armor not combat fatigues. Knights usually aren’t Americans since they belong to times past. Yet Mr. Fulkerson seems to relish the paradox as he tells his story.

Indeed, Col. Ripley was an archetypal American. His upbringing in a small town America is all apple pie. One is treated to accounts of his mischievous “Huckleberry Finn” childhood adventures that warm the heart with a glimpse of those simpler “cracker barrel” times. John Ripley’s story starts like that of so many other energetic youth who lived on the wild side of things during the fifties. And it may well have ended there.

But then, suddenly we see a change in John Ripley. He comes to represent another no less archetypal American – that heroic American with a can-do attitude, relentless drive and solid patriotism. One sees him join the Marines, enter the U.S. Naval Academy, and deploy in distant Vietnam where he became a living legend.

Here the archetypal American meets the knight.

One can definitely see the knight in the feats of Col. Ripley. He is most commonly known for his heroic action in Vietnam during the Easter Offensive of 1972, where he faced down over 30,000 North Vietnamese and 200 enemy tanks. Praying to God for help, Ripley proceeded to blow up the Dong Ha Bridge, preventing the enemy from crossing.

As stunning as the Dong Ha story is, there are only a few chapters dedicate to this feat. However, it is obvious that Mr. Fulkerson is not just telling the story of a Marine legend; he is telling the story of a real knight.

Knights do more than just fight battles. They fight that most important of all struggles: the battle against themselves. With unshakable faith in God, they overcome their defects and vices and present a role model of spotless character to a society in need of them. They go beyond the call of duty and sacrifice themselves for the common good on any battlefield. They live up to a code of chivalry that our permissive society believes impossible to follow.

And thus, Mr. Fulkerson presents Col. Ripley as a true knight. Inside the pages of his book, one finds the devout manly Catholic, the faithful husband, the loving father, and the Southern gentleman. One sees the commander, the warrior and leader. There is also the administrator, scholar and mentor.

There is one field of battle where Col. Ripley excelled and that was the field of public opinion. This knight was not afraid to voice his opinions even when they went against the “politically correct” opinion of the times. When testifying before Congress, he did not waver in expressing his opposition to homosexuality in the military and women in combat. Such moral battles are often more terrible than those of the physical battlefield!

Thus, Mr. Fulkerson presents a figure who is both American and knight. He proves that such a portrayal need not be a paradox. It should rather be a model.

An American Knight is an inspiring story but it is also a challenge. In these times of political correctness, it challenges all Americans to have the moral courage of someone who stands firm. When so many wilt and waver, it calls upon all to find and look to an uncommon human type – the knight – for the kind of moral leadership needed to weather the storms ahead.
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"There are Two Types of Pain in this World: The Temporary Pain of Discipline, or the Permanent Pain of Regret" -- anonymous

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

Wesley Britton Compares Beatles Books

The Beatles: The Biography
By Bob Spitz
Little, Brown and Co., 2005

Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
By Jonathan Gould
Random House, 2007




Review by: Wesley Britton originally posted at Wesley Britton’s Entertainment Scrapbook



One might have thought that by 2005, new biographies of The Beatles would have become major exercises in the redundant. Still, they keep coming, and it seems the history and legend are an apparent bottomless well of fascination for writers and readers alike. From time to time, such titles do warrant attention for their fresh perspectives to the saga, and Bob Spitz and Jonathan Gould both deserve close readings, albeit for very different reasons.

After the admittedly sanitized and truncated authorized bio by Hunter Davies in 1968, the elephant in the room arrived in 1981 with Philip Norman’s Shout!, which purported to be as detailed and researched as any one volume history can be. But Shout! was marred with a clear bias toward the contributions of John Lennon. Over the years, Norman took heed to criticisms of his lack of objectivity, and in 2005 put out an updated version which allegedly cleans up that misstep and includes more recent events in the lives of Paul, George, and Ringo.

For my money, in 1984 Peter Brown and Stephen Gaines’ The Love You Make did Norman a few turns better as Brown was not only an insider to the original events, but maintained an access to participants that gave his book a bit more depth and a more balanced overview. Then, of course, the 2000 Anthology claimed to be the final word on the subject, the story told by the lads themselves. Along the way, we got books on individual Beatles on their own—my favorite remaining Pete Shotton’s 1987 memories of John in In My Life. So, what would be left for a new historian to uncover all these years later?

To Bob Spitz’s credit, he returned to primary sources to more-or-less retell the story from scratch, supplementing the public records with new interviews and documents Albert Goldman didn’t use in his largely discredited bio of John Lennon. Strangely, while Spitz refers to a number of sources throughout the text and notes, he barely mentions Norman. This is most surprising, especially in the notes, leaving the reader to infer reasons why Shout! doesn’t count. Well, it does. While it’s been years since I read the first edition, I did notice matters Norman explored but Spitz didn’t, such as more on the come-and-go drummers in the early days and what the Beatles did in their off hours in Hamburg. I especially remember one chapter on “Apple Scruffs” where Norman talked with the star-struck girls who haunted Beatles HQ. While not essential to the Beatles story, Norman clearly went into corners Spitz didn’t.

The major distinction between these books is mainly that of emphasis and not so much the minutia of who did what and when. Spitz tells the story with detailed economy, revealing little new I noticed, although his conversations with Liverpool contemporaries like Rory Storm do add perspectives about the band’s place in the club scene in the very early ‘60s. I did spot Spitz trimming off tales that couldn’t be confirmed. For example, one tale repeated in many sources is that Stu Sutcliffe’s brain hemorrhage was caused by a beating after a Beatles concert. While Spitz notes the occasional violence the band suffered on the road, he makes no direct connection to Sutcliffe’s later health and the beatings, and rightly so. Without medical records ascribing Sutcliffe’s decline to a specific concussion, there’s no tangible evidence to support the myth that Sutcliffe was the first Beatle martyr. I could be wrong, but Spitz may have more on the private life of Brian Epstein than previous histories. The tragedy and surprising emptiness of his life are sketched in increasingly sad detail, ending with an overdose that was almost a foregone conclusion. Oh, as with most reliable sources, Spitz doesn’t even mention the story of a youthful record buyer coming to NEMS looking for a Beatle record, the first time Epstein supposedly heard of the band. The evidence clearly shows that Epstein sold and advertised in Mersey Beat, a local paper that promoted the group in nearly every issue.

Very unlike Norman, the trail Spitz traces is about a band largely led by Paul McCartney after Beatlemania, John Lennon being the most reluctant Beatle once heroine and Yoko come into play. In fact, without Spitz editorializing any points, Yoko Ono once again takes on her “Dragon Lady” garb, her presence the obvious impetus for the band’s latter day turmoil in the studio. This isn’t to say George’s understandable resentments and Paul’s heavy-handedness aren’t on display—in fact, Bob Spitz should be credited with the most balanced and most human history of a group that soared very high based on its talents and timing before plummeting due to naivety, a lack of business acumen, drugs, leeches, egos, and the loss of the energy and commitment that bonded the Fabs together in the first place.

In short, Bob Spitz’s biography is as good as a blow-by-blow account of John, Paul, George, and Ringo in one book can be. Anyone who knows the story will find few new surprises, but perhaps will have a different take on events, perhaps.

But revelations are aplenty in Jonathan Gould’s occasionally superb Can’t Buy Me Love. Gould isn’t interested in a day-by-day retelling of the saga. Instead, Gould focuses on the music and the cultural and sociological contexts that influenced the group and shaped their destinies while showcasing why they were able to break new ground both intuitively and deliberately. No where else have I read the linguistic background for the Liverpool accents, and how the Beatles emphasized their Northern heritage in their public speaking. Gould makes original observations such as noting “All You Need is Love” did debut on the international “One World” broadcast, but few Americans knew about it or saw it. The special was only sporadically aired on a number of Public Broadcasting stations in the states, the song following apparently boring sequences such as the ins and outs of soybean farms. I didn’t know “And Your Bird Can Sing” had nothing to do with girls but was instead John Lennon’s response to a press release in which Frank Sinatra mocked the Beatles. According to Gould, the partnership of John, Paul, and George in songwriting and playing was unique as it all happened among themselves as an insulated group of teenagers listening to and imitating records , not as musicians who came together later in life mixing and blending their influences.

Gould elaborates on many points long discussed by critics, such as the idea that America responded so deeply to the Beatles because of the emotional grief after the death of President Kennedy. But Gould nails down this speculation by quoting authorities who discovered that teenagers, more so than any other demographic, reacted to the assassination so strongly. Likewise, the idea that Decca executives fouled up badly when they rejected the group and Capitol Records were tone deaf when they drug their feet turned out to be very rational decisions at the time. As Gould states simply, the “Beatles choked” during their Decca auditions. No news there, but if Decca had signed them, then we wouldn’t have had the guiding hand of George Martin in the studio. No “Please Please Me” and likely no Beatlemania. Had Capitol issued “Please Please Me” when it was new, then the timing of the British Invasion would not have coincided so perfectly with an American cultural climate so receptive to the Beatles. Not to mention the fact Meet The Beatles was a far superior debut than Please Please Me.

I suspect most readers will find Gould’s study one to skim as many sections take their time to explore the definitions of terms like “charisma” and “mod” and thus the tome often takes on the tone of a reference volume. Other sections showcase Gould’s considerable musical knowledge, analyzing the anatomy of many of the Beatles most significant numbers. But Gould’s conclusions are more than arguable—he praises “Here, There, and Everywhere” as being a songwriting departure for the group and offers any number of technical and lyrical comments that are either tedious or overblown. For Beatle fans, such observations can serve as a bit of a game—that sounds right, no, don’t buy that at all . . .

Both these volumes demonstrate there are still writers who can offer new twists and insights into the story of the greatest rock band of all time, but I still suspect the well is drying. As those who were there disappear and memories dim, the only new perspectives will be about the Beatles place in the present and future, not the past.

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Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton is co-host of online radio’s “Dave White Presents” which features interviews with a wide range of entertainers. Past programs are archived at www.audioentertainment.org/dwp. He is also author of four books on espionage and runs www.spywise.net. Wes teaches English at Harrisburg Area Community College.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

Entertainment Reviewer Talks about Book on Eric Clapton, George Harrison and More

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
(Titled Wonderful Today for U.K. edition.)
By Patti Boyd and Penny Junor
Harmony Books, Aug. 2007



Reviewed by: Wesley Britton originally posted at Wesley Britton’s Entertainment Scrapbook



Rock muses are a unique breed of women, at least in terms of those who’ve been immortalized in the words and melodies of those they inspired. Perhaps the best sampling would be the most select of all rock and roll women’s clubs—Beatle wives. After all, they came from a wide range of backgrounds—a Japanese artist, New York photographer, a Liverpool-bred hairdresser . . . there was even Heather Mills, once a seemingly fairy-tale consolation for a grieving songster. Then, in a flash, she publicly devolved into a shrill gold-digger of epic proportions. Mills not only made Nicole Smith seem a rank amateur in the profession, her stint on Dancing With The Stars made it clear, if anyone needed further evidence, that the term “star” now has less meaning than many rocker’s vows of marital fidelity. But I digress.

Going back in time, there were the ballads of John and Yoko, Paul and Linda, and then the apparently mature unions of Ringo and Barbara, George and Olivia. Each of these are stories unto themselves, each as distinct as the couples involved. And before them were the ballads of the first Beatle wives—Cynthia, Maureen, Patti Boyd, and, more or less, Jane Asher. All their stories are as well known as any aspect of the Beatle myth and each shared something in common—being married to big-time rock stars meant dealing with young men enjoying sexual opportunities that were the envy of mere mortals like thee and me. In addition, these women lived with huge chunks of lonely time where their mates were out on the road or lost in their own worlds when they did come home. All this is on record, as it were, in multiple books and histories. So, what can another autobiography offer that pulls back the curtains and shed new light on the old legends?

In terms of who did what and when and with whom, Patti Boyd doesn’t have much new to share. How could she? Even before meeting George Harrison on the set of A Hard Day’s Night, she was becoming a “star” in her own right, a model with a growing list of impressive photographic credentials. As Cynthia Lennon observed in her own memoir, A Twist of Lennon (1978), this was one reason the Liverpool wives—Cyn and Maureen—had misgivings about the new Beatle lass. After all, they had been there from the beginning and George bringing a sexy model into the fold seemed a bit of showing off. No wonder that Patti’s memories don’t focus much on Cynthia, but Maureen turns out to be the picture of betrayal—first a seeming close friend, then the Beatle wife who jumped beds from the drummer to the guitarist, not only under Patti’s nose but in her own house.

Again, nothing new in these stories. They simply remind us that in this circle of friends, women were as disposable as pillowcases, and the male bonds of musicians trumped all else. How else could Ringo, George, and then Eric Clapton remain close collaborators for decades after their best mates stole their girls? Patti’s descriptions of life with George does shed some insight into this mindset largely because of her own perseverance and own repeated forgiveness of her men. After all, life with George did bring with it the highest of highs in every sense of the word. Patti’s travelogue of her adventures in the ‘60s is filled with some of the excitement of those days, especially the physical and spiritual journeys in India. The years of 1966 and 1967 were expansive for both the Harrisons, with Patti joining her husband in vegetarianism, TM, and Eastern mysticism. Well, it was actually Patti who introduced George to the idea of meeting the maharishi mahesh yogi which means she was the one to light the spark that became the “Year of the Guru” which, in turn, opened the doors for all things ultimately called New Age.

Then, as with all Beatle matters, things fell apart on the home front. Here, I did get the sense I was getting new glimpses into the psychology of George. What is clear is his obsessive nature that led him into taking hours to chant and meditate, then party to the hilt, then meditate and chant to the extreme, and so on. Patti understood the withdrawal she felt when George was apparently in a creative state, but saw herself shut out when, even sharing the same house, she didn’t have a husband to communicate with. Later, she blames herself for not putting her foot down and insisting on the pair working on their relationship. But there was this fella named Eric Clapton and a song called “Layla.”

