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Show Biz from Vaude to Video
Book by Green, Abel
613 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1972
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 7, 2020
"Fifty grand and glorious years of show business - seen through the eyes. ears and slanguage of the bible, VARIETY."
A classic history of film, theatre, vaudeville, radio, television, Tin Pan Alley, the circus and anything that resembled a show biz event as compiled by the long-time editor and exponent of its peculiar newspaper jargon, and high priest of 'Fractured French' - Abel Green, and veteran vaudevillian/historian Joe Laurie Jr.
Written in 1951, this is a fascinating and colorful history by two knowledgeable experts in the field who had a birds eye view of events, chronicling all its vast panorama from the 'Great White Way - Broadway' (often viewed via Abe's 46th. Street window) to Hollywood and everything in between.
This book also captures all the fads, personalities and social-political events of the first half of the 20th. Century (1905-1951) which influenced and were influenced by show business folks.
A sample selection of chapter headings written in typical Variety jargon:
Pix - Poor Man's Entertainment
Kickaboo and Bernhardt, Too
Burly is Hurly
Making Whoopee
Pix Biz Boff B.O.
Low Gags and High Divas
Wall Street Lays an Egg
Sticks Nix Hick Pix
Legit Bounces Back - Ditto Longhair
Blue Blood Blues Singers and Cuffo Society
Don't Take Off Your Panties
Hep to the Jive
Soldiers in Greasepaint
Veni, Vidi, Video, Vaudeo
A sheer delight of entertaining reading with the added highlight of being sprinkled with Variety's fun variation of the English language.
Dedicated to the founder of Variety, Sime Silverman, who died in 1933 but left his indelible
impression on the publication in the decades to follow.
Review based on my much treasured Henry Holt & Co. 1951 first edition copy (in beautiful mint condition) purchased many moons ago from the Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood.
613 pages including a comprehensive index and a glossary of Varietyese.
A classic history of film, theatre, vaudeville, radio, television, Tin Pan Alley, the circus and anything that resembled a show biz event as compiled by the long-time editor and exponent of its peculiar newspaper jargon, and high priest of 'Fractured French' - Abel Green, and veteran vaudevillian/historian Joe Laurie Jr.
Written in 1951, this is a fascinating and colorful history by two knowledgeable experts in the field who had a birds eye view of events, chronicling all its vast panorama from the 'Great White Way - Broadway' (often viewed via Abe's 46th. Street window) to Hollywood and everything in between.
This book also captures all the fads, personalities and social-political events of the first half of the 20th. Century (1905-1951) which influenced and were influenced by show business folks.
A sample selection of chapter headings written in typical Variety jargon:
Pix - Poor Man's Entertainment
Kickaboo and Bernhardt, Too
Burly is Hurly
Making Whoopee
Pix Biz Boff B.O.
Low Gags and High Divas
Wall Street Lays an Egg
Sticks Nix Hick Pix
Legit Bounces Back - Ditto Longhair
Blue Blood Blues Singers and Cuffo Society
Don't Take Off Your Panties
Hep to the Jive
Soldiers in Greasepaint
Veni, Vidi, Video, Vaudeo
A sheer delight of entertaining reading with the added highlight of being sprinkled with Variety's fun variation of the English language.
Dedicated to the founder of Variety, Sime Silverman, who died in 1933 but left his indelible
impression on the publication in the decades to follow.
Review based on my much treasured Henry Holt & Co. 1951 first edition copy (in beautiful mint condition) purchased many moons ago from the Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood.
613 pages including a comprehensive index and a glossary of Varietyese.
February 27, 2010
The book is accessible and informative. My biggest complaint is that no sources are cited. The authors were old-time vaudevillians, so their knowledge is mostly first-hand, and as seems to rely also on the Variety magazine, but it is never cited as such. Scholars of popular entertainment, though, consider the book to be reliable, for the most part.
May 14, 2011
One of my first excursions into the biz of show, and what an introduction it was!
1951 HC Edition.
1951 HC Edition.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews