I Need Real Tuxedo and a Top Hat!

by Wyatt Doyle

Street people and street life in photographs and stories by the author of Stop Requested , Dollar Halloween , and The Last Coloring Book . I Need Real Tuxedo and a Top Hat! is available as a trade softcover and in a deluxe expanded hardcover edition with additional material. Words and pictures by Wyatt Doyle.

104 pages, Hardcover

Published June 14, 2017

About the author

WYATT DOYLE is ringmaster of New Texture, and he edits and designs most releases. His own books include STOP REQUESTED (illustrated by Stanley J. Zappa), DOLLAR HALLOWEEN, I NEED REAL TUXEDO AND A TOP HAT!, BUTY-WAVE IS NOW CLOSED FOREVER, and JORGE AMAYA DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE. A retrospective of his photography has been presented by Gallery 30 South in Pasadena, CA.

With Robert Deis, he edits the Men's Adventure Library series, exploring vintage pulp fiction, art, and history. With Jimmy Angelina, he created THE LAST COLORING BOOK and THE LAST COLORING BOOK ON THE LEFT, as well as BE ITALIAN. Together with Hal Glatzer and Norman von Holtzendorff, he produced THINGS THAT WERE MADE FOR LOVE, collecting the songsheet art of Sydney Leff.

He assisted in the publication of Georgina Spelvin's memoir, THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, and published Josh Alan Friedman's BLACK CRACKER and TELL THE TRUTH UNTIL THEY BLEED via his Wyatt Doyle Books imprint. He administers the creative estate of Rev. Raymond Branch, and curates RevBranch.com.

His screenplay with Jason Cuadrado, I'M HERE FOR YOU, was produced as DEVIL MAY CALL. A member of The Stanley J. Zappa Quartet, a recording, THE STANLEY J. ZAPPA QUARTET PLAYS FOR THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS, has been released.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book as a gift, though I probably would have bought it anyway, since I’m a fan of Doyle’s previous book STOP REQUESTED. In that earlier book, Doyle recorded moving stories of people he met while riding buses in Los Angeles and illuminated them with illustrations by Stanley J. Zappa (nephew of Frank). This new book features short transcripts of conversations Doyle had with homeless people living on the streets of L.A. and elsewhere, illuminated with artful color photographs Doyle shot of them and their environment. Doyle is an amazingly keen observer of humanity, both in terms of the words he chooses to record and the photographs he takes of people, their surroundings and possessions and the artifacts they leave behind. He uses those words and pictures to create poignant profiles of “street people,” in a way that gives them a sense of dignity and humanity and reminds us that there but for fortune go we all. The book is beautifully produced and nicely printed in a 9" by 9" format. The title comes from a line of graffiti in one of the photographs it includes. This is a unique, thoughtful and thought-provoking book that I give five stars for what it shows in Doyle’s distinctive photographs, what it says through the words of people he talked to, and what it says between the lines.