In Patti’s account, and I doubt she intended this, EC comes across as even less sympathetic than he did in his own autobiography, which coincidently was published at the same time. (See my review posted here Nov. 24, 2009.) In Clapton’s own words, the ‘70s onward were all periods of addiction, first heroine, then alcohol. He admits that wooing Patti was torturous, but once he had her, he relegated her to being his domestic housekeeper for whom appreciation just wasn’t in him. Patti was in a position where the house gardener ignored her and her allowance was entirely dependent on Clapton’s management. For me, one moment said it all—when Clapton’s son Connor was born. For Eric, he was consumed with joy. For Patti, it was astonishing her husband would want her to share his feelings considering Connor was born to another woman with whom Eric still wanted to share time. Here was Patti, childless, seeking medical help for the miracle that would make her a mother. Here was Eric, trumpeting a birth that should have prompted Patti to send him packing.

That finally does happen, and here’s where the comparison with Heather Mills comes in. After years of Patti suffering with Eric’s nearly monthly brushes with death, Clapton and his manager, Roger Forrester, hung her out to dry with minimal support. To a degree, this ended up being to Patti’s betterment as she was forced to find a new career, and she found creative fulfillment switching from modeling to photography.

While she didn’t make this comparison herself, one of her final passages struck me. Patti described the difference between illusion and reality, that of being a model posing for pictures and being the woman who had to try to live up to the expectations people had of the faces they saw on magazine covers. In her later years, Patti had found contentment not trying to live the image. For me, this seemed a parallel for the woman called “Layla” created by EC and the woman he finally conquered. The image inside his creative heart inspired him—but the real Patti Boyd was just another needle in his arm. We listeners have a similar relationship with the musicians who gave us the songs that defined our lives. We have the imagery and sounds we treasure juxtaposed against the reality upon which the transcendent was based. For Patti and Eric, the song “Wonderful Tonight” had a power only those two can understand, joyous when things are good, painful when they weren’t. For most of us, the lady who looks wonderful tonight is someone in the here and now, at least hopefully so. For me, all these years “Something” was just one of George’s classic songs—now I hear it wondering how George Harrison could have neglected, ignored, and then lost this wonderful muse. Likewise, in the harsh light of day, do we listeners lose the creative mysteries immortalized in the songs we brought into our hearts?

Well, a survivor named Patti Boyd didn’t. The best thing about her book is that she is now her own muse. Not a bad place to end up.

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Dr. Wesley Britton is co-host of online radio’s “Dave White Presents” which features interviews with a wide range of entertainers. Past programs are archived at www.audioentertainment.org/dwp. He is also author of four books on espionage and runs www.spywise.net. Wes teaches English at Harrisburg Area Community College.







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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

Wesley Britton Loves to Revisit Rock 'n Roll

Psychedelic Days (1960-1969)
By Patrick Campbell-Lyons
GRA Publishing, Nov 25 2009
$19.99



Review by: Wesley Britton originally posted at Wesley Britton’s Entertainment Scrapbook


Like everyone else, I’m sure, when I pick up a biography or history dealing with rock ‘n roll, I choose titles about performers, bands, or periods I’m interested in. Normally, I’m looking for the behind-the-scenes stories about how classic music came to be, whether written by stars like Eric Clapton, session musicians like Vic Flick, or historians who’ve done their due diligent homework.

But, last month, I received a review copy of a book called Psychedelic Days written by a performer from a band I never heard of—the British Nirvana of the late ‘60s. I had absolutely no pre-conceived ideas about the book as, then and now, I’ve never heard a bar of their music. But, as revealed in Patrick Campbell-Lyons’s fast-paced (240 pages) memoir, I’m far from being alone, at least in the states. While the original Nirvana made waves internationally, because Bell Records in the U.S. released the debut album with no publicity whatsoever, it disappeared without a trace, the band not even knowing an American version had been issued. So when I began reading the text of PD, what I knew about Nirvana wouldn’t fill a back-cover publicity blurb.

So here’s a bit of history: While a number of musicians came and went on stage and in the studio, Nirvana was essentially Irish guitarist Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Greek composer/ keyboardist Alex Spyropoulos. Before ELO and the “progressive rock” of the ‘70s, they fused rock ensembles with baroque instruments for a then fresh approach in popular music. Their Oct. 1967 album, The Story of Simon Simopath, is widely regarded as a predecessor to concept albums by the likes of The Who and The Kinks. The LP was produced by Chris Blackwell for his then-new Island Records, and Blackwell and his legendary label play a prominent role in Psychedelic Days.

