Author: David L. Lightner
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496809866
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
Winnie Lightner (1899–1971) stood out as the first great female comedian of the talkies. Blessed with a superb singing voice and a gift for making wisecracks and rubber faces, she rose to stardom in vaudeville and on Broadway. Then, at the dawn of the sound era, she became the first person in motion picture history to have her spoken words, the lyrics to a song, censored. In Winnie Lightner: Tomboy of the Talkies, David L. Lightner shows how Winnie Lightner's hilarious performance in the 1929 musical comedy Gold Diggers of Broadway made her an overnight sensation. She went on to star in seven other Warner Bros. features. In the best of them, she was the comic epitome of a strident feminist, dominating men and gleefully spurning conventional gender norms and moral values. So tough was she, the studio billed her as “the tomboy of the talkies.” When the Great Depression rendered moviegoers hostile toward feminism, Warner Bros. tried to craft a new image of her as glamorous and sexy. Executives assigned her contradictory roles in which she was empowered in the workplace but submissive to her male partner at home. The new persona flopped at the box office, and Lightner's stardom ended. In four final movies, she played supporting roles as the loudmouthed roommate and best friend of actresses Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, and Mona Barrie. Following her retirement in 1934, Lightner faded into obscurity. Many of her films were damaged or even lost entirely. At long last, this biography gives Winnie Lightner the recognition she deserves as a notable figure in film history, in women's history, and in the history of show business.
Winnie Lightner
Author: David L. Lightner
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496809866
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
Winnie Lightner (1899–1971) stood out as the first great female comedian of the talkies. Blessed with a superb singing voice and a gift for making wisecracks and rubber faces, she rose to stardom in vaudeville and on Broadway. Then, at the dawn of the sound era, she became the first person in motion picture history to have her spoken words, the lyrics to a song, censored. In Winnie Lightner: Tomboy of the Talkies, David L. Lightner shows how Winnie Lightner's hilarious performance in the 1929 musical comedy Gold Diggers of Broadway made her an overnight sensation. She went on to star in seven other Warner Bros. features. In the best of them, she was the comic epitome of a strident feminist, dominating men and gleefully spurning conventional gender norms and moral values. So tough was she, the studio billed her as “the tomboy of the talkies.” When the Great Depression rendered moviegoers hostile toward feminism, Warner Bros. tried to craft a new image of her as glamorous and sexy. Executives assigned her contradictory roles in which she was empowered in the workplace but submissive to her male partner at home. The new persona flopped at the box office, and Lightner's stardom ended. In four final movies, she played supporting roles as the loudmouthed roommate and best friend of actresses Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, and Mona Barrie. Following her retirement in 1934, Lightner faded into obscurity. Many of her films were damaged or even lost entirely. At long last, this biography gives Winnie Lightner the recognition she deserves as a notable figure in film history, in women's history, and in the history of show business.
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496809866
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
Winnie Lightner (1899–1971) stood out as the first great female comedian of the talkies. Blessed with a superb singing voice and a gift for making wisecracks and rubber faces, she rose to stardom in vaudeville and on Broadway. Then, at the dawn of the sound era, she became the first person in motion picture history to have her spoken words, the lyrics to a song, censored. In Winnie Lightner: Tomboy of the Talkies, David L. Lightner shows how Winnie Lightner's hilarious performance in the 1929 musical comedy Gold Diggers of Broadway made her an overnight sensation. She went on to star in seven other Warner Bros. features. In the best of them, she was the comic epitome of a strident feminist, dominating men and gleefully spurning conventional gender norms and moral values. So tough was she, the studio billed her as “the tomboy of the talkies.” When the Great Depression rendered moviegoers hostile toward feminism, Warner Bros. tried to craft a new image of her as glamorous and sexy. Executives assigned her contradictory roles in which she was empowered in the workplace but submissive to her male partner at home. The new persona flopped at the box office, and Lightner's stardom ended. In four final movies, she played supporting roles as the loudmouthed roommate and best friend of actresses Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, and Mona Barrie. Following her retirement in 1934, Lightner faded into obscurity. Many of her films were damaged or even lost entirely. At long last, this biography gives Winnie Lightner the recognition she deserves as a notable figure in film history, in women's history, and in the history of show business.
Catalog of Copyright Entries
Author: Library of Congress. Copyright Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 868
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 868
Book Description
Dry Manhattan
Author: Michael A. Lerner
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674040090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
In 1919, the United States made its boldest attempt at social reform: Prohibition. This "noble experiment" was aggressively promoted, and spectacularly unsuccessful, in New York City. In the first major work on Prohibition in a quarter century, and the only full history of Prohibition in the era's most vibrant city, Lerner describes a battle between competing visions of the United States that encompassed much more than the freedom to drink.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674040090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
In 1919, the United States made its boldest attempt at social reform: Prohibition. This "noble experiment" was aggressively promoted, and spectacularly unsuccessful, in New York City. In the first major work on Prohibition in a quarter century, and the only full history of Prohibition in the era's most vibrant city, Lerner describes a battle between competing visions of the United States that encompassed much more than the freedom to drink.
Catalogue of Title-entries of Books and Other Articles Entered in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, Under the Copyright Law ... Wherein the Copyright Has Been Completed by the Deposit of Two Copies in the Office
Author: Library of Congress. Copyright Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American drama
Languages : en
Pages : 1472
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American drama
Languages : en
Pages : 1472
Book Description
The Eddie Cantor Story
Author: David Weinstein
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
ISBN: 1512600482
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
A lively biography of the popular showman Eddie Cantor, with a focus on his involvement in Jewish culture and politics
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
ISBN: 1512600482
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
A lively biography of the popular showman Eddie Cantor, with a focus on his involvement in Jewish culture and politics
Catalog of Copyright Entries
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 846
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 846
Book Description
Weavers of Dreams, Unite!