Apparently a moderately commercial success, Nirvana’s single “Rainbow Chaser” was their biggest hit in 1968, the first rock single to use flange from beginning to end (flange being the sound you hear in the Small Faces “Itchycoo Park.”)Nirvana was nonetheless a critical favorite and the group was part of the heady days of late ‘60s counter-culture. So, while Campbell-Lyons’ memoir is told from a performer’s point-of-view, the tale is essentially a whirlwind tour of what life was like experiencing the exuberance of the times in England, Greece, France, South America, Morocco, and points in between. Campbell-Lyons paints a wide canvas of just how interconnected youth culture was around the world. No matter where you hailed from, you didn’t need to be Jimi Hendrix or Mick Jagger to have a good time, and Campbell-Lyons and most of the cast of players in his book were indeed having the times of their lives. The first paragraph sets the stage:

For me and Nirvana, the ‘60s were a trip indeed. Immigration blues, Paddies, navvies, booze, dope deals, thrills and pills, rhythm & blues, guitars and groupies, Mods and Rockers, free love and flower power, bohemian swagger boys and gypsy princesses, Ealing Art College, the local scenesters at Jim Marshall’s Music Store in Hanwell, Speedy Keen, Mitch Mitchell, John McVie, Cliff Barton, Jimmy Royal, Ron Wood and Kim Gardner with the Birds, the boss guitar man Terry Slater, Pete Townshend, Pete Meaden, Vic Griffiths (the best harp player in West London), the legendary Ealing Club, the Rolling Stones, the Speakeasy in Margaret Street W1, the Limbo Club in Soho, the Bluebeat Jukebox, Blackbombers in Hyde Park, 51 Club Great Newport Street, La Gioconda Café, Denmark Street and the Tin Pan Alley publishing houses, Regent Sound, St. Martins, the musical >>Hair>>, >>You Can All Join In>>, Jimi Hendrix, Guy Stevens, Mickie Most, Hamburg’s Star Club, Paris, Belgium, Rio de Janeiro with Jimmy Cliff, Stockholm, Tangiers and the “happenings” of Morocco, Island Records and Chris Blackwell, Alex Spyropoulos and I creating the band Nirvana.

Like I said, that’s just the first paragraph, and the roller-coaster ride to follow is just what the title claims—Psychedelic Days. This is one reason readers unfamiliar with a band pretty much a footnote in rock history would enjoy this trip. It’s not an introspective personal odyssey chronicling inner torments or regrets about any addictive excesses. It’s not a vanity trip either, but rather a lively series of vivid observations from the inside looking out. That alone is something different in the genre of rock memoirs. Yes, the book has the perfect title—it’s about a time that remains unique, whether you were a concert attendee or standing behind a mic. It looks at these heady days from a perspective I’ve not encountered before, that is how the youth scene expressed itself all over the world.

If you can get homesick for an era, this book can do that. If you weren’t there, well, this is a time capsule you’ll enjoy swallowing. For more details and ordering information:

www.psychedelicdays.com/PatrickBio.html

To read some samples from the book:

blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=85882077

Now, to see if I can track down some of this unheard music—

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Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton is co-host of online radio’s “Dave White Presents” which features interviews with a wide range of entertainers. Past programs are archived at www.audioentertainment.org/dwp. He is also author of four books on espionage and runs www.spywise.net. Wes teaches English at Harrisburg Area Community College.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

The Smothers Brothers Story Reviewed by Wesley Britton

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

By David Bianculli
Touchstone Books, Dec. 2009
ISBN-10: 1439101167
ISBN-13: 978-1439101162



Reviewed by: Wesley Britton originally posted at Wesley Britton’s Entertainment Scrapbook


Books about the stars of stage and screen do run a wide gamut. There are over-priced volumes devoted to a specific actor, director, film, TV series. There are fan-oriented overviews of any given production complete with opinionated episode guides and production notes. There are memoirs and quasi-memoirs by performers, their families, or those who knew them. There are academic studies analyzing entertainment and how contributors have been influenced by or how they helped shape popular culture. Only every once in a while do we get a title that deserves the term “definitive,” that is, a focused history/biography that will become a standard reference that future writers will have to pour over should they take up the challenge of expanding on such books.

Such is the case of David Bianculli’s Dangerously Funny. It’s not surprising that a major publisher issued this contribution rather than a small house devoted to their genres of choice—The Smothers Brothers were and are an act worthy of serious consideration and Bianculli gave the act their honest and sometimes painful due. After all, while the classic late ‘60s “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” remains the high watermark for both the act and their place in cultural history, Tom and Dick’s legacy is worthy of attention for both what came before and after their legendary entertainment challenge to network decision making.

In fact, while the book’s title implies the “Comedy Hour” is the principal subject of the overview, Bianculli offers considerable background on the brothers formative years and the creative milieu in which they developed. Had they never hosted the “Comedy Hour,” Tom and Dick would still have played an important role in musical trends as they were true pioneers in the early days of the “folk revival.” Their interest in what is now dubbed “World Music” helped the new genre expand the pool of “traditional” standards heard all across America. In addition, their stage act was a transitional presence that bridged the generation of radio and stage vaudeville singers and comics with the “hip” interests of Baby Boomers purchasing vinyl albums and watching their favorite performers on TV variety shows. While Bianculli doesn’t make this connection, I was often reminded of the development of the Marx Brothers; the earlier ensemble started out as a musical group doing comedy and turned into a comedy group that sometimes played music. Likewise, the Smothers started out doing folk music akin to the Kingston Trio and ended up using the music to frame their comic routines. Likewise, Harpo Marx picked up the harp to have an instrument like his brothers as playing the instrument added $5.00 to the group’s appearance fees; Dick Smothers picked up the bass mainly as a prop while his brother taught him how to play it.

Then came the “Comedy Hour” and its importance cannot be understated. But can the circumstances of its creation, evolution and ultimate demise be clearly understood? In the hands of David Bianculli, we get the sense we’re hearing stories we’ve been hearing for years but in a context that is balanced, copiously researched, and drawn from primary sources like Tom Smothers himself. For example, the myth is that CBS was so loopy and narrow-minded that cancelling the “Comedy Hour” was a disastrous decision akin to NBC’s recent late night debacles. But, just as the evidence shows Decca Records had good reasons to reject The Beatles, the full story of the “Comedy Hour” demonstrates both sides of the controversy contributed to an almost inevitable parting of the ways. For their part, the network was flat-footed dealing with a younger audience seeking television with a freshness and variety showcasing younger faces and concerns. On the other side, Tom Smothers, in particular, made a point of challenging the hand that fed him so often and so stubbornly that the higher-ups almost yearned for an excuse to get this monkey off their backs. As a result, the so-called reasons for cancelling the show—an alleged late delivery of a particular episode—was simply a means to give executives an out to get relief from the ongoing battles over program content.

Bianculli, of course, isn’t championing network decision making but rather, as with the rest of his history, presenting the contexts of a multi-faceted career from a wide menu of perspectives. The Brothers obviously didn’t operate in a vacuum, and Bianculli is often at his best bringing in stories that flesh out how the Smothers Brothers fit into the continuum of both music and television. For example, he retells the story of Jack Paar briefly leaving “The Tonight Show” over NBC’s censorship of one joke several years before the Smothers Brothers entered the censorship fray. Bianculli sketches how Hal Holbrook had to wrestle with CBS over material he wanted to include in his “Mark Twain Tonight” special. He discusses the changing climate in tastes that contributed to the “Generation Gap” of the 1960s and how the brothers changed their program from a variety hour that mixed the old with the up-and-coming into a full-fledged participant of the “Counter Culture.”

The aftermath of the “Comedy Hour” cancellation might seem like a long denouement with two failed series in the 70s and 80s, but there are lessons here as well. For example—at least in my opinion—the Brothers were at their creative zenith when they came back to CBS in the late 80s with a superb re-invention of their earlier show, only to be undone by a Writers Strike and no fault of their own. (That is my most fervent DVD request—for the brothers to issue a full set of that outstanding series.) Not to overstate the case, one might be forgiven for coming away from this book seeing brother Dick as a virtual sideman to Tom, a performer more into his hobbies and outside interests than being a cultural motor. That’s not a criticism of the team’s straight man, rather a reality of what Dick did and didn’t do over the years.

Gratefully, when talking about the Smothers Brothers, comedy can’t be avoided, and there are plenty of laughs along the way, most notably the re-tellings of some of the benign and caustic routines they performed on stage and TV. This is an important book, an entertaining book, and readable for fans of the act, of an era, of television, and no library shelf should neglect it. To paraphrase Dick Cavett describing DVD releases of his own show, if you need more than the Smothers Brothers to entertain you, than I can’t help you very much.

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Dr. Wesley Britton is co-host of online radio’s “Dave White Presents” which features interviews with a wide range of entertainers. Past programs are archived at www.audioentertainment.org/dwp. He is also author of four books on espionage and runs www.spywise.net. Wes teaches English at Harrisburg Area Community College.





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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

That's Entertainment! Horror Films, History and Scream Queens.

Book Review: Confessions of a Scream Queen
By Matt Beckoff
Bear Manor Media
ISBN-13: 973-1-59393-539-9


Reviewed by: Wesley Britton


For fans of nostalgia and entertainment, small presses like Bear Manor Media fill niches no other publishers will touch. For example, BMM books run the range from memoirs by child stars of the 1930s to extremely well-researched histories of radio, film, and TV series, to collections of interviews with actors from a variety of genres. As a result, many of these books appeal to specific audiences hungry for insights into the films and shows that influenced them years ago. These are readers who enjoy nostalgia conventions where they visit autograph tables and meet participants from the thrilling days of yesteryear. These buffs provide many bit or retired actors a second career—telling old stories for enthusiastic fans of projects completed before many of them were born.