Author: Sean P. Holmes
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252094689
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
Published to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the Actors' Equity Association in 1913, Weavers of Dreams, Unite! explores the history of actors' unionism in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the onset of the Great Depression. Drawing upon hitherto untapped archival resources in New York and Los Angeles, Sean P. Holmes documents how American stage actors used trade unionism to construct for themselves an occupational identity that foregrounded both their artistry and their respectability. In the process, he paints a vivid picture of life on the theatrical shop floor in an era in which economic, cultural, and technological changes were transforming the nature of acting as work. The engaging study offers important insights into the nature of cultural production in the early twentieth century, the role of class in the construction of cultural hierarchy, and the special problems that unionization posed for workers in the commercial entertainment industry.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252094689
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
Published to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the Actors' Equity Association in 1913, Weavers of Dreams, Unite! explores the history of actors' unionism in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the onset of the Great Depression. Drawing upon hitherto untapped archival resources in New York and Los Angeles, Sean P. Holmes documents how American stage actors used trade unionism to construct for themselves an occupational identity that foregrounded both their artistry and their respectability. In the process, he paints a vivid picture of life on the theatrical shop floor in an era in which economic, cultural, and technological changes were transforming the nature of acting as work. The engaging study offers important insights into the nature of cultural production in the early twentieth century, the role of class in the construction of cultural hierarchy, and the special problems that unionization posed for workers in the commercial entertainment industry.
That's Got 'em!
Author: Mark Berresford
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1604733713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Wilbur C. Sweatman (1882-1961) is one of the most important, yet unheralded, African. American musicians involved in the transition of ragtime into jazz in the early twentieth. century. In That's Got 'Em!, Mark Berresford tracks this energetic pioneer over a. seven-decade career. His talent transformed every genre of black music before the. advent of rock and roll?pickaninny bands, minstrelsy, circus sideshows, vaudeville. (both black and white), night clubs, and cabarets. Sweatman was the first African. American musician to be offered a long-term recording contract, and he dazzled. listeners with jazz clarinet solos before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's so-called first. jazz records.. Sweatman toured the vaudeville circuit for over twenty years and presented African. American music to white music lovers without resorting to the hitherto obligatory. plantation costumes and blackface makeup. His bands were a fertile breeding ground. of young jazz talent, featuring such future stars as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, . and Jimmie Lunceford. Sweatman subsequently played pioneering roles in radio and. recording production. His high profile and sterling reputation in both the black and. white entertainment communities made him a natural choice for administering the. estate of Scott Joplin and other notable black performers and composers. That's Got. 'Em! is the first full-length biography of this pivotal figure in black popular culture, . providing a compelling account of his life and times
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1604733713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Wilbur C. Sweatman (1882-1961) is one of the most important, yet unheralded, African. American musicians involved in the transition of ragtime into jazz in the early twentieth. century. In That's Got 'Em!, Mark Berresford tracks this energetic pioneer over a. seven-decade career. His talent transformed every genre of black music before the. advent of rock and roll?pickaninny bands, minstrelsy, circus sideshows, vaudeville. (both black and white), night clubs, and cabarets. Sweatman was the first African. American musician to be offered a long-term recording contract, and he dazzled. listeners with jazz clarinet solos before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's so-called first. jazz records.. Sweatman toured the vaudeville circuit for over twenty years and presented African. American music to white music lovers without resorting to the hitherto obligatory. plantation costumes and blackface makeup. His bands were a fertile breeding ground. of young jazz talent, featuring such future stars as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, . and Jimmie Lunceford. Sweatman subsequently played pioneering roles in radio and. recording production. His high profile and sterling reputation in both the black and. white entertainment communities made him a natural choice for administering the. estate of Scott Joplin and other notable black performers and composers. That's Got. 'Em! is the first full-length biography of this pivotal figure in black popular culture, . providing a compelling account of his life and times
The Infamous Cherry Sisters
Author: Darryl W. Bullock
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476675562
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
Raised in poverty on an Iowa farm, the Cherry Sisters had little education and no training. But they possessed a burning desire to take to the stage and show the world what they could do--and what they could do was awful. Their unique act was "so bad it was good." When the sisters took the stage, they were met with rotten fruit and vegetables, festering meat, dead cats... Riots often broke out after (and sometimes during) their concerts, but they carried on, changing attitudes--and laws--along the way. This book follows the five women through their forty-year career in vaudeville theaters across the U.S. Proud, fearless and fiercely independent in a time when women were treated as second-class citizens, the Cherry Sisters insisted that their voices be heard.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476675562
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
Raised in poverty on an Iowa farm, the Cherry Sisters had little education and no training. But they possessed a burning desire to take to the stage and show the world what they could do--and what they could do was awful. Their unique act was "so bad it was good." When the sisters took the stage, they were met with rotten fruit and vegetables, festering meat, dead cats... Riots often broke out after (and sometimes during) their concerts, but they carried on, changing attitudes--and laws--along the way. This book follows the five women through their forty-year career in vaudeville theaters across the U.S. Proud, fearless and fiercely independent in a time when women were treated as second-class citizens, the Cherry Sisters insisted that their voices be heard.
Childhood and Nineteenth-Century American Theatre
Author: Shauna Vey
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 0809334380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
"This study of the daily work lives of five members of the Marsh Troupe, a nineteenth-century professional acting company composed primarily of children, sheds light on the construction of idealized childhood inside and outside the American theatre"--
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 0809334380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
"This study of the daily work lives of five members of the Marsh Troupe, a nineteenth-century professional acting company composed primarily of children, sheds light on the construction of idealized childhood inside and outside the American theatre"--