So, typically, Bear Manor Media’s Confessions of a Scream Queen is a book for a particular—and loyal--fan base, in this case lovers of horror and Sci-Fi movies. In this collection, interviewer Matt Beckoff has assembled a sort of mini-con in print with 15 actresses recalling their most famous or infamous roles. Many of these ladies had careers and parts as hit-and-run as some of these interviews. As a result, with a few exceptions, film students will not get in-depth behind-the-scenes discussions of how horror films came to be. Instead, we get snapshots, glimpses into how the acting profession has changed since the early days of talking pictures to the present. One theme resonating through this book as a whole is how these working girls once found roles in pictures that none expected to have long-shelf lives, only to be happily surprised to learn they still have fans hoping to both see their work again and again and learn more about them personally long after the camera stopped rolling. For others, with more diverse resumes, their surprise is how they’ve become “Scream Queens” at all as their roles in horror movies are but a small section of their credits.

Appropriately beginning with the first talkies, Beckoff spoke with Carla Laemmle, Lupita Tovar, Janet Ann Gallow, and Elena Verdego who worked with the likes of Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi in the early horror films of Universal Studios. These are the shortest discussions in the book as these actresses had the shortest time on screen—first, young actresses who rarely spent time with the leading men, then married and raised families, and years later discovered themselves cult favorites. Then Beckoff moved into the noir era with Colleen Gray who appeared in such films as Kiss of Death, working with directors like Henry Hathaway and actors including Richard Widmark.

The book kicks into a higher gear with Kathleen Hughes as she appeared in a number of horror/Sci-Fi projects like IT Came From Outer Space and Judith O’Dea (Night of the Living Dead). Some devotees might be disappointed Hammer Films were represented by only one alumni--Ingrid Pitt (Vampire Lovers, Countess Dracula, Wicker Man). But “slasher” fans get Marilyn Burns (Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Betsy Palmer (Friday the 13th), and P. J. Soles (Carrie, Halloween). This trio are extremely erudite about the roles that made them famous and their appreciation for the audience response ever after. In fact, readers might raise an eyebrow to hear these actresses revealing how much professionalism they brought to movies none thought were more than a paycheck for a few weeks work.

For the wider film audience, the nuggets in the collections are conversations with actresses whose careers ran a wide range of genres such as Karen Black, Jessica Harper, and Dee Wallace. Black, for example, reminisced about her work on Five Easy Pieces, her time with Hitchcock in Family Plot, and her role as a country singer in Nashville. The final interview in the group, with Adrienne Barbeau, is the perfect finale as, in this crowd, she seems the Queen of Queens. After all, she not only appeared in four major John Carpenter films, she was married to him.

This isn’t a tome for research libraries, but it’s one to take with you for autographs at all those conventions. It’s enjoyable, and even more so for the pictures contributed by the interviewees and new photos taken by Beckoff—making this package attractive for every heterosexual male alive. Well, considering the subject matter, alive might be too restrictive an adjective. This collection was clearly a labor of love as Beckoff obviously did his homework and preparation by seeing all the movies and reading past interviews, some apparently twenty years old. So the book might not be indispensible reading, but it might give readers new appreciation for “Scream Queens”—even those who never did scream on-screen.

Order this book at bearmanormedia.bizland.com
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Dr. Wesley Britton is the author of four books on fictional espionage, owner of www.spywise.net, and co-host of the online radio show, “Dave White Presents” on KSAV.org and available for download.




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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

Greg Mortenson Offers Biography of Peace

Stones Into Schools--Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Author: Greg Mortenson
Genre: History/Biography
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult; 1st edition (December 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670021156
ISBN-13: 978-0670021154



Reviewed by Donna A. Syed, Co-founder, Aslam Educational Support Foundation (www.AslamFoundation.org)


In his latest book, Greg Mortenson hosts the reader as a valuable and welcomed traveling companion as he retraces his steps through the most remote areas of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier areas and the formidable terrain of Afghanistan holding a mirror to our humanity. Mortenson introduces us to his trusted companions turned employees of Central Asia Institute, the so-called "Dirty Dozen", who truly embody the virtues of goodwill and perseverance in the name of literacy and, of course, God.

In short, Greg Mortenson's work makes Anthony Bordain's exotic travel look like a visit to Epcot Center.

Mortenson's commitment to cross-cultural understanding beyond the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan is rivaled only by his determination to educate the under-served girls in the most remote areas of these countries. Stones Into Schools is a suspenseful, heart-breaking as it is heart-warming, true account of a life well lived and a people well-served. Mortenson is an honor to the human race and diplomat for world peace. About now, Greg Mortenson would do well to take his own advice and sit for a month under a walnut tree to recuperate.


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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
And while you're at it, as a courtesy to the author, please retweet this post:

Billie A. Williams Does Her Take on Mae West

Mae West - She Always Knew How
By Charlotte Chandler
Biography

Reviewed by Billie A Williams

Mae West is an icon. Her voice, her manner, her style are mimicked and mimed and duplicated but never could they out shine Ms. West herself. Charlotte Chandler has taken this legend of film and stage and brought her to the reader full and alive. You cannot read this book and come away with anything but awe and praise for both the star and her biographer.

Ms. West is delightful and candid, she is brilliant, intelligent and in love with life and her fans. She isn’t afraid to admit she loves men and diamonds. She isn’t afraid to say she always knew what she wanted and how to get it. She doesn’t whine about not having and yet she doesn’t boast about having. Her love and respect for her mother is clear and repeated often. She is grace, and charm. She is beauty and the beholder. Confidence, charisma, exuberance, energy and verve, how could you not fall in love with her after reading this delightful trip through her life. I’m sure she is standing at heaven’s gate whispering “Come on up and see me sometime.”

I highly recommend reading this if you need a boost to your spirits, if you want to know how to instill your children with a zest for living and confidence in what they want without being boorish. Charlotte Chandler took a monumental task and gave it the tweak only she could give it. Mae West and Charlotte Chandler never looked better..



Reviewer Billie A Williams is the author of The Capricorn Goat and other mystery suspense novels.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

A Top Book for Any Speaker's Library

The Solution is at Hand: The Dottie Walters Story
by Dottie Walters and Terri Marie
Copyright 2007
Pages 156 plus intro
ISBN 0-943477-14-X
Price $14.95
Published by New World Publishing

Reviewed by Dr. Patricia Adelekan, Ph.D., DTM, Founder of Global Education, Inc.
The impact of this unique inspirational book
transcends any that I have read for a long time.

Dottie Walters wrote her last book in conjunction with Terri
Marie. It is called “The Solution is at Hand: The
Dottie Walters Story.” The impact of this unique book
inspirational book transcends any that I have read for
a long time. In it are 14 of Dottie’s Life Lessons.
And, to think that Dottie did not see the final and
finished copy of the book or hear the CD that
accompanies it before she passed away, is eerie.

I read the complete book on the plane to France in
March and was so moved by it that I had all the French
Toastmasters of the IBM Toastmasters Club in Paris
begging for it. It was my only copy, so I could not
part with it. When I got to Nigeria, the same thing
happened. They too, were inspired and touched. What a
woman Dottie was! We need to keep her spirit and
message alive as nuggets of her greatness.

Dottie’s voice on the accompanying CD reveals her
kind, caring, and giving spirit. While listening to
it, one cannot but help feeling blessed by such an
indomitable spirit, as though Dottie were right there
discussing such deep lessons.

I invite everyone to invest in buying a copy of this
treasure of a book and to give it as a gift to someone
special in your life. You will never regret it.”

The Solution is at Hand’ is one
of the top three books every speaker should have.
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The reviewer is Dr. Pat Adelekan, Global Education, INC
“In Search of Global Greatness”

Tackling the Tough Questions About Riders of the Purple Sage

No One to Cry To, a Long, Hard Ride into the Sunset with Foy Willing of the Riders of the Purple Sage
By Sharon Lee Willing
Biographical Memoir
ISBN-10: 1-58736-686-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-58736-686-4
Reviewer: Tim Lasiuta (Canada) reviewer (


As one of the premier western swing bands of the 1930's and 40's, Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage were in demand everywhere. Radio. Movies. Special appearances. But, unlike the Sons of the Pioneers, their lineage did not continue unbroken. Unlike the Sons, their history was not chronicled, until now.

Sharon Lee Willing has provided a look into the troubled life of Foy Willing. Not that this is a sad book, but it is more a book about sadness. Foy Willing had had it all. Wealth. Fame. Reputation. And a faithful family. But his life path was the result of poor planning, and in the end, his character.

Sharon tackles the tough questions. She relates the early history of the Riders in more detail than we have ever had. But, with her appearance in Foy’s life in the 1950's, the story gains credibility. Foy had been an alcoholic, but he recovered. He still was in demand. He wanted marriage. But he was unwilling to take the final step. When he did, alcohol was again part of his life. And his marriage dissolved. That’s where the sadness comes in.

Foy was talented. More talented than his recording history tells. More passionate and creative than he is given credit for. Near the end of his years, the ‘old’ Foy Willing resurrected and he began the nostalgic resurgence of the Riders with very much success.

She even includes a discography, his film appearances, and a comprehensive list of songs written/co-written by Foy. Collectors will love this.

This is a heartfelt book. If you want a glossed over history of Mr Willing, don’t buy this book. If you want to read about the real Foy Willing, this is for you. Written by the one who knew him best, and loved him the most, "No One to Cry To" is the story of a man, blessed with talent, on a lifelong journey who finally found what he was looking for.

Tim Lasiuta (Canada)